week 8- The confirmation

1. What is my thesis?
People should have critical eyes when they accept media.

2. What types of source am I using to defend my thesis? 
I am using expert opinions, an example about Fiji women. 

3. Are my arguments mostly based on evidence, logic or emotion?
The evidences of my argument can be found in daily life. So I think it can be logical. Also, I have great example of negative influence of media.  

My Confirmation

To support my argument, I will give some evidences that prove media's problem.

First, there are many incorrect information in media. However, people easily believe that incorrect contents because of characteristics of media. Information in media are usually provided by experts or celebrities. So,  it looks credible seemingly. But, have you met them and had a conversation? How do you know they are trustworthy? Why should you believe anything they say? Information provided by them can also incorrect. Also, media repeat and repeat the information. Although people already know the messages are not true, repeated exposure over time to similar messages can make it easy for people to accept the messages as true. According to the research, media in the US and most European countries usually contain 25 percent truths and 75 percent distorted lies and information. People need to aware of how the media deceive people by using "magic tricks."

Second, uncritical acceptance of media causes collapse of tradition. I will show you one example. The American drama changed the traditional values of Fiji women because they accepted American drama uncritically. Traditionally, Fiji women thought that chubby woman is beautiful. However, after introducing American drama, they preferred thin western body type and started to think themselves as fat. Because the popular media has increasingly showed thinner and thinner body as ideal women. Consequently, women in Fiji lost their own culture because of uncritical attitude toward the media. People should accept media critically if they don't want to loose their own tradition.

Third, there are many exaggerations in the media. Contents of media are usually exaggerated in order to grab people's attention because people tend to respond to sensational things. Also, there are many exaggerated advertisements that attract people to buy the product. Choudry is convinced that the media often misleads its consumers by using dramatization. Media's main purpose is to quickly grab people's attention. Choudry said "Even though misleading and melodramatic way of presenting data hurt the consumer, they want to do what will benefit them. I will give example of exaggerated data presenting. In 2007 the "Independent newspaper printed a front page headline starting that the illegal drug cannabis had increased in strength by 25 times over the previous 10 years. However, the laboratory of Government Chemist and the Forensic Science Service publish data. The data shows that the proportion of active ingredient had increased from 6% to 12% over 10 years. That's not 25 times higher, only two times. From this example, we can recognize the exaggeration of media.

 These three evidence prove how dangerous media is. So we should have critical eyes when we accept media.