Blog Five: Active Listening

After reading about active listening and the need to critically process and analyze what we are listening to, I realized how many advertisements make fallacious arguments.  Duck/McMahan say that these arguments "appear legitimate but are actually based on faulty reasoning" (pg 105).  This means that the arguments seem logical on the surface to someone not actively listening, but if we critically listen to the statements being made, we would realize that the arguments break the rules of logic and are not in alignment.  I think that the new AT&T commercial uses the "post hoc ergo propter hoc" argument in that it shows a woman dropping her phone and meeting a man who helps her to pick it up and because of this incident, she becomes a professional ballet dancer.  The storyline essentially puts forth that because the woman dropped her phone, which happened before, the after result of her becoming a professional dancer was caused by this.  Obviously, other factors would have contributed to her success, yet the commercial uses AT&T and the cell phone as leading to changing the woman's life.  The commercial also shows false alternatives and presents only two options for the woman, these being that she can "rethink possible" with AT&T and make all of her dreams come true, or she can be stuck daydreaming about her goals.  This is shown as the commercial uses a split screen effect to show her life with AT&T and her life without it. Clearly, with hard work and talent, the woman could reach her goals on her own and not have just the options of failure or success based on which cell phone company she uses.  I had seen this commercial many times before, but never thought to question the reasoning used until reading Duck/McMahan's chapter on listening.  This chapter really resonated with me and rethinking advertisements has made me conscious of the irrational arguments that the media makes and more aware that hearing is not the same as listening or critical listening.