The Elements of Thought

Critical thinking is the art of thinking about thinking in such a way as to:

1.    identify its strengths and weaknesses, and recast it in improved form (where necessary). The first characteristic requires the thinker to be skilled in analytic and evaluative thinking. The second requires the thinker to be skilled in creative thinking.

Thus, critical thinking has three dimensions: the analytic, the evaluative, and the creative.

Here are each of the creative acts implicit in analytic thought.

1. Purpose, goal, or end in view: Whenever we reason, we reason to some end, to achieve some purpose, to satisfy some desire or fulfill some need. If we create goals that are unrealistic or contradictory to other goals we have, the reasoning we use to achieve our goals is problematic.

 2. Question at issue (or problem to be solved): Whenever we attempt to reason, there is at least one question at issue, at least one problem to be solved. If we are not clear about the question we are asking, or how the question relates to our basic purpose or goal, we will not be able to find a reasonable answer to it, or an answer that will serve our purpose.

3. Point of view or frame of reference: Whenever we reason, we must reason within some point of view or frame of reference. This point of view or frame of reference is created by the mind. Any defect in our point of view or frame of reference is a possible source of problems in our reasoning. Our point of view may be too narrow minded, may be based on false or misleading analogies or metaphors, may not be precise enough, may contain contradictions, and so forth.

. 4. The information we use in reasoning: Whenever we reason, we are reasoning about some stuff, some phenomena. Any defect in the experiences, data, evidence, or raw material upon which our reasoning is based is a possible source of problems. Information is not given by nature, it is constructed by human minds.

 5. The conceptual dimension of our reasoning: All reasoning uses some ideas or concepts and not others — ideas or concepts created by the mind. Any defect in the concepts or ideas (including the theories, principles, axioms, or rules) with which we reason is a possible source of problems. Concepts and ideas are not given to us by nature. They are constructs (i.e. creations) of human minds.

6. Assumptions — the starting points of reasoning: All reasoning must begin somewhere, and must take some things for granted. Any defect in the starting points of our reasoning, any problem in what we are taking for granted, is a possible source of problems.

7. Our inferences, interpretations and conclusions: Reasoning proceeds by steps called inferences. Any defect in the inferences we make while we reason presents a possible problem in our reasoning. Information, data, and situations do not determine what we shall deduce from them.

8. Implications and consequence Thus, our reasoning has implications, ideas that follow from our reasoning, things that might happen if we reason in this or that way, if we make this or that decision. The implications of our reasoning are an implicit creation of our reasoning.

Three conditions contribute to a high level of creative thought:

1. A minimal level of innate intellectual capacity (though it need not be extraordinary).

 2. An environment that stimulates the development of that capacity.

3. A positive response and inner motivation on the part of the person thus born and situated.

The role that intellectual discipline, external support, and internal commitment typically play in the development of great thinkers, artists, dancers, and composers. In each case, notice how much attention, tutoring, dedication, and special training each of these thinkers had.

Leonardo Da Vinci

 According to Funk and Wagnall’s New Encyclopedia (1986), Da Vinci was “the son of a wealthy Florentine notary and a peasant woman. In the mid 1460s the family settled in Florence, where Leonardo was given the best education that Florence, the intellectual and artistic center of Italy, could offer.” At the age of 16, Leonardo “was apprenticed as a studio boy  of the leading Florentine painter and sculptor of his day.” As a scientist, Leonardo “understood better than anyone of his century or the next, the importance of precise scientific observation… In anatomy he studied the circulation of the blood and action of the eye. He made discoveries in meteorology and geology, learned the effect of the moon on the tides, foreshadowed modern conceptions of continent formations, and surmised the nature of fossil fuel. These abilities were clearly developed through systematic and disciplined study

Charles Darwin

Darwin had a careful mind rather than a quick one: “I have as much difficulty as ever in expressing myself clearly and concisely; and this difficulty has caused me a very great loss of time, but it has had the compensating advantage of forcing me to think long and intently about every sentence, and thus I have been led to see errors in reasoning and in my own observations or those of other.” In pursuing intellectual questions, Darwin relied upon perseverance and continual reflection, rather than memory and quick reflexes. “I have never been able to remember for more than a few days a single date or line of poetry.” Instead, he had “the patience to reflect or ponder for any number of years over any unexplained problem…At no time am I a quick thinker or writer: whatever I have done in science has solely been by long pondering, patience, and industry”.

