The commercial news media emphasize exceptional events such as airplan

Question

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.

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

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.

DUtkarsh · Answer

IMO, the answer is D.

A. Out of scope
B. Not mentioned anywhere in OOS
C. Too generic
D. Correct answer - The broadcast media is drawing attention to a "greater risk" event, but the public misunderstand the emphasis as "degree of risk"
E. Too extreme

ed1deee · Answer

Been trying to tackle these conclusion/main-point CR problems recently. Personally more challenging than the must-be-true problems.

Stimulus: 
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.

My takeaway: The conclusion is that the commercial news media emphasizing more exceptional/not-frequent events than events that occur frequently and are of higher risk causes the public to be more sensitive and may misinterpret the degree of risk the media represents.

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.
Unrelated to the stimulus so marked this answer choice as wrong

(B) The emphasis given in the commercial news media to major catastrophes is dictated by the public’s taste for the extraordinary.
This statement as also not mentioned in the stimulus/related to the stimulus, hence not correct

(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.
This is not related to the conclusion of the stimulus (see my conclusion/takeaway above)

(D) Where commercial news media constitute the dominant source of information, public perception of risk does not reflect actual risk.
Correct - This aligns with the conclusion. Public perception of risk does not reflect actual risk - aligns with the conclusion that the public perception may be more sensitive to the level of risk illustrated by media reports on not frequent events.

(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.
This answer choice seems extreme - not aligned

Axwe7 · Answer

In disagreement of Option D), how about the cases where the media emphasises the news items, but the public perception of the riskiness is EQUAL to the actual risk of the event?  Bunuel

guddo · Answer

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?

The passage says news media give more attention to unusual events than to more common but riskier ones, and the public treats that  media emphasis  as a sign of actual danger.  So the main point  is that public perception of risk can become distorted when it is shaped by commercial news coverage.

(A) Print media, such as newspapers and magazines, are a better source of information than are broadcast media.

This is unsupported. The passage talks about commercial news media in general, not about print versus broadcast.

(B) The emphasis given in the commercial news media to major catastrophes is dictated by the public’s taste for the extraordinary.

This may be possible, but the passage never says why the media emphasize those events.

(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.

This brings in a new idea, control, that the passage never mentions.

(D) Where commercial news media constitute the dominant source of information, public perception of risk does not reflect actual risk.

This is correct. If the media overemphasize rare dramatic events and the public takes that emphasis as a measure of danger, then public views of risk will not match the real 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.

This is too specific and not supported. The passage gives only a general point about exceptional events, not this particular comparison.

Answer: (D)

The commercial news media emphasize exceptional events such as airplan

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The commercial news media emphasize exceptional events such as airplan

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

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Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards