Research, can’t use google and Wikipedia to do research,
while the internet can be used for goo research one must be very careful where
they are getting their information from off the internet, because in this day
and age when our world is surrounded by internet and news some of the news is
clickbait, some is infotainment and some, such as online tabloids is just lies
that are out there to be entertaining to the audience, because the purpose of
online news publications isn’t always to
have the most correct information, sometimes the desired result is just to get
eyes. Our readings this week were about how to do research, how to make sure
one has good research, and what sources of information to not use. In the book
this week we find out that there are many ways to gather information, those of
which being primary sources, which we can come to through secondary research,
interviews of experts and people who experienced the events in real time, if
you were writing a research paper on giving funding to local schools and
teachers you would want to get information from both sides of the story, one doesn’t
want to misrepresent their target audience because if the audience is skewed
there will be a bias, and if there is a bias on the part of the interviewer
then the message will not get to the audience as effectively as it could have. While
using such news sources of google and Wikipedia isn’t the greatest idea it was partly
advocated for this week in the praxis and in the googlepedia article, this is surprising
to me as it is one for the first times that I have ever heard someone from a
non-student stand point give a convincing reason or even a consideration to using
simple information garnished from google or stolen from Wikipedia. This isn’t to
say that the original host author stated that everyone should only get their information
off Wikipedia and google, they just stated that in many cases it is a good place
to start. Unfortunately, currently there aren’t a vast number of ways to tell
where information is coming from. A way that is advocated for in the praxis reading
is to make sure that you aren’t getting your information from a source that
seems as though it was put together for the sole purpose of the readers
pleasure, because the truth isn’t always pleasant.
I agree with most of what Cooper said. These days the internet is full of unreliable sources that are intended to draw attention. It is very difficult to write a paper, and have the facts be true, when you are getting your articles from the internet. I disagree, however, with the fact that Cooper believe you “can’t use google and Wikipedia to do research”. While these sources are unreliable, they can still be used. I would never quote a fact I found on Wikipedia, but using it to get an overview of the topic is ok. Also, I think it is ok to use google to look for sources, especially ones that are from a news source. If I were to google an article from the New York Times, I can be fairly certain that it will be reliable. Google would also be ok when looking for an opinion piece. If you are making an argument and want to back it up with someone’s opinion, sometimes you do not want to use a scholarly piece. I really do agree with his ending statement that you should not trust a source that seems to be written for the reader’s pleasure. If an article is written for the reader as opposed to giving the facts, it is more likely to be inaccurate.
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