Look over the document as a whole. Comment on your first impressions:
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What are your reactions?
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Give specific examples of what is and isn’t working for you as a reader. What stage of the writing process is the paper currently at?
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What is the argument?
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Is the argument clear?
How could the argument be precise/complex?
Are the stakes addressed in the thesis? What are they?
For each paragraph (i.e. repeat this section for every paragraph)
What is the topic sentence? (Is it claim that sufficiently “drives” the paragraph?)
How does the topic sentence correspond to/support a part of the thesis?
Is the paragraph well organized (according the “proper paragraph” guidelines we used last week)?
Overall organization:
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Citations:
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Prioritize the work ahead:
What type of revision should the author prioritize? (E.g. Does the paper need an argument before the paragraphs can be organized around it? Does the argument need to be more complex? Do the paragraphs need reorganization? Etc.)
The role of media in a well functioning society is to convey relevant information to the public while remaining completely unbiased. Media in the modern world has utterly failed at this. Just about any news station that can be found has a clear bias to different political parties, or spreads irrelevant news with the hope of providing entertainment to its audience. This system of news stations becoming biased has been perpetuated by audiences everywhere. The general public would much rather be fed half-truths or propaganda that support previously held notions than truly learn information. When the majority of people consume media they would rather be entertained than informed. The general public greatly prefers to witness conflict or disagreements in news because they treat it almost as if it is a movie, novel, or television show, something to entertain them and pass the time. This has made an already weak media system in the United States worse, because in order to get more views or better ratings companies have to focus the majority of their time reporting non-stories that the public wants to consume. This phenomenon of media sources becoming completely out of touch with their purpose can be clearly illustrated through biased media coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This has been one of the biggest news stories over the last year because it was a dramatic escalation of a conflict between the two nations that dates back to 2014. This Russian-Ukraine War could have lasting ramifications for the entire world, but the most widespread news sources have failed to remain unbiased. How a source has covered this topic varies greatly depending on if they are
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targeted towards liberal or conservative audiences. Sources backing the Democratic Party such as CNN have consistently portrayed the invasion as something of great importance and advocated for the United States to help fund Ukraine’s defense in any way possible, while sources supporting the Republican Party such as Fox News have downplayed this event and have been very against the involvement of the United States. This difference in reporting has come largely due to who currently occupies the presidency, Democratic President Joe Biden. This means that liberal-leaning news sources have made it their goal to defend his actions in any way possible, while conservative-leaning sources have made it a point to criticize America’s involvement at every turn. If the roles were reversed and a conservative president was choosing to back Ukraine, it’s very likely that each side would report the exact opposite. This illustrates the problem in our current world. News sources will back the party they support with almost zero questioning, and immediately turn on the other side. Although this may be the type of news that people want to see, it is not beneficial to our nation. Spreading information and awareness is crucial, but spreading poor or biased information has been prioritized. A change in this system needs to start with audiences. People need to seek out news sources that mean to actually inform the public, and show (through viewership) biased or weak news sources what should truly be prioritized. Biased media sources have refused to report real, unopinionated news which has permanently altered public knowledge surrounding the conflict in Ukraine.
Many media sources that tend to back the Republican Party have clearly failed to remain unbiased in reporting information surrounding the War in Ukraine. Not only has the reporting of the Russian invasion of Ukraine varied greatly depending on which party a media source supports, but many arguments made by biased news sources surrounding this topic are weak themselves. This is especially important coming from highly viewed sources such as Fox News,
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because this leads to more people forming understanding based on fake news or false connections. An example of these weak and biased arguments can be seen in a video from Fox News titled “Tucker Carlson: Where does Zelenskyy get off talking to us like this?” arguing against the United States providing funding to help Ukraine. Tucker Carlson centralizes his argument around attacking the President of Ukraine Volodomyr Zelenskyy. This is an example of the ad hominem fallacy. Instead of providing helpful statistics or useful reasoning for the United States to not provide money for Ukraine, Tucker Carlson chooses to attack Zelenskyy instead.
