argument235【冲刺小组】第六次作业

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In the argument, the author tries to convince us that the radio station KNOW should transfer their program from rock-and-roll music to a continuous news format. However, this argument fails due to several flaws in logic.

To begin with, the author arbitrarily assumes that older people in this region like to listen to news other than rock-and-roll music. Whereas, neglecting the possibility that most of the local older people were the fans of rock-and-roll music. Even when they become old, they may also prefer to listen to this kind of program or the mixed program of the rock music and classical music. For this reason, the argument is not well supported.

Second, even if the older people do not like to listen to rock- and-roll music indeed, the author can not make an unfair assumption that the increased number of older people is the only reason for the declined number of listeners. However, there may be other factors to bring about this phenomenon. It is likely that the local residents prefer to listen to music or play games on internet recently, since computer has been widely used in this region. Or, perhaps the residents are more favorite to watch TV, because the direct video programs are easier for people to relax their pressure from competitive works. So, without ruling out these possibilities, the writer can not present us an unconvincing argument.

Third, there is a presumptuous presumption that the decreased sales of recorded music represent the reduced sales of rock-and-roll music. The author provides no evidence that the recorded music is just rock music. It is possible that classical music, jazz, light music and so on are all included in the recorded music actually. Perhaps, when the recorded music sales declined, in the contrary, the sales of rock -and -roll music are enhanced.

What's more, the argument is based on a false analogy that the programming continuous news in neighboring cities will also successful in this city. However, the author supplies no evidence about the similarities between these cities and ignoring the differences by comparison. Probably, the neighboring cities’ residents had the custom of listening news for decades. Perhaps, the number of young students, which may be asked to listen to radio news everyday by their schools, accounts considerably high percent on the whole people in these cities.
      
Finally, the author offers no information about the survey. Maybe the sample size is far from sufficient and fails to represent all the residents. Neither does he mention the selection procedure. Disregarding the possibility that the dwellers who express no interest in the politic news might be excluded. It is the election that stimulates the residents’ passion for political news. Once the election comes to the end, their desire for politics may diminish or even vanish.

To strengthen the argument, the writer should not only present more specific and reliable information about the residents of the city, but also the sufficient statistics concerning the survey. And providing appropriate and enough evidences to support the assumptions.