 Albert Einstein

 Einstein, did so poorly in school that when his father asked his son’s headmaster what profession his son should adopt, the answer was simply, “It doesn’t matter; he’ll never make a success of anything.” In high school, the regimentation “created in him a deep suspicion of authority. This feeling lasted all his life, without qualification.” Einstein showed no signs of being a genius, and as an adult denied that his mind was extraordinary: “I have no particular talent. I am merely extremely inquisitive.” He failed his entrance examination to the Zurich Polytechnic. When he finally passed, the examinations so constrained his mind that, when he had graduated, he did not want to think about scientific problems for a year. His final exam was so nondistinguished that afterward he was refused a post as an assistant (the lowest grade of postgraduate job). Exam-taking, then, was not his forte. Thinking critically and creatively were. Einstein had the basic critical thinking ability to cut

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Creative Thinking

Creativity

The process of being creative. A series of actions which create new ideas, thoughts and physical objects.

Thinking

The process of thought. The process of exercising the mind in order to make a decision, judge , believe or to  remember or recollect and to make the mental choice between options.

Creative Thinking

Specific thought processes which improve the ability to be creative. Being in an optimal(best) state of mind for generating new ideas. To think deliberately in ways that improve the likelihood of new thoughts occurring. To maximize the ability of the brain to think of new ideas. The ability to think of original, diverse and elaborate ideas. A series of mental actions which produce changes and developments of thought.  The process of exploring multiple avenues of actions or thoughts. (Sometimes called divergent thinking because thought patterns and areas of belief are expanded

Difference between Creative thinking and critical thinking

Creative thinking	Critical thinking
creative thinking is divergent	critical thinking is convergent
creative thinking tries to create something new	critical thinking seeks to assess worth or validity in something that exists;
creative thinking is carried on by violating accepted principles,	critical thinking is carried on by applying accepted principles

Although creative and critical thinking may very well be different sides of the same coin they are not identical.

Critical thinking defines as "…the use of cognitive skills or strategies that increase the probability of a desirable outcome. It also   includes the formation of logical inferences, developing careful and logical reasoning (Stahl & Stahl, 1991), deciding what action to take or what to believe through reasonable reflective thinking (Ennis, 1991), and purposeful determination of whether to accept, reject, or suspend judgment (Moore & Parker, 1994)., "…critical thinking has been defined and measured in a number of ways but typically involves the individual’s ability to do some or all of the following: identify central issues and assumptions in an argument, recognize important relationships, make correct inferences from data, deduce conclusions from information or data provided, interpret whether conclusions are warranted on the basis of the data given, and evaluate evidence or authority: Critical thinking as a higher-order thinking activity that requires a set of cognitive skills. 

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How People Use the Mass Media?

The functions of mass com­munication in society could be paralleled by statements about how the media function at the level of the individual. how the individual uses mass communication. At the individual level, the functional approach is given the general name of the uses-and-gratifications model the various uses and gratifications classified  into a four-category:  cognition; diversion; social utility; and withdrawal

Cognition 

Cognition is the act of coming to know something. When a person uses a mass medium to obtain information about something, then he or she is using the medium in a cognitive way. At the individual level, there are two different types of cognitive functions are performed. One has to do with using the media to keep up with information on current events, while the other has to do with using the media to learn about things in general or things that relate to a person's general curiosity. It have found that many people give the following rea­sons for using the media:

·      I want to understand what is going on in the world.

·      I want to know what political leaders are doing.

·      I want to satisfy my curiosity.

·      The media make me want to learn more about things.

·      The media give me ideas.

Diversion

Another basic need of human beings is for diversion. Diversion can take many forms. Some of the forms identified by researchers are

 (1) stimulation, or seeking relief from boredom or the routine activities of everyday life;

(2) relax­ation, or escape from the pressures and problems of day-to-day existence; and

 (3) emotional release of pent-up emotions and energy. Let us look at each of these gratifications in more detail. 

Stimulation Seeking emotional or intellectual stimulation seems to be an inherent motivation in a human being. Psychologists have labeled these activities lucid behaviors"—play, recreation, and other forms of activity that seem to be performed to maintain a minimum level of intellectual activity.. Many people report that they watch, read, or listen simply to pass the time. The media have taken.

Relaxation 

When faced overload, people tend to seek relief. The media are one source of this relief. Watching channels  or reading magazine represents a pleas­ant diversion from the frustrations of everyday life. Some  might relax by listening to serious /cinema classical music. The content is not the defining factor, since virtually any media material might be used for relaxation by some audience members.

