Presentation!

[Tara Líf]

I'm trying to find a topic and knowledge issue for my presentation.

I want to do it about mass media commercials,

for example, how they don't lie, the 'bend the truth' by using words like virtually etc..

HELP!

[Cynthia]

Take a look at for example some newspaper articles and find some that deal with related topics or you could consider simply choosing some advertisement as your real life situation. You could examine, for example, how language (a WoK) changes the way we perceive things, but I am not quite certain if it's ToK enough, as it's quite obvious that weasel words and other advertising language make us think the product is better.

[Daedalus]

It is if you're considering how ethical it is to use these techniques. Use statistics related to their effectiveness, contrast the financial necessity (because of competition) with moral concerns, etc.

[Cynthia]

It is if you're considering how ethical it is to use these techniques. Use statistics related to their effectiveness, contrast the financial necessity (because of competition) with moral concerns, etc.

I'm not sure if that would be a very good knowledge issue though? It is quite obvious that it's not very ethical if you're contrasting moral with finances.

[Daedalus]

zz we can argue about this all day. I think you could craft an interesting presentation about it by discussing different points of view; for example the consumer is obviously harmed by such noticed whereas firms basically have to do it (you might conclude) to keep up with other firms. So where is the government in this? If it enforces strictly true advertisements, we might see a decline in consumption, for example. There are lots of spins to put to it. Obviously it's not exactly ethical, but sometimes you have to do something unethical just to keep up. Or you might conclude that firms have a moral responsibility to avoid all weasel words and attempt successful advertisement without them. It's not that set in stone...

[Cynthia]

zz we can argue about this all day. I think you could craft an interesting presentation about it by discussing different points of view; for example the consumer is obviously harmed by such noticed whereas firms basically have to do it (you might conclude) to keep up with other firms. So where is the government in this? If it enforces strictly true advertisements, we might see a decline in consumption, for example. There are lots of spins to put to it. Obviously it's not exactly ethical, but sometimes you have to do something unethical just to keep up. Or you might conclude that firms have a moral responsibility to avoid all weasel words and attempt successful advertisement without them. It's not that set in stone...

Yes, of course, but I think this would be a great thing to do for an Economics presentation, not necessarily for a ToK one. For example, what would the implications be for other AoK/WoK (which is something a presentation should consider) and so on?

I'm sure it's possible to do something ToK-related on advertisements. Another idea I had was that you might be able to compare and contrast for example propaganda (well - a form of advertising, although for a cause) and regular advertising and consider the differences in the moral implications of these two types.

[Tilia]

Of ocurse you could do it on advertisement, it could be a great presentation! Think about what they say in adverts in comparison to the facts. They usually mislead the reader/viewer in all sorts of ways. For instance, a common phrase is that "this shampoo repairs you hair", but hair is dead matter, can it really be repaired then? Think about how they mislead us, what WoK we use to interpret, etc etc and you should be able to come up with a good KI!