argument97 by mycolting

MYcoltingUID: 2563080

TOPIC: ARGUMENT97 - The following appeared in a memo from the manager of television station KICK.
"A nationwide survey reveals that a sizeable majority of men would like to see additional sports programs on television. After television station WACK increased its sports broadcasts, its share of the television audience in its viewing area almost doubled. To gain a larger audience share in our area, and thus increase company profits, KICK should also revise its broadcast schedule to include more sports coverage."
WORDS: 393
TIME: 00:30:00
DATE: 2009-3-10 12:25:19
In this argument, the author suggests that KICK should revise its broadcast schedule to include more sports coverage. To support his assertion more reasonably, the argument enumerates a nation survey which shows that a sizeable majority of men would like to see additional sports programs on television and another success example of station WACK. Though the argument is seemingly convincing, actually it suffers from several fallacies such as false analogy, hasty generalization and so on.

First of all, the survey is conducted in the scope of nationwide, which greatly undermined the reliability of the result for the reason that it is possible that men all over the country prefer watching sports program while the men in this area have no interest in sports. What is more, the survey is confined to the male, and then I want to ask what types of program do the women like? We cannot overlook the audience of women which can increase the company profits as well.

Moreover, the author exemplify station WACK to illustrate his position, however, the author fails to take another factor into account, which may have impact on the audience share. It is entirely possible that residents in the area of station WACK indeed have many interests in sports while the one in the area of station KICK prefer other types of programs. Perhaps the area of station WACK hold an international match which attracts more eyesight to watching sports broadcasts.

Last but not the least, the addition of sports program does not mean that the audience share is bone to be upgraded. Common sense tells us that if the quality of the program is too poor, it is obvious that people will soon abandon that program. In addition, even if the audience share is improved, we cannot ensure that the company profits will be enlarged for the reason that the cost of the program may exceed the profit.

To sum up, there are some fallacies in the argument which decrease the reliability of the suggestion. To stronger the assertion of the author, the survey should be conducted again only in the area of nation KICK and the investigators should expand to all ages and sex. Additionally, it is needed to consider the success of nation WACK more thoroughly and find the true reason which lead to its increase in audience share and profits.