Blog 1 - - - Class Reflections - Critical Thinking and the Media

Consider the criteria for critical thinking, and how well do the media apply the seven areas?

The media has to look at the news as an opportunity to attract viewers, by explain what events are occurring around the world, not an easy job to manage. When you add in the Critical Thinking aspects, it’s even harder. I will use an example, from my experience, on how a typical news story occurs on CNN, because they tend make the most mistakes, in my option.
Using the recent disaster of the earthquake in Haiti, many of the seven steps have been followed, or completely ignored. “Breaking News”, is usually right after the event has occurred, initial reports, are for the most part useless, except for letting people know something has happened. CNN always blows major stories out of proportion, to collect viewers. In this case with Haiti, Clarity, Accuracy, Depth, and Logic were thrown out the window. Many statements over or underestimated the power and severity of the event. Many reports, right after the event said hundreds of thousands of people are dead, when no numbers existed yet (CNN,2010), and continued to run a newscast with shallow points, not reflecting on the root causes.
Media companies are just that, there a company trying to make money, the more extreme an event sounds and is portrayed to be, the more people will tune in and watch. In no way am I saying Haiti wasn’t a disaster, but when media provides fabricate facts and impacts, there must be questions raised on where does the media get there media from? CNN does save face as stories continue, as more knowledge is gathered. Many of the initial shocking facts are retracted by realistic numbers and estimates. Depth and detail of factual information will begin to be the focus.
Once a story has been established, and the media has a grasp on the actual event, CNN becomes a world leader. It seems that one of the problems with the media is reporting on events “to soon”, before anyone knows what going on. Basis of reporting events is to provide the truth and unbiased view. Getting past the “shock value” of initial reporting, media coverage also has other sides
The most recent coverage on CNN has provided a good depth, ranging from how locals are dealing with the disaster, to how foreigners are getting home and providing aid. Dedicating the main channel to almost full coverage, allows for in depth periods, which can balanced out by clarity and scope on a broader view. Reasons CNN is a world leader (CNN,2010), is the ability to keep information flowing with enough details to entertain, but keep enough breadth and avoid dragging on a topic.
News is a valuable tool that follows Critical Thinking to an extent, or sometimes not at all. The best skill to have is questioning every source, even the news reported to be “true” through mass media. Unfortunately the reasons to be accurate and logical, is still to attract viewers and attention, other than that, media is the most efficient way to learn about events around the world.
The site used as a reference, is to show the trends in media coverage by CNN, the site show a range of early and more recent article covering the Haiti earthquake. After comparing early reports of the event and looking at currently posted articles, the news contradicts themselves with more accurate information, or betting critical thinking.

CNN (2010)”Haiti Earthquake”. Retrieved January 20,2010, From:
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2010/haiti.quake/index.html?iref=allsearch