Index
consequence regulate the intake of alcohol at a
party if he/she were driving home – a decision
based upon deductive reasoning. See empiri-
cal; hypothesis.
Indymedia Exemplifi ng open-platform, activist
journalism, Indymedia are usually volunteer-
run, their aim to build a fairer and just society
and involve citizens more fully in public life.
The first IMC (Independent Media Centre)
was created in Seattle, Washington, in 1999 in
advance of the the World Trade Organization
(WTO) conference of that year, with a view to
counteracting the bland, uncritical reporting of
such events by traditional mass media. Within
two years the number of IMCs grew to 60, and
by 2009 there were 170 worldwide.
Global liaison led to the formulation of a set
of Principles of Unity (POU) in San Francisco
in 2001 based on equality, decentralization and
local autonomy, favouring open-exchange and
open access, ‘allowing individuals, groups and
organizations to express their views, anony-
mously if desired’.
As with all volunteer-run enterprises, Indyme-
dia need funding to survive and develop, hence
impermanence is built into their DNA. See
blogosphere; genre; journalism: citizen
journalism.
Inference According to Gail Myers and Michele
Myers in The Dynamics of Human Commu-
nication (McGraw-Hill, 1985), ‘A statement of
inference is a guess about the unknown based on
the known.’ We often infer, that is make assump-
tions, about people, events, behaviour and so
on. In doing so we add these inferences to our
observations. For example if we saw a young man
running away from an elderly woman, we might
infer that he had stolen her purse; however we
might be quite wrong and he might be running
for a bus.
We automatically make inferences and in
doing so rely on a range of factors such as past
experiences, stereotyping, values, attitudes
and beliefs. Yet inferences can mislead both
ourselves and others if they stray too far from
our actual observations or accepted facts.
Clearly, in communication we need to be careful
to distinguish between statements of fact and
statements of inference.
Infl ection Th e patterns of alteration or modula-
tion in the pitch of a person’s voice.
Infl uence of the mass media See effects of
the mass media.
Info-rich, info-poor See information gaps.
Information blizzards Traditionally, a nation’s
citizens have been granted too little informa-Index Short for Index librorum prohibitorum, a
list of proscribed books. Th e Council of Trent, in
attempting to turn the tide against the Protestant
Reformation, drew up a set of rules about what
Roman Catholics should, or rather should not,
read. In accordance with these rules the Index
was published by authority of Pope Paul IV in
- In its current form, the Index is a list not
only of works prohibited in their entirety to the
faithful but also of works not to be read unless or
until they are corrected.
The Index expurgatorius, or Expurgatory
Index (1571), specifi es passages to be expurgated
in works otherwise permitted. Appropriately,
the word has been used in the title of the UK
magazine whose chief aim is to counter such
repressions of information and expression, Index
of Censorship.
Index as a sign See sign.
Indicators In interpersonal communica-
tion the means by which one communicator
conveys his/her attitude and response to another
- feelings of attraction or rejection, of evaluation
or esteem of the other person. Proximity, for
example, is an ideal indicator of liking (unless, of
course, it becomes a sign of threat or intimida-
tion). Also important as indicators are frequent
eye contact, body orientations and spontaneous
gestures. See proxemics.
Inductive reasoning Involves the drawing of
conclusions from collected observations and
data; from evidence. The acceptability of the
conclusions drawn depends upon whether or not
the type and quantity of evidence can reason-
ably be said to support them. It is important to
recognize how limited such conclusions may be.
Someone unfamiliar with traffi c observing traffi c
fl ow between 10am and 2pm for one week, in a
busy street, may for example note that when the
red traffi c light is illuminated, cars in front of the
light stop.
He/she may conclude that the illumination
of the red traffi c-light caused the cars to stop - certainly at the times at which he/she was
observing the traffic. The observer, however,
could not reasonably draw conclusions about
why this was the case, or whether or not this
occurred at times when he/she was not observ-
ing the traffic. That would require further
investigation.
Deductive reasoning involves the application
of an already accepted generalization or gener-
alizations to an individual case. It is the reverse
of inductive reasoning. Someone who has
accepted, for example, that drinking too much
alcohol before driving is dangerous might as a