Module 5: Anti-Vaccine Movement The media is chocked full of different theories and ideas in regards to the anti-vaccine movement. While anti-vaccine movement has been in place since before 1885 (History of the anti-vaccine, 2014), there has been numerous scientifically backed research that prove that vaccinations work. To bolster the claim that vaccines are harmful, the movement uses the media to sway the general public. The bias of the media is apparent when a reader critically reads these articles. Within the articles of the anti-vaccine movement, fallacies of reasoning, misrepresentation of facts, and omission of facts are used to strengthen their argument.
Fallacies
The anti-vaccination movement is still a social issue that has some …show more content…
There is the appeal to ignorance, such as the statement “They’re not unbiased. They’re not independent.” (Lopez, 2015), this is in response to a question regarding that there is no connection between autism and vaccinations. Even when confronted by study in 2011 by the Institute of Medicine that shows no causation from vaccinations to autism (Adverse effects of vaccines, 2011) was cited and a retraction of a past study that linked vaccines to autism (Wang, 2010), the interviewee was unconvinced. Another appeal to ignorance is noted in Perkins (n.d.) paper “Vaccination is simply injecting something into your body. This does not create immunity for your body. These are 2 totally separate entities.” However, if you define vaccination (n.d.), it is the “the act or practice of vaccinating; inoculation with vaccine.” Since vaccination is using vaccine in its own definition, vaccine needs to be defined; vaccine (n.d.) is “any preparation used as a preventive inoculation to confer immunity against a …show more content…
It is trying to sway the public into viewing vaccinations as useless and harmful. While not everyone does responds to inoculations the same, overall they have a profound impact on the herd that is the human race. To turn the public against this proven scientific method of preventing devastating diseases, the media has used different bias tactics to sway the viewer’s opinion against vaccines. Some of the bias techniques the media uses are fallacies of reason, misrepresentations of facts, and omissions of fact. Only when the issue at hand is fully represented with all the available resources, can the public truly understand a well-founded argument, without
Fallacies
The anti-vaccination movement is still a social issue that has some …show more content…
There is the appeal to ignorance, such as the statement “They’re not unbiased. They’re not independent.” (Lopez, 2015), this is in response to a question regarding that there is no connection between autism and vaccinations. Even when confronted by study in 2011 by the Institute of Medicine that shows no causation from vaccinations to autism (Adverse effects of vaccines, 2011) was cited and a retraction of a past study that linked vaccines to autism (Wang, 2010), the interviewee was unconvinced. Another appeal to ignorance is noted in Perkins (n.d.) paper “Vaccination is simply injecting something into your body. This does not create immunity for your body. These are 2 totally separate entities.” However, if you define vaccination (n.d.), it is the “the act or practice of vaccinating; inoculation with vaccine.” Since vaccination is using vaccine in its own definition, vaccine needs to be defined; vaccine (n.d.) is “any preparation used as a preventive inoculation to confer immunity against a …show more content…
It is trying to sway the public into viewing vaccinations as useless and harmful. While not everyone does responds to inoculations the same, overall they have a profound impact on the herd that is the human race. To turn the public against this proven scientific method of preventing devastating diseases, the media has used different bias tactics to sway the viewer’s opinion against vaccines. Some of the bias techniques the media uses are fallacies of reason, misrepresentations of facts, and omissions of fact. Only when the issue at hand is fully represented with all the available resources, can the public truly understand a well-founded argument, without