"Most" in question B

Started by Zara · started 2018-06-18 17:08 · last activity 2019-02-13 20:02 · 3 replies

I read some of the responses as to why question B is wrong, however I am caught up on the term "most". I read option B as Anita disagreeing with the fact that traditional journalism ethics is wrong for "most" dilemmas because she gave an example of a typical case that Marcus's ethics do not apply. Wouldn't that be the same as saying the belief that ethics applies to most dilemmas is wrong?

Replies

  1. Anita · 2018-06-19 15:34

    @Zara B tells us Marcus is wrong for saying most ethical dilemmas can be solved by traditional journalistic ethics. It’s hard to tell if Anita is saying he is wrong about that, so much as that she’s clarifying that in the cases where it’s necessary to make a decision, the guidelines are inadequate. He may be right about most cases, but Anita is talking about when journalists have to determine what’s newsworthy in the first place.
  2. Remone-Davis · 2019-01-18 02:43

    Can you please explain this a little better.?I still don't understand
  3. Ravi · 2019-02-13 20:02

    @Remone-Davis, Great question. Let's first take a look at the stimulus. Marcus opens by stating that when a journalist has an ethical dilemma (problem), the journalist simply needs to consider traditional journalistic ethics, as these ethics will solve the problem. Marcus gives the example that when a journalist has found out about a hot, new story, she needs to take it to the press ASAP. Marcus says it's not cool to just sit on the story because of personal or professional concerns. Anita responds to Marcus by stating that of course, making interesting and important information available to the public is part of a journalist's job. However, she adds, the advice Marcus has given doesn't help in the typical case. She provides the example of when a journalist has hot, new information but doesn't know if it's truly newsworthy. The question says, "The point made by Anita’s statements is most accurately expressed by which one of the following?" Anita's response tells us that she doesn't think Marcus's advice is adequate in typical cases. The main idea of her response is that she doesn't think that Marcu's advice applies to the typical kind of dilemma a journalist faces in not knowing whether a piece of information is newsworthy or not. Since this question is asking us for the main point of Anita's statements, we're looking for an answer that says this that she doesn't think that Marcu's advice applies to the typical kind of dilemma a journalist faces in not knowing whether a piece of information is newsworthy or not. (A) says, "Marcus’ claim that traditional journalistic ethics is clear for most ethical dilemmas in journalism is incorrect." From the stimulus, we know that Anita doesn't think that Marcus's advice is very helpful in the typical cases of journalism. And although she states that it does not help with the normal type of dilemma that a journalist faces, she never states whether or not those types of dilemmas are ethical ones. As a result, since this is descriptively inaccurate, we can get rid of (A). (B) says, "A typical case illustrates that Marcus is wrong in claiming that traditional journalistic ethics is essentially correct for most ethical dilemmas in journalism." The problem with (B) is that Anita doesn't ever challenge whether or not traditional journalistic ethics is correct. Rather, Anita simply doesn't think that traditional journalistic ethics helps in a typical case. Therefore, we can get rid of (B). (C) says, "The ethical principle that Marcus cites does not help the journalist in a typical kind of situation in which a decision needs to be made." (C) does an excellent job paraphrasing the main point of Anita's statements. Marcus's statements are, according to Anita, obvious. However, they do not help with the typical cases of journalistic dilemmas that journalists face. This is the correct answer choice. (D) states, "There are common situations in which a journalist must make a decision and in which no principle of journalistic ethics can be of help." The issue with (D) is that Anita never rules out all ethical principles; rather, she simply states that the traditional journalistic ethics that Marcus references aren't usually helpful in typical journalistic cases. As a result, we can get rid of (D). (E) says, "Traditional journalistic ethics amounts to no more than an unnecessarily convoluted description of the journalist’s job." The problem with (E) is that Anita never states that that traditional journalistic ethics is convoluted. She only thinks that Marcus's point about newsworthy information going public is obvious. Since Anita never discusses traditional journalistic ethics as unncessarily convoluted, we can get rid of this choice. Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any other questions!

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