Sajjad1994
The commercial news media emphasize exceptional events such as airplane crashes at the expense of those such as automobile accidents, which occur far more frequently and represent a far greater risk to the public. Yet the public tends to interpret the degree of emphasis the news media give to these occurrences as indicating the degree of risk they represent.
If the statements above are true, which one of the following conclusions is most strongly supported by them?
(A) Print media, such as newspapers and magazines, are a better source of information than are broadcast media.
(B) The emphasis given in the commercial news media to major catastrophes is dictated by the public’s taste for the extraordinary.
(C) Events over which people feel they have no control are generally perceived as more dangerous than those which people feel they can avert or avoid.
(D) Where commercial news media constitute the dominant source of information, public perception of risk does not reflect actual risk.
(E) A massive outbreak of cholera will be covered more extensively by the news media than will the occurrence of a rarer but less serious disease.
OFFICIAL EXPLANATION
(A) No. In the passage, no distinction is made between the various news media.
(B) No. Although the news media probably do emphasize exceptional events to satisfy the public’s taste for the extraordinary, the passage does not indicate why the news media emphasize exceptional events.
(C) No. The passage discusses only the effects of the emphasis the media gives to events, not people’s psychological reactions to events.
(D) Yes. The passage says that the public fears most what it sees most. So if the news media gives more coverage to rare air crashes than to common car crashes, then the public will mistakenly believe that air travel is more dangerous.
(E) No. Although this is supported by the passages, it misses the main point of the passage: that excessive coverage of exceptional events distorts public perception of the risk of various activities. In this answer-choice, the coverage would give the public a true perception of the risks involved.