Final Post #2

My favorite thing about the class was the papers. They were my favorite because we were given a lot of direction on what was needed to fulfill the criteria of the assignment. We had a lot of time to work on assignments and I thought it was really interesting to do research about topics. Although this was an online class, it was really fun to work with other people and get to know them. I’m glad that there wasn't a writing assignment every week unlike other classes and yet I still learned a lot. My least favorite thing about the class was posting 12 hours in between. As you can see, I've had a lot of problems due to not having internet or other circumstances making me post closer together. Also, I do not like how we have to comment on other people’s posts because it doesn't make the response natural since it is mandatory. 

Final Post #1

I have learned a lot about critical decision making as well as about myself during the course of this class. I was not aware of all of the factors that go into making a critical decision. I had no idea that there was a difference between argument and rhetoric. The group papers were a little difficult because we had to figure out how exactly to work together. However, the book about group communication helped. I learned the different roles of group members and how to run smoothly so that everyone's ideas can be heard. I learned how to construct a proper argument. There are a variety of marketing strategies that make consumers convinced that there product is the best. Language has many ways to control people’s thoughts and feelings. 

Chapter 12, Question 3

An interesting topic that I chose to write about was evaluating the scientific hypothesis. The relevance to the problem under study means to see how the phenomenon relates to real world issues or how it relates to what it is trying to explain. Also, all of the relevant observations and facts need to be weeded out versus having unrelated facts and observations that do not support the validity of the phenomenon. There needs to be consistency with well-established theories. That means that if there is a theory already in place, your observations and conclusions, should be used to help support the ideas of the other theory. The next things are that the hypothesis should be simple, testable, and falsifiable. Finally, a good hypothesis can be used to predict similar events. 

Chapter 23, Question 2

I am not sure of a time when I drew an incorrect conclusion based observations. However, people commonly do this when they play the “guessing game”. You know, those games where you have to guess how many gumballs are in a bowl for a prize, or other games similar to that. A lot of people guess incorrectly because they just randomly guess rather than thinking in scientific terms to come up with an answer. This can be determined by determining the volume of the jar and seeing how many can fit. Or you can weigh the jar’s weight and the candy and then divide the jar’s weight by the candy weight. While this takes time, if you always want to win prizes at the fair this would be a reliable way.  Of course, there are more practical things that people can draw incorrect conclusions if relying solely on observations. That is why if you have an observation that leads you to a conclusion, be sure to test it out and see if it works. 

Chapter 23, Question 1

Many people rely on horoscopes to foresee how their day will go. However, I sometimes use horoscopes to check for accuracy. I read them to see if it matches up with how my day was the night before. My horoscope from Horoscopes.com yesterday read “This will be a great day for you, Cancer. Everything you touch will seem to turn to gold. The day's events will fall right into place. You will take pleasure in being calm and efficient. But what you may not realize is that this could happen every day. Take the time to see what's going right today in order to make it happen again tomorrow!” I sounds nice of course, however, I did not do much with my day except lay in bed and relax. In my opinion, the reading is partly accurate and partly false. I feel that I can find an example within my day to make my horoscope true. I also feel that if I would have read it earlier than I would have did things to make my horoscope come true. However, if it is a bad horoscope reading, people are more likely to ignore that one and embrace the good ones. As a precaution, they are not very reliable because you should not rely on a stranger to tell your destiny, which would be the same prediction for all people the same sign as you. 

Chapter 11, Question 1

Media experiences influence my existing worldviews and values in a variety of ways. Although children are the most influenced by the media, teenagers and college students (as well as adults) are too. Veteran’s day is coming up and a lot of stores are having sales and promoting it on the television. Macy’s is having a sale and there are promotions on every channel. This makes me want to shop early during the sale for Christmas presents for my family. Media gives me the worldview that America is a consumer based nation, and it is not anything about having moral values or being a hardworking nation. Rather, it is about spending money and making money. For example, after Hurricane Sandy, I got together care packages for the victims, however when we took them to Red Cross they stated that they were only accepting cash donations. This doesn’t reinforce my worldviews, because I feel that the values I believe in are not embodied in the United States as a whole. 

Chapter 10, Question 3

A concept that I found interesting in this week’s reading was the role of television advertising and its effect on children. As a child, I used to watch a lot of television and based off of the advertisements during commercials from my favorite tv show I would select my Christmas presents. I would make my wish lists to Santa based off of the latest toys for girls. Children ages 8-12 are especially vulnerable to ads that play on their need for peer acceptance. What the reading meant by this was that if you see your friends with something or the kids in the ads on TV look super excited for the new toy, it is going to make you want it. The average child watches around 4 hours of television a day, according to the book. However, I feel that now children watch way more television than they did back in 2010 due to the fact that children are eating more sugary foods and becoming obese due to the lack of physical activity.