Waking up the day after sustaining a concussion is probably one of the weirdest feelings I have ever had to experience. For the next two weeks, I felt like I was in a cloud. After sustaining four concussions myself, I have experienced the powerful effects that concussions have on our body first hand. My senior year of high school I sustained a concussion that ended my football career. This is the reason I chose to compare the different styles of research between peer reviewed journals and popular press articles when investigating concussions.
First off, I had to find two articles to compare. I decided on a peer-reviewed journal article on concussions in sports and then an Article from Time magazine looking at concussions in youth sports. In the peer-reviewed journal, concussions are examined at large. They hit on multiple topics such as the science behind concussions, how to diagnose concussions, how to treat concussions, and how to prevent concussions. I specifically looked at the part where they had investigated concussions in youth sports.
This research examined the effects of concussions in kids and showed evidence that younger brains seem to be ore vulnerable to concussions and require a longer time to recover. Children who sustain concussions show greater memory dysfunction when compared to college athletes and adults who suffer from concussions. The article ended with some tips on concussion assessment and ways of setting baselines at the beginning of seasons to make diagnosing concussions much easier since there are a lot of factors that go into diagnosing and treating various concussions.
The popular press article I found from Time magazine hit on a lot of the same points that the peer reviewed article did. However this article had many personal stories to go along with the author’s facts. He seemed to really hit on the effects of concussions in youth sports and the lasting affects they can have. Concussions are very serious at the youth level because this is when children’s brains are growing and learning. Substantial damage can impact children years later and have lasting effects.
The author went in and talked about a dangerous condition, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is a medical condition in which the brain is repetitively njured and causes some alarming actions in individuals that would not normally be present, such as increased aggression and depression. Scientists believe CTE may be the explanation for the recent suicides and unexpected outbursts of professional and collegiate athletes in recent years and researchers believe it could be linked to their concussions.
These two articles are different types of literature, so it is expected that there are going to be some differences between them, despite the fact that they cover relatively the same information. First off, I felt that the peer-reviewed article ocused on examining concussions among all ages by using facts and cited sources. The Time magazine article seemed to look more at youth sports and attempted to tug at the readers hearts a bit with personal stories and scenarios from families of young concussion victims rather than as much research evidence to support their claims.
The Peer-Reviewed article gives an overview of all aspects of concussions and how to prevent them rather than focusing on the long-term affects of concussions. The Time magazine article goes more in depth with serious (but not as likely) long-term effects of repeated oncussions and their effects on individuals in the future. They go into detail about CTE and how if affects professional athletes later in life. Finally, The Time magazine article writer has direct interviews placed in his article from people with concussions.
He has their exact statements in his article while the peer-reviewed article has no interviews with patients or doctors but rather facts and trends from their studies. The two articles had a surprisingly large amount of similarities. They started off by talking about the science behind oncussions, moved into how to diagnose and treat them, and then finished off with measures to take to decrease the amount of concussions and make sports safer for all ages. The articles hit on the dangers of concussions in children and both found youth brains to be more vulnerable to concussions and sustain more damage.
The peer-reviewed article stated that in animal studies, there is evidence that younger brains tend to be more vulnerable and exhibit a longer recovery period following concussions. The popular press article says something similar hen it states that young children’s brains are still developing. During this early stage is when they are most susceptible to damage and more likely to suffer repetitive injury. The articles are similar in their use of many different studies and doctors to create their articles and support their claims.
The articles use a numerous amount of sources and studies to form their arguments. I believe there would be multiple situations in which one piece of literature would benefit more than the other. If I were trying to persuade a crowd of everyday people such as parents, oaches, and players, I would benefit from using the Time article. It has stories that most people can relate to. It’s more suspenseful and interesting to the everyday reader. It has simple language and facts that are easy for the readers to follow.
Persuading them to increase their efforts to decrease concussions would be much easier with the Time article because people would be able to relate to it better. I would use the Time article to entertain an audience. While it still has good evidence and facts, I found it to be more interesting and fun to read even hough I didn’t learn as much as I did with the peer reviewed article. On the flipside however, if I were attempting to persuade a roomful of doctors, I would use the peer-reviewed journal.
It had more facts rather than opinions and emotions. Doctors want objective evidence rather than subjective stories. It would be much more effective to try and convince them with the peer- reviewed journal rather than an article posted in Time Magazine. It focuses less on entertainment and more on informing people about concussions. With that being said, I enjoyed reading the Time Magazine more. The information was not as dry; it had personal stories and application situations rather than objective information.
It was a shorter and easier article to read; whereas during the peer- reviewed article, I found myself losing focus. The reading of the Times article was much more suspenseful, like a story rather than a research paper. When I read, I prefer to read for entertainment rather than information. This assignment has made me think about what we read everyday. Popular press articles aim to connect with the readers and get good reviews rather than focusing on the issues at and. When doing research papers, popular press articles can be helpful.
However if you want the most accurate information, I believe peer reviewed journals are a better option. This is because of the different audiences each article aims to please. Popular press articles aim to entertain and inform the public. Peer reviewed journals aim to solve problems and show evidence behind studies. I really have learned to value peer- reviewed journals when doing research. I am going to be careful where I am getting my information because not all sources are created equally.
