These days, many people use the internet for their
sources of information on drugs. However, many internet sites dont always have
the most objective or valid information. Some websites may have a particular
agenda (such as promoting the legalization of drugs, or supporting a stronger
War on Drugs), and therefore use selective bias in their information. Others
may be written by non-experts who are simply giving their opinion without
substantiating their claims. In some cases it may be hard to tell if the
information you are reading was written by an expert on substance abuse issues
who works in a drug research center, or a high school student writing a blog in
their parents basement.
For your assignment you need to select one illegal drug
(i.e., marijuana, cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, etc.), and compare and contrast two
different websites that give information about that drug. You first need to compare
the information on each site. Then you need to critically analyze the
information on each site in terms of its validity and objectivity. In order to
do that you should address the following points in your comparison.
What
is the purpose and affiliation of the organization or author of the website?
What
are the authors credentials?
Is
the information current? When was the information last updated?
Does
the source contain bias without evidence to back up the claims?
Finally, you need
to discuss which website you find more credible and why. One good way to
justify your choice is to cross-reference the information on the websites with
another type of source that is known to be credible such as a peer reviewed
journal article that you found on an academic database at the John Jay Library.
Generally, peer reviewed articles are considered more credible because they
have been checked for validity issues prior to being published. Therefore, if
your websites contain information that can also be found in a peer-reviewed
research article, it gives it more credibility. In other words, for this
assignment, you not only have to compare the two websites, but should also find
a few academic articles to cross reference the information with.
* Paper
should be around 5-8 double spaced pages
* 1-inch
margin all around, include page numbers
* Use
a 12 point font
Make sure to
reference any direct quotes and to include a reference list at the end of the
paper listing the websites and journal articles you used.
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