HUM 115 Wk 5 Discussion – Critical Thinking and Social Media

Post a total of 3 substantive responses over 2 separate days to earn full participation points.

This total includes:

• your initial response
• plus any combination of 2 replies to other students or to any messages/questions from your Instructor

All three responses must have at least 175 words of substantive content to earn full credit. Please demonstrate learning in your responses.

Due Thursday

Welcome to Week 5 and congratulations! Our discussions have been thoughtful, practical, productive, and possibly life-changing! We started the course reflecting on how we formulate opinions and beliefs. We then expanded the concept of critical thinking to include consideration of how we relate to friends, family, and other personal situations. This week we look at a broader scope – marketing and advertising, mass media, law and politics. Quite a bit of new learning – and reading! Our first chapter discusses marketing and advertising, so get started with that reading and we will begin our conversation with those topics. I will add additional discussion topics during the week, as you have the opportunity to finish your readings.

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:

I think we have all been drawn in by advertising at one time or another. Boss writes:

Advertisements can manipulate us into buying a product that we neither need nor would have wanted before being exposed to the advertisement. Rather than using reason, these ads appeal to our emotions through fallacies, rhetoric, and emotionally laden language and images (p.318).

Please take a look at the section of the ebook – Evaluating Advertisements – starting on page 318. Consider the examples of fallacies, rhetoric, language and imagery we see and hear.

Think about a recent purchase you made. Which of the many elements of advertising described by our ebook author caused you to make the decision to purchase a product?

Please do not discuss the item itself, for example, I bought the shoes because I was looking for blue shoes, or I bought the phone because of the features of the camera. Think about elements of advertising for the product you purchased and consider how these affected your decision to purchase.

I am looking for a demonstration of your understanding of advertising techniques and how these affect our critical thinking. We are not evaluating products.

Reference:

Boss, J. A. (2017). THiNK: critical thinking and logic skills for everyday life (4th ed.). New York, New York: McGraw-Hill Education New York.

Due Monday

Reply to at least 2 of your classmates or your instructor with your responses to the discussions of law and politics and mass media.