He makes fun of Zelenskyy’s physical appearances, as well as his clothing from multiple different events and even how he stands in certain pictures. Clearly the goal of this video is not to inform viewers or provide useful information on the important meeting that took place between Zelenskyy and United States politicians, but is instead to make viewers dislike the President of Ukraine. Even worse, the tactics used in this video to help shape the audience’s opinion of the President of Ukraine are centered around entirely irrelevant information such as clothing. There is no real analysis or evidence provided, and the majority of this video is truly a waste of time that doesn’t contribute to society in any way. This is a great representation of how the media is currently failing the public. Fox is a major news source that millions of people consume daily and instead of providing critical information in an unbiased manner, or even providing credible arguments, Tucker Carlson is making incredibly immature attempts at persuasion. This is a consistent problem with popular biased news sources because most people prefer to watch entertainment over actual news, and conflict is entertaining. Another example of a news source biased towards conservative ideals affecting understanding of the conflict in Ukraine can be seen in the Fox News article “Russian Invasion: Rep. Garcia says Biden should stop disclosing Ukraine strategies.” This article is centered around an interview from Mike Garcia, a
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representative of California. Audrey Conklin, the author of the article, argues that President Biden has done a poor job of handling the United States’ involvement in the conflict in Ukraine because of strategic errors discussed by Garcia. Garcia claims that Biden should not discuss his strategy in Ukraine, and he has some supposed authority to speak on this subject due to his past job as a Navy pilot. The argument made in this article, that Biden should not “disclose what he will or will not do in advance of combat,” itself is weak and short-sighted. Conklin refuses to acknowledge the extreme amounts of criticism that Biden would receive if he truly did not disclose any information to the public. If Biden remained silent on the matter, it would be an incredibly big story and many people would be upset. This is also an example of a false dilemma fallacy. Conklin does not convey that there are options in between Biden disclosing everything and Biden disclosing nothing. It isn’t one or the other, and there can certainly be a middle ground reached. This reflects how biased media sources have influenced understanding of this major event because of the weak arguments it uses. Fox News is one of the biggest media sources in the entire country, and it is putting out articles that are crafted incredibly weakly. Conklin is barely conveying relevant information, and instead uses this article to attack Joe Biden. Incredibly popular news sources are releasing articles or television segments that are full of nonsensical reasoning. This means that the majority of the public isn’t consuming true news or becoming informed, but instead consuming weakly crafted argumentative pieces. Fox News and other sources biased towards the Republican Party would rather use simple or weak arguments to gain viewership and support conservative ideals than actually fulfill its duty and inform the public. Biased News sources are effectively brainwashing the public by telling people how to think about the War in Ukraine without actually explaining effectively why these beliefs are correct.
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Conservative news sources have turned the Russian invasion of Ukraine into an excuse to criticize President Joe Biden or other Democratic politicians, and liberal news sources have done exactly the same to conservatives. Instead of actually reporting on the events that are occurring in Ukraine and conveying factual information to audiences, news sources have prioritized using this event to turn audiences against opposite political parties. An example of this from a very popular liberal-leaning source can be seen in an article from CNN titled “‘No sense of American foreign policy’: Biden says he’s concerned for future of US aid to Ukraine if GOP wins the House” written by Phil Mattingly and Sam Fossum. In this article it is argued that Republicans winning the house would have a negative impact because they would cut off funding for Ukraine. This is an example of the straw man logical fallacy. The cause of this argument is statements from Republican leaders that Ukraine will not continue to receive a “blank check.” This does not imply that the United States would stay out of the conflict all together under Republican leadership, just that there may be limits to how much funding the United States would continue to provide. However, Mattingly and Fossum completely misrepresent this argument and make it seem, through a variety of quotes from Joe Biden, as if the Republican Party does not understand any of the potential consequences of this war. The argument made by conservative leaders is very misrepresented in this article. Furthermore, this article presents an example of the false dilemma fallacy. Based solely on the information presented in this article, one would be led to think that the United States has to either completely commit to fighting Russia or stay out of the war completely. There are clearly many different options or variables that make this a complicated argument, and the solution isn’t nearly as simple as the United States choosing to fund the war or not. This is a common theme in biased news sources, where a false dichotomy is created in order to simplify an issue into Democrats against Republicans. This
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leads to more views as many people that hold liberal ideals would love to see conservatives criticized and vice versa, which is why part of the responsibility to fix this issue falls on the public. Biased and flawed news sources need to understand their errors, which can happen through the loss of viewership. Another example of a biased news source using the war in Ukraine to promote a political agenda can be seen in an article from CNN called “4 things to remember about Trump, Ukraine, and Putin” by Marshall Cohen. This article does not spread truly important information to the public, and is based on very flawed arguments or lines of reasoning. For example in the beginning of the piece Cohen says that “Experts say Trump’s actions weakened Ukraine, divided NATO, emboldened Putin and helped get us to where we are today.” This is a false appeal to authority because the supposed experts that are perpetuating this idea are not named or credited. The accusation here is quite major, but there is no way for a reader to know how true it is because the source of this claim is left nameless. Cohen makes several major claims without significant evidence as justification. He claims that Trump “led an anti-Ukraine smear campaign” by calling Ukrainian leaders corrupt. Later, Cohen references a quote saying that Trump merely “muddied the waters,” regarding the Ukraine-Russia debate. While there are examples of Donald Trump speaking against Ukraine, to claim that he “led” a campaign smearing Ukraine is a great exaggeration and jump to conclusion. Later in the article Cohen describes the ways in which Trump “undermined” Zelenskyy while they were both presidents. The evidence presented is that Donald Trump and other conservative politicians might have held hostility towards Ukraine during this time, and Cohen even references a quote saying that it is “unclear what the full impact was.” This is another clear exaggeration on the part of Cohen, as even people qualified to speak on the topic cannot clearly label the impact that these comments had. Cohen presents a fairly major accusation that Donald Trump “weakened Ukraine,
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divided NATO, emboldened Putin and helped us get to where we are today,” and then the evidence he uses to defend this claim revolves around major exaggerations and leaps to questionable conclusions. This is a perfect example of what the media is not supposed to do. CNN is a news source that millions look to daily. It is very biased against the Republican Party and this article is used solely to anger audiences towards Trump. There is no real reporting in this article and the few true facts that are presented are exaggerated or manipulated to try and support a major claim that Cohen established solely to go against a conservative politician. News sources need to prioritize true reporting, and the public needs to emphasize this by not giving companies like CNN or Fox viewership.
