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Blog Post # 5

 a. I learned that when conducting research, it is important to establish specific operational definitions early on in the process of designing the methodology. It's also important to familiarize yourself with the current literature and expand upon the hypotheses and ideas currently present in the field. This was the first research proposal I have had to write, and because capstone is coming up, I am glad to have finally had some experience in writing one.  b. My future role will not as a technical and professional communicator. However, I have learned that psychology and sociology research can provide a basis for PTW research. When writing my research proposal, sociology played an important role when writing the literature review and identifying gaps in knowledge about the subject of technical communication. My future role will likely be as a teacher or counselor, so what I have learned in this class will play a role mostly in how I present information, and my attitudes towar...

Blog #4 Plans for Revision

      The first objective when structuring my literature review is to adjust the focus more on the political interaction among Facebook users and news media. Most of my literature review already focuses on that subject so it should be relatively simple. Because my research proposal is focused on leaders of opinion, research concerning the spread of political ideas on Facebook will be the topic of my literature review.      My research proposal will focus on the gap in literature present regarding leaders of opinion and the impact they have on Facebook. It is important to carefully define "leaders of opinion" and present the findings consistently using the definition I put forward. I will define leaders of opinion as "individuals who exert a significant amount of influence within their network and can affect the opinions of connected individuals."  https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780128044124/sentiment-analysis-in-social-networks (study I will base ...

Research Gap Blog Post #3

Research gap concerning the relationship between news media and how Facebook users gather information.      The research gap I have noticed is that little research has been done on  Opinion leaders on Facebook and their perception of what constitutes accurate information. A research article used in my literature review discussed briefly how those who identify as leaders of opinion consumed less accurate information than other Facebook users. There does not seem to be much  else on the topic, and this research is important because influential people can have a significant effect on the accuracy of presented information on Facebook. Also, opinions expressed by these opinion leaders may have a significant impact on the interaction that Facebook users have with others on the platform. Research based on interaction between news media and Facebook users has been done. Research based on interaction between friends and other Facebook users has been done. However, as far...

Blog Post #2 Research Topic

 My research topic is; why and where do Facebook users access the news? My sources are: 1. Incidental News Exposure on Facebook as a Social Experience: The Influence of Recommender and Media Cues on News Selection   https://journals-sagepub-com.libproxy.dixie.edu/doi/full/10.1177/0093650218803529  2.  Audiences as Agents of Collective Memory – Implications for Press Criticism and Journalism Boundaries.  https://journals-sagepub-com.libproxy.dixie.edu/doi/full/10.1177/10776990211017243 3. Protest News and Facebook Engagement: How the Hierarchy of Social Struggle Is Rebuilt on Social Media  10.1177/10776990211017243 4. Do anticipated Facebook discussions diminish the importance of argument quality? An experimental investigation of attitude formation in social media.  10.1080/15213269.2019.1572521 5. The Emergence of Surveillance Culture: The Relationships between Facebook Privacy Management, Online Government Surveillance, and Online Political ...

Topic of Interest

 Since I am a psychology major, I would be most interested in how technical writing, especially online writing, can influence behavior. News apps and how effectively they balance opposing viewpoints would be an interesting area of study. Recently, there are apps that have attempted to label news organizations and show people a variety of sources based on those labels. How effective are these apps in showing users a balanced perspective? Another topic I think would be interesting is how social media apps would best help people meet others. Which social media websites encourage meeting new people and establishing meaningful connections? What do these sites do right that others don't? So far, these are the topics I can think of that would most interest me.
 Hello I am Drew