PrepTest 105, Section 1, Question 18
Sociologist: The intended function of news is to(58 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- ANews that serves(7 more words not shown)
- BMost viewers prefer(4 more words not shown)
- CNews has only(3 more words not shown)
- DNews that primarily(10 more words not shown)
- EA news industry(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why can't the news do both? A report could entertain us and still give us information we can use. The sociologist treats those functions as incompatible without explaining why they must be.
I can see the concern about producing news for an audience hungry for entertainment. Seeking attention could affect which stories get told and how they are presented. But even a program that mainly entertains could contain useful information. Think of an entertaining lesson: the jokes don't automatically prevent someone from learning something.
The relevant purpose here is especially specific: giving us information on which to act. The author doesn't just say entertainment distracts from that purpose. The author says news that is primarily entertaining cannot serve it.
What we’re looking for
For the necessary assumption, we need the missing incompatibility. The author has to rule out primarily entertaining news also supplying information we can act on. Otherwise, the description of the news wouldn't establish that it fails at its intended function.
Working the answers
- A
“Should not” is a judgment about what news ought to be like. The conclusion is about what entertaining news can do. Someone could think news shouldn't be entertaining while admitting that entertaining news sometimes informs people. Also, this answer covers any entertainment, whereas the argument's description is that news primarily entertains. A doesn't state the required connection.
- B
Viewers' preferences might help explain why entertaining news is produced. But the author already describes the news as primarily entertaining. The missing step is whether that prevents it from informing us. We don't need most viewers to prefer entertainment in order to make the author's inference about what such news can accomplish.
- C
Even if news had other important functions, it could still fail at the specific intended function identified here. Conversely, calling one function the only important one wouldn't establish that entertainment blocks it. Counting or ranking functions doesn't supply the missing relationship between entertaining and giving actionable information.
- DCorrect
This connects the author's description to the claimed failure. If news primarily entertains, D says it doesn't give us information on which to act. That is the very function the first sentence identifies.
Test the possibility D excludes. Suppose a mainly entertaining news program also gives viewers useful information for a decision. Then the author couldn't conclude it fails at that function merely because it primarily entertains. D rules out that combination. Notice that it needn't forbid every bit of humor in an otherwise informative report; it addresses primarily entertaining news.
- E
The argument doesn't need a universal rule that every profit-seeking news industry inevitably presents entertainment. It describes what happens under the circumstances at issue and then reasons from entertainment to failure of the intended function. Even if commercial pressures explain the entertainment, we still need the missing link D provides.
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