Applying Critical Thinking to Modern Media Effective Reasoning about Claims in the New Media Landscape

Applying Critical Thinking to Modern Media is the only book that teaches critical thinking skills by applying them to the consumption of modern media. Author Lewis Vaughn emphasizes the habits of mind that are prerequisites for making sense of today's media landscape--reasonable skepticism, metacognition, overview perspective, openness, intellectual humility, and responsibility--and develops these dispositions by showing students how to apply critical thinking skills to the creation and evaluation of media messages of all kinds. Through active engagement with this vitally important area, Applying Critical Thinking to Modern Media prepares students to be independent and intelligent consumers of the information that they encounter in their daily lives.

The text is available as an enhanced eBook, which contains examples of text and video drawn from websites and social media. Additional digital resources for students and instructors can be found at https://oup-arc.com/access/vaughn-act1e.

Lewis Vaughn is the author or coauthor of several textbooks, including Bioethics, Fourth Edition (2019), The Power of Critical Thinking, Sixth Edition (2018), Philosophy Here and Now, Third Edition (2018), Writing Philosophy, Second Edition (2018), and Living Philosophy, Third Edition (2020).

Preface

CHAPTER 1. Critical Thinking and the Challenges of Modern Media
1.1 Turning Information into Knowledge
CRITICAL THINKING AND PERSONAL FREEDOM
1.2 Hazards of the Infosphere
1.3 Post-Truth
FACT AND OPINION
1.4 Media Illiteracy
GOING WITH YOUR GUT: I JUST KNOW!

CHAPTER 2. Claims, Reasons, and Arguments
2.1 Claims and Reasons
HOW TO WIN EVERY ARGUMENT
2.2 Reasons and Arguments
2.3 Argument Structure
THE SMART WAY TO ARGUE ONLINE
2.4 Argument Patterns
Deductive Arguments
DEDUCTIVE PATTERNS WORTH KNOWING
Enumerative Induction
Analogical Induction
Inference to the Best Explanation
DON'T ARGUE WITH TROLLS
2.5 Assessing Long Arguments
The Case for Discrimination
NO ARGUMENTS, JUST FLUFF

CHAPTER 3. Obstacles to Critical Thinking
3.1 All Hail the Self
IS IT WRONG TO BELIEVE WITHOUT GOOD REASONS?
3.2 All Hail My Group
RACISM IS GROUP THINKING AT ITS WORST-BUT WHAT IS IT?
3.3 The Toughest Mental Obstacles
Denying Contrary Evidence
Looking for Confirming Evidence
Motivated Reasoning
Preferring Available Evidence
3.4 Your Brain on Social Media
Mere Exposure Effect
Illusion-of-Truth Effect
False Consensus Effect
The Dunning-Kruger Effect
THE BACKFIRE EFFECT

CHAPTER 4. Fake News
4.1 Taxonomy of Misinformation
A FAKE NEWS "MASTERPIECE"
4.2 Telling Fake from Real
Read Laterally
THE ETHICS OF SHARING FAKE NEWS
Read Critically
Use Google and Wikipedia Carefully
DISGUISED, HATEFUL SOURCES
Check Your Own Biases
TRUSTWORTHY FACT-CHECKERS
4.3 Fake Images
4.4 Deepfakes

CHAPTER 5. Media Bias
5.1 Objectivity and Bias
5.2 Opinion, Analysis, and Advocacy
5.3 Liberal and Conservative Bias
CAN YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FACT AND OPINION?
BIAS AND INCONSISTENCY
5.4 Commercial Bias
Pandering
Sensationalism
Skewed Focus
Chasing Advertising
BIAS AND ACCURACY OF SELECTED SOURCES

CHAPTER 6. Manipulation through Fallacies and Rhetoric
6.1 Fallacies: Irrelevant Premises
Genetic Fallacy
Composition and Division
Appeal to the Person
HOW TO RESPOND TO AD HOMINEM ATTACKS
Equivocation
Appeal to Popularity
Appeal to Tradition
Appeal to Ignorance
CAN YOU PROVE A NEGATIVE?
Appeal to Emotion
Red Herring
Straw Man
FALLACIES WITH IRRELEVANT PREMISES
Two Wrongs Make a Right
6.2 Fallacies: Unacceptable Premises
Begging the Question
False Dilemma
Decision-Point Fallacy
Slippery Slope
FALLACIES WITH UNACCEPTABLE PREMISES
Hasty Generalization
Faulty Analogy
6.3 Persuaders: Rhetorical Moves
WHOSE PANTS ARE ON FIRE?
Innuendo
Euphemisms and Dysphemisms
Stereotyping
WHO IS MORE INTOLERANT-LIBERALS OR CONSERVATIVES?
Ridicule
Rhetorical Definitions

CHAPTER 7. Experts and Evidence
7.1 Experts and Nonexperts
ARE DOCTORS EXPERTS?
7.2 Judging Experts
DO NONEXPERTS KNOW BEST?
FALLACIOUS APPEAL TO (QUESTIONABLE) AUTHORITY
7.3 Experts and Personal Experience
Impairment
Expectation
Causal Confusions
Misidentifying Relevant Factors
EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY AND WRONGFUL CONVICTIONS
Mishandling Multiple Factors
Being Misled by Coincidence
Confusing Cause with Temporal Order
Confusing Cause and Effect
THE DEADLY POST HOC FALLACY
7.4 Innumeracy and Probability
HIERARCHY OF RELIABILITY

CHAPTER 8. Science, Nonscience, and the Media
8.1 What Science Is and Is Not
Science Is Not Ideology
Science Is Not Motivated Reasoning
Science Is Not Technology
SEVEN WARNING SIGNS OF BOGUS SCIENCE
8.2 How Science Is Done
NONINTERVENTION (POPULATION) STUDIES
8.3 Judging Scientific Theories
Theories and Consistency
Theories and Criteria
Testability
Fruitfulness
Scope
Simplicity
Conservatism
WHAT'S WRONG WITH CONSPIRACY THEORIES?
8.4 Telling Good Theories from Bad
Copernicus versus Ptolemy
Evolution versus Creationism
CAN WE SEE EVOLUTION?
EVOLUTION AND INTELLIGENT DESIGN
Climate Change
IS IT TOO LATE TO PREVENT CLIMATE CHANGE?
IF THE WORLD IS WARMING, WHY ARE SOME WINTERS AND SUMMERS STILL VERY COLD? 259
8.5 How the Media Get Science Wrong
Hyping the Science
Misunderstanding the Science
Is All Health News Wrong?
EXPERT REVIEW OF ARTICLE 9: "IS EVERYTHING YOU THINK YOU KNOW ABOUT DEPRESSION WRONG?"
8.6 Scientific Opinion Polls
HOW SURVEY QUESTIONS GO WRONG
MEAN, MEDIAN, AND MODE
TRUSTWORTHY SOURCES IN SCIENCE AND MEDICINE

CHAPTER 9. Advertising
9.1 How Advertising Works
9.2 Internet Advertising
OLD SCHOOL ADVERTISING TRICKS
9.3 Political Advertising
Falsely Portraying a Democratic Candidate as Anti-ICE
Misleading the Public about a Politician's Voting Record
Telling an Old Lie about Medicare
Paying Women and Children to Cross the U.S. Border?
The Mashup of Two Separate Interviews?
President Trump Loves Nuclear War?
Emma Gonzalez Tears Up the U.S. Constitution?

Appendix A: For Further Reading
Appendix B: Answers to Exercises
Glossary
Notes
Index