Emotional Release

The use of the media for emotional release is fairly obvious. For instance, emotional release can take more subtle forms. One of the big attractions of soap operas, for example, seems to be that many people in the audiences are comforted by seeing that other people have troubles greater than their own. Other people identify with media heroes and par­ticipate vicariously in their triumphs. Such a process evidently enables these peo­ple to vent some of the frustrations connected with their normal lives. Emotional release was probably one of the first functions to be attributed to media content. Aristotle, in his Poetics, talked about the phenomenon of catharsis (a release of pent-up emotion or energy) occurring as a function of viewing tragic plays. In fact, the catharsis theory has surfaced many times since then, usually in connection with the portrayals of television violence.

Social Utility

Psychologists have also identified a set of social integrative needs, including our need to strengthen our contact with family, friends, and others in our society. The social integrative need seems to spring from an individual's need to affiliate with others. The media function that addresses this need is called social utility, and this usage can take several forms. First, we have talked with a friend about a TV program. Or we Have discussed a current movie or the latest record you heard on the radio. If so we are using the media as conversa­tional currency. The media provide a common ground for social conversations, and many people use things that they have read, seen, or heard as topics for dis­cussion when talking with others.

Withdrawal 

At times, people use the mass media to create a barrier between themselves and other people or activities. For example, the media help people avoid certain chores that should be done.

People also use the media to create a buffer zone between themselves and other people. When you are riding a bus or sitting in a public place and do not want to be disturbed, you bury your head in a book, magazine, or newspaper. If we are on an airplane, we might insert a pair of earphones in our ears and tune everybody out. Télevision can perform this same function at home by isolating adults from chil­dren or children from adults .

Content and Context In closing, we should emphasize that it is not only media content that determines audience usage, but also the social context within which the media exposure occurs. For example, soap operas, situation comedies, movie magazines all contain material that audiences can use for escape purposes. People going to a movie, however, might value the opportunity to socialize more than they value any aspect of the film itself. Here the social context is the deciding factor.

It is also important to note that the functional approach makes several assumptions:. Audiences take an active role in their interaction with various media. That is, the needs of each individual provide motivation that channels that individ­ual's media use.

1.   The mass media compete with other sources of satisfaction. Relaxation, for example, can also be achieved by taking a nap or having a couple of drinks, and social utility needs can be satisfied by joining a club or playing touch football.

2.       The uses-and-gratifications approach assumes that people are aware of their own needs and are able to verbalize them. This approach relies heavily on surveys based on the actual responses of audience members. thus, the research technique assumes that people's responses are valid indicators of their motives.

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Convergence & Disintermediation

Convergence

The convergence defines as the process of coming together or uniting in a common interest or focus.  The biggest example of corporate convergence was the 2001 merger of "new media" AOL with "old media" lime Warner. The convergence enthusiasts envisioned a future in which each household would have a high-speed broadband connection to the Internet that provided interactive TV. movies on demand, online magazines, e-mail, and Web surfing.

Operational Convergence

Another type of convergence is operational convergence. This occurs when owners of several media properties in one market combine their separate opera­tions into a single effort. For example, The advantages of this type of convergence are obvious. It saves money because rather than hiring a separate news staff for each medium, an operation can have the same reporters produce stories for the paper, Website, and TV operation. In addition, each medium can promote its partners. The TV newscast can encourage readers to visit the website or the print newspaper.Although operational convergence may be good for the media companies, it may not be good for con­sumers. In any case, the jury is still out on the merits of operational convergence.

Device Convergence, combining the functions of two or three devices into one mechanism. Examples of this trend are ;   Many Personal Digital Assistants are combination com­puters and cell phones. Some cell phones incorporate digital video cameras.  addition, if convergence results in a piece of equipment that is too complex to operate, not much is gained.

 Disintermediation

This word refers to the process whereby access to a product or a service is given directly to the consumer, thus eliminating the intermediary, or "middleman," who might typically supply the product or service. 

The Internet and the World Wide Web have created a ubiquitous and easily acces­sible network over which buyers and sellers make direct contact. The Internet has already provided several examples of disintermediation. Travelers bypass travel agents and book airline tickets directly online; traders bypass brokers and pur­chase stocks directly online; consumers bypass salespeople and buy insurance online. (Some businesses have more to fear from disintermediation than others. 

Disintermediation is of obvious concern to mass media organizations. Those media that can easily be distributed over the Internet are the first to feel its effects. lake sound recording, for example:  An author can put a book directly on a website for readers to download, thereby bypassing publishing companies and bookstores altogether.

