Sources and Sources; Validation of Authority

Been spending a lot tie of last evening brainstorming and researching ideas for a project for my Communications Theory class. The current assignment is:

In order to develop a “practical theory” you have to identify a social problem that exists today.  Think broadly about what role does communication play in that problem? Please post your ideas here.

I’ve had a few ideas, but the problem I am encountering is that every link I can find for them are not “scholarly”.

There are a lot of good sources of information out there, just not “scholarly”. Blogs, books, websites. But they don’t have the scholarly stamp.

Qualitative sources are those submitted to magazines with peer reviews. They ensure an objectivity.

Unless everyone on the peer side is a part of the same subjective viewpoint. Peer reviews can be a self-reinforcing cycle. Keeping certain people on the inside, and other theories on the outside. These professional groups start with the best motives in mind, but like all things, without constant vigilance, they become self-perpetuating.

They say follow the money. You fund research into something, the research finds the answer you were looking for, whether the answer was there or not. That is what happens with a lot of government-funded research. It has been helpful in a lot of ways, but soon people see the advantages of pork, and soon more of the research is just to pad someone’s pockets.

There needs to be room for the independents, and there needs to be a way to weed out the true flakes. The powers-that-be are not the answer, since they want to protect their own position.

Those are my scattered thoughts today.