Logic Breakdown

Passage Summary: News is supposed to help us make important decisions, but people often use it to read juicy stories about strangers that have nothing to do with their actual lives.

Conclusion: Sensationalistic gossip in news media fails to fulfill the primary purpose of journalism.

Reasoning: Journalism is intended to provide information relevant to life choices, but sensationalistic gossip is about irrelevant strangers and is consumed for entertainment.

Analysis: The argument sets up a clear definition for the 'purpose' of journalism—relevance to choices—and then introduces a type of content—gossip—that is explicitly described as having 'little relevance.' To complete the argument, we need to point out that because gossip lacks this relevance, it does not serve journalism's stated purpose. Look for an answer that synthesizes this contrast. It’s a straightforward logical deduction: if A's purpose is X, and B is not X, then B does not fulfill A's purpose.

Passage Stimulus

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15.

Which one of the following most logically completes the argument?

Correct Answer
A
A fits: if journalism’s purpose is to inform about choice-relevant matters, but people buy news because of irrelevant gossip, then including that gossip is at least sometimes for nonjournalistic reasons (such as entertainment or revenue).
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