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The Old man and the Sea.- Script writing excercise

file:///C:/Users/AzS%201/Downloads/%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%9F%E0%AE%B2%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D%20%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%B4%E0%AE%B5%E0%AE%A9%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D.pdf


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B79YQhNPN5M2blFnUG5MOWVMM
jg/edit?pli=1

file:///C:/Users/AzS%201/Downloads/%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%9F%E0%AE%B2%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D%20%E0%AE%95%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%B4%E0%AE%B5%E0%AE%A9%E0%AF%81%E0%AE%AE%E0%AF%8D.pdf

http://la.utexas.edu/users/jmciver/Honors/Fiction%202013/Hemmingway_The%20Old%20Man%20and%20the%20Sea_1952.pdfEnglish

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Framing and Media

Definition

Framing is defined as “the action, method, or process, of constructing making or shaping anything whether material or immaterial”.

 Framing comes from the word frame, which has many definitions. The most pertinent one, in this case, is “to share, one’s thoughts, actions, powers, etc. to a certain purpose” (Frame, 1989, p. 142). 
Framing: refers to how messages are encoded with meaning so that they can be efficiently interpreted in relationship to existing beliefs or ideas. 

Framing and the agenda setting

The media was viewed as having the ability to directly persuade and influence audiences . The audience was viewed as passive, simply allowing the media to inject it with ideas.  Research began with McCombs and Shaw’s  found that if news media paid attention to certain issues then viewers rated those issues as more. This was referred to as agenda-setting. Agenda setting refers to the idea that there is a strong correlation between the emphasis that mass media place on certain issues (e.g., based on relative placement or amount of coverage) and the importance attributed to these issues by mass audiences 

 Framing is often associated with agenda-setting research. Agenda-setting is primarily concerned with the media telling people which stories to think about.   However, framing is  cleared that the news media not only tells people what to think about but also how to think about.   It is based on the assumption that how an issue is characterized in news reports can have an influence on how it is understood by audiences. Framing is often traced back to roots in both psychology and sociology .Framing therefore is both a macrolevel and a microlevel construct (Scheufele, 1999). As a macroconstruct, the term ‘‘framing’’ refers to modes of presentation that journalists and other communicators use to present information in a way that resonates with existing underlying schemas among their audience.Framing an issue in terms of financial risks versus social consequences, for example, has little to do with differences in the mode of presentation.

Views of Framing

Framing can be looked at in two main ways- frame-building and frame-setting .

The term frame-building refers to “the factors that influence the structural qualities of news frames.” Framing is applied to how journalists select stories, facts, etc. News frames are formed through internal factors like occupational constraints of journalists, particularly editorial policies and news values and also through external factors like interactions between journalists and elites . Frames inevitably highlight some issues but downplay others . Journalists frame stories in particular ways in order to get people to either read or view. These important factors influence how a frame is built.

Frame-setting is “the interaction between media frames and individuals’ prior knowledge and dispositions . In particular, the way a story is framed can affect what appears as most important, who the victim appears to, who is to blame, etc..

Framing is a quality of communication that leads others to accept one meaning over another. It is the process by which a communication source defines and constructs an issue or controversy. Because issues are often complicated, and require the processing of a great deal of information from a variety of perspectives, frames provide a shorthand understanding of a situation, by focusing only on those features deemed important by the particular individual involved. Frames are therefore interpretive devices that all people use when making sense of the world around them. They aid us in making the difficult task of processing complex and often cumbersome information about our social world much simpler, by focusing our attention only on certain features that we feel are important. All individuals use frames to aid in deciding where and how we fit into the issue and what, if anything, we can do in response. Just as a picture frame is used to create a border around a painting or photograph to crop out unimportant features of the image, an issue frame is used by individuals to crop out particular features of the issue, and to highlight what they feel is important. 

This process of emphasizing certain features of the issue by cropping or downplaying less prominent features allows the most important information to be filtered out from the large pile of information surrounding the dispute. However, different people see certain dimensions of issues in very different ways. What may be of primary importance to one stakeholder may not be important at all to another. Though framing provides a shorthand filtering of essential information, it also can generate conflicts through differing interpretations of a dispute, and disagreements over the importance of its component parts. 

Language helps us to remember information and acts to transform the way in which we view situations. To use language, people must have thought and reflected on their own interpretive frameworks and those of others. Fairhurst and Sarr (1996) described the following Framing Techniques:
 • Metaphor: To give an idea or program a new meaning by comparing it to something else. 
• Stories (myths and legends): To frame a subject by anecdote in a vivid and memorable way.
 • Traditions (rites, rituals and ceremonies): To pattern and define an organization at regular time increments to confirm and reproduce organizational values. 
• Slogans, jargon and catchphrases: To frame a subject in a memorable and familiar fashion.
 • Artifacts: To illuminate corporate values through physical vestiges (sometimes in a way language cannot). 
• Contrast: To describe a subject in terms of what it is not. 
• Spin: to talk about a concept so as to give it a positive or negative connotation

Framing is a useful tool for analysis, because it allows us to view the particular frames that people use when examining a particular issue. If we come to understand the various frames that individuals use to distinguish important from unimportant information, then we can achieve a better understanding of why people take the positions that they do, and we can learn about how and why people respond as they do when interpreting a particular situation. 

