21st Annual Student Research Conference
The Pillow Angel Case: A Preliminary Study of Ethical Discussions within Blog Sites and their Relationship to Media Influence
Alexander J. Hayden
Dr. Patricia Burton, Faculty Mentor
Using Chaim Perelman's understanding of arguments as quasi-logical, I explore the relationship between an individual's use of fallacies within argumentation and their reliance on media sources. Specifically, I examine blog sites' discussions of the controversial biomedical ethics case of Ashley X, who is otherwise known as the "Pillow Angel." From this examination, I attempt to determine how often fallacies occur in correlation to the number of media sources that the bloggers have relied upon. And, through identifying these logical fallacies within informal discourse, I discover that a slightly negative trend in correlation is shown to exist between fallacies and media source reliance within "Pillow Angel" blog discussions.
Keywords: Chaim Perelman, Logic, Blogging, Media
Topic(s):Philosophy & Religion
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 41-2
Location: VH 1212
Time: 1:30