How this site and its content was composed

chellewake — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:27:05 +0000

Swine flu, at least the strain currently infecting humans, is a relatively new crisis and controversy. It was at the end of April 2009 that potential danger was made known to the public. In today’s world, information, bot accurate, infactual, and creatively tweaked, travels the globe in such a fast paced manner. Because of this, I utilized the Internets as my main source for gathering information on the controversy, from all aspects. When I first chose H1N1 as my topic, my research begining point was the Portland State University (PSU) library database for articles from peer-reviewed journals. However, this search was fruitless in producing topics that were debatable. The majority of the information was scientific, dealing with the biology, virology, chemistry, etc of the virus. While these searched did produce many awesome picture of the virus being cultured in labortatories, it is on the Internet that the interesting debates are taking place. I was looking for information from many types of sources and disciplines in hopes of showing how networked the controversy is. As I proceeded to gather information from the Internet I found ways to link novel Influenza A H1N1 to religous debates, animal rights, economics, education, vaccination scares, fearmongering, the stock market, immigration, and many other genres of information that are not automatically associated with a disease outbreak.

My topic and Why

chellewake — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:47:32 +0000

For my controversy project for Science: Power & Knowledge, I selected the novel Influenza A strain H1N1, also known as Swine Flu. I picked this topic specifically because my major is General Science, minor in Biology and also because I will be going to nursing school soon. As nurse, the bridges between science, health care, and public knowledge of health issues are very instrumental to my career. Also, I had hoped to be able to select a topic that is current, with the majority of the information still being hotly debated at many levels; between the governments of different countries, between various laboratories, within localized governments, among schools, and even within families who many have a member showing signs of an illness regardless of it actually being H1N1. I chose to construct a website because I thought it would best suit the layout I intend to follow while constructing the aspects of the controversy. Ideally, this site will have sections dedicated to particular questions and facts about the Swine Flu debate. The first topic will be an introduction to what is considered to be facts about H1N1, followed by concerns about the strain from a public health standpoint, figures central to the debate will be discussed, a discussion of what is agreeed upon, followed by what is being disputed (including history), public reactions and involvement in the controversy, instruments developed around swine flu and how they are untilized, and finally a conclusion on the project as a whole entity.

Chelle Wake's Controversy Project

How this site and its content was composed

My topic and Why