Section II: Essay Questions

Transcription

1 Part VI: Six Full-Length Practice Tests Section II: Essay Questions Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes 3 questions Question 1 (Reading time 15 minutes. Suggested writing time 40 minutes. This question counts one-third of the total essay sectiorr scorej Directions: The prompt that follows is based on six accompanying sources. This essay requires you to integrate a variety of sources into a coherent, well-written essay. Refer to the sources, both directly and indirectly, to support your position. Avoid mere paraphrasing or summarizing. Your argument should be the central focus; the use of the sources should support your argument. Introduction The media has been influential in the world's reaction to natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and school shootings since the advent of radio and television. What exactly has this influence been and how has it affected the amount of people who help or care for the victims of these disasters? Has it encouraged people to help or has it merely shown them that they are the lucky ones who were not involved in each particular disaster? Assignment Read the following sources carefully. Then, in an essay that synthesizes at least three of the sources for support, take a position that defends, challenges, or qualifies the notion that the media has had a positive influence on the effects of disasters. Refer to the sources as Source A, Source B, and so on: authors' names and titles are included for your convenience. Source A (ISDR) Source B (Lisset) Source C (Floroiu) Source D (Bluestein) Source E (political cartoon) Source F (Global Issues) 90

2 Practice Test 1 Source A "ISDR Joins Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union to boost information, education on disasters." JO June UNESCAP News Services. 25 Sept, N. page. Available at The fallowing passage is an excerpted online article that tells us about new radio and television programs that wilt educate and prepare people for natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific countries. ISDR considers media an essential partner to enhance public safety and adverse impacts of natural disasters. Media are not only part of the early warning chain: they are the best channel to prepare communities for disasters. They can help educate people on the need to reduce risk by regularly informing on the hazards and social vulnerabilities that may lead to disasters. Media also play an important role in convincing Governments and citizens to invest in disaster reduction", says Salvano Briceno, Director of the ISDR secretariat. "It is just the beginning of a new collaboration. We are planning to promote educational programmes like the ones we are already developing in Africa, in Latin America and the Caribbean, and incite broadcasters to invest more in disaster reduction. Education and preparedness are the key to reduce the number of affected people by natural hazards every year. If people know what to do, they can save their own life. Education on disasters should be part of the school's curriculum like it is in Japan and Cuba, for instance. The more people are aware of the risks they face, the better chance they have to save their lives when hazards strikes " says Mr. Briceno. "Broadcasters have a responsibility to educate people and raise their awareness of the dangers of natural disasters. They can do this by airing public service announcements, producing special programmes to mark the anniversaries of previous disasters and creating other content, says David A&tiey. Secretary-General of the ABU. The ABU is well positioned to both coordinate the improvement of emergency warning systems through television and radio among broadcasters across the Pacific region and to assist in the development of content designed to educate audiences in advance on how to respond in the event of emergencies and natural disasters."

3 Part VI: Six Full-Length Practice Tests Source B Lissit, Robert. "The Privacy Piercers." The World and /, July 1999: vol. 14. The following is an excerpted magazine article discussing the effects media has on the lives of The victims of disasters. For example, when Pan Am 103 was blown out of the sky by a terrorist bomb on December 21, 1988, raining blazing debris on the Scottish village of Lockerbie, thousands of media people descended on the hamlet. They stalked and hounded residents for weeks in a relentless hunt for "reaction" to the horrible deaths of 259 people aboard the plane and 11 more on the ground. And for years afterward on the anniversary of the disaster, the media spectacle was repeated, contributing to anguish and lack of closure among the families of Pan Am 103 victims and Lockerbie residents. But a few developments are providing hope for protecting people's privacy when media feeding frenzies occur. For instance, in the months leading up to last year's tenth anniversary of the Pan Am 103 tragedy, Lockerbie residents formed a committee that set up all interviews and directed coverage of memorial events. In addition, when 229 people perished in the ocean in the crash of Swissair Flight II1 off Nova Scotia on September 2, 1998, the airline company did not hesitate to take charge of the media melee. Company officials made sure that relatives of those aboard the flight were protected from intrusive reporting while journalists still got as much information as possible. Nevertheless, victims of terrorism, their friends, and their relatives are remembered by the stories and pictures sent out by the media. 92

