This is the presentation for week 1 of the Digital, Media and Information Literacy course unit (EDUC61711). It discusses cognitive authority, the idea introduced by Wilson (1983) and which, broadly, covers the various reasons why we assign credibility to texts, trust what they say, believe them. Note that like all the Slideshare version of this course's materials, the audio files will not play within Slideshare. These are available via the Blackboard site which you have access to if you are registered on the course. DMIL is available for stand-alone or professional development credits. For more information on this contact Drew at drew.whitworth@manchester.ac.uk

1. EDUC61711: Digital, Media
& Information Literacy
WEEK 1: Cognitive authority

2. Structure of presentation
• This presentation introduces the core idea of week 1: cognitive
authority.
• There are three sections, and you should go through them in
this order:
1. An activity and self-reflection
2. What is cognitive authority and how is it manifested?
3. How does cognitive authority apply to your own
information practice?

3. Activity: introduction
• The activity involves you undertaking two
information searches.
• Play the audio for a short description of the
general task.
When you see this green
speech bubble, there will
be an audio file on the
slide. Make sure you
listen to it before moving
on to the next slide.

4. Task 1
• The image on the right is of the
Rochdale Canal in the town of
Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire (25
miles or 40km north of
Manchester, and home of yr.
humble lecturer Drew).
• Your information search task is as
follows:
• There is a law that applies uniquely
to housing in this town. What is it?
Why has it been introduced?

5. Task 2
• The gentleman in focus here is called Dick Knight.
• I suggest he made two relatively minor, but nevertheless notable,
contributions to UK culture in the 1990s. Your information search
task is simply to determine what both of them were?

6. What is cognitive authority…
• … and how is it manifested?
• The term ‘cognitive authority’ was introduced by
Patrick Wilson in his book Secondhand Knowledge
(1983)
• The Rieh paper given as this week’s guided
reading is a good introduction

7. Cognitive authority…
• … is ‘influence over our thoughts that we would
consider proper’ (Wilson)
• Do we believe something we read or hear? Do we
trust it? Do we find it credible? Does it, in short,
have authority?
• NOTE: author, authority — both from the Latin
auctor meaning, originally, to increase or produce

8. This is not necessarily the same as
agreeing with someone/something.
We can engage in debate or discussion about
truth or interpretation, but still accept that
a statement is authoritative.

9. Cognitive authority is linked with role and status.
This man is my dentist. If he tells me I have a cavity
then I tend to assign such statements cognitive
authority.

10. However, it is also relative, and specific to context.
I might not assign him cognitive authority for other subjects
— like how I should invest some money.

11. Cognitive authority is relational. It requires two
sides: the authority must not just be held, but
recognised.
A person might be an excellent authority on
some subject but you just might not know or
recognise this. Or, they lack a recognisable
status or role.

12. Cognitive authority changes
over time.
Authorities from the past will not
necessarily retain this status in the
future. This can be for many reasons.

13. Cognitive v. administrative
authority
• Sometimes statements or people have not cognitive, but
administrative authority
• We follow their instructions because we are ‘supposed’
to, which is different from finding them credible

14. The distinction between cognitive and administrative
authority is not always clear.
Reflect for a moment on this:
bearing in mind we have only
just started this course — why
(or why not) do you give me
cognitive authority?

15. Cognitive authority and
information searching
Listen to the audio
file at this point

16. Some ‘answers’
For both the tasks I would say there are ‘correct’
answers — but there are also nuances and levels of detail
which you may or may not have developed.
Task 1: Hebden Bridge is characterised by housing that
climbs steep valley walls, and in this town there are many
houses that literally sit on top of other houses (mine being
an example).
This results in what is called a ‘flying freehold’, because the
structural integrity of one house depends on the one underneath
it. Mortgage lenders are usually reluctant to lend on such a
property but they will do so in HB because a law provides
protection for the property owners. If the house underneath
mine were abandoned, for instance, I would be permitted to enter
it in order to perform necessary repairs.

17. Some ‘answers’
2. Dick Knight was chairman of Brighton & Hove Albion FC — Drew’s favoured football team — from
1997 - 2009. He was leader of a consortium that took over the club when it was in dire straits thanks to
the asset-stripping of the previous chairman, Bill Archer. The fan-led campaign against Archer was
notable as the first such protest to be conducted in the ‘Internet era’ and thus pioneered the use of
tactics such as email lists and web-organised protests — common now, but not in 1997.
He made his money as an advertising executive and his second contribution is the famous ‘Hello
Boys’ Wonderbra ad (which won’t be hard to find online, at least in the UK, if you aren’t aware of it).

18. But remember…
• The point of the task was to provide you with an
opportunity to reflect on your search and the
habits and routines that drove it.
• Think again — where did you start? When was
there ‘enough’ information?
• Why did you trust particular sources? What gave
them cognitive authority in these cases?

19. Week 1: Conclusion
• Have a look at the guided reading notes and then the
Rieh paper
• Keep these ideas about cognitive authority in your mind.
It is a useful summary description of the broad set of
processes we go through as we constantly (but often
unconsciously) ask ourselves — why should I trust this
text? Why is it credible?
• When you come to write your final portfolio it will be an
important basis of the work

20. In week 2…
• We will look at some metaphors used to describe
the world of information: the information landscape
and information overload/information obesity
particularly
• We will consider what information resources are
available to you as part of your studies, and how
cognitive authority plays a part in your
interaction with them.