Ambiguity, Fallacies, and Loaded Language

Journal 1-1

Ambiguity, Fallacies, and Loaded Language

II.  This week in class we learned about ambiguity, fallacies, and loaded language. We first watched a powerpoint on ambiguity. The example I best remember is a sign that says: SLOW CHILDREN AT PLAY. This can either be interpreted as a sign warning drivers to slow down because children are playing, or a sign that states "slow children" are at play. Next we studied fallacies. There are fallacies of relevance, fallacies of weak induction, fallacies of presumption, fallacies of ambiguity, and fallacies of grammatical analogies. Broken down even farther, there are 22 different types of fallacies that fall under those 5 categories. One day for homework we wrote a radio commercial using fallacies and loaded language. Our commercial included the use of power words, such as: extraordinary, amazing, horrific and demolishing. These words are either overwhelmingly positive or overwhelmingly negative. Finally we watched "The Awful Truth" and discussed the media techniques presented in the episodes.

Personally I thought these topics were all very interesting. Some of the examples of ambiguity were rather humorous. My favorite topic, however, was fallacies. I have witnessed most of the given examples in my own life, but never actually analyzed them. When we were asked to make up a new example of each fallacy, I realized just how often they're used in everyday language.

Also, I believe that writing the radio commercial was a good exercise for the class. It helped me to get a feel for what goes through the minds of radio advertisement writers. A lot of thought has to go into the use of loaded language. You have to decide who the target audience will be, and what they will want to hear. You have to decide what is going to motivate the listeners to buy into what you're advertising. Not only do you want to be convincing, but you also have to be careful not to be overly dramatic. I believe that when loaded language, like power words, is used excessively, it can be unconvincing to the listener.

III. One thing I would like to know more about from this week's class is this: How much do fallacies actually affect people? Like, when media uses them, do viewers actually recognize it? Are people easily fooled by fallacies?

Sources: 

CSL Cartoonstock. Fallacies of Cartoons and Comics. Retrieved September 19, 2010, from http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/f/fallacies.asp

History of Ideas: Evolution. Course Objectives. Retrieved September 19, 2010, from http://flightline.highline.edu/gavantag/Evolution/evsylF08.htm

New World Disorder. (2008, November 27). Logical Fallacies. Retrieved September 19, 2010, from http://theskepticshelpdesk.blogspot.com/