The Lunar Phases

The reader can learn information about a particular topic of interest or inquiry from both academic and popular pieces. The widespread use of well-liked media sources, such as magazines, has arguably improved throughout time due to their affordability and accessibility. The widespread usage of reading periodicals and, in particular, growing advancements have raised awareness of the problem of reading. To date reading has been increased especially on popular media sources and this may also be affected by the fact that magazines have attractive cover pages and use a language that is not only understood by expertise in a subject field but the language used is for the general public in most cases.

Am going to point out some differences in the ways used by popular media i.e. magazines for this case and am going to focus on research reports presented by a journal and a magazine both on lunar phases in order to highlight the differences in a much efficient manner.



Lunar Phases

Science in Media and Scholarly Articles

My essay will be on the differences on science reports brought forward byresearch mediaon longitudinal, seasonal and solar cycle variation in lunar tide influence on the equatorial electrojet and the effects brought about that are related between tides and the lunar phases of the moon (Yizengaw& Carter, 2017).

My other research was one from a media source which taught an explanation on the different phases of the moon and how they occurred giving an explanation on the earth rotation around the moon (Fraser, 2017).

The research article explained how the geomagnetic quiet time longitudinal, seasonal, and solar cycle variability in the lunar tide and the impact on the geomagnetic field distinction in the geomagnetic equator and the lunar tidal waves modulate the EEJ current density with significantly different magnitudes at different longitudes, seasons and influences on lunar phases while the media article discussed on the various phases of the moon and how they occur.

Both these researches are based on lunar phases of the moon and their effects but there is a difference in the way they are explained. The identifier table below shows a summary on the articles.









Media Article

Research Article

Tittle of Article

What are the faces of the moon?

Longitudinal, seasonal and solar cycle variation in lunar tide

influence on the equatorial electrojet



Source of Article

-

Institute for Scientific Research, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA

Date of Author Research

-

30 August 2016

Date of publication

16 march 2017

5 April 2017



Difference in Media and Scholarly Articles

Clarity

From the two research reports I read, the research report explains bit by bit on every process that happens on ocean tides with every change in the phase of the moon while the media article has a shallow explanation on how the research was conducted and how the results were obtained. The research article as seen on the identifier table had all its specifications listed as compared to the media article which did not specify on article source and date of author research.

Language Variation

The research article uses some type of complex language that could better be understood by a number of people who have majored in astronomy study while the language incorporated by the media article had no complexity but was as much straightforward and could be easily understood by anyone who came across it. Use of complex and some bit of professional language shows some status conferment in that the research article was written by an author with a more clear understanding on the topic other than the media journal author.

Citing

The research journal had citations and references on places to obtain the information used in building up the research to come up with the report while the media article did not embrace any form of citation in its explanations. Citation and referencing is a key element in research work apart from the fact that it helps avoid plagiarism. It assist one to get access on reading and understanding on a concept you mentioned, this is due to the fact that the person follows your citation or reference to get to a broad and wide explanation on a particular subject.

Volume Variation

The research article was huge as itgave a deeper understanding and brought forward all the step by step procedures involved in collecting data, proof of the phenomena and how the final findings were concluded, this is contrast to the media journal where it’s small in volume. This gives a logic reason that the journal carries more information than the media journal.

Result Presentation

The research article as incorporated both the use of images and graphs to further explain on the lunar phases, this gives the reader a better understanding as in a point where he/she did not clearly understand he can interpret the graph and this may help. The media article has only embraced images and this gives another difference on the two articles hence a difference in the levels of understanding between who reads the research article and one who visits the media article.

Outcome versus Process Measures

A distinction has been drawn between reading behaviours in terms of outcome and process measures, outcome explains how one gets to grasp a point from reading, time taken to read and the amount of recall. Using this aspect I would say the time taken to read through the research article was much but the amount of information fetched and recalled was worth the time whereas the time taken for the media article was short but the levels of understanding was lower as compared to the level of understanding from the research article.

Accuracy

After reading the two journals, by considering the fact that the research journal offers large volumes of explanations and incorporates measures to help you understand more i.e. the graphs unlike the media article, this makes the research article more accurate as it also involves the references and practical step by step procedures followed by the research author in achieving presented findings unlike the media author.

Reliability

After reading through the research and media articles, I developed confidence on the information from the research journal and this was due to the fact that before a research article is published a panel of experts on the particular field of study come together to analyzeon the research findings before giving it a go to be published. In media articles no such expertise panel is present to scrutinize the information and check if it is true or false, this makes research findings more reliable as compared to media sources.

Comprehension

In the media article words such as, “If you get to visit the moon and if you get to visit the hemisphere” were used and this reduces the amount of knowledge picked as there’s no vivid description as compared to the research journal which gives you that vivid explanation that you feel like you have been in a place you have never been before.

The two articles have given a final conclusion on the earth’s revolution around the moon which result to different phases giving similar explanations but with different approaches, both tittles on the media and research article reflect on the information discussed on their bodies. This exercise has given me insights on how scientific research is done and reported and in future I will embrace the research articles in reporting for efficiency and advantages as discussed above.

Conclusion

In conclusions I would personally say that in regard to knowledge gained, recall preferences and reliability measures, I would advise readers to go for research articles over media articles as they provide firsthand information from researches taken unlike media articles which are mostly written after a read on a published research.









References

https://www.universetoday.com/20289/phases-of-the-moon/

Yizengaw, E., & Carter, B. A. (2017, April). Longitudinal, seasonal and solar cycle variation in lunar tide influence on the equatorial electrojet. In AnnalesGeophysicae (Vol. 35, No. 3, pp. 525-533). Copernicus GmbH.