When analyzing media fallacies, it’s important to recognize the different types that frequently appear in news and reporting. The different types of media fallacies, or fallacies of false generalization, include hasty generalization, sweeping generalization, and false dilemma.

Causal fallacies are also common and include questionable cause, misidentification of the cause, post hoc ergo propter hoc. In addition, fallacies of relevance regularly show up in the media, such as appeal to authority, appeal to tradition, bandwagon.

An example I encountered was a news article titled “Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures,” printed on 11/30/2010.

The article speaks of a theft that happened in St. Mary’s County, which is located in Maryland. Since my family does not have cable and no newspapers arrive at our home, I looked up news articles online. The type of fallacy I would say this article falls under would be misidentification of the cause, which falls under a causal fallacy. I say this because no one really knows why someone would shoplift.

This guy shoplifted tampons, which does make it sort of funny but makes you really question, “Why would he do that?” Misidentification of the cause is the fallacy in casual situations; we are not always certain about what is causing what—in other words, what the cause is and what the effect is. My initial thought on this incident is, “Why would a 52-year-old guy need to steal feminine products, to begin with!” I read the definitions of the different fallacies, including what different ones were under each category. I also made sure that I understood what happened in the article as well as the difference in the fallacies.

This helped me come to an informed decision about the article as well as what type of fallacy this was. I also made my decision based on the first initial thought I had. I am sure others said the same thing I did. If others had thought the same thing I had, then my thought on its fallacy was that it had to be correct!! At least that is how my thought process went in deciding this.

I would say that this is a very simple article. I did not need to put a lot of thought into this article when evaluating it, but I did need to think hard about what I was trying to say. I did try to come up with the reasons behind this action. Give me some examples of some fallacies that you have come across in the media.