The Expansion of Mass Media has Led to an Explosion in News Coverage of Criminal Activities

Reading Passage Question

The expansion of mass media has led to an explosion in news coverage of criminal activities to the point where it has become virtually impossible to find citizens who are unaware of the details of crimes (5) committed in their communities. Since it is generally believed that people who know the facts of a case are more likely than those who do not to hold an opinion about the case, and that it is more desirable to empanel jurors who do not need to set aside personal prejudices (10) in order to render a verdict, empaneling impartial juries has proven to be a daunting task in North American courts, particularly in trials involving issues or people of public interest.

Judges rely on several techniques to minimize (15) partiality in the courtroom, including moving trials to new venues and giving specific instructions to juries. While many judges are convinced that these techniques work, many critics have concluded that they are ineffective. Change of venue, the critics argue, cannot (20) shield potential jurors from pretrial publicity in widely reported cases. Nor, they claim, can judges’ instructions to juries to ignore information learned outside the courtroom be relied upon; one critic characterizes such instruction as requiring of jurors (25) “mental contortions which are beyond anyone’s power to execute.”

The remedy for partiality most favored by judges is voir dire, the questioning of potential jurors to determine whether they can be impartial. But critics (30) charge that this method, too, is unreliable for a number of reasons. Some potential jurors, they argue, do not speak out during voir dire (French for “to speak the truth”) because they are afraid to admit their prejudices, while others confess untruthfully to having (35) prejudices as a way of avoiding jury duty. Moreover, some potential jurors underestimate their own knowledge, claiming ignorance of a case when they have read about it in newspapers or discussed it with friends. Finally, the critics argue, judges sometimes (40) phrase questions in ways that indicate a desired response, and potential jurors simply answer accordingly.

These criticisms have been taken seriously enough by some countries that rely on juries, such as Canada (45) and Great Britain, that they have abandoned voir dire except in unusual circumstances. But merely eliminating existing judicial remedies like voir dire does not really provide a solution to the problem of impartiality. It merely recognizes that the mass media (50) have made total ignorance of criminal cases among jurors a virtual impossibility. But if a jury is to be truly impartial, it must be composed of informed citizens representative of the community’s collective experience; today, this experience includes exposure to (55) mass media. Impartiality does not reside in the mind of any one juror, it instead results from a process of deliberation among the many members of a panel of informed, curious, and even opinionated people.

“The expansion of mass media has led to an explosion in news coverage of criminal activities”- is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension. This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 4 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

1. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?

(A) Due to the expansion of mass media, traditional methods for ensuring the impartiality of jurors are flawed and must be eliminated so that other methods can be implemented.
(B) Criticisms of traditional methods for ensuring the impartiality of jurors have led some countries to abandon these methods entirely.
(C) Of the three traditional methods for ensuring the impartiality of jurors, voir dire is the most popular among judges but is also the most flawed.
(D) Voir dire is ineffective at ensuring impartiality due to the latitude it offers potential jurors to misrepresent their knowledge of the cases they are called to hear.
(E) Due to the expansion of mass media, solving the problem of minimizing partiality in the courtroom requires a redefinition of what constitutes an impartial jury.

2. One critic characterizes judges' instructions as requiring "mental contortions" (line 25) most likely because of a belief that jurors cannot be expected to

(A) deliberate only on what they learn in a trial and not on what they knew beforehand
(B) distinguish between pretrial speculation and the actual facts of a case
(C) hear about a case before trial without forming an opinion about it
(D) identify accurately the degree of prior knowledge they may possess about a case
(E) protect themselves from widely disseminated pretrial publicity

3. The primary purpose of the third paragraph is to

(A) propose a new method of ensuring impartiality
(B) describe criticisms of one traditional method of ensuring impartiality
(C) argue against several traditional methods of ensuring impartiality
(D) explain why judges are wary of certain methods of ensuring impartiality
(E) criticize the views of those who believe judges to be incapable of ensuring impartiality

4. With which one of the following statements would the author be most likely to agree?

(A) Flaws in voir dire procedures make it unlikely that juries capable of rendering impartial decisions can be selected.
(B) Knowledge of a case before it goes to trial offers individual jurors the best chance of rendering impartial decisions.
(C) Jurors who bring prior opinions about a case to their deliberations need not decrease the chance of the jury's rendering an impartial decision.
(D) Only juries consisting of people who bring no prior knowledge of a case to their deliberations are capable of rendering truly impartial decisions.
(E) People who know the facts of a case are more opinionated about it than those who do not.

5. The passage suggests that a potential benefit of mass­ media coverage on court cases is that it will

(A) determine which facts are appropriate for juries to hear
(B) improve the ability of jurors to minimize their biases
(C) strengthen the process by which jurors come to decisions
(D) change the methods judges use to question potential jurors
(E) increase potential jurors' awareness of their degree of bias

6. Which one of the following principles is most in keeping with the passage's argument?

(A) Jurors should put aside their personal experiences when deliberating a case and base their decision only on the available information.
(B) Jurors should rely on their overall experience when deliberating a case even when the case was subject to mass-media exposure before trial.
(C) Jurors should make every effort when deliberating a case to ignore information about the case that they may have learned from the mass media.
(D) Jurors should be selected to hear a case based on their degree of exposure to mass-media coverage of the case before trial.
(E) Jurors should be selected to hear a case based on their capacity to refrain from reading or viewing mass-media coverage of the case while the trial is in progress.

7. Of the following, the author's primary purpose in writing the passage most likely is to

(A) search for compromise between proponents and critics of voir dire
(B) call attention to the effects of mass media on court proceedings
(C) encourage judges to find new ways to ensure impartial jurors
(D) debate critics who find fault with current voir dire procedures
(E) argue for a change in how courts address the problem of impartiality

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