procon Archives - Critical Voter

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Resource: ProCon.org

October 31, 2012 CriticalVoter Blog, Information Literacy, Resources, Uncategorized No comments

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.

Critical Voter - Podcast 13 – Facts and Interview with ProCon President Kamy Akhavan

October 28, 2012 CriticalVoter Argumentation, Bias, Blog, Information Literacy, Logos, Pathos and Ethos, Media Literacy, Podcast, Rhetorical Devices No comments

Presidential candidates can no longer make a statement during a speech, debate or TV ad without hundreds of fact checkers immediately descending to determine whether that statement is true or false.

The fast and furious fact-checking accompanying this year’s election is something new and has led to questions such as whether the candidates actually make factual assertions that can be checked for truth or falsehood, which leads to other questions regarding the nature of truth in our scripted, media-driven political age.

But before deciding that we are entering unknown territory with regard to the role factual information plays in our thinking, it might be best to take a look at the subjects covered during this series such as bias, argumentation and rhetoric to see if they might shed light on the role facts can and should play in our decision making.

To round out the discussion of this important topic, we are joined by Kamy Akhavan, President and Managing Editor of ProCon.org, a site dedicated to providing an accurate and balanced presentations of facts behind both sides of important issues.

Whatever role facts might play in our thinking and deliberation over whom to vote for, the millions of people who have visited ProCon this election year to find out where the candidates really stand on the important issues of the day demonstrates the desire to obtain the highest quality background knowledge available to support our arguments and beliefs.

This week’s resources include:

Critical Voter - Facts - Quiz

Critical Voter - Facts - Lesson Plan

ProCon.org

New York Times Stone column on whether the candidates are making verifiable factual statements

New York Times Stone column on why fact checkers should be logic checking as well