Assignment: Critiquing Internet Sources

As previously mentioned, your primary task for the week is to write a 3-4 page paper that will help you fulfill one of the final paper's key criteria: examining the differences between academic and non-academic discussions of your chosen social concern. While last week you located, read through, and discussed two scholarly articles pertaining to the subject of your final paper, this week you will turn your attention to non-scholarly investigations of your topic - an important thing to do considering the fact that the overwhelming majority of Internet-based content pertaining to today's most pressing social concerns is not academic in nature! Specifically, in order to complete this assignment, what you first and foremost need to do is locate (through a popular search engine like Google) 3 non-scholarly sources of information that address the research question you'd like to tackle in your final paper. One of these sources should be a blog, while another should be a video (perhaps from YouTube or CNN.com) and the third should be a podcast (perhaps from a news media outlet like NPR). Once you've located and reviewed these "popular" materials, you'll be ready to complete this assignment, which is titled "Critiquing Internet Sources" and which should do the following three things:

1) Assess the accuracy and validity of each source's key claims, along with the evidence used to support these claims. The question you should be asking yourself here is this: Does this source appear to be "biased" in any way, shape, or form, and where (if anywhere) do I see evidence of this?

2) Examine the extent to which each source helps readers / viewers / listeners become "global citizens" and promotes multicultural understanding. The question to ask yourself here is this: Does this source move beyond a nationally or regionally-based approach to my topic, and does it consider my chosen social concern from the perspective of more than just a single culture? And where do we see evidence of either the nationally-based / mono-cultural approach or the global / multicultural approach it brings to bear on my topic?

3) Detail three general purpose guidelines that internet users should always follow whenever considering non-scholarly sources of information. The question to ask yourself here is this: If I were advising someone about to use the internet in order to learn about a given contemporary social concern, what information should I relay to them regarding the potential advantages and disadvantages of non-scholarly sources like blogs, videos, and podcasts?

In order to be eligible for full credit, your Week 2 paper must address each of the three aforementioned concerns, must be 3-4 pages in length, must be formatted according to APA guidelines, and must also make use of two scholarly sources (in addition to the three non-scholarly, internet-based sources). While researching and writing your paper, please refer to the Grading Rubric that I will use to assess it. This paper is due by Day 7, and will constitute 10% of your final grade for GEN 499.