Thinking Critically about Media and Politics

Thinking Critically about Media and Politics

This book offers a critical introduction to the media as well as a â€œself defenseâ€ against the â€œspinâ€ of politicians, advertising, and assorted propagandists. Its interdisciplinary application of principles of critical thinking and argumentative rhetoric can be incorporated into a diverse range of college courses, including communication, journalism, rhetoric, and media criticism.

Lazere offers a basic guide to and critique of the semantic complexities of terms such as liberal, conservative, left, and right, as well as related words like democracy, freedom, capitalism, and socialism. He provides student guides for understanding opposing viewpoints between conservative and liberal polemicists on controversial issues in current politics and media, such as the nationâ€™s wealth gap, including the rhetoric of economic arguments and the use and interpretation of statistics. His book offers insights into understanding the positions behind many other well-publicized debates in American societyâ€”from womenâ€™s rights to racial attitudes to the role of government. Lazere provides students with tools for understanding and argumentation, showing how to recognize logical fallacies, verbal slanting, and emotional appeal through connotative languageâ€”and how to discern intentions behind political and other advertisements.

In contrast to most textbooksâ€™ approach to logical fallacies that assumes they result only from unintentional lapses in reasoning, this book confronts the hard truth that real-life arguments frequently are tainted by deliberate deception. Chapter 3 surveys various influences on political bias in the media, while Chapter 4 examines special pleading, conflicts of interest, invective, smearing, and hypeâ€”as propagated by sources like lobbies, public relations agencies, think tanks, advocacy, and political advertising.

Key features of the text:

Country	USA
Author	Donald Lazere
Binding	Kindle Edition
Edition	1
EISBN	9781317250548
Format	Kindle eBook
Label	Routledge
Manufacturer	Routledge
NumberOfPages	161
PublicationDate	2015-11-17
Publisher	Routledge
ReleaseDate	2015-11-17
Studio	Routledge

Thinking Critically about Media and Politics

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