If you listened to this week’s podcast, you got a taste of what the non-partisan, informational web site ProCon.org has to offer with regard to well-researched information on both sides of 43 political issues.
ProCon is actually one of a number of sites that have emerged to help deal with the fact that traditional starting points for Internet research (such as Google and Wikipedia) are either so chaotic or so lacking in quality control that trusted sources need to pick up the slack (just as edited encyclopedias used to provide trusted information in days past).
The ProCon site is actually a series of microsites, each dedicated to a specific controversial issue. These range from high profile issues like standardized testing and abortion to lesser discussed (but still important, or at least interesting) topics such as the efficacy of voting machines and whether golf should be considered a sport.
Depending on the complexity of the issue, some of these microsites go deeper than others. The aforementioned golf site, for example, includes a dozen points in favor of each side of the question, while a site on medical marijuana (a topic that will be relevant during next week’s podcast) actually analyzes each and every condition this treatment is claimed to serve, providing not just strong arguments for and against, but the background knowledge needed to help you make up (or change) your own mind.
Unfortunately, the election (not to mention the world) revolves around more than 43 issues, so ProCon (like the rest of the Internet) will only provide some of the answers you’re looking for. But if you can master the Information Literacy skills discussed during this podcast (and continued on this one), you will be in a position to find those sources which, like ProCon, can provide you the building blocks you need to make informed decisions.
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