The public is aware of the possibility of biases in the mass media and distrusts the media as too powerful. The body ...
DalaalMarch 6, 2020
Answer choice E must be false?
Hi,
Reading the provided explanation, I understand that E is incorrect because it could be true and not necessarily true. However, ought we not say that it is incorrect because the passage actually alludes that the public will not be predisposed to believe the new reports as opposed to the mass media report, i.e. contradicting answer choice E?
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(E) says, "When a news event occurs that contradicts a stereotype formerly incorporated into reporting by the mass media, the public is predisposed to believe reports of the event."
The issue with (E) is that the stimulus never mentions stereotypes, so it's hard to support a conclusion about stereotypes when there's no discussion of it at all. Thus, we can get rid of it.
Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any other questions!
DalaalMarch 7, 2020
Not really, can't we say that a bias news report that is repeated in the mass media is a stereotype? I was hesitant about answer choice A because it is a condition statement whereas the passage did not offer us conditional statements
SamAMarch 10, 2020
Hello @Dalaal,
I will add to Ravi's explanation here. Wrong answer choices will often have more than one error. Ravi's issue with the word "stereotype" is a legitimate criticism. But let's try your approach and assume that the stereotype presented is the same as the "body of information" against which the public evaluates the plausibility of a new report.
I agree with your criticism as well. The public uses the information/stereotypes previously given to them by the media to evaluate new reports. If the new report contradicts this stereotype, what might the public do? Question the plausibility of the new report. E says the opposite, so we can eliminate it. With either approach, you will get to the right answer. However, because of the ambiguity of "stereotype" as it relates to the passage, I won't say that E "must be false."
Also, to me, the passage implies that the media will issue reports that are compatible with information they have issued previously. It doesn't say for certain what the public will believe in the event of an inconsistency.
Now you have learned not to eliminate a conclusion just because it is conditional. A conclusion with sufficient and necessary terms can be correct even if the passage does not have those terms.
