Choose one primary research method that best suits your research project and answer the following questions in relation to that primary research method:

a. What do I want to discover?

I want to know what Iraqis experience due to this war and how they view it whether in favor or not from the start of the war till the present. I am also considering what their thoughts were before the first bomb dropped and what they think of their future after the war has ended. Also, I want to know if they think that it was a good thing for the US to start a war there. I obviously don’t think so but I want to hear it from someone with actual experience.

b. How do I plan on discovering it? (This is called your research methods or methodology)

I plan on finding documentaries where Iraqis give their insight into the effects of the war in their homeland. I also want to find news or journal articles and blogs that give more information to this subject. I especially want blogs because they are a more free space to voice opinions and such without censorship. I will be using a blog as a primary source for that reason, I don’t want any possibly scripted or omitted stories that we tend to see in our media today.

c. Who am I going to talk to/observe/survey? (These people are called your subjects or participants)

I am going to try and conduct an interview via email with Riverbend, the blogger of “Baghdad Burning”, which is my primary source. She delivers an amazing account of her experiences living in Iraq and her opinions about the forces that are causing conflict in Iraq. I will also try to do the same with other bloggers I find as secondary sources along with any accredited sources that I can use to back them up.

d. How am I going to be able gain access to these groups or individuals?

I have already gained access to these groups through there blogs. But I suppose the only group I haven’t officially found information from is the accredited sources. I will be looking for them through the library resources online, though I do feel like there may not be much to go on from there given biases in our media towards the war in Iraq. They barely show anything that is going wrong and when they do it is in a way that tries to gain more support for the war.

e. What are my biases about this topic?

My biases are that there is more to the war in Iraq than what I see on television and other media outlets. I feel as though I can’t fully trust them to give me the down and dirty details that an Iraqi citizen can provide.

f. How can I make sure my biases are not reflected in my research methods?

I will try my best to look at the issue as objectively as possible and develop my argument around what I discover from my research and not my own opinions. At least I will try not to place too much of my opinions into the equation.

e. What do I expect to discover?

I expect to discover the truths about how the Iraqi citizens feel about the events that are taking place in their country. I also expect to see a shift in thought patterns in favor or against the war is the conflicts drag on. I know that our media showed a lot of people being happy to have us be there and “liberating” them at the start of the war but I have my doubts about that and I’m sure their views have changed by now though our media does little to acknowledge this.