Responding to "Fear and Loathing"

Typically, when a topic of controversy comes up in a conversation, I am like Ben Tryer where I try and avoid it as best as I can. I don't like conflict. Part of this could be that I am from the most passive aggressive state there is (Minnesota), or just simply through personal experiences I have learned that I don't do well when I have to pick one side. However, when there is a topic that I have to, or feel the need to know more about to form an opinion for, I will try my best to hear both sides of the argument.

As Ben Tryer does research for immigration in Homer, he has a similar mindset when finding his information. He wants to try and find credible sources online that cover both the negatives and positives. When looking up the topic of how immigration has impacted other countries

and cities around the world, he ends up finding mostly negative stories and outcomes. Despite his efforts on trying to use multiple online sources to avoid bias articles, he comes to the unwanted conclusion that immigration in Homer would cause serious problems. This is where Ben Tryer first struggles because he wants to have the mindset of seeing the best in everyone, but after the research he did, he wasn't sure he could do that.

Even though Tryer tried his best to find multiple different sources online to hear different opinions, he still came up with, overall, the same answers. The reason for his struggle was because, in his research, he didn't do anything that involved finding answers outside of using the internet. The internet can be a great source for finding lots information, but it should never be the only source. When he finally got the chance to talk to a reporter that covered the topics of immigration, Tryer was surprised to hear that while much of the information he found had some truths, it was manipulated to make the reader more persuaded to form specific opinions.

Looking back on previous research I have done, the only thing I looked for to make sure the source was credible was if it was in a textbook or ended with edu, gov, etc. on the website URL's. Even still, there were times when I would use websites that were commercial (".com") if it was the only place I could find certain information. These sources can be credible, but I now realize that it is helpful to go beyond just the internet. I can expand my options by doing interviews, watching documentaries, finding books (not just textbooks) that cover the topic and many other things. I feel that it is possible to discuss a topic, or controversial issue, without bias, but to do so one needs to have enough different sources to refer to that look at both sides of the argument.

The community that I will be researching for my project is the deaf community. I took American Sign Language for four years in high school and have always enjoyed learning the language. Since my ASL teacher was born deaf, she tried incorporate some of the deaf culture into her lessons. I found it fascinating on how different the deaf culture was from hearing culture just by the few things I had learned over the years. I was (and still am) considering becoming an interpreter for ASL which is why I chose to use the deaf community as my research topic. It'll be interesting to see what I learn!