Allen Esterson noted: "There's an important case to be made here, but I'm not happy about dubious methodologies being used to promote a good cause (for me it comes close to "lying for truth")."
I agree completely (and teach my students also) that lying, or representing research or statistics "for a good cause" is not appropriate. What I meant to say in this case was that I wouldn't have a problem with using Google autocomplete as a meme to catch people's attention in this way if you didn't specifically say that these were the result of real searches and more specifically, as the Guardian columnist did, try to say that they say something about "all of us". And on that point, assuming they were real searches, there are a couple of things about this campaign that mitigate in its favor. It was a UN campaign, centered in Dubai (where the autocompletions were probably generated) and it is not clear where the message was targeted but it was likely not intended for the readership of the Guardian. Of course, as Allen notes, the autocompletion hardly tells the whole story. You have to look at the hits for the context of the use. Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Box 3519 x7295 rfro...@jbu.edu<mailto:rfro...@jbu.edu> http://bit.ly/DrFroman Proverbs 14:15 "A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps." --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=29802 or send a blank email to leave-29802-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
