The Fallacy of Quoting Out of Context

Today's media effects many aspects of life beyond our own. Politics, advertising, even religious subjects are all altered in one way or another to please a certain audience, to make an argument easier to refute, or to simply change the overall meaning of a excerpt.

This unusual practice (yes it is a profession) alters the main point any person , magazine, TV show, political group... is trying to display. Usually referred to as "contextonomy" or "quote-mining", it basically removes any unneeded passages from its surrounding matter in such a way as to distort its intended meaning. This is a completely legal discipline and in fact, quite a useful and needed job regarding many political and journalistic corporations. As legal as it may be, it is a logical fallacy none-the-less.

There are typically two main arguments that are based upon this fallacious thinking. As a "straw man" argument, ,which is frequently found in politics it involves quoting an opponent out of context in order to misrepresent their position (usually to make it seem more simplistic or extreme) in order to make it easier to refute. Below is an example of how the straw man fallacy works. As you can see, it can be used very effectively distorted to change the meaning of any (usually political) passage.

1. Person A has position X.
2. Person B presents position Y (which is a distorted version of X).
3. Person B attacks position Y.
4. Therefore X is false/incorrect/flawed.
   

And as an appeal to authority argument , it involves quoting an authority on the subject out of context, in order to misrepresent that authority as supporting some position. Below, another example display how this fallacy's form

1. Person A is (claimed to be) an authority on subject S.
2. Person A makes claim C about subject S.
3. Therefore, C is true.

So regarding the media triangle, the audience is a very important supporter of these logical fallacies. Depending on how susceptible the chosen audience is, these altered passages can create a major impact on society. Whether it be a major refute to a government party, a bias regarding entertainment, or a change in religious heart, this contextonomy discipline can be used to alter the response that is received from the audience.

Examples:

• Entertainment: with The Times reporting its frequent abuse by promoters with, for example, "I couldn’t help feeling that, for all the energy, razzmatazz and technical wizardry, the audience had been shortchanged" being pared down to "having 'energy, razzmatazz and technical wizardry'".
• Politics: in the 2000 United States Republican primary campaign, George W. Bush's campaign screened advertising including a 'warning' from John McCain's "conservative hometown paper" that "It's time the rest of the nation learns about the McCain we know." The paper (The Arizona Republic), however went on to say "There is much there to admire. After all, we have supported McCain in his past runs for office."
• Religion: The following quote, mentioned in New Scientist, has been used to attempt to discredit evolution. “ In any case, no real evolutionist, whether gradualist or punctuationist, uses the fossil record as evidence in favour of the theory of evolution as opposed to special creation. ” However, the quote leaves out the very next sentence, which not only provides context, but shows the authors point of view much more accurately: “ This does not mean that the theory of evolution is unproven. ”

Overall, this idea of contextonomy or quote mining can, and does on a daily basis, change and audiences conception/opinion of a sampled piece of media. It heavily is related to key concept number 2, media construct reality.