Ollie Gillman talks about research under Toru Shirakawa’s direction in the media article “Watching too many TV can kill you: Sitting for more than five hours per day on the television increases your risk of developing pulmonary embolism.” This article discusses research that found the dangers of prolonged television watching. Study results from other sources were used to inform the details of this study. Gillman (2015) heavily relies on information from different sources in this media story about Shirakawa’s findings. Gillman, for example, cites the European Society of Cardiology Conference report which found that long-haul travel had similar negative consequences to excessive TV viewing. This page is a collection of information from various sources. The emphasis of the article is on television’s fatality. It focuses on subjects such as the average age at which people are most likely to succumb to pulmonary embolism because of excessive television watching.
To investigate this topic, the research paper employed a cohort study. This study focused on the demographic characteristics and health status of victims of pulmonary embolism. This information could usually be gleaned from death certificates. This meant that background information was needed to identify the likely victims of the disease. According to reports, the vast majority of retired people spend their time watching TV. The study revealed that certain risk factors are present. Smoking and obesity are two of the risk factors for pulmonary embolism (Shirakawa and co-authors, 2016). These data indicate that severe pulmonary embolism can occur in some cases, depending on the underlying medical conditions.
Evaluation
From the headline, it is obvious that the article was written to exaggerate the results of research. This article gives the impression that television viewing is likely to lead to death. It is the title that creates an impression. The title will have an impact on the opinions of many viewers. The article will therefore be read by many people who are interested in death. This is because the media already influences people’s thoughts.
In this news story, we summarize the main conclusions from the academic paper. They were intended to communicate a message. An important portion of the information in the article was about death. The objective of the article was to prove that TV causes death. We don’t know much about exceptions. Evidently this background ensures that viewers see television as a weapon of mass destruction.
The article does not include certain facts in order to accomplish its purpose. This is because information about risk factors was not included. The readers might have noticed that a lack of information about drinking or smoking would lead to an increase in the risk factors that can cause pulmonary embolism attacks. The media report does not include information about the fatalities due to pulmonary embolism. There is no evidence that television viewing is the sole risk factor for developing pulmonary embolism. This angle was chosen because it was intended to portray television viewing as a negative.