Searching

I think it is hard to think of what words to use for a search the first time you do it.  You have to really do some trial and error to figure out how the search engines really work and what words you are going to put in to get what you want.  I was initially searching for “teenage drug influence from media”, but I changed the search to “teen drug influence” and found that I had found more articles that pertained to my topic.  The results that I received from Google were a lot more broad than the results I received from CUNY+.

Using Google Scholar

I read the posts below and saw that a lot of people used google scholar to obtain research information.  After using scholar, I found that it is a very valuable resource.  It is nice to be able to collect data from numerous articles as well as being able to find a lot of different resources having to do with my research topic.  Entering in the correct search to find what you are looking for is the one problem that I came across.  It takes time to formulate what information to put into the search engine to get what you want out of it.

Research Journal

For this research project, I am interested in seeing the coalition between greater access to information resources and drug abuse in teens.  I believe that the vast amount of information and communication tools on the internet can have both positive and negative effects in influencing teens into using drugs.  It took a while for me to refine my topic down to what I have now, but I found that starting with a general topic and branching off from that really helped me narrow down an idea for my paper.  The only challenge I face now is gathering information on the topic and compiling it into an answer to this question.

-The Politics of Research-

This reading really made me question the way research is performed and directed in this modern corporate world.  As other people have said, money rules the world, not only in research but every aspect of life.  I believe that all of these corporations and big budget companies gain a lot of influence in a lot of big time decisions due to their ability to “out pay” someone with a different agenda than theirs.  I believe that research should be aimed towards bettering quality of life and health related issues and concentrate on the things that are truly important, not using these talented professionals for studies that lead to primarily monetary gain.

-M-