10/22 Blog Post

According to Eli Pariser, a  filter bubble is your own unique universe of personal information. It is what interest you. These can be your habbits and the things that you need information for. The drawbacks of the filter bubbles are they decide for you what information you are going to recieve based on your viewing history and do not give you the broader picture of the information that is available on the internet. It does not let you decide. For example, liberal websites give you more information on liberal interest and conservative interest bring up more conservative information. Filter bubbles limit your access to the information that may be needed to make an informed decision in your research. This can tremendously hurt your research. It does not give you control of seeing all sides of a certain issue. Filter bubbles I have noticed in my own life is that I tend to be a more conservative person so I recieve information on the internet that go along with my views instead of seeing the broader picture. In my opinion, People who built the web/internet, now need to give broader information and also give the people more control of the type of information they are recieving from research.
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9/24 Blog Post

Peer review is very important and helpful to me. I find peer-review to be trustworthy and more accurate. Something that is peer-reviewed has been looked over multiple times by other scholars and many people interested in the same stuff. It is important to have something peer-reviewed because not only can the information be knowledgable but it is looked over and contains other peoples input. This can help make a source more reliable. Although many peer-reviewed articles contain information from other people, this information is not always correct in a sense. Someone could peer-review something and not completely know what it means to peer-review. Some ways you can tell if an articles is peer-reviewed or scholarly is if the information is biased, and the sponsor has a particular point of view about the material that has been written. Also always look at the length of the articles. A source that is scholarly is usually comparatively long in length and contain more details where as a peer-reviewed article is short in length. Peer-review is used to back up your information. When I am researching an article I look at articles that have already been peer-reviewed, this helps give me a better understanding of what I need to look for while doing my research. If you use peer-review it betters your chances and makes your argument stronger.

9/17 Blog

One type of information I would use to construct my research topic would be a scholarly book. The reason I would use this book is because it has plenty of infomation that is specific to certain topics and contains information about specific subjects. Scholarly books are written by scholarly professors who are experts in that specific field. They take position and back up what the are saying. Books usually contain up to 200 pages. After using the scholarly book I would use a scholarly journal. Scholarly journals are almost the same as scholarly books, but the are written by scholars for other scholars. In a scholarly journal the information is written to persuade and argument. They contain no pictures or adds and are usually have multiple topics throughout the journal. These journals consist of more than one topic rather than a scholarly book that contains information with 100 to 200 pages. As far as magazines, I would use them for what is the most up to date and recent information giong on in media. Magazine articles are usually short in length, about a paragraph to a page depending on what magazine article you are reading. Another type of information resource would be a newspaper. I would use a newspaper to help me find all the recent things that are going on in the world today. Newspapers range from information about the city or state you live in, to what is going on all over the world. The informaion you are looking for depends on what type of newspaper you are reading. Next we look at Government documents. Government documents are written by the Government. They can contain information about laws, treaties, and much more. People use government documents for legal research or evidence. These documents contain chapters and charts and the length varies. I would use a government document for legal purposes in my research topic. Last we have an Encyclopedia. Encyclopedias contain facts about certain topics, statistics, and can be used in specific aspects. They are also used for presearching. The content in an Encyclopedia is also written by scholars and is very trustoworthy. You want to make sure when using an encyclopedia that you are using the most recent and up to date one.

Ethnography Project

http://www.slideshare.net/jcritten/presentation1-library?from=share_email

Current Events Blog- 3 Topic

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/story/2012-08-28/west-nile-virus-cases-increase/57402754/1

Who?- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
What?- This articles is about West Nile virus cases up 40% from last week.
When?- This articles was updated August 30, 2012 around noon. This article is very current and reliable.
Where?- West Nile virus is occuring nationally, but more than 70% of the cases have been reported from these six states: South Dakota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas; 45% were reported from Texas alone.
Why?- This article is very current, informative and aknowledgable on the West Nile virus.

http://www.weather.com/news/hurricane-isaac-impacts

Who?- The Weather Channel
What?- Hurricane Isaac Latest: Isaac Slogs North; More Rescues
When?- This articles was updated today August 30, 2012 around 3:00 pm. This articles is very current and the information can help many citizens in the United States today.
Where?-This Articles from weather.com covers the Louisiana and Mississippi area.
Why?-Since this article is occuring right now, I believe this article is a great source to inform people on this current event; keeping people updated.

http://news.discovery.com/space/getting-the-first-ever-rover-tracks-on-mars-120824.html

Who?- Analysis by Amy Shira Teitel- Discovery News
What?- The First (Ever) Rover Tracks on Mars.  An Historic Mission event
When?- This articles was published on August 24, 2012 at 2:00 pm.
Where?- Robot Curiosity lands on Mars.
Why?- This website leaves the readers with knowledgable information . I find this article to be very fascinating; what a cool way to learn and see the planet Mars.

Evaluation- Acronym Blog

[A] - The A stands for Authority. Authority means a person has the official permission to say or do something. In determining if you are using a reliable website the word authority can help you out. Having authority helps the viewer know that the website can be trusted and that the website supplies them with reliable information or evidence. You always want to make sure you are getting reliable information from a well known Author who knows what they are talking about rather than someone with no authority.
[S] - The S stands for Sponsor. This means one must not be swayed by a common name they have heard of before or maybe even read about. It is always better to make sure you have done some research over the person you are receiving your information from. This will help you determine if you are using research from a reliable resource or website.
[A] - The second A stands for Audience.  The Audience is referred to as the people who are giving attention to something or someone. For example, with the website WebMD, the audience and the source of the information provide a checks and balance system to make the entire website reliable.
[P] - The P stands for Point of View. It is important to present the facts in an outsiders point of view so the information is unbiased. Its just like if someone has jury duty, you cannot be a juror if you know the defendant or plaintiff because you need to be unbiased to make a correct judgement call.

I am still confused about how the library is set up and what resources it has to offer. I don't know to much about the library and sometimes it can become intimidating in my opinion. One thing that confuses me is where to begin looking in the library. I don't ever know where to start looking to find what I need, and when I do choose to look in the library I feel like I am wasting my time. Research is one thing I hate the most because there are so many options you can choose from. When I am researching for a paper that I have due in class, I find most of my research comes from internet sources, and that's not always the way to go. I tend to use Google more often to find all my information to write my paper. I just don't know what the best resources are to use when I am in the library. One thing I am excited to learn about this semester in the class is how I can eventually take the time out of my day to go to the library and use this course as a helpful guide in my future classes, and hopefully become a better writer.