Logical Reasoning

PT133 · S1 · Q3 A recent survey quizzed journalism

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A recent survey quizzed journalism students about the sorts of stories they themselves wished to read.

Conclusion (this indicates that)

Today's trends in publishing are based on false assumptions about the interests of the public.

rephrase: the public is not that interested in stories covering lifestyle trends and celebrity gossip

Evidence

In a survey of journalism students, a significant majority said they wanted to see stories dealing with serious governmental and political issues and had little tolerance for the present popularity of stories covering lifestyle trends and celebrity gossip.

Evaluate

The author's conclusion is saying that the public isn't really interested in stories covering lifestyle trends and celebrity gossip (those types of stories are presently popular, but the author thinks that this is based on false assumptions about what the public wants).

How does the author know what the public is really interested in?

She cites a survey of journalism students. Are the interests of journalism students a good reflection of what the interests of the public are?

Probably not. First of all, journalism students are just a specific subcategory of people, so they're not a good proxy for the general public regardless of the issue.

But in particular with this issue, it seems like journalism students are way more likely than an average person to want to see stories dealing with serious governmental and political issues.

The whole reason these students are majoring in journalism is because they want to write stories dealing with serious governmental and political issues (people don't major in journalism to write articles about lifestyle trends or celebrity gossip).

Goal

So it seems like we're dealing with the Famous Flaw, Sampling. This argument relies on a sample group that likely has a biased, self-selecting interest in serious news stories over easy-to-read crap about trends and celebrities.

3.

Which one of the following most accurately describes a flaw in the argument's reasoning?

  1. It takes what is more

    Not Causal Flaw

    This alludes to a different Famous Flaw, Causal Flaws, in which the author is overconfidently arriving at one possible causal explanation for a phenomenon when others exist. This answer is specifically accusing the author of looking at a correlation between X and Y and assuming that X caused Y, when it's really more likely that Y caused X (i.e. "Reverse Causality"). Nothing in this argument involves any cause/effect conversation. The author is just looking at this survey of journalism students and concluding that publishers are wrong to think that the public is more interested in celebrities/trends than they are in serious stories about the government.

    1% picked this

  2. It regards the production of

    Not Intent vs. Result

    This alludes to a semi Famous Flaw, Intent vs. Result, in which an author acts like some consequence/repercussion of action X was therefore deliberately intended by the person who committed action X. Nothing in this argument involves any cause/effect conversation. The author is just looking at this survey of journalism students and concluding that publishers are wrong to think that the public is more interested in celebrities/trends than they are in serious stories about the government.

    1% picked this

  3. Correct

    It relies on the opinions

    Why this is right

    This describes a Sampling flaw: relying on an unrepresentative sample. The evidence relies on the opinions of journalism students, whereas the conclusion is about the opinions of the general public. That would be a sketchy move no matter what, but it's particularly sketchy given that the topic here is whether there's more interest in serious stories about government and politics or in lighthearted stories about trends/celebrities. Journalists / journalism students are, by their choice in career, likely to be more interested in serious stories about government and polities than is the general public.

    Skill tested: Flaw · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    95% picked this

  4. It employs language that unfairly

    Out of Scope: unfair language

    The group that would likely reject the argument's conclusion would be "publishers", since the author is telling them that their assumptions about the interests of the public are wrong. Does the argument use any language that unfairly represents the publishers? Nope.

    1% picked this

  5. It treats a hypothesis as

    Out of Scope: admittedly unsupported

    This answer is saying that the author admits she has no support for X but treats it as fact anyway. The author presents a survey, factually reporting on its findings. And then the author's conclusion confidently tells us what that survey indicates. So the author might be guilty of treating the hypothesis in her conclusion as fact because of how confidently she announces what "this indicates". But the author can't be accused of admitting that this conclusion has no support. It does have support: the survey!

    2% picked this

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