Com 200 - Critical Thinking

COM 200

September 10, 2010

Critical Thinking Essay, Ch. 2

Question: Discuss how you determine the credibility of sources that you use to gather news. Do you trust instant messages, text messages, and twitters more than new accounts? Describe how you learned about a recent news event that interests you, and discuss why you trusted the source of that news.

In today's world, we highly depend on others for news. Whether it's about politics, education, sports, or weather, someone is writing/reporting it to us and we have to be able to trust they are right. This kind of trust is called credibility. In other words, it provides us with the knowledge and confidence that the information comes from a reliable source. Three ways I establish credibility is through ethical, logical, and emotional appeals. Mass communications has become such a huge part of everyday life which makes credibility even more important.

Ethical Appeals, or ethics, require the writer to gain the respect and trust of their readers through demonstrating their knowledge about the topic, and showing that they share common ground with them. A writer establishes their credibility by demonstrating his or her knowledge about the topic. "Showing personal experience with the subject: for example, if they are a former preschool teacher, they could mention their teaching background as a part of an argument" (St. Martins, pg. 182). Providing common ground, fairness towards any counterarguments, and any type of visual shows the reader that they have researched carefully and provides me confidence within the writer.

Critical Thinking 2

Logical Appeals, or logics, are the second and most important thing I look for when I gather news. This type of appeal provides many different types of logic used for media through authority and testimony, cause and effects, inductive and deductive reasoning, and visuals. These all demonstrate different ways to cite facts throughout writing. Logical appeals are all about stating the facts and backing them up with direct information to make the reader confident.

"Emotional Appeals, appeal to our hearts as well as our minds. 'Thus, good writers supplement appeals to logic and reason with emotional appeals to their readers'" (St. Martins, pg.194). Writers and reporters use this often when informing people with news of tragedies. It is never often where I second guess a news article's credibility where people have died or been hurt because it is easy to recognize that it is true. Many writers/reporters use figurative language by painting detailed pictures that build understanding. "They do so by relating something new or unfamiliar to something the audience knows well and by making striking comparisons between something