Mind Over Mass Media Analysis

Superior Essays
In their work over the past ten years, Malcom Gladwell and Steven Pinker have presented their research and hypotheses regarding the unexpected implications of contemporary social issues. Specifically, their respective views on preventing criminal activity and disproving the growing concerns in regards to society’s reliance on mass media. In an excerpt from Malcom Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, the author analyzes the application of a theory known as “the tipping point”. Likewise, Steven Pinker’s essay “Mind over Mass Media” examines whether there is a connection between mass media and lower intelligence by analyzing recent data and statistics. Despite both author’s respectable statuses in the academic world and their extensive research, both …show more content…
Gladwell attempts to support his theory by providing an example of a subway cleanup project: “if a car came in with graffiti, the graffiti had to be removed during the changeover, or the car was removed from service. ‘Dirty’ cars, which hadn’t yet been cleansed of graffiti where never to be mixed with ‘clean’ cars. The idea was to send an unambiguous message to the vandals themselves” (Gladwell, 189). While this project did result in less vandalism, the reader is not assured that this is not an isolated incident. Gladwell assumes this example proves to the reader that the tipping point theory is the only logical reason for the outcome and fails to address any possible alternative …show more content…
In contrast, Steven Pinker fails to state why the connection between the cause and effect were suggested, fails to explain why past evidence proves current effects, and fails to show how mass media could be the proximate cause of a reduction of quality in science and knowledge. Malcom Gladwell’s essay “The Tipping Point” published in an anthology of “40 Model Essays” is only an excerpt from a much larger book which has the possibility of addressing his logical error. Pinker’s essay, on the other hand, was published in the New York Times in 2010 and does not have additional content. Therefore, both essays could benefit from hard facts and data, but Gladwell’s essay has slightly more credibility since it lacks obvious logical

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