Deborah Tannen's Use Of Truth In Science Fiction

Everyday, billions of people read websites, magazines, newspapers, or watch television segments so they are informed on what is happening in the world. The news is something that so many people rely on and check constantly. What people aren’t aware of however, is that so much of what they are being told is a lie. False news is a growing and constant issue in today’s society. Fake news spreads rapidly, changing people's views on the world constantly. However, putting an end to this media trend has proved to be a struggle.

In the article, "For Argument’s Sake: Why Do We Feel Compelled to Fight About Everything? Witten by Deborah Tannen. She express that we live in an argumentative culture, where everyone is entitled to their own freedom of speech and rights. Tannen shows that arguments rarely lead to an understanding, but rather that an argument becomes less about the topic at hand and more about proving the opposing side wrong ( Tannen, Deborah(,2008). She tells her stories in many different form to gather the audience’s attention. She then starts to use big words and different logics to appeal to a more intellectual audience. She then starts her stories by manipulating and persuading the unintelligent audience to pull them in so they would know that she is insulting them by using the bigger words, making them feel intimidated.

What is reality? Did the past you remember actually happen? Can you exist in two realities at once? Are you who you think you are? Through his work, science fiction author Philip K. Dick implies that we will all be asking such questions soon. For Dick, reality is just one of his layers. All of his novels combined together accurately predicted the world we are in now.

Often times people utilize certain sources and watch certain news channels because these viewers can relate to the views on these sources. It can make one believe that his/her perspective is correct simply because that is what the new source is providing. Viewers watch news sources that share the same opinions as their own, because these viewers are just as bias as the sources; these viewers favor one side, as do the news sources. John Stossel, a Fox News reporter discusses the book “Bias” with author Bernie Goldberg, an ex CBS News reporter. John expected for ABC to read the book and disagree with Bernie on the ABC news channel (Goldberg and Stossel). However, these people were proud of not reading the book and gave it no attention. Even if one does not agree with a certain viewpoint, it is very important to hear the different perspectives because it allows the viewer to see and hear other people’s opinion. Because most news sources do not include all sides, it becomes difficult for an individual to

In “Colleges Turn ‘Fake News’ Epidemic into a Teachable Moment” (Washington Post, April 6, 2017), Kitson Jazynka highlights professors from across the United States that have implemented different strategies for teaching students to find and address fake news. Jazynka first writes of professor Beth Jannery at George Mason University and how her students have had personal experience with fake news and how they handled the situation. In one case, the student decided to research the topic herself and find the truth. Jazynka advises that the professors cited in her article are teaching students to “detect bias, missing points of view, misleading slants and economic influences” to ensure they have a complete understanding of the articles and their

It is possible to get the entire truth, although this might take more work than most people are willing to do. Sources of the media are also being called out for being bias. The general population is now demanding that news sources stop swinging one way or the other while reporting on current events. American society is becoming more intelligent and the people in it more educated. Media is no longer a one sided story like it used to be when first starting in the 1920’s. Overall, thanks to the S.M.E.L.L. test and being able to get reports from multiple news sources, media bias is slowly becoming a thing of the past Although it may not be soon and most likely not happen completely, media bias will disappear and only the truth will be told when reporting current

In order to gain knowledge and understanding, you must learn how to sift through information. To do this people must exercise a healthy amount of skepticism in everyday life so they are not deceived by false or misleading information. If you’re too trusting of what you read or hear you can easily be misinformed and could likely spread unreliable information. On the other hand, If you choose not to accept most information you can easily become ignorant and uneducated about the world around you. Sadly, in this day and age, journalism has become less reliable, so it is important to seek information from many sources to validate what you may read. Doing so will also aide in keeping an open mind by hearing stories from different

