Finding Out About The World From Television News Reading Answers

Aug 19, 2022

Finding Out About The World From Television News Reading Answers contains 14 questions which are to be answered in 20 minutes. Finding Out About The World From Television News Reading Answers consists of two types of questions including-complete the summary and do the following statements agree with the given information. Candidates are required to choose one word as an answer to complete the summary. Candidates are required to decide whether the given statement is true or false based on the given information. They can also choose the third answer if the information is not given.

Candidates must read the IELTS reading passage, identify keywords, and recognize synonyms to answer the question. In the IELTS Reading Section, the candidates are presented with different question styles with specific instructions. It is important that candidates abide by the word limit as well as answer accurately for what is asked.

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Section 1

Reading Passage Question

Finding About the World from Television News IELTS Reading Sample

The Ideological Octopus (1991). Justin Lewis points to an important issue concerning the formal structure of television news. As he notes, television news lacks the narrative element which, in other genres, serves to capture viewer interest and thus motivate viewing. Lewis posts this as one of the key reasons why television news often fails to interest people and why, when they do watch it. People often cannot understand it. Lewis argues that one fundamental problem with watching television news is that its narrative structure means that the viewer is offered the punchline before the joke – because the main point (the headline) comes right at the beginning, after which the programme, by definition, deals with less and less important things. Thus, in television news our interest is not awakened by an enigma which is then gradually solved, to provide a gratifying solution – as so often happens in fictional narratives. In Lewis’s terms, in television news, there is no enigma, the solution of which will motivate the viewing process. As he baldly states, ‘If we decided to try to design a television programme with a structure that would completely fail to capture an audience’s interest, we might (finally) come up with the format of the average television news show’ (Lewis 1991).
What Lewis also does is offer an interesting contrast, in this respect, between the high-status phenomenon of television news and the low-status genre of soap opera. The latter, he observes, offers the most highly developed use of effective narrative codes. To that extern soap opera, with its multiple narratives, could be seen, in formal terms, as the most effective type of television for the cultivation of viewer interest, and certainly as a far more effective form than that of television news for this purpose. Clearly, some of Lewis’s speculation here is problematic. There are counter examples of his arguments (e.g. instances of programmes such as sports news which share the problematic formal features he points to but which are nonetheless popular – at least among certain types of viewers). Moreover, he may perhaps overstress the importance of structure as against content relevance in providing the basis for programme appeal. Nonetheless, I would suggest that his argument, in this respect, is of considerable interest.
Lewis argues not only that soap opera is more narratively interesting than television news, in formal terms, but, moreover, that the world of television fiction, in general, is much closer to most people’s lives than that presented in the news. This, he claims, is because the world of television fiction often feels to people like their own lives. They can, for example, readily identify with the moral issues and personal dilemmas faced by the characters in a favourite soap opera. Conversely, the world of television news is much more remote in all senses; it is a socially distant world populated by another race of special or ‘elite’ persons, the world of them not. This is also why ‘most people feel more able to evaluate TV fiction than TV news … because it seems closer to their own lives and to the world they live in … [whereas] the world of television news might almost be beamed in from another planet (Lewis 1991). It is as if the distant world of ‘the news’ is so disconnected from popular experience that it is beyond critical judgement for many viewers. Hence, however, alienated they feel from it, they nonetheless lack any alternative perspective on the events it portrays.
One consequence of this, Lewis argues, is that precisely, because of this distance, people who feel this kind of alienation from the ‘world news’ nonetheless use frameworks to understand news items which come from within the news themselves. This, he argues, is because in the absence of any other source of information or perspective they are forced back on using the media’s own framework. Many viewers are simply unable to place the media’s portrayal of events in any other critical framework (where would they get it from?). To this extent, Lewis argues. Gerbner and his colleagues (see Gerbner et al. 1986; Signorielli and Morgan 1990) may perhaps be right in thinking that the dominant perspectives and ‘associative logics’ offered by the media may often simply be soaked up by audiences of their repetition. This is not to suggest that such viewers necessarily believe, or explicitly accept these perspectives, but simply to note that they have no other place to start from, however cynical they may be, at a general level, about not believing what you see on television, and they may thus tend, in the end, to fall back on ‘what it said on TV’.

