Self-study
In its coverage of a controversy regarding a proposal to build a new freeway, a television news program showed interviews with several people who would be affected by the proposed freeway. ██ ███ ██████████ ██████ █████ █████████ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████ ███████████ █████ █████████ ████ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ██ ████ ███ ██████████ ███████ ██ █████████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████████ ████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The conclusion is a hypothesis for why there were so many more anti-freeway interviews than pro-freeway interviews: the TV program is biased against the proposed freeway.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the TV program cherry-picked which interviews to show in order to skew the numbers toward the anti-freeway opinions. This means the author must assume that, in the wider population, a larger percentage of people are actually pro-freeway than the TV program would have us believe. The author may assume that there is a more even split between the pro-freeway and anti-freeway crowds, or he may assume that the pro-freeway crowd outright outnumbers the anti-freeway crowd.
5.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
Most of the ██████ ███ ███████ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████████ ███████████
What viewers were aware of is irrelevant to the question of whether the TV program was biased in what it chose to present to those viewers.
b
Most viewers of ██████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ████████ ██ ██ ██████████ ████ ██ █████
Viewers’ expectations of bias do not help to answer the question of whether this TV program is, in actuality, biased. That most viewers expect some level of bias provides no reason to believe that, contrary to the conclusion, this TV program is actually unbiased.
c
In the interviews, ███ ██████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████ █████████ █████ ████████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ███ ███████ ████
If anything, this strengthens the conclusion. Showing impassioned opposition to the freeway on one hand, and relatively mild support for the freeway on the other, could suggest that the TV program is indeed biased against the freeway.
d
Before the program ██████ ████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ███████ ████████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ███
This means an even higher percentage of people are anti-freeway than what the TV program showed. This denies the author’s assumption that the TV program aired a misleadingly high percentage of anti-freeway opinions. In reality, the program underrepresented anti-freeway opinions.
e
The business interests ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████ ████████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██ █ ███ ████████
The TV station’s business interests have no bearing on the argument. The argument is about whether the numbers of pro- and anti-freeway interviews shown should, or should not, lead us to believe that the TV program is biased.