Monday, January 4, 2010

What is Media Argumentation?

Media Argumentation: Dialect, Persuasion and RhetoricMedia argumentation is a term used by Douglas Watson to describe how people in the media attempt to persuade their audience. While Watson's book describes the recent work mainly in the field of philosophy, there is also relevant work in the field of communication.

This site and companion blog is an attempt to bring together the work that Watson describes with the relevant mass media and communication work.  The purpose of the bridging research literatures to help us better understand arguments presented in the media (from news commentary to shows on the paranormal).  Special attention is given to the errors made in reasoning (or fallacies).

This research blog is about media argumentation.  This research blog and companion web site serve as my set of notes and data for my research projects on mystery writing. Look at this research site and blog as a work-in-progress, as an online draft of my final papers. In this case, you get to look over my shoulder as I work through these research ideas. See my profile to send email or post comments to the posts below.

The overall purpose of this research web site and blog is to better understand the use of argument and fallacies in the media.   Over time, this research blog and site will cover a variety of research topics related to media argumentation.  See the video to the right for fallacy definitions and examples of fallacies in the media.

The current focus of this research site and blog is on the arguments that Fox News commentator, Bill O'Reilly, uses in the Talking Points Memo segment of his show. 






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