GRE Argument Topic 17

Sample 1:

Television is facing stiffer competition than ever before in its history. New cable stations are popping up seemingly every day. In consequence, businesses are faced with deciding how to spend their advertising dollars. Do they maintain their focus on local stations or spread the money around on the cable networks that their customers also watch? The manager of the local television station is under the illusion that complaints about local news and weather coverage are his only problem; maintaining this illusion could lead him to make some fatal decisions.

Attracting more viewers may attract more advertising dollars. However, the assumption that increasing weather and local news coverage is the means to attract these viewers it may be erroneous. Has the business manager spoken with his advertisers to find out why they cancelled their contracts? They could be looking for a better price or desire exclusivity in their time slot. The advertisers may not like the sound or graphics that the station uses in their ads. There are many other potential reasons why these contracts were cancelled that have little to do with the station’s approach to news coverage.

A second assumption arises from viewer complaints. Since most of the complaints are about weather and local news coverage, the manager has decided to increase coverage of both on all of the station's news shows. The viewers might dislike the newscasters or desire more accuracy in the weather report. The television might be in the middle of farm country where accurate and frequent weather reports have a significant impact on planting and harvesting schedules. The business manager needs more details about the full nature of the viewer complaints. Those viewers may not be concerned about the amount of news coverage but by the content. They might appreciate more human-interest stories or segments about health or high school sports. The business manager's thinking may be too narrow in scope. The economy of the area may be experiencing a downturn. Advertisers' canceling contracts may have nothing to do with programming and everything to do with their own bottom lines. Has the station manager considered discounting the advertising rates in an effort entice the deserters to return? The economy may be contributing to the number of viewer complaints. More residents may be unemployed and watching more television. As a result, they are more aware of what is happening on their local television station.

The business manager may mistakenly assume that he can do anything to remedy the situation he finds himself in. The network that the station broadcasts may have an unpopular lineup of shows, and stations affiliated with that network around the county are in the same position. This is beyond the business manager's control unless he can convince the owners to apply to another major network.

Sample 2:

The business manager of the television station is of the view that they should include more weather and local news on all their news programs. This suggestion comes from the fact that since they have devoted their late night news program to covering more national news instead of weather and local news, there have been many complaints from viewers. Moreover, their advertisers have cancelled the contracts. Thus, the business manager feels that the change should be made to attract more viewers and also avoid losing more advertising revenues. However, the business manager does not venture into finding out other possible reasons of complaints and cancellation of advertising contracts. Therefore, this argument presented by him can be called narrowly perceived.

The business manager mentions that the complaints of the viewers were regarding the station’s coverage of weather and local news. However, there is no mention of what the viewers want or what the nature of their complaint is. It cannot be established by the argument if the viewers actually want more coverage of local and weather news. It is possible that their complaints are regarding wrongly telecast news or concentration over limited area of local or weather news. It is also possible that their complaints are not regarding late-night news programs that have started covering more national news. It is likely that the viewers have complaints regarding the weather and local news covered in general by the television station.

Further, the writer says that the local businesses had cancelled their advertising contracts of the late night news programs. However, the writer does not site in vivid terms what the reason of their cancellation of contract is. It is possible that those who had cancelled their contracts were is a financial crisis and could not pay for their advertisements. It is also not known if the businesses had withdrawn their advertising only from the late night news programs or from all the programs of the television station. It is possible that they are not happy with the result of advertising on the television station and want to withdraw their support to the station altogether. Therefore, this may not be due to the late night news programs telecasting more national news. What the writer suggests holds true only if these businesses had withdrawn their advertising of the late night news programs, but the argument fails to give details of the cancellation. This makes the reader believe that there could be other reasons for this cancellation.

Last but not the least, the suggestion made by the writer is based on the conclusion drawn by the writer that late night news programs are not popular with viewers and businesses. However, this conclusion is extended to all the news programs of the television station, which is taking it too far. The writer says that in order to attract viewers and avoid losing any further advertising revenues they should expand the coverage of weather and local news in all their news programs. In the argument, however, he only speaks of the late night programs losing viewership and advertisement contracts. Therefore, this suggestion is doubtful and farfetched.

On the whole, the argument loses its convincing power when viewed critically. It fails to establish the exact reason behind the complaints of the viewers and cancellation of advertising contracts. Hence, the writer should think logically and come to a better conclusion after going through the above given discussion.