The following appeared in a memorandum issued by a large city’s council on the arts.
"In a recent citywide poll, fifteen percent more residents said that they watch television programs about the visual arts than was the case in a
poll conducted five years ago. During these past five years, the number of people visiting our city’s art museums has increased by a similar
percentage. Since the corporate funding that supports public television, where most of the visual arts programs appear, is now being
threatened with severe cuts, we can expect that attendance at our city’s art museums will also start to decrease. Thus some of the city’s
funds for supporting the arts should be reallocated to public television."
Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.


The memorandum issued reasoning the reallocation of the city's funds to public television captures some very salient points to persuade the city council to seriously consider this course of action. I would like to state the following arguments to add weight to the memorandum's reasoning, while also highlighting some of the inconclusive reasoning incorporated into the memorandum.
The memorandum uses the analogy between the increase in people watching television programes to an increase in the number of people visiting the art museums as the backbone of its case, but the memorandum falters in not giving a clear relation between the two facts. The two cases may be directly related as the memorandum sugests, but it may very well be that the two events are totally independent. Take into consideration theh following scenario.
The number of people watching television has increased over the last five years
The on ground promotional campaings by the city council have increased.
The number of art exhibitions has increased over the last five years.
The art collection in the museums has increased, or more famous works of art have been installed in the houses.
The prices of Ads on television has increased over the last five years.
Any one of the above scenarios, which is practically plausible, can cause an increase in the number of people visiting the museums.and all of these events are very independent of television viewership. Thus the analogy drawn between the television viewership and museum attendence is very weak. The memorandum could have added more strenght if it had include a few more facts related to the museums attendance. like a refernce to the feedback or response by the television viewers to the Ads can add more light to the analogy stated. Therefore, though the memorandum states certain important facts it does not add a convincing link between the different facts to arrive at its final conclusion.