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The public is aware of the possibility of biases in the mass

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The public is aware of the possibility of biases in the mass [#permalink] New post 11 Sep 2012, 21:37
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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.

If the view above is correct, it provides a reason for accepting which one of the following conclusions?
(A) If there is a pervasive bias in the presentation of news by the mass media, it would be hard for the public to discern that bias.
(B) The mass media tailor their reports to conform to a specific political agenda.
(C) The biases that news media impose on reporting tend not to be conscious distortions but rather part of a sense they share about what is interesting and believable.
(D) News reporters and their public hold largely the same views about what is most important in society, because news reporters come out of that society.
(E) 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.
[Reveal] Spoiler: OA

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Re: The public is aware of the possibility of biases in the mass [#permalink] New post 20 Sep 2012, 02:32
In this question we know the answers are all conclusions and in any good GMAT question a good conclusion will be drawn only from information in the argument. So I think the best approach is to go through A-E and check that the info contained in each answer is correct.
A – Correct – The argument is saying that the public get their information from the media which makes up their sense of normality. Therefore if there is a trend in that information (i.e. a persuasive bias), that would appear normal. The first sentence confuses us because it says people don’t trust the media which insinuates that we are consciously aware of it. But thats not the case, we suspect it because of we see the media as too powerful (and are therefore aware of the possibility of bias), but crucially we don’t know there is bias.
B – No mention of politics, easy elimination
C – No mention of how this bias is skewed, eliminate.
D – There is no mention in the argument about the ‘values’ of new reporters, news programs or even the media in general, only about the presence of bias. Eliminate
E – Out of scope as the argument talks about how the public perceives the media, not what would happen in an event which is contrary to what we expect.
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Re: The public is aware of the possibility of biases in the mass [#permalink] New post 20 Sep 2012, 21:04
+1 A

The premise tells us that public are aware of the false news media gives and thus distrust them. Anyhow, the people who make public aware of the false news are themselves part of mass media, thus the general public end up trusting one side of the coin but distrusting the other.
(A) If there is a pervasive bias in the presentation of news by the mass media, it would be hard for the public to discern that bias. (This is our answer because the premise has concluded that it is hard for the public to distinguish between the biased and unbiased news)
(B) The mass media tailor their reports to conform to a specific political agenda. (There is no mention that everyone does, it is merely a possibility, eliminate)
(C) The biases that news media impose on reporting tend not to be conscious distortions but rather part of a sense they share about what is interesting and believable. (Again there is no mention intentions of media, eliminate)
(D) News reporters and their public hold largely the same views about what is most important in society, because news reporters come out of that society. (It is not like that as it is given that public get influenced by the news, eliminate)
(E) 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. (There is no mention about this so eliminate)

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Re: The public is aware of the possibility of biases in the mass   [#permalink] 20 Sep 2012, 21:04
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