Since the passage was found difficult by many and I personally loved the literature aspect of it, I take a shot here to explain the the passage as best I can.
1st Para:
This guy Marshal McLuhan (calling him Mike here) became popular with his first written book. The theme of his book was that any media,e.g. television, has a power that can make people perceive the work of advertisers/actors in a way opposite to what was intended.
"One of McLuhan's core theses was that every communication medium, including the television, has inherent effects apart from those that any artist or businessperson willfully creates through it and that these effects are not always positive. "
(Imaginary example-not from passage- Suppose an advertiser promotes a particular product 10 times in 2 hours. Such aggressive advertising can have a negative impact on the product even though the intended purpose of the advertisers was only to market their products. That's what Mike told that media can have opposite impact. )

2nd Para gives the example of above thesis. Mike tried to join the advertisers by inventing memorable phrases. Sadly, it was perceived negatively by public.
This is seen in "Arguably, however, he never expected or even hoped to deflect substantially the tide of the technological and social forces in play at the time". So he finds a solution- Don't go against the situation. Learn how to go with the situation. This is what " He likened the successful reader of his works to the sailor in Edgar Allan Poe's story "A Descent into the Maelstrom," who saves himself by studying a whirlpool and by moving with, not against, its current. " conveys.

3rd Para presents the author's opinion about Mike's thesis "that every communication medium, including the television, has inherent effects apart from those that any artist or businessperson willfully creates through it and that these effects are not always positive. " mentioned in 1st para. He says this theses is both important and insignificant at the same time. How? He gives the example of Internet. After the advent of Internet, the people no longer form stringent negative perception of what is being communicated. In fact, it demands society to broaden its perspective of media channels and examine their impact more closely. Finally, he concludes by saying that media channels can now be used to deliver a single message to diverse audiences under different circumstances.

Hope this all makes sense.
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Thanks for the explanation!!
But how do you interpret from these lines:-

On the other hand, in the present milieu, where media professionals and advertisers tend to speak of "channels" and "content" as well-defined and non-overlapping components of communication, McLuhan's primary message appears to been lost among all the new mediums.

Finally, he concludes by saying that media channels can now be used to deliver a single message to diverse audiences under different circumstances.

Mike used to think that a single msg on media is bound to be perceived with a negative interpretation. But presently, media professionals and advertisers see the content the way it is intended to be seen (non-overlapping and well defined). Hence, Mike's primary msg appears to be lost among all the new mediums because public now knows to see the intended/positive aspect of the content shown).
Hope this helps.
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but it is mentioned in the last para the same line just above highlighted text.

Got one wrong (Q2). Others correct in nearly 10 minutes.
This was one of the passages wherein i found selection more useful than elimination. I also admit that i could not understand nearly 70% of the passage in my first reading

Question 1: The line "achieved the height of public attention in part by emulating the advertisers he studied" in the passage made me choose option C
Question 2: Still cant make out why option E wins over option D. I found a word to word match, therefore marked option D. Could not really understand the question (and its options) though.
Question 3: The phrase "in the present milieu" made me choose option D.
Question 4: The phrase "examine their impact more closely" made me choose option B

IMO this is very unlike a GMAT passage

Hello arora1 you are almost there, Question #2 is basically debatable question, passage clearly supports option E but OA is D, I have tried to find its OE but i couldn't so let it go. No worries for Question #2.

Happy prep.


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Hi,

Since I managed to get Q2 correctly, I thought I would chime in.

Carefully read the analogy in 2nd paragraph: "He likened the successful reader of his works to the sailor in Edgar Allan Poe's story "A Descent into the Maelstrom," who saves himself by studying a whirlpool and by moving with, not against, its current."

Basically what it says about readers is that the readers of his theses do not resist the changes in media, but they go with the flow of the changes bu understanding them. This is exactly what option D says.

E is incorrect because that option is valid specifically about internet as suggested in 3rd para, and not about all media channels in general.

Hope this helps a bit!