Mod 2: The Mod of Champions

1. In our culture, the masses often believe everything the media says word for word, and the media uses this to it's advantage. When a study finds a correlational link, such as a link between Tylenol and asthma in children, the media can then state that  "Tylenol may raise asthma risk in children," which is not what the study said. By delivering the findings this way, people will infer the report the wrong way, and assume that Tylenol can lead to asthma in children, when this could be completely untrue. The media is essentially twisting the findings of the study. For all we know, the correlational link between the two could have been a negative one, not even a positive correlation. Just because the media says something, does not always necessarily make it the truth.


2.When the media delivers a report such as saying that "Tylenol may raise asthma risk in children", they know that their report is taken out of context, and therefore might not be true. Instead of phrasing the statement as a fact, the media could rephrase the finding to say that "A recent study found a correlation between Tylenol and asthma in children." The problem with this though, is that this is nor nearly as interesting. People are much less likely to get worked up over a correlational link found by a study, instead of a casual link that implies that the two are related. The problem with the media, is that they will always chose the angle that will get a reaction. Nine times out of ten, that reaction will be a miss implied casual link, not an accurately portrayed correlational one.