This research project was much more difficult than I had anticipated. Overall, I did not feel as prepared for it as I should have because I had poor planning. If I had been able to document a person's political views before they accessed reddit and then again some time later, my study would have been much easier to quantify. Since I was unable to do that I my work was less accurate, but I still believe I added to the conversation in my own right. This was the biggest research project I have ever attempted and should I have to do another I'll have a better understanding of what is expected of me.
The biggest change in my project that occurred over this semester was my actual research question. I continued to make it more precise as time went on. In addition to this, I learned a lot about valid news sources and political discourse as a whole from doing my research. I did most of my research well in advance of having to write my paper so I could analyze my textual analysis to its fullest.
Feedback from peers was ranged from mild interest to genuine interest. I think the people who found my topic interesting were probably redditors who had experienced the posts on /r/politics. It was a very good time to do a project like mine because of the election. Everyone was interested in politics for about a month and they all had something to say. The best reactions were when I told a lot of people that their biases affect others in potentially negative ways. I got a kick out of that, they did not.
I'm most proud of my Introduction paragraphs that included my Literature Review and my different hypotheses. I thought the hypotheses I drew were sound, even if they weren't proven to be completely correct. I think that was the point of this paper and things not coming out the way I expected was just part of the journey. I think the place that needed more work was the methods section. If I could have gone back I would have tried to change the way my researched was gathered and observed people over a long period of time.
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