How news media outlets frame stories.

Particularly when dealing with political issues, the media frames things in an episodic way or a thematic . An episodic frame focuses of a single, specific event or issue at hand, whereas a thematic frame places issues and events on a larger, more analytical level. Thematic frames are much less common.  Usually  political and election stories are framed in an episodic way, focusing on winning and losing, using a game or competition schema, emphasizing candidates’ style, and highlighting polls .

In 1991, the gulf war dominated media coverage, pushing Bush’s approval ratings to 90% after the war--the highest rating in American history. A short 12 months later, Bush was defeated at the polls. How could one of the most popular presidents in American history lose a subsequent election? There was no publicised scandal, no political gaffe, no international blunder that could explain Bush’s misfortunes. 


 Media Framing: 
Media framing is the process by which an issue is portrayed in the news media. Media frames provide boundaries around a news story and determine what is and is not newsworthy or notable. Journalists rely on media frames to decide what to include in a story and what to leave out, a process that may be conscious, instinctive or culture-bound. Just as a picture frame may draw attention to certain details and relegate other elements to the background, a media frame may draw a viewer's attention to specific parts of a journalist's news story, de-emphasize other parts, and leave out some aspects completely.

 • Media Framing and Youth: When applied to issues affecting children and youth, the way news is framed-the visuals, symbols, inference and language-can trigger two pictures:(1) one picture is of self-absorbed, potentially violent, amoral teenagers; and (2) the other picture is of inexperienced junior adults experimenting with identity in order to assume their role in the community. This act of framing can predispose policymakers and voters to prioritize the allocation of public resources in different ways. In this case, voters may choose prisons over education and volunteer programs. • Gregory Bateson: Anthropologist who fir



The internet & framing

 With the advent of the internet, people can be exposed to many different frames because of the infinite amount of information available online .  These frames may compete with each other giving a more holistic view of a story or issue .   However, the audience also plays a greater role in selecting media and which frames they are exposed to when using the internet which could result in exposure to similar frames and attitude reinforcement .

Counter framing

Counterframing occurs when the news media alter a previous narrative.  This has been studied recently about the Iraq War .  The news media began framing the war in a positive way,  but its frame became much more negative as time .

The internet website, Nikebiz.net as an extension of the Nike corporation, is a good example of both the use of framing and counter framing.. So, counterframing and framing happens within mediated channels of discourse; however, they are not restricted to news media and the internet is afffecting the ways in which messages are constructed and consumed . 

Version 1: Rats Bite Infant An infant left sleeping in his crib was bitten repeatedly by rats while his 16- year-old mother went to cash her welfare check. A neighbor responded to the cries of the infant and brought the child to Central Hospital where he was treated and released in his mother’s custody. The mother, Angie Burns of the South End, explained softly, “I was only gone five minutes. I left the door open so my neighbor would hear him if he woke up. I never thought this would happen in the daylight. “ 

Version 2: Rats Bite Infant: Landlord, Tenants Dispute Blame An eight-month-old South End boy was treated and released from Central Hospital yesterday after being bitten by rats while he was sleeping in his crib. Tenants said that repeated requests for extermin-ation had been ignored by the landlord, Henry Brown. Brown claimed that the problem lay with tenants’ improper disposal of garbage. “I spend half my time cleaning up after them. They throw garbage out the window into the back alley and their kids steal the garbage can covers for sliding in the snow.”

 Version 3: Rat Bites Rising in City’s ‘Zone of death” Rats bit eight-month-old Michael Burns five times yesterday as he napped in his crib. Bums is the latest victim of a rat epidemic plaguing inner-city neighborhoods labeled the “Zone of Death.” Health officials say infant mortality rates in these neighborhoods approach those in many third world countries. A Public Health Department spokesperson explained that federal and state cutbacks forced short-staffing at rat control and housing inspection programs. The result, noted Joaquin Nunez, MD, a pediatrician at Central Hospital, is a five-fold increase in rat bites. He added, “The irony is that Michael lives within walking distance of some of the world’s best medical centers.”

 The stories share little beyond the fact that the child was bitten by rats. Each version is shaped or framed by layers of assumptions. To say each version of the story represents a different frame means that each has a distinct definition of the issue, of who is responsible, and of how the issue might be resolved.Source :https://commconcepts.wikispaces.com/Framing

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