Doc Roldan’s Blog: Writing on Writing

Previously, I wrote two blogs on the increase in the number of children taking sleeping pills. Both articles, although written by different newspapers and referring to the same study, were totally different in nature. The New York Times focused merely on the negative aspects of sleeping pills, and also misinterpreted the data. The New York Times, for example, includes other drugs such as antihistamines and high blood pressure drugs. They focus too much on the data, and do not discuss any trends or reasons behind the increase in sleeping pill consumption. However, USA Today correctly analyzes the data from the Medco Study and makes reasonable conclusions. For example, they discuss that kids are not becoming addicted to these pills, as 61% of the pills were not refilled. Although these two articles are about the same thing, they are very different. This piece helps to show that newspapers can slightly skew data and information,  making the public believe anything they want to. From this, I have learned to consult a variety of sources, as bias exists all over the place. / Neel Joshi