In one sense, this could be said to be the converse of Hall’s negotiated code’ (1980), as taken over from Parkin (1973). Parkin had argued, that many working-class people display a ‘split consciousness’, whereby they accept propositions from the dominant ideology at an abstract level, but then ‘negotiate’ or ‘discount’ the application of these ideological propositions to the particular circumstances of their own situation. Here, by contrast, we confront a situation where people often express cynicism in general (so that Hot believing what you see in the media’ is no more than common sense), but then in any particular case, they often find themselves pushed back into reliance on the mainstream media’s account of anything beyond the realm of their direct personal experience, simply for lack of any alternative perspective.

Section 2

Solution With Explanation

Question 1 -8

Complete the summary.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY.
Write your answers in boxes 1-8

Justin Lewis says that television news does not have the 1…………………..feature that other types of the programme have. As a result, many viewers do not find it interesting and may find it 2………………………………… This is because the 3……………………….information comes first and after that 4………………………………… matters are covered, in television news, there is no 5………………………….. progress towards a conclusion and nothing 6………………………………… to find out about. In fact, he believes that television news is an example of how the 7……………………… process in the field of television could result in something that is 8……………. to what constitutes an interesting programme.

upsetting	creative opinionated	routine	step-by-step	informal
contrary	story-telling	additional	overwhelming	mysterious
crucial	informative	related	contusing	diverse
repetitive	secondary	controversial	fast-moving	-

Question 1.

Answer: 1 story-telling
Supporting Sentence: The Ideological Octopus (1991). Justin Lewis points to an important issue concerning the formal structure of television news. As he notes, television news lacks the narrative element which, in other genres, serves to capture viewer interest and thus motivate viewing.
Keywords: narrative element
Keyword Location: Paragraph 1 Lines 1-3
Explanation: It is given that, television news lacks the narrative element which, in other genres, serves to capture viewer interest and thus motivate viewing.” The word narrative element means storytelling.

Question 2.

Answer: confusing
Supporting Sentence: Lewis posts this as one of the key reasons why television news often fails to interest people and why, when they do watch it. People often cannot understand it
Keywords: often cannot understand
Keyword Location: Paragraph 1 Lines 4-5
Explanation: It is given that Lewis posts this as one of the key reasons why television news often fails to interest people and why, when they do watch it. People often cannot understand it”. The sentence clearly states that many viewers do find it interesting and may find it confusing.

Question 3.

Answer: crucial
Supporting Sentence: Lewis argues that one fundamental problem with watching television news is that its narrative structure means that the viewer is offered the punchline before the joke – because the main point (the headline) comes right at the beginning, after which the programme, by definition, deals with less and less important things.
Keywords: main point, beginning, less and less important things, narrative structure.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 1 Lines 6-9
Explanation:It is given “Lewis argues that one fundamental problem with watching television news. Its narrative structure means that the viewer is offered the punchline before the joke. Because the main point (the headline) comes right at the beginning, after which the programme, by definition, deals with less and less important things.” The author clearly states that crucial information comes first.

Question 4.

Answer: secondary
Supporting Sentence: Lewis argues that one fundamental problem with watching television news is that its narrative structure means that the viewer is offered the punchline before the joke – because the main point (the headline) comes right at the beginning, after which the programme, by definition, deals with less and less important things.
Keywords: main point, beginning, less and less important things, narrative structure.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 1 Lines 6-9
Explanation:It is given “Lewis argues that one fundamental problem with watching television news. Its narrative structure means that the viewer is offered the punchline before the joke. Because the main point (the headline) comes right at the beginning, after which the programme, by definition, deals with less and less important things.” The author clearly states that the crucial information comes first and then the secondary things.

Question 5.

Answer: step-by-step
Supporting Sentence: As he baldly states, ‘If we decided to try to design a television programme with a structure that would completely fail to capture an audience’s interest, we might (finally) come up with the format of the average television news show’ (Lewis 1991).
Keywords: a structure, audiences interest
Keyword Location: Paragraph 1 Lines 11-13
Explanation:In Paragraph 1 Lines 11-13 it is clearly stated there is a step-by-step process towards a conclusion.

Question 6.

Answer: Mysterious
Supporting Sentence: Thus, in television news our interest is not awakened by an enigma which is then gradually solved, to provide a gratifying solution – as so often happens in fictional narratives.
Keywords: enigma, interest
Keyword Location: Paragraph 1 Lines 10-11
Explanation: Enigma means mystery.

Question 7.

Answer: creative
Supporting Sentence: In Lewis’s terms, in television news, there is no enigma, the solution of which will motivate the viewing process. ‘If we decided to try to design a television programme with a structure that would completely fail to capture an audience’s interest, we might (finally) come up with the format of the average television news show’ (Lewis 1991).
Keywords: enigma
Keyword Location: Paragraph 1 Lines 11-13
Explanation: Paragraph A talks about Lewis's terms. And mentions about trying to design a programme with a different theme and structure that can boost the viewing process.