4 Practice Test 1 Source C Floroiu, Ruxandra. Altering America: Effective Risk Communication. Washington, D.C.: The National Academic Press, 2002, The following excerpt is from a book discussing risk communications to the public about various kinds of hazards and disasters. The sixth Natural Disasters Roundtable (NDR) forum, "Alerting America: Effective Risk Communication," was held on October at the National Academies in Washington, D.C. Approximately 140 participants from government, academia, business, industry and civil society attended the one-day forum. The objective of the forum was to provide the opportunity for researchers, decision-makers, practitioners and other stakeholders to exchange views and perspectives on communicating risk information to the public about various kinds of hazards and disasters. Effective and consistent risk communication is vital to disaster reduction and response. Formal and informal groups and the media are important channels for risk communication. And technology is playing an increasingly crucial role, making it possible to track potential disaster agents, alert authorities, and educate and warn the public in a more timely manner. However, underlying the public response to risk communication are other factors such as social structure, norms, resources and risk perception, which is embedded in past experience and group interaction. GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE 93

5 PajtVhjSix Fui -Length JPractice Tests Source D Bluestein, Jane. Creating Emotionally Safe Schools: A Guide for Educators and Parents. Albuquerque, New Mexico: Health Communications, Inc., The following is an excerpt from a book discussing the Columbine school shoorings and its psychological effects on society. So it goes with safety in schools. Invariably, whenever somebody brings up the topic. The conversation seems to focus on one little piece of this reality usually a headline-grabbing instance of violence or vandalism. However, if we apply the "big-picture" perspective to this issue, we realize that the more extreme breaches of school safety are only a very small part of a much larger issue. Unfortunately, despite our efforts to place these events in a larger context, we can easily become fixated on the intensity of a terrible moment, and lose our sense of multidimensional reality in which the events occurred. When our focus narrows to one little corner of the picture, we can neglect the millions of other details that are also a part of the scenery, much less how all these threads are woven together or how they impact one another. When our vision fails to go beyond the immediacy of the moment, our lack of perspective can have serious consequences, particularly with regard to how we respond to the event and the solutions we propose. 94

6 Practice Test 1 Source E Adapted from Green Left Weekly. Issue # Aug N. page. Available at greenleft.org.au. The following political cartoon is about September 11, a spoof on the media and how movies and the news affect people 's views on national disasters. STOP' Turr, back Before it's to fate? Michael floorc is a big, fat LIAR' He LIES' An4 he has own POLITICAL AGENDA' L HO* AM I WON'T because it's no* fair S balanced' GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE 95

7 Part VI: Six Full-Length Practice Tests Source F "Hurricane Katrina Rejuvenating the Mainstream Media?" Available at Media/USA.asp#HiuTicaneKatrinaRejuvenatingtheMainstreamMedia. The following is an online article about the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the media. It has not gone unnoticed by many that the American mainstream media has become more critical of power in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the poor response of authorities and George Bush in its aftermath. Many have wondered if this finally means the mainstream media will do what it is supposed to: provide a quality service, critiquing claims rather than simply reporting them, and fundamentally, allowing people to make informed decisions. Media watchdog FAIR is guarded in its optimism noting that not all reporting has been that good. In addition: In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, a more aggressive press corps seems to have caught the White House public relations team off-balance a situation the White House has not had to face very often in the last five years. Many might wonder why it took reporters so long; as Eric Boehlert wrote in Salon.com (9/7/05): "It's hard to decide which is more troubling: that it took the national press corps five years to summon up enough courage to report, without apology, that what the Bush administration says and does are often two different things, or that it took the sight of bodies floating facedown in the streets of New Orleans to trigger a change in the press's behavior" 96