Interesting Research 2013 250 Word Discussion Re
Responses should be a minimum of 250 words and include direct questions. You may challenge, support or supplement another student’s answer using the terms, concepts and theories from the required readings. Also, do not be afraid to respectfully disagree where you feel appropriate; as this should be part of your analysis process at this academic level.
Respond to John:
The resources that I consulted in addition to the lessons required reading was a open search of the APUS library, where I found an enormous amount of helpful information. The process that I followed in selecting my topic started with personal interest in the topic of Domestic Terrorism. At first I thought that it would be interesting to examine the boundaries of the definition. I was curious to know if an American citizen who becomes radicalized by a Foreign extremist (and commits an act of terrorism on US soil) still falls neatly into the category of Domestic Terrorism. However as I began my research, my interest shifted towards identifying the population who may be most vulnerable to this type of exploitation. As a military retiree, I am always interested in finding different ways of making Military Service more appealing to young people. As I began my research, I was intrigued to find out that the appeal is similar between Military recruitment and radicalization. My initial question/ hypothesis was the following: “The intent of my research will be to demonstrate how the cyber radicalization of small parts of our population has broadened the scope of Domestic Terrorism. Through my research, I would like to discover what part of our population is most vulnerable to this type of exploitation, how it is carried out and what we can do about it.”
The difficulties I encountered were summarized with the feedback that I received of my week one forum: my topic was too broad. “A fundamental step in all theory development is the formulation of carefully grounded research questions.” (Mats, Alvesson &Jorgen Sandberg Pg 1)
Because I didn’t narrow the scope of my research question and my topic was too broad, I found myself chasing shiny bits of information all over the topic of Domestic Terrorism. With that in mind I have narrowed the scope of my research/hypothesis to the following: “College Students (specifically) being targeted for recruitment through Cyber Radicalization., how it is carried out and what we can do about it.”
Author Elia Shabani Milgo describes the research process in six steps: 1. Formulation of the research problem, 2. Reviewing available literature regarding your problem of study, 3. Designing your research study, 4. Collect research information, 5. Organizing, analyzing and interpreting the obtained data, 6. Disseminating the results of your research.
I am confident that this process will keep me on azimuth through the completion of this assignment. It is obvious early on that there is an enormous amount of information available on this topic. Having narrowed the scope of my question/hypothesis will undoubtedly help me to stay on message.
References:
Elia Shabani Mligo, “Introduction to reasearch Methods and Report Writing” A Practical Guide for Students and Researcher in Social Sciences and the Humanities, 2016
Mats, Alvesson &Jorgen Sandberg, “Constructing Research Questions: Doing Interesting Research”, 2013 SAGE Publications, Ltd.