Creative Media Project: Critical Thinking.

With some basic ideas in mind it was crucial to understand some basic skills that would be involved in producing this project; one skill needed is critical thinking. "Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action." (The Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2019) which in basic terms means the ability to clearly and logically considered the information available.

"A well cultivated critical thinker:

• raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;

• gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;

• thinks openmindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and

• communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems." (The Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2019)

To fully understand this way of thinking I gave myself an example to try and apply critical thinking too. Is the book dead? Trying to answer this question using critical thinking was challenging as it is not a form of thinking that I'm used to using. Step one to critical thinking is to analyze and formulate the question. After analyzing the question I decided that it was to broad and wanted a smaller area to focus on. To do this I decided to find the definition of the word book. "a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers." (Google, 2021). After defining the word book I decided to focus on novels so the question changed to are novels dead? The next step is to gather information; this information is meant to help prove the point you are trying to make or find; in this case it is whether novels are dead or not. "A new survey has revealed that people in the UK have almost doubled the amount of time they spend reading books" (The Guardian, 2020). The next step is to logically apply the information in doing this I believe that books/novels aren't dying but are evolving to fit societies needs one of which being lockdown. Next would be to reflect on this reflection it just reinforces that 'books' are not dead. The least step is to apply the findings and consider the implications for this I have decided that books cannot be dead as they are something that is still heavily used and on the increase of usage again due to societal changes (a cause by the current pandemic).

References:

Google (2021) Book. Available at: https://www.google.com/search?q=definition+of+book&rlz=1C1CHBF_enGB893GB893&sxsrf=AOaemvIF4peLq6sAESVYkH-iabGdc7ARkw%3A1642168993843&ei=oYLhYbb0Moe4gQaHn7GYDw&ved=0ahUKEwj2yKectLH1AhUHXMAKHYdPDPMQ4dUDCA4&uact=5&oq=definition+of+book&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyCggAEIAEEEYQ-QEyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQ6BwgjEOoCECc6CQgjECcQRhD5AToECCMQJzoECAAQQzoLCAAQgAQQsQMQgwE6DgguEIAEELEDEMcBEKMCOgcIABCxAxBDOggILhCxAxCDAToECC4QQzoICAAQsQMQkQI6BQgAEJECOggIABCABBCxA0oECEEYAEoECEYYAFAAWLRFYKhIaAFwAngAgAF2iAGHC5IBBDE2LjKYAQCgAQGwAQrAAQE&sclient=gws-wiz (Accessed: 28/09/21)

The Guardian (2020) Research finds reading books has surged in lockdown. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/15/research-reading-books-surged-lockdown-thrillers-crime (Accessed: 28/09/21)

The Foundation for Critical Thinking (2019) Defining Critical Thinking. Available at: https://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766 (Accessed: 28/09/21)