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 time 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 just canceled their advertising contracts with us. Therefore, in order to attract more viewers to the program and to avoid losing any further advertising revenues, we should restore the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level."
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
The manager of the television station claims that in order to attract more viewers and to avoid advertising loss, the station should restore the time devoted to weather and local news to its former level. To support his claims he states that local business is cancelling its advertising contracts with the station because of the fact that late-night program has devoted increased time to the national news than the local and weather news. He also refers to the number of complaints which are mostly related to the local and weather news. However, the argument is lacking the necessary evidence to substantiate the assumptions made and therefore, is questionable by its very nature.
Firstly, the argument is based on the assumption that cancellation of advertisements is only caused by change of format from local and weather news to the national news; however, such assumption is unwarranted - for example, the cancellation of advertising contract might be caused by the facts that businesses in the area in critical situation and might not be able to advertise much. Similarly, the advertiser might be preferring other option which have been proved to be more effective than the television shows.
Secondly, it has been assumed that more complaints related to the local and weather news, indicate that people are more inclined toward such format rather than national-news format. However, the author has failed to provide evidence needed to justify such assumption. It is entirely possible that more people are complaining because they find many problems in this format. There is also possibility that people are complaining more about local news because they are unhappy with such format and inclined to watch national news, which is exactly opposite of the assumption made.
Another threshold assumption on which the argument relies is that the only possible way to improve the channel finances and reverse the cancellation of advertisement is to dedicate increased time to local and weather news programs; however, such assumption can't be justified given the lack of evidence. One possible method can be improving the quality of transmission so that people can watch without interruptions. Another possible way can be giving proper time to important events and covering those events in which people are more interested.
In sum, the argument of the manager of the station is based on number of unsubstantiated assumptions which make the argument unreliable. To bolster his argument, the author must provide evidence that the complaints are arising because of lesser time for local and weather news. The author must also prove that cancellation of the advertising contract was spurred by the increased focus to national news. He must also provide evidence that besides format issues, there are no technical and broadcasting issue. Unless the author provide evidence for such claims, it is very hard to defend the argument against the criticism.
Naveed, this essay must be discussed from the point of view that the memorandum is flawed based on a number of concerns. One of the major concerns regarding the claims of this memo is that it lacks evidence to back it up. Claims regarding a reduction in advertising and complaints from the viewers or listeners need to be backed up with year to year figures in order to portray a trend or mode of comparison to help strengthen the claims made by the manager of the television or radio station. You have also presented a weak review of the memorandum because you failed to catch that problem with the reports in the memorandum. Try to revise your essay to include a commentary about the lack of evidence presented and how the report cannot be taken seriously unless the supporting evidence, which comes from valid sources, backs up the claims.
