The following is a memorandum from the business manager of a television station.
“Over the past year, our late-night news program has devoted increased time to national news and less time to weather and local news. During this period, most of the complaints received from viewers were concerned with our station's coverage of weather and local news. In addition, local businesses that used to advertise during our late-night news program have canceled their advertising contracts with us. Therefore, in order to attract more viewers to our news programs and to avoid losing any further advertising revenues, we should expand our coverage of weather and local news on all our news programs.”
Write a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.
五問:
(1)“Therefore, in order to attract more viewers to our news programs and to avoid losing any further advertising revenues, we should expand our coverage of weather and local news on all our news programs”是結(jié)論,其余部分是事實,值得反駁嗎?
(2)大部分抱怨來自對天氣和本地新聞報道的關(guān)心,就意味著觀眾認為這些節(jié)目時間太短了嗎?你能想想對一個節(jié)目的抱怨還有哪些方面嗎?例如:新聞的真實性、主持人的水平等。有人對節(jié)目調(diào)整表示支持嗎?喜歡節(jié)目調(diào)整的人是否有可能比抱怨的人更多呢?觀眾總數(shù)是否有可能增加了?
(3)本地商家取消廣告合同,一定是因為電視節(jié)目的時間調(diào)整嗎?是否可能有其他的原因?你能羅列其中的一兩個嗎?例如:可能因為公司自身的財政出現(xiàn)了問題,無力繼續(xù)投放廣告,或者因為公司在其他時間段投放了廣告,無須在夜間時段繼續(xù)投放。有沒有新增的廣告客戶?節(jié)目時間調(diào)整有可能吸引了新的廣告客戶。
(4)一個方案是否可能同時達到兩個效果?是否可能起到“吸引更多的觀眾”與“減少或取消廣告合同”兩個相悖的作用?例如:廣告太多可能會導致觀眾減少。
(5)去年的情況一定和今年的情況一致嗎?和明年的情況也一致嗎?我們能否簡單地進行時間軸論證,認為每一年的情況都會趨于一致,或者認為某種趨勢將會延續(xù)呢?