Unit 9: Evaluating Information

Dear Reader:
  Okay, break out your hand held magnifying lens, slap on your deerstalker hat, and let's sit down and carefully examine the veracity of some information sources.
  The metasearch tool I have chosen for today is Dogpile.  After looking at it closely for an assignment and then playing with it just for the fun of it, I have decided I like it.  Enough for this assignment, anyway.
  Today I will be searching for information on federal or state laws involving assault weapons.
  Into Dogpile's advanced search I entered the following:
In the "All of these words" box I entered "assault rifle*" OR "assault gun*".
In the "Any of these words" box I entered: federal, state, law*, regulation*.
I chose English because that's the language I am most comfortable with.
  I will be limiting my search to four top level domains: .com, .org, .edu, and .gov.  From resultant four searches I will select one website and evaluate it.
  Please note: Dogpile does not declare how many hits it comes up with for each search.  
  1. For the first search I clicked the "Include Domain" button, and in the box I entered ".com".
  At this point Dogpile returned so few results that it was obvious I needed to alter my search.  There was a suggestion to include the number 22, so I tried that, but that gave me only references to .22 caliber weapons, so I went into the search box and removed all the inserted numbers and then hit search.  That gave me the search results I was after.
  The link I chose was to the New York Post article entitled: "New York can’t afford assault rifle buyback - it could cost the state $1B" cited here:
  Dicker, Fredric U. "New York Can't Afford Assault Rifle Buyback - It Could Cost the State $1B." New York Post. New York Post, 24 Dec. 2012. Web. 30 Dec. 2012.
  The author is one Fredric Uberall "Fred" Dicker, a longtime columnist and current state editor for the Post. He holds a BA in history from Long Island University and an MA in history from University of Massachusetts.  From his credentials and awards, which are extensive, I would presume him to be a fairly good authority on his topic.
  Fred's purpose in writing this article seems to be informative rather than inflammatory.  He gives us his conclusion as an opening statement, and then states the facts that will back up his claim.  His coverage of this topic is carefully even.  He makes it clear that he has investigated city, state, and federal levels of government find out what is being done about gun control and who is responsible.
  2. For the second search I input my search string and included only .org sites.  This time Dogpile returned no search results. As before, in the suggestion below the search box the number 22 was inserted, so I gave that a whirl.  Again I was treated to all kinds of links for .22 caliber weapons.  When I went into the search box and deleted all the 22s and then hit search, I finally got what I wanted.  I don't know why Dogpile has this problem, but there is a work-around.
  The link I chose this time was to an article entitled "Obama Supports New Bid To Ban Assault Weapons, Close Gun Show 'Loophole'".  It is cited as follows:
  Memmott, Mark. "Obama Supports New Bid To Ban Assault Weapons, Close Gun Show 'Loophole'" NPR. NPR, 18 Dec. 2012. Web. 30 Dec. 2012.
  This article is on NPR.org on a news blog entitled "The Two Way: Breaking News From NPR, National Public Radio".  This blog focuses on breaking news, analysis, and compelling stories.
  The post is written by Mark Memott, one of the hosts for The Two Way.  Prior to joining NPR in 2009 he worked for nearly 25 years as a reporter and editor at USA Today where he focused on a range of coverage including politics, foreign affairs, economics, and the media.
  This timely blog post was well researched and sources were linked to, such as to the Washington Post, Fox News, a recent Presidential speech which is also quoted within the blog, and other articles from NPR one of which can be found here.
  The main purpose is obviously to spark debate on gun control, but in a respectful manner.  Reading the comments under the blog post it is clear that conversations are indeed going on about gun control or the lack thereof, and some effective solutions are proposed.
  3. The third search will be for a .edu site.
  In order to circumvent the issues I've had before with Dogpile's search methods I made the least amount of change to the search string.  I did not re-enter the search string, but only altered the top level domain.  This time Dogpile returned valid sources the first time around.
  For this search I wanted my main focus to be centered around finding something especially timely.  Dogpile's advanced search does not have on option that allows one to specify when the source was updated or published so it is up to the searcher, me, to ensure the timeliness of the source.
  My choice of link is to a blog post written by Sam Wang from the Princeton Election Consortium entitled "Did the federal ban on assault weapons matter?", and is cited here:
  Wang, Sam. "Princeton Election Consortium." Princeton Election Consortium RSS. Princeton University, 14 Dec. 2012. Web. 30 Dec. 2012.
  Professor Sam Wang holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Stanford University.  He has published more than 40 articles on the brain in leading scientific journals and worked at Bell Laboratories and various universities before coming to teach at Princeton.  He has published at least two books for the general public on the subject of the brain.  Sam Wang is currently an associate professor, Department of Molecular Biology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, and is one of the hosts of the Princeton Election Consortium blog.
  I would say he is a credible source.
  The post's sources are also impressive.  There are charts, tables, quotes, and links to other sources, all well cited.
  It was written and posted on December 14, the very day of the Sandy Hook shootings, so it would seem to me to be very timely.
  4. For my fourth and last search I will limit the search to .gov sites.
  Again I went into Dogpile and, without re-entering the search string, made only one change by changing the top level domain parameter to .gov.
  The site I chose for this top level domain is the one maintained by the Office of the Secretary of the United States Senate.  It is the official website for Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, and can be found here. 
  The reason I chose it is this: in January, Senator Feinstein will introduce a bill to stop the sale, transfer, importation and manufacturing of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition feeding devices, or magazines.  The website is cited as follows: 
  "United States Senator Dianne Feinstein." The Official Website of Senator Dianne Feinstein. The Office of the Secretary of the United States Senate, 28 Dec. 2012. Web. 31 Dec. 2012.
  It contains links so that a person can email Senator Feinstein, read her official biography, and read her voting record and so forth.  This website is also referenced by other reputable sites, such as NPR.org.
  Herein also can be obtained the full text of the bill she will introduce in January, as well as all the other bills she has introduced and their histories.
  For my purposes, this website is authoritative, covers all aspects of Senator Feinstein and her efforts to introduce this bill, and is timely in that this bill could potentially help curb the manufacture and sale of assault weapons in the United States.
  In conclusion, I would like to make a few observations.  Despite the websites I found using Dogpile, in the future I think I'll try other metasearch tools because Dogpile showed me a tendency to be a opinionated as to what I should be looking for as opposed to what I really was searching for.  Perhaps next time I'll use ProQuest.  As to doing research on the web, it would seem to me that for my research purposes, my choice of top level domain does not matter so much as the content and trustworthiness of the websites I choose.  The subject of state and federal laws and regulations concerning assault weapons continues to be one of politics and opinions.  Yes, we all want to protect our children and vulnerable populations, but there are orders of magnitudes of difference in opinion when it comes to how we should be going about this.
  In my opinion, the top level domain should matter most when you consider carefully what you are doing research on.  Caveat emptor should always be foremost in your mind.  Be aware of who is writing this stuff, who they are writing it for, why it is on the web, what it is that you are looking for, how it is presented, and how trustworthy it is.