Self-study
Randy: After Mega Cable Television Company refused to carry the competing Azco News Service alongside its own news channels, the mayor used her influence to get Azco time on a community channel, demonstrating her concern for keeping a diversity of news programming in the city.
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Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
Marion hypothesizes that, by using her influence to get Azco time on a community channel, the mayor was rewarding Azco’s owner for politically supporting the mayor.
Notable Assumptions
Marion assumes that there’s no other explanation for why the mayor used her influence to get Azco time on a community channel.
2.
Of the following, which one, ██ █████ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ ███████ █████ ███ ████ ██ ████████ ██████████
a
The owner of ████ █████████ ███ █████ ██████ ███████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ ███████ ███ ███ ███ ███ ████████ ███████
The mayor can still choose to reward the owner, even if the owner didn’t expect it. (A) doesn’t suggest that the mayor’s action might not be a choice to reward the owner for the support.
b
The mayor also ████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █ █████████ ███████ ███ ███████ ████ ████████ █████ █████ █████████ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████
This suggests that there can be other motives behind the mayor’s action besides rewarding for political support. After all, (B) shows that the mayor used her influence in a similar way for someone who didn’t support her.
c
Azco's news coverage ██ ███ █████ ███ █████ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ██████████ ███████████ █████████████
Marion’s theory doesn’t depend on the content of Azco’s channel involving bias. It’s just based on the Azco owner’s support of the mayor. This could be financial support, such as donations to the mayor’s campaign.
d
The many people █████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████ █████████ ████████ ██ █ █████████ ███████ ███ █ █████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ███████ ███ ███ ██████
This doesn’t suggest that the mayor’s action might not be a reward to the Azco owner. If anything, this provides more reason to think the mayor might be politically motivated.
e
The number of ██████ ███ █████ ████ █████ ██████████ █████████ ███████████ ███ █████████ ██████ ███ ███████ █████
The number of people watching Mega Cable has no clear impact on Marion’s theory. Her theory doesn’t depend on any assumptions concerning viewership of either Mega Cable or Azco.