This phenomenon in which media sources report news or stories with ulterior motives is not a new concept. This has been occurring for decades and is only getting worse. The very basis of democracy is the public sphere, as is described by Jürgen Habermas in his article “The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article.” Throughout this article Habermas details that the public sphere is the realm of society where everyone can speak without any outside influence or hindrance on free speech. This is where ideas are created naturally or organically, and where public opinion can be formed when these ideas are shared. Public opinion is critical in democracy because if enough people hold strong beliefs, then these beliefs can be used to shape the state through influencing the outcome of elections due to popular sovereignty (49). Without the public sphere being active a healthy democracy suffers. The role of the media in the public sphere is supposed to be to provide information completely without bias. The state should not have any control of the public sphere, and instead the public sphere should control the state (50). In our current world, Habermas’ idea of the public sphere is suffering. News sources are tied closely with political parties, and promote biased ideas or interpretations instead of true facts.
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Viewership is prioritized over truthfulness, and therefore the public sphere is not able to influence public opinion naturally. The media’s failure to remain unbiased is clearly outlined in the documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism. This documentary was created by Robert Greenwald and describes the promotion of the Republican Party by Fox News. Many different examples are provided of Fox News reporters making fabricated arguments based on unreliable information or a non existent opposition. Greenwald shows the biased relationship that Fox News has with the Republican Party through the event of the War in Iraq. During this time Fox News blindly supported President Bush and the Republican Party which was used to influence public opinion in a very negative way because its formation wasn’t based on the free, natural spread of information. Instead of promoting the public sphere and natural creation of ideas that Habermas identified as critical for democracy, Greenwald illustrates that Fox News continuously promoted conservatives without question. News sources are supposed to remain unbiased and spread clear, factual information to the public. This role of media has been largely ignored for years, and can clearly be highlighted through coverage of the War in Ukraine. The priority of some of the most popular sources in the world has been to use this conflict as part of their agenda to gain viewership and promote political parties. This means that the public has not been properly informed and is mostly consuming falsified or weak arguments, leading to the death of true public opinion.
The current state of media in our society is very poor. Media sources are incredibly biased and the flow of factual information has greatly been hindered because of this. News sources are supposed to remain completely unbiased in a healthy society, and need to spread factual information without opinion in order for the public to create its own opinions in the public sphere. This idea has been almost completely lost. If this trend continues, then the public
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sphere as Habermas described it may be gone forever and public opinion will be created due to propaganda spread by biased news sources. Not only will this hurt democracy, but through the continuous bias of news sources and the presentation of a false dichotomy with the Democratic and Republican Parties the nation will continue to grow further apart. The public sphere will continue to die and society will become more split. In order for this to change, the state and the media need to be completely separated. There should be absolutely no bias for certain political parties from the media, and the spread of factual and relevant information needs to be prioritized. The coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war has been filled with unnecessary bias that is hurting the public sphere and therefore democracy. If this type of biased coverage doesn’t end soon then the idea of true public opinion will be almost completely lost.
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Works Cited
Bigg, Matthew Mpoke. “How Russia’s War in Ukraine Has Unfolded, Month by Month.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 12 Sept. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/article/ukraine-russia-war-timeline.html.
Cohen, Marshall. “4 Things to Remember about Trump, Ukraine and Putin | CNN Politics.” CNN, Cable News Network, 26 Mar. 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/26/politics/trump-putin-ukraine/index.html.
Conklin, Audrey. “Russia Invasion: Rep. Garcia Says Biden Should Stop Disclosing Ukraine Strategies.” Fox News, FOX News Network, 12 Mar. 2022, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mike-garcia-biden-disclosing-ukraine-strategies.
Mattingly, Phil, and Sam Fossum. “‘No Sense of American Foreign Policy’: Biden Says He’s Concerned for Future of US Aid to Ukraine If GOP Wins the House | CNN Politics.” CNN, Cable News Network, 21 Oct. 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/20/politics/biden-ukraine-aid-democrats-republicans-midter ms/index.html.
“Outfoxed • Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism • Fox News • Brave New Films • Full Documentary.” YouTube, YouTube, 22 Dec. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P74oHhU5MDk.
The Public Sphere: An Encyclopedia Article (1964) – Jstor.org. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/487737.
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“Tucker Carlson: Where Does Zelenskyy Get off Talking to Us like This?” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Dec. 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=460&v=M9OAj-WcK44&embeds_euri=h ttps%3A%2F%2Fnews.yahoo.com%2Ftucker-carlson-total-meltdown-zelenskyys-0508303 65.html%3Fguccounter%3D1%26guce_referrer%3DaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2&featur e=emb_logo&themeRefresh=1.
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