Fear and Loathing

Ben Tryer does his own investigation into immigration in Homer and around the world. How does he go about doing research? What is it about the way he does research that is the source of his struggle?

Ben Tryer investigates by reading news outlets, both on the left and the right. He looks into several different news sources and even goes as far as digging up primary sources to understand the immigration problem developing in Europe, primarily Germany. He internally struggles with the harsh reality that is the world. For most of his life it seems as though he's lived with an "ignorance is bliss" view on the news and world events. When he begins spending late hours researching, his eyes open to the violence and the impurity of the world, thus resulting in his internal struggle: coming to terms with such.

What are the steps you take to make sure your sources are credible? What sources do you believe are credible? Why? Do you think that people can discuss controversial issues without being biased?

I research everything. I like to have a good idea of both sides of an issue and draw a conclusion based off of the opinions and facts derived on both sides. Additionally, I like to form my own opinions based off of the two juxtaposing opinions. Often, my opinion is a moderate one, compared to the two polarizing ideas. I believe that all sources have a little credibility in them, but overall no one article is going to be completely credible and unbiased (especially if it is a secondary source). I think that people have the ability to discuss controbversial issues with straight facts, but even still we can all spin facts to favor our own argument.

Lastly, what is the community you are researching in your paper? How did you decide you wanted to research it? Was it fear? Excitement? Current knowledge? Or something else? 

I want to research the undocumented immigrant/illegal immigration community in the US. I want to research it because it is heavily debated in America and I want to know, does illegal immigration truly help us or hurt us as a nation?