Constructive Criticism

Linguistics professor and best-selling author, Deborah Tannen explains how “The Argument Culture” wants us to accept that by creating conflict is the best way of getting things done with an adversarial disposition. An essay taken from her book, The Argument Culture: Moving from Debate to Dialogue (1988), Tannen expresses her views on having adversarial dialogue between two sides has weakened communication in our society. Although, we live in a society where we are free to express our conflicts openly, Tannen argues that as a society we should seek to find “constructive” ways of settling disputes and differences. In setting out to find truths, Tannen states that we “assume that every issue has two sides” and by having this assumption we begin to “doubt the existence” of any facts. With diminishing face to face communication and increasing use of technology, Tannen believes that these factors “isolate people in a bubble” while the argument culture makes a “defining impact” on society. By adding more dialogue to debates and not to think in twos, Tannen advises we should use our “imaginations and ingenuity” to explore truth and knowledge.
After reading this essay, my understanding of adding more dialogue to a debate is clearer than ever before. What I like best about Deborah Tannen’s essay is how she gives specific details on the effects of having an “adversarial frame of mind” impacts our daily lives. Tannen supports her claim about how the argument culture is shaping our lives by giving an example regarding the Holocaust that has long been a part of our history, but is now being questioned of its existence because we “assume there must be another side”. I believe that mass media promotes adversarial disposition by creating conflict between groups in order to control society’s opinion and beliefs. According to Bryant & Oliver (2009), “Mass media transmit the ideas, values, norms, attitudes, and behavior that socialize and construct the social reality of those who use them for a wide variety of reasons”. Traditional news broadcast reported on local and national events and gave objective views in the commentary segments. In today’s news broadcast, mainstream media has created a new format as Feldman (2011) noted as being, “…in favor of a more overly opinionated presentation style” (p.1). As society relies on information on important issues