Filter Bubble

Filter Bubbles

~What is it? What are the drawbacks? What are the problems for my academic research? Which ones do I experience in my life?

Filter bubbles are a way for websites like Google and Facebook to show in my search results the things they think I may be interested in based on previous searches or things I have clicked on other websites. (Many more websites I’m sure but these are the main ones I’ve noticed these past few days)

The man in the video stated it, “Shows what it thinks we want to see not what we need to see and may not see uncomfortable information”. There are many drawbacks to filter bubbles and his statement was the main one. If this happens on news websites I may be missing out on seeing important current events.

Another drawback of filter bubbles is when it comes to doing research. Based on things that I have previously clicked I may end up missing out on links that give me the information needed in academic research.

I wanted to do a little experiment to see how this works when I search for something and then have my boyfriend search the same thing on a different computer. The results were not as drastically different like the two searches in the video but we still got different results.   

Word Count 224

rhetorical devices

I had heard of rhetorical devices before but never took the time to purposefully search for them until class Monday. I never realized how often they are used and how I get sucked into them.

One rhetorical device that I noticed being used quite frequently was the appeals to emotion. Though there are many used in everyday commercials and especially during the political debates the appeals to emotion is used A LOT.

The website your logical fallacy explains the appeal to emotion as “to manipulate an emotional response in place of a valid or compelling argument”  (Richardson, Smith & Meaden, 2012)

Richardson, J., Smith , A., & Meaden, S. (2012). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/

*Example one: This was mentioned in class but was one of the first that I thought of. That is the ASPCA commercials where they play sad music and show the sweet little faces of animals in cages or right after being rescued from abusive situations. They show the pictures and then ask for donations. (how can you possibly say no to that!)

*Example two: The starving children in Africa or those few commercials that show the hungry children in our country. They show starving children then ease right into if you give ___ a month you will save __# of children’s lives.

*Example three: During the presidential debate Obama would be asked a question and would begin his answer with a sad story from his past then ease into answering the question. Though that can be quite annoying (whether it be Obama or Romney doing the same thing) it does work in many cases. 

Blog Post 10/17

Plagiarism to me is when someone uses someone else’s work without giving them the credit. This could mean using a paragraph without citing it or even a quick phrase. Another type of plagiarism I learned about through the NPR article was that pictures and videos need to be cited as well.

There are a few (new to me) ways people plagiarize that I did not realize had a name until reading the guide on plagiarism from Valdosta. The main one that stood out was metaphor plagiarism. “Metaphors are used either to make an idea clearer or give the reader an analogy that touches the senses or emotions better than a plain description of the object or process.” (Barnbaum) The example from the Valdosta guide website was the use of “a large swarm of extremely old stars.” (Barnbaum) This is a way to give the reader something they can imagine to get the point across. It is acceptable to use the phrase as long as it is cited.

In my years of school especially the past few years with an increasing rate of research papers I have been taught that if there is the slightest bit of doubt that we should cite the source.

Barnbaum, D. C. (n.d.). Plagiarism a student's guide to recognizing it and avoiding it. Retrieved from http://ww2.valdosta.edu/~cbarnbau/personal/teaching_MISC/plagiarism.htm

SHEPARD, A. C. (2010). When is it plagiarism?. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2010/05/20/127017266/cell-phones

Word Count 231

10/8 Major Discipline

Find your major discipline in GALILEO (or a discipline that you are interested in) and search that subject page for a database you've never worked in before.

I went to GALILEO and searched under Social Sciences and clicked on the Law and Criminology section. From there I read through the various databases for a topic I have never worked in before. I looked under the Supreme Court Collection which took me to http://library.cqpress.com.ts.isil.westga.edu/SCC/  I thought this was really interesting because I have taken an American Criminal Courts class but wanted to learn more about the Supreme Court (well more than the few facts I learned in class). In this site it gives all kinds of information ranging from the history, current court, information on cases, the chronology of it, primary source documents, even gives links to the Supreme Court Encyclopedia. 

What do you think of the results you got? What is the difference between searching in a subject specific database and in Discovery (the tool that searches a bunch of databases at once)? When do you think you’d want to use one over the other?

