Assignment




		For the final assignment you should choose a controversy related to 20th century Europe. There are two goals to this assignment. One goal is to survey the Internet on a controversial subject in order to understand the amount of information and disinformation related to controversial topics. You will be required to make a brief oral presentation to the class that summarizes what kinds of sites you found about your topic. You might want to answer such questions as: Who published most of the sites you found? Was the content factual or opinions? What were some of the common pieces of misinformation that you found? The other goal of this project is to put yourself in the role of a computer advice columnist and provide, in written form, an answer to the following letter:

			Dear Computer Guru: I am writing a paper on a controversial 20th century topic. I would like to use the Internet in my research, but I am concerned about the accuracy of the information that I will find on such a controversial topic. I need to know how to find the most reliable information, such as which search engines to use, and what key words to use, as well as how to judge the accuracy of the information that I do find. Can you please provide some detailed notes on how I can find and evaluate this information. Thank you. Lost on the Information Highway in Amherst, MA

[Misinformation Readings]

[Clinton Scandal]

[Search Engines]

[Estimating Misinformation]