Media as a Source of Fallacies - Assignment Example

Ignoratio elenchi. This is a common fallacy that is committed over television. Ignoratio elenchi directly translates to "irrelevant thesis", which in formal perspective refers to a negation that fails to concentrate on the central argument (Destiny, 2008). As commonly seen in televised political debates between presidential candidates, the interviewer might ask one of the candidates how he can handle the rising unemployment rates should he or she become the president, then the candidate may answer “I am glad you asked, since unemployment is a major problem facing our country, however, my opponent’s strategy to handle this situation is entirely insufficient” (Destiny, 2008). As illustrated in this example, the presidential candidate completely negated the question.

The straw man argument. This is a potent and simple form of illogical fallacy. It occurs when an individual misinterprets the position held by the opponent (Destiny, 2008). Such an argument was televised in the year 2001 when President George Bush assumed office he advocated for a new system of testing in schools, and then formed an argument that those opposing such a system were not interested in holding the schools responsible for their poor performance. On subjection to retrospection, such an assertion was not true, and it is dismissed on the basis that other political opponents had offered other adequate alternatives.

After having studied logic, I explicitly understand how to distinguish between firmly grounded arguments that in essence have a basis from fallacious statements. Therefore, I do not think that I will be fooled by these fallacies.

Presenters of fallacious arguments essentially construe information to appeal to the viewer, and as such, they generally assume that the audience does not have any skills of logical reasoning.

This is a bad or rather an ill assumption to make regarding the viewers. This is because viewers have trusted the media as a source of true information. However, it is wrong when an error in reasoning is advanced to suit a given context.