ABSTRACT
We begin our study with a historical-critical contextualization of Shannon and Weaver's mathematical communication theory, recognizing the importance of its influence in the consolidation of the information science field in the United States and pointing out the limits of its one-dimensional intention. The analysis serves as a motto for the presentation of the critical theory of society, developed in the same period by German philosophers of the so-called Frankfurt School. Its theoretical-methodological foundations will guide our proposal for a critical information theory, conceived from the integration of two popular concepts in the Brazilian information science: régime of information, understood as an interpretative resource to think the relations between politics, information and power, and critical information literacy, which brings the contributions of the Frankfurtian theory and the Freirean pedagogy to underline the critical evaluation and the ethical use of information. Our method suggests the proposition of a diagnosis of the potentialities, limits and contradictions of the dominant régime of information, and finds in the grammar of the critical information literacy the reference of a praxis aimed at the extension of the autonomy in the present informational ecosystem, fundamental for the exercise of citizenship in times of disinformation, algorithmic mediation, digital surveillance and privacy attacks.
Keywords:
Critical information theory; Mathematical communication theory; Régime of information; Critical information literacy; Information literacy