Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

This course will examine planning and using search strategies, laws related to information gathering and use, efficient use of library sources with a special emphasis in reference materials and government documents, interviewing techniques, special aspects of corporate information gathering, the ways in which electronic information gathering is changing the world, how to evaluate evidence, and organizing a message from the raw materials of the information search.

1. Determine the amount and types of information needed in order to effectively research a public policy question.
2. Access needed information effectively and efficiently, employing appropriate technology, in order to examine problems
3. Critically evaluate information and multiple information sources in order to present balanced and accurate information to a public forum.
4. Understand the ethical, economic, legal, and social issues surrounding of public information in order to use it appropriately.

The forms of assessment will be determined by the individual instructor.
Assessment strategies may include:

• Qualitative examinations
• Quantitative examinations
• Essays
• Journals
• Research papers
• In-class participation
• Portfolios
• Projects
• Oral presentations
• Group work
• Journalistic pieces
• Bibliographies
• Research
• Write evaluations

• Validity
• Ethnical use of information
• Acknowledgement of sources
• Data base
• Multiple authorship
• Information
• Bias
• Tone/voice
• Point of view
• Form/structure
• Historical and cultural context

Competencies and Skills:

• close reading of sources
• collaboration
• revision
• writing in journalistic forms
• interviewing
• evaluating visual and numerical information such as graphs and statistics

A textbook is required. Approved texts are listed below. Alternative texts need Department/ SAC Chair approval.

Media and Communication Research Methods, 4th ed. (2016), A. Berger, Sage

The Information Literacy User's Guide: An Open, Online Textbook