Argument: Misinformation and Biases Infect Social Media, Both Intentionally and Accidentally
37 Finding Claims and Support in Argumentative Writing
In the previous chapter, you learned that the essay “Misinformation and Biases Affect Social Media, Both Intentionally and Accidentally,” by Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia and Filippo Menczer, is an example of an academic argument, where the point is not to be absolutely right, but to present a reasonable position on a topic or, in Ciampaglia and Menczer’s case, a reasonable solution to a problem that is supported by research.
You may recall that Ciampaglia and Menczer article attempted to:
- Show you that users of social media, including bots, spread misinformation often because of biases. This is the problem.
- Persuade you that the tools they created can help fix the problem. This is their solution.
Finding Claims and Support in Argumentative Writing
Purposes
The purposes of this exercise are to:
- Examine the claims and evidence presented in the article “Misinformation and Biases Affect Social Media, Both Intentionally and Accidentally” by Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia and Filippo Menczer.
- Determine if the evidence supports the thesis statement, specifically that “misinformation and biases affect social media, both intentionally and accidentally” and that there are “three types of bias that make the social media ecosystem vulnerable to both intentional and accidental misinformation.”
Exercises
Table 1. Bias in the Brain. Table 1 below lists three claims the authors make about bias in the brain and the evidence the authors supply to support those claims.
| Claims
Claims are statements that support the thesis but need evidence to show that they are true. |
Evidence
Evidence is trustworthy research that shows a claim is true. |
| The human brain can suffer from “information overload.” | A link to an article titled “Death by Information Overload” by Paul Hemp, published in The Harvard Business Review in September, 2009. |
| The tricks the brain uses to manage information overload can lead to bias. | A link to an article titled “Avoiding Emotional Traps is Easier Than You Think” by Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D., published in Psychology Today on October 30, 2012. |
| When they read, people are more affected by emotions rather than by who wrote the article. The author is more important. | A link to an article about digital literacy published by Cornell University. |
- Click on the links to evidence. Can you access the articles that are linked? If not, why not?
- Skim the articles. Can you find any information in the articles that could support the claims that they support? If so, please explain how one piece of evidence you found supports its corresponding claim.
Table 2. Bias in Society. Using Table 1 as a guide, create your own table to find three claims and their supporting evidence in the section called “Bias in Society.” Then answer the questions the following questions:
- Click on the links to evidence. Can you access the articles that are linked? If not, why not?
- Skim the articles. Can you find any information in the articles that could support the claims that they support? If so, please explain how one piece of evidence you found supports its corresponding claim.
Table 3. Bias in the Machine. Using Table 1 as a guide, create your own table to find three claims and their supporting evidence in the section called “Bias in the Machine.” Then answer the questions the following questions:
- Click on the links to evidence. Can you access the articles that are linked? If not, why not?
- Skim the articles. Can you find any information in the articles that could support the claims that they support? If so, please explain how one piece of evidence you found supports its corresponding claim.
Final Question. In your opinion and based on what you learned by completing the tables, which “Bias” article has the weakest support for its claims? Please explain your choice thoroughly. This question asks for your opinion so there are no right or wrong answers. Please write a short paragraph (about 75 words) and be very specific.
