Robert W. Janke

Our society faces international challenges from cyber attacks and dissemination of fake news with a goal to destabilize our society. Fake news can be used as a weapon with destructive effects as powerful as any military attack. Fake news can spread as fast as a wildfire carried on the winds of social media. Students and all citizens need to be prepared and informed of ways to quickly understand and distinguish real and fake news. Preventing the potential destructive effects of fake news is the purpose of this book. The focus is upon providing a resource for educators to develop “news literacy” skills of students in objectively evaluating the news.

Our society faces international challenges from cyber attacks and dissemination of fake news with a goal to destabilize our society. Fake news can be used as a weapon with destructive effects as powerful as any military attack. Fake news can spread as fast as a wildfire carried on the winds of social media. Students and all citizens need to be prepared and informed of ways to quickly understand and distinguish real and fake news. Preventing the potential destructive effects of fake news is the purpose of this book. The focus is upon providing a resource for educators to develop “news literacy” skills of students in objectively evaluating the news.

Existing research methods textbooks emphasize the mechanics of HOW to conduct research studies. However, many students fail to see WHY it is important to learn about research because they will never conduct research studies. These students do not become engaged in learning and believe that research courses and textbooks are useless. They do not see the need of developing “research literacy” to understand the applications and limitations of research to their daily lives. This book engages students with a nonmathematical presentation that includes real examples of the consequences of research errors in daily life. The organization facilitates learning with objectives, concepts, description of errors, best practices, and examples. This is a research methods textbook for students who fear research textbooks. The diversity of topics in this book permits application to research methods courses in these academic fields: Economics, Education, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. This should be the first book for all students to introduce research and develop “research literacy”.

Existing research methods textbooks emphasize the mechanics of HOW to conduct research studies. However, many students fail to see WHY it is important to learn about research because they will never conduct research studies. These students do not become engaged in learning and believe that research courses and textbooks are useless. They do not see the need of developing “research literacy” to understand the applications and limitations of research to their daily lives. This book engages students with a nonmathematical presentation that includes real examples of the consequences of research errors in daily life. The organization facilitates learning with objectives, concepts, description of errors, best practices, and examples. This is a research methods textbook for students who fear research textbooks. The diversity of topics in this book permits application to research methods courses in these academic fields: Economics, Education, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. This should be the first book for all students to introduce research and develop “research literacy”.