You need information because it empowers you!
Information allows:
Information is knowledge about a particular subject, issue, event or process. Information can be attained from various sources: you can be told information, for example through a lecture or a television programme, or you can find information through your own research.
Information is essential to finding your route to university in the morning, writing an essay, getting the right ingredients for a recipe, conducting an experiment, renting a flat, filling in a job application form, exam revision and for many, many other everyday and not-so-everyday tasks.
For each task you need a different type of information, and to find the most useful and relevant information you have to understand:
Information is created - here is how it is generated and used.
Hours to days
Information about a current event or idea is distributed through mass media such as newspapers, websites, television, and radio.
Days to weeks to months
As more information is collected, documentaries may be made, or articles published in popular press and online, such as in magazines aimed at the general public.
Months
Significant events and ideas may be further explored in scholarly publications such as research journals, or discussed at conferences.
Years
Discussion and analysis of events and ideas may be published in a book several years after their happening.
Years and years
A summary of an event, including its background and aftermath, and pertinent facts, may be published in reference material, such as an encyclopaedia.
Now you know what information is and why you need it. You should also have a clearer picture of how it is created and develops over time.
This knowledge will help you to gather and manipulate information to further your research.