argument220 [OB小组] 第20次作业 电视和平面媒体

phillipsareaUID: 2318537

题目：ARGUMENT220 - The following appeared in an article in a magazine for writers.
"A recent study showed that in describing a typical day's conversation, people make an average of 23 references to watching television and only 1 reference to reading fiction. This result suggests that, compared with the television industry, the publishing and bookselling industries are likely to decline in profitability. Therefore, people who wish to have careers as writers should acquire training and experience in writing for television rather than for print media."
字数：316          用时：00:40:00          日期：2007-8-1 下午 10:28:25
---------------------------
In this argument, the author concludes that writers should acquire training and experience in writing for television rather than for print media since a recent study shows that in a typical day's conversation, people make an average of 23 references to watching television and only 1 reference to reading fiction, which suggests that the publishing and bookselling industries are likely to decline in profitability. While clearly examing the author's reasoning, I find that this argument contains several facets that are questionable.

First of all, the suggestion that writers should write for television rather than print media is on the basis of decline in profitability of publishing and bookselling. However, in this study, the author provides us with no evidence about that. On one hand, the study only about television and fiction, however, fiction is a small part of print media and it cannot stand for all the print medium. Besides fiction, we still have newspapers and magazines, which are always the representative of good-seller since people need them everyday. On the other hand, the author also doesn't tell us whether profits in television media increase. Isn't it possible that it declines?

Secondly, that people talk more about television doesn't mean that they don't read fiction. It's the truth that compared with fictions, television has a wider view on our daily life and it's more close to life, thus it's more likely to be discussed in people's conversations.

Thirdly, compared with fictions, television reports and reflects changes of everyday life. Isn't it that sensational news that David Beckham decides to go on his career in America will have attracted more attention than simply telling a meaningful story in a fiction? It's the fact that things on television will be watched by every body, however, it's obviously that people are more likely to read fictions alone, therefore, people find it hard to talk about fictions with other people so that they won't mention about fictions in conversations.

To sum up, the conclusion lacks of credibility. Regardless of who the author is, he or she has overlooked or chosen to ignore some aspects of the conclusion. To strengthen the conclusion, the author needs to give us more details of the study and more evidence about the above-mentioned possibilities.