Abstract
Looking back on this course I realize I took
critical thinking for granted, specifically when it came to how I used media. I had the tools ready to use but did not
necessarily use them in the proper manner. The information on the Internet can
be very useful but we need to understand how to extract the valid information
from the fictional. As a writer,
educator, and now a student, critical thinking will help advance the work I do
by allowing me to properly evaluate the sources I am pulling my information
from.
Treatment
There is an art to thinking about
thinking. We question, examine,
and explore information from various points of views and we try to arrive at a
conclusion we hope we agree with; however at times the results we find differ
from the original thought. So this
leads me to ask, does critical thinking affect how we interact with media?
A person must use critical thinking in
everyday situations, especially in this age of 24-hour news cycles. We are bombarded with information but
it is up to us to determine if the information is valid. Examining bias will help us determine
not only the validity of the source but also the information they are
presenting. Adam Pash (2011) has a
four-step approach to stopping the spread of misinformation but it is his
second step, research, that seems to be the most important, "...you get to
turn to the internet to search for answers!" By asking questions of what
we are viewing, reading, or listening to we start to think critically about the
information.
The existence of bias will not go away, but the acceptance
of bias can. If we understand that
bias exists and that further research needs to be done then we are starting to
think critically. This affects how
we take in different forms of media.
Fox News is going to report information on President Obama differently
than that of NBC News. Mark
Memmott (2012) shows us that when writing about the economy Fox News says
"Wrong-way growth: Jobless Jumps In July as New Hiring Remains Slow,"
and "NBC News writes US economy's job engine revved up in July. Both are
news sources and both are "duty bound" to report the truth, but both
are corporations that are run by money and ratings. They spin the information to pull in the audience they want
to attract. Fox News leans more towards the conservative audience, whereas NBC
News leans more liberal.
This is not just found in mainstream media
though. In this digital age,
misinformation can be found around every corner. The average person can upload a YouTube video, ranting about
the lives of someone they've never met, and we, if we choose to watch the
video, have to determine if their rant is valid. We have to find the truth in
what they are saying and apply deductive reasoning rather than logic to help
arrive at this conclusion. "Valid logic is when the structure of logic is
correct in the way of syntax and semantics rather than truth. Truth comes from
deductive reasoning of said logic," Curtis Silver (2011)
As an educator the practice of critical thinking
has changed how I approach teaching.
By giving my students real world scenarios to complete their work, they
are able to ask questions of themselves, the work they are doing, and of their
client, but many view the idea of critical thinking as boring and uncreative. As
static as the idea of critical thinking can be there absolutely is a way to
incorporate it in a creative manner and to creative work. According to Zoe Burgess (2011),
Through research,
participating in service learning, talking with seasoned professionals within a
particular industry, fieldwork, and by preparing presentations and papers on
their topics to share with their schoolmates and the larger community, students
build critical and problem solving skills that will serve them for life.
I learn from
my students just as much as they learn from me. Looking at my work from a critical point of view has helped
place me in their shoes, allowing me to show them a way around the struggles
the assignment might be giving them.
As a
PhD student in media psychology critical thinking will provide the tools
necessary to concisely and clearly write papers, evaluate information for my
research, and choose sources to pull the information from. Michael Shermer (2009) gives us 10 ways
to detect baloney. While each of
these are valid and helpful, I find 5 of them more helpful than the others:
1.)
How reliable is the source of the claim?
2.)
Is the claimant providing positive evidence?
3.)
Are personal beliefs driving the claim?
4.)
Have the claims been verified by someone else?
5.)
Does the source make similar claims?
Using
these ideas, along with the idea of keeping an open mind will allow me to
properly report my research. As
researchers and scholars we have to prepare ourselves for the possibility that
what we find might be different than our personal beliefs.
Conclusion
Living
in the age of the Internet we have access to tools that provide large amounts
of information at an incredible rate, but the most important tool we have at
our disposal is our mind. By using
critical thinking we can change, not only how we think, but also how we
approach media. We have the radio
and podcasts to listen to on the way to work, television to watch while at
home, and newspapers to read on our digital devices. They all fight for our attention and it is up to us to
determine how much what we take in we believe and how much we will further
research. Like any muscle, the
brain needs to train in how to think critically but when done correctly this
tool will allows us, as researchers, the opportunity to question and evaluate
the information.
References
Burgess, Z. (2011). Can We Teach Creative and Critical
Thinking? | Culture on GOOD. Retrieved from
http://www.good.is/posts/can-we-teach-creative-and-critical-thinking/
Memmott, M. (2012, August 3). Same News, Different Spins:
Check These Headlines About The Jobs Report: The Two-Way: NPR. NPR : National Public Radio : News & Analysis,
World, US, Music & Arts : NPR.
Retrieved September 21, 2012, from
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/08/03/158068749/same-news-different-spins-check-these-headlines-about-the-jobs-report
November, A. (n.d.). V. Find the Publisher of a Website |
November Learning. November Learning | Education Consulting, Workshops and
Conferences. Retrieved from http://novemberlearning.com/resources/information-literacy-resources/v-find-the-publisher-of-a-website/
Pash, A. (2011, May 3). How to Identify and
Avoid Spreading Misinformation, Myths, and Urban Legends on the Internet. Lifehacker,
tips and downloads for getting things done. Retrieved from
http://lifehacker.com/5798308/how-to-identify-and-avoid-spreading-misinformation-myths-and-urban-legends-on-the-internet
Shermer, M. (2009, August 27). The Baloney Detection Kit -
Michael Shermer| The Committed Sardine. 21st Century Fluency Project.
Retrieved from http://www.committedsardine.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=181
Silver, C. (2011, March 10). The Importance of Logic &
Critical Thinking. wired.com.
Retrieved September 19, 2012, from
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/03/the-importance-of-logic-critical-thinking/
Image Resources
Burgess, Z. (2011). Can We Teach Creative and Critical Thinking? | Culture on GOOD. Retrieved from http://www.good.is/posts/can-we-teach-creative-and-critical-thinking/
Memmott, M. (2012, August 3). Same News, Different Spins: Check These Headlines About The Jobs Report: The Two-Way: NPR. NPR : National Public Radio : News & Analysis, World, US, Music & Arts : NPR. Retrieved September 21, 2012, from http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2012/08/03/158068749/same-news-different-spins-check-these-headlines-about-the-jobs-report
Philosophy Monkey: Critical Thinking Animated Primer. (n.d.). Philosophy Monkey. Retrieved September 21, 2012, from http://berto-meister.blogspot.com/2012/02/critical-thinking-animated-primer.html
