Exercise Critical Reading/Listening

Do you believe everything you read in the newspapers? In news magazines? In emails? Do you believe everything you hear on the radio or see on television? We have a tendency to believe anything we see in black and white, but should we?

Writers are usually expressing their opinion or theory and will provide “data” to support their theory. We need to understand that data cannot prove a theory; it can only support or disprove theory. For example scientists have a theory that the speed of light is 299,792.458 km/sec in a vacuum. That looks pretty precise, but is it a fact? It is to the best of our knowledge, but could change in the future. Prior to the 17^th century we thought it was infinite. In 1667, Galileo theorized that it was ten times the speed of sound. In 1675, Roemer measured it at 200,000 km/sec, Bradley at 301,000 in 1728, Fizeau at 313,300 in 1849, and Foucault at 299,796 in 1862. You can see that what we assumed to be the true speed of light changed over time as we developed new ways of measurement.

As the authors are collecting data to support their theory, they may be consciously or subconsciously distorting the data. Pure objectivity is never possible. Optimists and pessimists will view the same data differently. They may collect or use data that only supports their theory.

We may have different political bents or different experiences so that the same data registers differently in our minds. We each have different brain filters.

Examples of data being used to support theories are charts making the rounds on the web about jobs created under past presidents making the incumbent look very good. The counterpoint by the opposition is that the more important data to observe is the rate of unemployment which paints the opposite picture because the population of the workforce in growing.

Another example of conflicting data is a chart also making the rounds on the web about the number of infant deaths for every 1000 live births by country, which paints a better picture for the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, France, and Japan than for the United States. This implies that our healthcare system is inferior to other countries. The counterpoint to this is that our numbers are counted on pre-terms that other countries do not count; the United States doctors try to save 22-27 week babies while most other countries don’t try unless the little one breathes on its own.

We need to understand who the author is, why are they writing/talking, what is their agenda, what are their underlying assumptions, is the data flawed or skewed, etc. We need to look for counterpoints and not just take for granted what we read, hear, and see. We need to critically analyze what information which we are exposed to and develop our own theories

After all, truth is what we believe it to be.