Chapter 8 TFY : Viewpoints : What's the Filter

The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate the benefits of such attitudes and skills.

Critical thinking means learning to recognize viewpoints and how they shape the content of any message.

Viewpoints - like assumptions, opinions, and evaluations - can be either conscious or unconscious

We communicate best when we are aware of our own viewpoint and can understand and respect the viewpoints of others as well.

Writers shape their stories through their choice of a point of view; their choices include third-person, first-person, and multiple points of view. These viewpoints may be omniscient or humanly limited.

Unconscious viewpoints include the egocentric, ethnocentric, and religiocentric.

Left, right, and centrist perspectives exist within both the Republican and Democratic parties.

The Internet provides a vehicle for the expression of a wide range of viewpoints not well represented in the U.S. corporate media. Such viewpoints include third political parties, feminists, gays and lesbians, ethnic minorities, labor, environmentalists, religious groups, and immigrants.

Periodicals can express viewpoints through images, words, and in the framing given to information. Framing decisions made by an editor can exercise a hidden influence over the reader.