Journalism's purpose is to inform

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct70% picked this

   is at least sometimes included for

   Why this is right

   This has lovably weak language, but it's otherwise a surprising correct answer to come home to. We know, of course, that this gossip does not serve the purpose of journalism. So is it fair to call the gossip nonjournalistic? Yeah, that seems fair. If the purpose of a legal will is to instruct the executor on how to divvy up one's estate, then someone who puts an inspiring poem in their will put it in there for nonlegal reasons. Why would any newspaper or news tv program include sensationalistic gossip about people their readers will never meet and whose business is of little relevance to their lives? After all, the purpose of journalism is to inform the audience about stuff that's relevant to them. One plausible explanation comes from the second sentence, which is saying that the reason an audience even consumes journalism is often because of this irrelevant gossip. So there is probably at least one occasion in which tv or print journalism includes irrelevant gossip for nonjournalistic reasons.

   Skill tested: Most Supported · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   70%
2. B

   Too Strong21% picked this

   prevents those news media from achieving

   This is the right idea, but phrased too strongly. We only know that people often consume journalism for irrelevant gossip, not that they always do. There's plenty of room in these statements for people to often consume journalism to be informed about relevant matters. So journalism can still be achieving its purpose with those people. And even the people who tune in or buy a paper to read the irrelevant gossip might also end up consuming relevant info. Finally, the causal verb "prevents" isn't really appropriate, since the gossip isn't actively thwarting people from becoming informed about relevant things. In fact, since the gossip gets people in the door, it's actually facilitating the news media having a chance to achieve its purpose.

   21%
3. C

   Unsupported Comparison: now vs. past2% picked this

   is more relevant to people's lives now than it used

   There's nothing in this passage suggesting that the relevance of gossip has changed past vs. present.

   2%
4. D

   Opposite, if anything1% picked this

   should not be thought of as a way of keeping an

   The gossip seems to be precisely for the sake of entertaining / baiting an audience. It's certainly not to inform them, so entertainment is kind of the only other option with media. We consume media to be informed or entertained, for the most part.

   1%
5. E

   Too Strong: no value6% picked this

   is of no value to people who are interested

   We can say that the gossip seems unrelated to the purpose of journalism, but we can't say it has zero value to any person interested in journalism. You might have a person who loves reading the paper for its relevant information, but also finds some entertainment value in reading the gossipy stuff.

   6%