"The public is aware of the possibility of biases in the mass media and distrusts the media as too powerful."
"The body of information against which the public evaluates the plausibility of each new media report comes, however, from what the public has heard of through the mass media."
You can summarize these statements as follows: Public is aware of media bias. Public distrusts media but to evaluate a media report, the public refers to the media.
This seems contradictory. The public is aware of media bias and distrusts the media but at the same time the public uses the media to evaluate a media report.
We are looking for the answer choice that is supported by the information presented the stimulus, so this is a Must Be True question.
(E) states, "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." Notice we have no discussion of contradictions, stereotypes or being predisposed to believe something in the stimulus so (E) is not supported by the stimulus.
(A) states basically states that if there is a bias in the media, it would be hard for the public to tell. This is supported by the information provided in the stimulus because we were told that the public uses the media to evaluate the media. Think about it. If you use a biased report to determine if a story is biased, it would be difficult to tell if the story is actually biased. We would need an objective (i.e. unbiased) source to evaluate the report for bias.
Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.
knoxygirlApril 28, 2017
Both A and E seem like logical leaps to me. I was thinking of confirmation bias when I saw E as a plausible resolution. Why is A more valid?
Ashley-TienJune 15, 2018
What is wrong with answer choice D?
ChristopherJune 15, 2018
@knoxygirl and @Ashley-Tien
We're dealing with a Must Be True question here, so when you're evaluating the answer choices, you're looking for the answer that flows directly from the premises in the question.
(E) could be true and could serve as an example or extension of the argument given, but there is nothing in the stimulus that would suggest that (E) MUST be true. (A) follows the logic presented in the argument (we understand that there could be bias in mass media, however, all of our information comes from the mass media) and provides a conclusion that Must be true (it would be hard to tell if there is bias because we have nothing neutral to compare it to).
(D) is wrong because while it also could be true, there is nothing in the passage to suggest that it MUST be true. It introduces new information and new ideas that were not dealt with in the original argument, so it cannot be the logical conclusion.
When a question like this is asking specifically for the conclusion, you've got to find the option that MUST follow logically from the given information. These questions tend to have answers that could fit as additional premises and do not contradict the argument (E) and (D) are examples, but you're not looking for "could be true;" you're looking for "must be true."
