Brenda Dervin developed the Sense-Making approach to understanding how people make sense of ambiguous situations. Sense-Making refers to the process by which people give meaning to their experiences. Dervin's theory views information as something generated by humans rather than existing independently, and focuses on the processes of bridging gaps in understanding rather than on structures or systems. People employ strategies like seeking, spreading, avoiding, or disputing information to cope with gaps in their understanding and move through time and space.

1. SUBMITTED TO: ----
SUBMITTED BY : IQRA MUMTAZ
Brenda Dervin's
Sense-Making
Model

3. BRENDA DERVIN
 Currently a professor of communication at
Ohio State University.
 She is a researcher in
the communication and library
and information science fields.
 Her research about information seeking and
information use led to the development of
the Sense-Making approach.
 In 1986 she acted as the first president of
the International Communication Association.

5. What is Sense Making?
Sense making is the ability or attempt
to make sense of an ambigiuous
situation. More exactly, sense making
is the process of creating situational
awareness and understanding in
situations of high complexity or
uncertainity in order to make
decisions.

7. Sense Making is the process by which people
give meaning to experience. Whatever the
experience, people gain from their lives, they
make sense making on the basis of it on
different situations. In this way people give
meaning to experience.
Meaning to Experience

9. DERVIN THEORY
 It is extremely broad in scope, not only deals
with learning and problem solving but also
generally coping with life by making sense of
the world .
 Information does not exist independently of
humans. It is the product of our observing the
world. We decide what to observe, how to
observe and we generate the interpretation of
what we observe .

10. NEED FOR
INORMATION
Humans are constantly moving
through time and space, frequently
confronted by “gap which generate
the need for information” while
“bridges trigger the information
need”.

11. SENSE MAKING & SENSE UNMAKING
Sense Making is the mental and physical
behaviour that enables a person to design
their movement through time and space.
Sense Unmaking is the process without any
physical and mental effort and where there
is absence of Sense Making .

13. GAPS AND BRIDGES
 As Dervin argues that since not eveything is
connected and things are constantly
changing, reality is characterized by wide
discontinuities/gaps
 We constantly need to bridge such gaps in
order to make sense of the world aound us.

15. NOUN TO VERB
 Sense Making methodology assumes its is important to
focus on process and verbs rather than Descriptors and
Nouns. Sense Making not include only ideas but also
feelings, emotions, wishes, confusion and anxiety.
For Example :
It deals with the organizational issues, sense making
requires us to look for explanations and answers in
terms of how people see things rather than structures or
systems. Sense Making suggests that organizational
issues like strategies, plans, goals, tasks and so on are
not the things that one can find out in the world or exist
in the organization. Rather Their Source is People’s Way
Of Thinking

18. 3 Useful Strategies To Cope With Gap And
Information Behaviour :
1. Build a bridge
 Create information
2. Make the gap smaller
 Spread or dispute information
 Destroy information
3. Ignore the gap (take a different path)
 Avoid or disbelieve information
 Take mental note

19. Conclusion
“Information does not exist
independently of humans. Rather, it is
the product of our observing the world.
We decide what to observe and how to
observe, and we generate the
interpretation of w hat we observe.”

21. ANY QUESTIONS ???