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issue60
The media-and society in general-mistakenly expect an individual to speak for a particular group, whether or not that individual truly represents the views of the entire group.
I agree with the author on that the media and the society have always mistakenly expected the view of individual to be group consensus, regardless of the validity of such representation. I believe it is hard for investigation in individual to draw accurate conclusion of the group though the method itself is a product of compromise.
First of all I must clarify that the media and society have no choice but to draw comments of the masses out of the view of individual. The major reason is population. For example, journalists investigating in a local high school will inevitably meet 3 kinds of people: students, teachers, and parents. It is still possible for them to interview every person, without missing anyone, to draw an absolutely justified conclusion, as long as the investigation is conducted within the high school. When it comes to nationwide study on high school related people, however, the miss-no-one method will no longer be applicable. Therefore they have to turn to individual. Also, we have always seen on TV that a granny is being interviewed, whose words stands for the common will of the residents of their apartment building ----- which I will take leave to doubt later ------ as interpreted by the TV program producer. Admit it or not, to draw group opinion out of individual’s declaration, to which we have been ridiculously accustomed, has been a means of great importance for contemporary media and society.
However, a reasonable method does not necessarily guarantee a reasonable result, as “multiple identity” of individuals will severely damage the validity of any study of this kind. Take the high school example again, for those parents who are also professional high school teachers, how can one categorize their complex opinion into either group? Based on their words, we can have no holistic view of the comments of either teachers or parents. That is to say, individual’s characteristics sometimes outweigh his/her common trait of the group, which renders wrongful conclusion about the whole group if under careless treatment. The most notorious case is of the politicians. Though never actually happened, how absurd will it be for one politician insists that his/her idea represents that of the whole profession? Definitely they must cater the will of their interest groups, which is much more significant as to their being politicians. Therefore the ulterior purpose of the interviewee must be taken into account, although they share the same overt identity in some aspects.
The solution to this dilemma is to abstract the group consensus on a larger basis. The media and society should not expect the voice of the group out of one, but more. It is not necessary to record the announcement of everyone, as I have mentioned, yet any mass claim is set upon individuals of a considerable numbers. The principles of statistics have demonstrated that the more extensive the sample, the less erroneous the conclusion, and only in this way can media and society avoid individual’s prejudiced judgments.
In conclusion, the anticipation to summarize genuine group consensus out of individual’s voice is likely to fail. It is of vital importance not to be content with one interpretation, but draw generalities out of various version of the same story.
我写完也就没感觉了,自己都忘光光光光光的 |
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