Passage Summary: People like drama, so newspapers give them gossip instead of important news. This habit of the public wanting entertainment over facts can actually end up hurting society.

Conclusion: The public's welfare can be undermined by its own tastes.

Reasoning: Journalists prioritize sensationalism to satisfy reader interest, which leads to important social and political news being pushed aside in favor of rumors and conspiracies.

Analysis: The first sentence is the overarching claim. The rest of the passage explains the mechanism of how this happens—journalists chasing readers with drama. We identify the first sentence as the conclusion because it's the most general statement that the specific examples about journalists and sensationalism are intended to support. If you're stuck, ask yourself: 'What is the author trying to prove with the story about journalists?' The answer is that our tastes can hurt us.