Question 8

Answer: contrary
Supporting Sentence: What Lewis also does is offer an interesting contrast, in this respect, between the high-status phenomenon of television news and the low-status genre of soap opera.
Keywords: contrast
Keyword Location: Paragraph 2 Lines 1-2
Explanation: In paragraph B, it is mentioned that lewis contract is interesting.

Question 9- 14

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?

in boxes 9-14 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

(Guide: In this task type, the candidates are required to study the passage properly then answer the questions 9-14 marked from. Each question’s answer will either be true or false or not given.)

Question 9. Lewis concentrates more on the structure of programmes than on what is actually in them.

Answer:True
Supporting Sentence: Moreover, he may perhaps overstress the importance of structure as against content relevance in providing the basis for programme appeal. Nonetheless, I would suggest that his argument, in this respect, is of considerable interest.
Keywords: overstress, importance of structure, against content relevance.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 2 Lines 11-12.
Explanation:It is stated that “Moreover, he may perhaps overstress the importance of structure as against content relevance in providing the basis for programme appeal.” According to these lines, Lewis concentrates more on the structure of programmes than on what is actually in them.

Question 10. Lewis regrets viewers’ preference for soap operas over television news.

Answer: Not Given
Supporting Sentence: The relevant information was not given in the reading passage.
Keywords: The relevant information was not given in the reading passage.
Keywords Location: The relevant information was not given in the reading passage.
Explanation: The relevant information was not given in the reading passage.

Question 11. Lewis suggests that viewers sometimes find that television news contradicts their knowledge of the world.

Answer:False
Supporting Sentence: Lewis argues not only that soap opera is more narratively interesting than television news, in formal terms, but, moreover, that the world of television fiction, in general, is much closer to most people’s lives than that presented in the news. This, he claims, is because the world of television fiction often feels to people like their own lives. They can, for example, readily identify with the moral issues and personal dilemmas faced by the characters in a favourite soap opera. Conversely, the world of television news is much more remote in all senses; it is a socially distant world populated by another race of special or ‘elite’ persons, the world of them not.
Keywords: more narratively interesting, often feels to people like their own lives, world of television news is much more remote
Keyword Location: Paragraph 3 Line 1-7
Explanation:Lines 1–7 of paragraph three read, "Conversely, the world of television news is much more remote in all respects. It is a socially remote world populated by another race of exceptional or "elite" folks, the world of them not." Lewis does not imply that people find that television news goes against what they already know about the world.

Question 12. Lewis believes that viewers have an inconsistent attitude towards the reliability of television news

Answer: True
Supporting Sentence: This is not to suggest that such viewers necessarily believe, or explicitly accept these perspectives, but simply to note that they have no other place to start from, however cynical they may be, at a general level, about not believing what you see on television, and they may thus tend, in the end, to fall back on ‘what it said on TV’.
Keywords: no other place to start from, not believing.
Keyword Location: Paragraph 4 Line 8-11
Explanation:In paragraph 4, lines 8-11, it is stated, "but simply to note that they have no other place to start from. However cynical they may be, on a general level, about not believing what you see on television. And they may thus incline, in the end, to fall back on 'what it said on TV." In light of this, Lewis contends that viewers' perceptions of the veracity of television news are ambivalent.

Question 13. Parkin states that many working-class people see themselves as exceptions to general beliefs.

Answer:True
Supporting Sentence: Conversely, the world of television news is much more remote in all senses; it is a socially distant world populated by another race of special or ‘elite’ persons, the world of them not.”
Keywords: Remote, another race of special or ‘elite’ persons
Keyword Location: Paragraph 3 Line 4-7
Explanation: In Paragraph 3 Line 4-7 “Conversely, the world of television news is much more remote in all senses. It is a socially distant world populated by another race of special or ‘elite’ persons, the world of them not.” Thus, according to these lines Parkin states that many working-class people see themselves as exceptions to general beliefs.

Question 14. The writer of the text believes that viewers should have a less passive attitude towards what they are told by the media.

Answer: Not Given.
Supporting Sentence: The relevant information was not given in the reading passage.
Keywords: The relevant information was not given in the reading passage.
Keywords Location: The relevant information was not given in the reading passage.
Explanation: The relevant information was not given in the reading passage.

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