The information provided on the Internet is not always factual for example the image of USA Crime Statistics - 2015 by the Crime Statistics Bureau-San Francisco. The image contained the following statistics: “ Blacks killed by whites -- 2%, Blacks killed by police -- 1%, Whites killed by police -- 3%, Whites killed by whites -- 16% , Whites killed by blacks -- 81%, Blacks killed by blacks -- 97%” (Greenberg). The image was widely circulated and believed to be true because it was from a source that appeared credible by name but does not actually exist. Though widely discredited and shown to be fake, many people tend to be skeptic of that fact for it was shared by people they support. It seemed so real that even presidential candidate Trump retweeted the image. He used the statistics to serve as a justification of his policies and gained more assured voters that his views/polices would solve the problems shown in this graphic. It seems that people rather believe what they want instead of the truth but how much of that is their own fault in world full of fake news. As consumers of information, is it our responsibility to differentiate or the media/internet to regulate information

Check” by Alyssa Rosenberg describes possible strategies that can be used when an individual is trying to figure out if the information found online is true. Rosenberg and her colleague David Ignatius asked individuals what outlets and writers did they had confidence in and to explain. Most of the people interviewed said that they trusted writers and individuals who passed along stories. Nick Baumann a senior editor at Huffington Post provided questions that people can ask themselves to ensure that the information on social media is credible. The author’s thesis is to help individuals who have trouble on judging what information online is true and to not get tricked

People automatically assume that a news organization’s bias is strictly a bad thing, while this does seem like a bad thing, the bias is negated by the sheer quantity of news sites that you can easily visit, this may take some additional time, but it doesn’t have to take a long time, while you’re stuck in traffic you can just pull out your smartphone and look at some news sites. If you find that one site has too much of a bias that doesn’t mean that you should just ignore that site completely, instead you should look for the same news story on a different site that has a different perspective, instead of just looking at the media from one point of view, look at both the left and right point of view. This bias allows for a look into how both sides see an argument, while one side may see something as a good thing, another side may see it as a bad thing. This allows you to get into the mind of the news stations and their reporters. While you're watching the news always maintain a level of skepticism about what the news station is saying. Skepticism is key to watching the news in any environment, without any level of skepticism you quickly become a mindless zombies that just believe something because it was said on Fox NEWS or MSNBC. You should take into account all the things said by the different news stations in order to formulate

Friedrich Nietzsche once said,” All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of the truth come only from the senses”. Newscasters today tend to be seen as a credible source for learning about what is happening in the world. When a person hears of a terrorist attack or some other news, they immediately look it up on their phones through news stations such as CNN and Fox. One thing that is never brought up is how these newscasters, or anyone for that matter gains credibility. Professionals need to have credibility to be successful in their careers, what methods are used and how they attain that credibility varies. Different people are more credible than others in different areas. It is who you are that will determine what those areas are.

However, these decisions aren’t always as easy as “having common sense” because sometimes, it means deciding whether to have faith in or to doubt those we trust. If Google is “always working to improve its algorithms” in attempts to filter fake news and both Google and Facebook “will take steps to prevent fake news sites from generating revenue though their ad-selling services,” there really is no more we can do but to acknowledge (and spread awareness about) the disquieting fact that some information we receive is true and some is false

“The Roots of Debate in Education and the Hope of Dialogue” by Deborah Tannen is about how our society focuses heavily on debate and how it affects our education system. There are many different styles of debate and Tannen points out that our society spends too much time attempting to prove people wrong instead of considering the other side’s point of view. Tannen talks about the Chinese approach in a debate mentioned in a book written by Walter Ong. During the classical period of China, the preferred style of debate was exposition rather than argument. Their goal was to enlighten the opposing side rather than overwhelm them with information.

In a work where news gets thrown in our faces right , left and center , it becomes difficult to filter out which news is true and which is not. But , before asking how to filter out the news , we need to ask ourselves why should we have to categorise the news as credible or non-credible ? Why would the person writing this article wouldn’t want to lie to me ? Many times a journalist may get a story from a source who may or may not be very honest or in some rare cases journalists may make up stories with twisted facts and misquoting individuals. However, in the media business , when someone makes a mistake , there’s always ten others who are waiting to point it out. What makes the media credible, to the everyday reader, is the idea that the