I though the information that I found in the database I searched was good information but is kind of difficult to find exactly what I need. For this particular assignment it was just finding something that looks interesting, but for searching for the research question I keep getting overwhelmed with the search results. I noticed that in researching the subject specific database that it seems to cut out results of subjects that have research that tends to go together.

When looking for articles or books for the research project I prefer using the Discovery tool for searching because it allows me to refine the results to the exact type of information source that I want and also search for specific subjects.

Word Count 312 

Research Portfolio (10/10)

Throughout the semester I have changed my research question quite a few times. In the beginning the general group project was centered on Xenophobia which is an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange. More specifically the focus was on discussing racism as a form of Xenophobia. That in itself is far too broad of a topic so to narrow it down further I’m looking at the how the Ku Klux Klan shows (Xenophobia) racism through intimidation, and violence towards African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement.

So my research question as of now is… How did the Ku Klux Klan show Xenophobia towards African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement?

My two interests are criminology and psychology, so in answering my research question I wanted to look at the Ku Klux Klan’s actions in both of those ways. Using the criminology side I can use information from previous classes’ research papers to discuss the crimes the Ku Klux Klan committed. Then use my interest in psychology to give a psychological explanation of Xenophobia. There have been studies that have explained how things going on in the brain cause people to act out in fear.

I wonder in what other ways we show hatred or fear towards others without knowing it?...just a though

Word count 222

What is GALILEO?

What is GALILEO? How does it organize information? What is a database and how does it organize information?

GALILEO stands for Georgia Library Learning Online. GALILEO is basically a giant online library that is available to students here at the University of West Georgia and students all over the state (and is run by the state). I used to think that GALILEO only had journals and articles when actually GALILEO contains articles, e-books, government documents, dissertations, pictures, maps, videos, statistics, archives, and a number of primary resources.

Within GALILEO there are a bunch of databases that are broken down into different subjects similar to the stacks located in a library. Instead of having bookshelves with books GALILEO is different in that the databases are the shelves and the articles are the “books” on them. The same way a library may have a history, nature, education, or science sections, just to name a few, the databases are also broken down into these same topics.

If wanting to find an article on a particular subject you want to go to GALILEO to search for a particular topic within the databases. From there you can read through the different journals and in looking through those find an article.

         GALILEO

            Databases

              Journals

                Articles

Word count 209

Research Portfolio 10/3

Articles---Scholarly

PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATION OF XENOPHOBIA

APA-- OMOLUABI, P. F. (2011). PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATION OF XENOPHOBIA. IFE Psychologia, 55-73.

MLA-- OMOLUABI, P. F. "Psychological Foundation Of Xenophobia." IFE Psychologia (2011): 55-73. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Oct. 2012.

My research question is how people experience xenophobia of other people/races. To narrow that down most of our group decided to give a more specific example, focusing on the KKK and how they showed xenophobia of African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement.

The first article is on Xenophobia and the Psychological Foundation of Xenophobia. This article thoroughly explains what xenophobia is, and how it is a psychological problem. It is not that people are just racists towards others but that there is a psychological reasoning behind it. This information would be very useful in a research project or paper. The article was a little long but one particular section of it stood out to me. It is on page 68 of the article which covers a section on the prevention of xenophobia. They stated that “The onset of xenophobia in an individual cannot be prevented because it is an unconscious and insidious process. The individual does not know when, how, where and why he/she became a xenophobe.” Also in the article it goes though theory after theory explaining different reasons behind it.

Article—Popular

Dark side of love

APA-- Yong, E. (2012). Dark side of love. New Scientist, 213(2851), 39-41.

MLA-- Yong, Ed. "Dark Side Of Love." New Scientist 213.2851 (2012): 39-41.Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Oct. 2012.

The article is talking about the chemical that makes us sociable and can also be the cause of xenophobia. The magazine article explains how the hormone oxytocin [which ironically is also the love hormone or the cuddle chemical] but the same chemical that gives us a warm and fuzzy feeling also makes us feel fear and in turn hate

This article will be great for the research project and for helping with my argument that explains how the KKK was showing hate towards African Americans and other groups. It is not that people are fearful or hateful for no reason but that there are a number of psychological, and chemical reasons for it.