article in the media

Critical thinking involves asking five questions: who, what, when, where, how.

1. Find and read an article in the media or a video clip that reports the results of a scientific study.  You must include the link to the website. It is essential that the article you review would either arguing for something or presenting a theory or idea with supporting evidence for its claims or conclusion. News items, even if they are about scientific discoveries are not suited for this assignment because news items report the news (naturally) and provide no theory or arguments and supporting evidence that could be criticized based on its strengths/weaknesses. Explanations/educational articles (such as WebMD explaining to us what certain conditions are) not good for our purposes either because they teach us something, telling us what is what and thus do not provide supporting evidence that could be criticized. Teaching/explaining are very different from arguing! Please keep this in mind when you choose an article!
2. Discuss how accurately did the mass media report the study?
3. Answer the above five questions about the article (Who, What, When, Where, and How).
4. Do NOT use entertainment or sports articles for your review. The articles must be research based and must include claims/conclusions and supporting evidence, which are to be criticized!.

Chooses a scholarly/research article that presents a claim/idea/conclusion + supporting evidence that can be evaluated based on the strength/weakness of that evidence

Meets the required word minimum (150 words) 

THE PAPER SHOULD BE ORGANIZED IN THIS FORMAT BELOW

CRITICAL THINKING REVIEW EXAMPLES:

Critical thinking involves asking five questions – who, when, what, where, how.

You should organize your paper in the following manner:

Author, I. (date of publication). Title of article. Name of Publication, volume #, page #-#.

OR

Author, I. (date of publication if available). Title of article. Retrieved [date accessed] from the World Wide Web: [Web site address]

Where: Where did this article/Web page appear? Is this reasonable? Is the publishing entity respectable/responsible?

Who: Who wrote/published the article/Web page? What are their credentials? Are the credentials appropriate for their argument?

When: Is this current information? If yes, do you think it will stand the “test of time”? If no, is it outdated or is it classic?

What: What argument is/are the author(s) making? Is it logical? Based on what you know, is it reasonable? What evidence is given to support the argument? Can you think of evidence to refute it?

How: How was the supporting/refuting evidence collected? Is this credible? What kind of evidence do you think needs to be gathered to test the argument? Did the author(s) do this?

Summarize the quality of the article (it does not have to be a “good” article in your opinion), and whether you consider this to be a worthwhile and trustworthy article. Did you think it was biased? Could the author have underlying motives? What do you think? Is it valid?

NOTE: Do not simply answer yes or no to the questions above. Write a thoughtful response to each section.