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Political Advocacy Group
[#permalink]
11 Nov 2008, 10:06
Political advocacy groups have begun to use information services to disseminate information that is then accessed by the public via personal computer. Since many groups are thus able to bypass traditional news sources, whose reporting is selective, and to present their political views directly to the public, information services present a more balanced picture of the complexities of political issues than any traditional news source presents.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument above depends?
A) Information services are accessible to enough people to ensure that political advocacy groups can use these services to reach as large a percentage of the public as they could through traditional news sources.
B) People could get a thorough understanding of a particular political issue by sorting through information provided by several traditional news sources, each with differing editorial biases.
C) Information on political issues disseminated through information services does not come almost entirely from advocacy groups that share a single bias.
D) Traditional news sources seldom report the views of political advocacy groups accurately.
E) Most people who get information on political issues from newspapers and other traditional news sources can readily identify the editorial biases of those sources.
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Re: Political Advocacy Group
[#permalink]
11 Nov 2008, 11:55
1
Kudos
This looks a little bit like an LSAT question. Does anyone know the source?
Whether it is an LSAT question or not, it illustrates one of the most important principles of critical reasoning: Start by understanding correctly what the conclusion of the passage actually IS. In this case, the conclusion is that information services present a more balanced picture of "the complexities of political issues" than any traditional news source. The evidence says only that traditional news sources are "selective", which may mean unbalanced. The obvious assumption is that the information services are not even MORE unbalanced; this is choice C.
Yes, Choice A would support the conclusion that the groups could better reach the public through information services. But that is not what the conclusion IS.
Re: Political Advocacy Group
[#permalink]
11 Nov 2008, 13:27
1
Kudos
You're getting caught in a classic GMAT/LSAT trap: Reading meanings into the conclusion which are not actually there. The conclusion, as already stated, is that information services present a more balanced picture than traditional news sources. How many people SEE that picture is irrelevant to the conclusion.
The statement that "political groups have undertaken a project to pass unbiased info to the people" is something that we might LIKE to be true, but it is not the conclusion in this actual paragraph. It is not even in the evidence in the paragraph: The evidence says only that political advocacy groups have begun to use information services to disseminate "information" -- NOT "unbiased" information. The evidence does NOT indicate whether that information from the advocacy groups is biased or unbiased.
As hibloom already said, the conclusion fails if the information available from an information service is biased. This shows that the whole argument is ASSUMING, not PROVING, that this information is UNbiased. That assumption is choice C.
More specifically, choice C says that even if the information coming from each advocacy group IS biased, the information service provides enough information from enough DIFFERENT biases to make its overall picture balanced. So even when the argument is strengthened using choice C, it still does not depend on INDIVIDUAL advocacy groups providing unbiased information.
Re: Political Advocacy Group
[#permalink]
11 Nov 2008, 10:36
A for me. Negate that (if such information services are inaccessible) than the argument that advocacy groups could better reach the wider public falls apart.
Re: Political Advocacy Group
[#permalink]
11 Nov 2008, 11:26
IMO C Argument talks of the balanced view by obtaining information from information services. If these services are influenced by a group having a single bias. Argument fails. Hence C.
Re: Political Advocacy Group
[#permalink]
11 Nov 2008, 11:31
C
bigfernhead wrote:
Political advocacy groups have begun to use information services to disseminate information that is then accessed by the public via personal computer. Since many groups are thus able to bypass traditional news sources, whose reporting is selective, and to present their political views directly to the public, information services present a more balanced picture of the complexities of political issues than any traditional news source presents.
Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument above depends?
A) Information services are accessible to enough people to ensure that political advocacy groups can use these services to reach as large a percentage of the public as they could through traditional news sources. This has nothing to do with the point of the passage. This answer discusses the number of people that can get the information rather than the bias of the information disseminated. B) People could get a thorough understanding of a particular political issue by sorting through information provided by several traditional news sources, each with differing editorial biases. Try the Negate approach. Make the statement in the answer untrue and see if the argument falls apart. if so, then that's a necessary assumption. Here, the determination of the balanced approach of information services does not depend on people's ability to sort through traditional news services. C) Information on political issues disseminated through information services does not come almost entirely from advocacy groups that share a single bias. Again, negate this answer and see if the conclusion in the stem falls apart. If we say, that inforamtion on political issues isseminated through information services DOES come almost entire from groups that share a single bias, then the conclusion that such services present balanced information is not true becaus ethey're all coming from groups with a single bias. D) Traditional news sources seldom report the views of political advocacy groups accurately. This is irrelevant to the balanced information of information services. E) Most people who get information on political issues from newspapers and other traditional news sources can readily identify the editorial biases of those sources. This focuses on people's ability to see through the BS rather than the BS being provided: Is it balanced or biased?
Re: Political Advocacy Group
[#permalink]
11 Nov 2008, 12:57
A
Mainly because- political groups have undertaken a project to pass unbiased info to the people. Their obvious assumption the is going to be that- that info will reach the people.
Re: Political Advocacy Group
[#permalink]
11 Nov 2008, 19:06
OA is C. Question is from GMAT prep.
Archived Topic
Hi there,
This topic has been closed and archived due to inactivity or violation of community quality standards. No more replies are possible here.
Where to now? Join ongoing discussions on thousands of quality questions in our Verbal Questions Forum
Still interested in this question? Check out the "Best Topics" block above for a better discussion on this exact question, as well as several more related questions.