As part of their research,
students employ Web search engines like Yahoo, OpenText, and
Lycos, entering the name of their subject-- in this case, the name
of their chosen television shows.
Unfortunately, I cannot say that net research
is always fruitful for me and my students. What we
find is that the quantity of information online is not a
problem-- through search engines, we usually uncover at least
some information about the chosen topics. However, our research
results show that the quality of information is
quite often problematic. My students expect to find editorial text like
those out of our course readers which they can cite and negotiate
in their writing. Instead, sites often contain information which
does not critique the shows; rather,
the site reiterates information
about the show and often reinscribes its hegemonic
entertainment status. My students quickly become concerned and
even discouraged at the results they find.