Thinking Critically About Media is a textbook for self-defence against manipulation by politicians, the media and assorted propagandists. Its interdisciplinary application of principles of critical thinking and argumentative rhetoric can be incorporated in a variety of university courses including the social sciences, communication, journalism and media studies. The authors identify the precise political positions of a spectrum of American media and journalists from left to right, so as to point students toward sources representing opposed viewpoints, with their typical lines of argument, in order to reach a comparative analysis. Other important issues dealt with include the various influences on political bias as propagated by sources such as lobbies, public relations agencies, think tanks and political advertising agencies.

This rhetoric-and-reader textbook teaches college students to develop critical reading, writing, and thinking skills for self-defense in the contentious arena of American civic rhetoric. This edition is substantially updated for an era of renewed tensions over race, gender, and economic inequality-all compounded by the escalating decibel level and polarization of public rhetoric. Readings include civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander on "the new Jim Crow," recent reconsiderations of socialism versus capitalism, Naomi Wolf's and Christine Hoff Sommers' opposing views on "the beauty myth," a section on the rhetoric of war, and debates on identity politics, abortion, and student debt. Designed for first-year or more advanced composition and critical thinking courses, the book trains students in a wealth of techniques to locate fallacies and other weaknesses in argumentation in their prose and the writings of others. Exercises also help students understand the ideological positions and rhetorical patterns that underlie opposing views, from Ann Coulter to Bernie Sanders. Widely debated issues of whether objectivity is possible and whether there is a liberal or conservative bias in news and entertainment media, as well as in education itself, are foregrounded as topics for rhetorical analysis.

This rhetoric-and-reader textbook teaches college students to develop critical reading, writing, and thinking skills for self-defense in the contentious arena of American civic rhetoric. This edition is substantially updated for an era of renewed tensions over race, gender, and economic inequality-all compounded by the escalating decibel level and polarization of public rhetoric. Readings include civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander on "the new Jim Crow," recent reconsiderations of socialism versus capitalism, Naomi Wolf's and Christine Hoff Sommers' opposing views on "the beauty myth," a section on the rhetoric of war, and debates on identity politics, abortion, and student debt. Designed for first-year or more advanced composition and critical thinking courses, the book trains students in a wealth of techniques to locate fallacies and other weaknesses in argumentation in their prose and the writings of others. Exercises also help students understand the ideological positions and rhetorical patterns that underlie opposing views, from Ann Coulter to Bernie Sanders. Widely debated issues of whether objectivity is possible and whether there is a liberal or conservative bias in news and entertainment media, as well as in education itself, are foregrounded as topics for rhetorical analysis.

This book offers a critical introduction to the media as well as a self defense against the spin of politicians, advertising, and assorted propagandists. Its interdisciplinary application of principles of critical thinking and argumentative rhetoric can be incorporated into a diverse range of college courses, including communication, journalism, rhetoric, and media criticism. Lazere offers a basic guide to and critique of the semantic complexities of terms such as "liberal, conservative, left," and "right," as well as related words like "democracy, freedom, capitalism," and "socialism." He provides student guides for understanding opposing viewpoints between conservative and liberal polemicists on controversial issues in current politics and media, such as the nation s wealth gap, including the rhetoric of economic arguments and the use and interpretation of statistics. His book offers insights into understanding the positions behind many other well-publicized debates in American society from women s rights to racial attitudes to the role of government. Lazere provides students with tools for understanding and argumentation, showing how to recognize logical fallacies, verbal slanting, and emotional appeal through connotative language and how to discern intentions behind political and other advertisements.In contrast to most textbooks approach to logical fallacies that assumes they result only from unintentional lapses in reasoning, this book confronts the hard truth that real-life arguments frequently are tainted by deliberate deception. Chapter 3 surveys various influences on political bias in the media, while Chapter 4 examines special pleading, conflicts of interest, invective, smearing, and hype as propagated by sources like lobbies, public relations agencies, think tanks, advocacy, and political advertising.Key features of the text: "

This brief edition of a ground-breaking textbook addresses the need for college students to develop critical reading, writing, and thinking skills for self-defense in the contentious arena of American civic rhetoric. Designed for first-year or more advanced composition and critical thinking courses, it is one-third shorter than the original edition, more affordable for students, and easier for teachers to cover in a semester or quarter. It incorporates up-to-date new readings and analysis of controversies like the growing inequality of wealth in America and the debates in the 2008 presidential campaign, expressed in opposing viewpoints from the political left and right. Exercises help students understand the ideological positions and rhetorical patterns that underlie such opposing views. Widely debated issues of whether objectivity is possible and whether there is a liberal or conservative bias in news and entertainment media, as well as in education itself, are foregrounded as topics for rhetorical analysis."Online Materials Available-Steve Brouwer's essay, "If We Decide to Tax the Rich" with complete footnotes and works cited-Model Student Research Paper: "From Reagonomics to Obamanomics"-Research Resources-Glossary of Rhetorical and Critical Thinking Terms-Works Cited"

On subjects from Superman to rock 'n' roll, from Donald Duck to the TV news, from soap operas and romance novels to the use of double speak in advertising, these lively essays offer students of contemporary media a comprehensive counterstatement to the conservatism that has been ascendant since the seventies in American politics and cultural criticism. Donald Lazere brings together selections from nearly forty of the most prominent Marxist, feminist, and other leftist critics of American mass culture-from a dozen academic disciplines and fields of media activism. The collection will appeal to a wide range of students, scholars, and general readers.

During the 1970s, the National Council for Teachers of English issued a series of res olutions calling for the teaching of "critical reading, listening, viewing, and thinking skills necessary to enable students to cope with the sophisticated persuasion tech niques in political statements, advertising, entertainment, and news." However, in recent decades, under the sway of multi culturalism and postmodern theory, com position and rhetoric pedagogies have strayed from these goals. In Political Lit eracy in Composition and Rhetoric, author and teacher Donald Lazere issues a call to action for the return to an emphasis on critical thinking skills and multidisciplinary approaches in the teaching of composi tion and rhetoric. Lazere also presents a keen sociocultural observation regarding the majority of the "Middle Americans" demographic-lower-middle class, rural, white students with a conservative leaning and an occasional resistance to change- and their learning behaviors and needs. Finally, Lazere offers a roadmap for a new kind of curriculum, one that he argues will enable teachers of composition and rheto ric to foster a sense of civic literacy in their students and thus, by extension, American society as a whole.