Finding out about the world from television news reading answers

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16-09-2025

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Finding out about the world from television news reading answers are given below. Find the answers for the corresponding passage in order to rectify your mistakes.

1. Story-telling 5. Step-by-step 9. NOT GIVEN 13. False
2. Confusing 6. Mysterious 10. True  
3. Crucial 7. Creative 11. True  
4. Secondary 8. Contrary  12. NOT GIVEN  

To understand the actual IELTS reading test and the level of the reading module, we have included finding out about the world from television news reading answers with explanations.

To achieve a high score in IELTS Reading, you must practise all question types of the reading section. You will be given the ‘finding out about the world from television news’ passage along with three significant question types which could help you with your IELTS preparation. 

By practicing more IELTS reading question types, you can obtain a high band score in the real IELTS exam. We have provided additional question types for you to practice. Examine the following:

  • IELTS reading Summary Completion  
  • IELTS reading True False Not Given
  • IELTS reading Sentence Completion

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7 strategies on the passage “Finding out about the world from television news”

In the “Finding out about the world from television news” passage, you will gain insight into three distinct kinds of IELTS reading questions. Below are some approaches that every candidate should consider to take the IELTS reading test.

  • We have four long paragraphs in the finding out about the world from television news passages from which you can know how to locate the answers from the paragraphs in the official IELTS test.
     
  • To develop your reading abilities and score better in IELTS, you need to answer all the questions. This ‘Finding out about the world from television news’ reading answers article will guide you in this. 
     
  • Skim and locate the portion of the passage by slowing down and reading more patiently to get a better idea of the main section. Spend a limited amount of time on a single question. Pass over the question and proceed to answer the remaining questions. Return to the question you did not respond to after.
  • In this article, there exists a form of IELTS Summary Completion question type in which you need to read the instructions properly. Understanding the structure and order of the summary might assist you in locating the appropriate section of the passage. 
     
  • Solve the true false not given question types by checking if the statement in the question matches the facts in the text, it should be marked as true. If the question statement conflicts or disagrees with the passage's information, it should be marked as false. If you cannot locate the information in the passage, the question statement must be marked as "not given." 
     
  • Answer all the questions based on the reading passage to score high in the reading test. Here we have given ‘finding out about the world from television news’ reading answers with explanation, to make you score high.
     
  • You may struggle in solving the reading test, however you should not spend more than 20 minutes on this particular passage.

Before beginning to construct ‘Finding out about the world from television news’ reading answers, it is vital to take into consideration the IELTS reading tips because they offer a detailed understanding of the reading material.

IELTS reading passage - Finding out about the world from television news

Read the following passage and answer the questions in 20 minutes. Check the ‘Finding out about the world from television news reading answers’ with explanations to validate your mistakes.

Finding out about the world from television news

Throughout The Ideological Octopus (1991). Justin Lewis raises an essential point regarding the formal structure of television news. As he points out, television news lacks the narrative element that, in other genres, serves to grab the interest of the audience and encourage viewing. Lewis identifies this as being one of the primary reasons why news reporting fails to engage audiences and explains why. When people do watch it, they frequently cannot grasp it. Lewis makes the argument that one fundamental issue with watching television news is that the storytelling style provides the viewer with the punchline before the joke – because the main point (the headline) is conveyed right at the beginning, thereafter the programme by the understanding of the term deals with fewer and fewer critical matters. Thus, in television news, our curiosity is not sparked by a mystery that is secondary to bring a satisfying resolution, as is so frequently the case in fictional storylines. In Lewis's perspective, there is no mystery in news channels whose explanation will motivate viewers to tune in. As he simply argues, 'If we attempted to create a television broadcast with a framework that would entirely fail to grab an audience's interest, we might (eventually) arrive at the format of the typical television news programme (Lewis 1991). 

Lewis also provides a fascinating contrast between the high-status phenomena of news programs and the minimal genre of soap operas in this respect. He notes that the latter has the most extensive usage of effective storytelling patterns. Soap opera, with its multiple storylines, might be viewed, in formal situations, as the most effective form of television for cultivating audience attention, much more so than television news. Part of Lewis's supposition is problematic in this instance. There are counterarguments to his ideas, such as sports news programmes that reflect the problematic shows the role he identifies but is still popular, at least among certain types of listeners. Furthermore, he may overstate the role of structure as opposed to content relevance in creating the foundation for programming appeal. Nonetheless, I would argue that his argument in this regard is quite interesting.

Lewis believes not only that soap opera is more descriptively interesting than news programs in formal terms, but also because the world of television fiction is considerably closer to the lives of the majority of people compared to that of news programs. According to him, this is because the world of television fiction often reflects the actual world. They can quickly connect to the moral difficulties and emotional problems experienced by the actors in their favourite soap opera, for example. In contrast, the world of television news is considerably far in all senses; it is a socially distant world occupied by a different race of exceptional or "elite" individuals, the world of "they" rather than "we." This is also why 'most people feel better capable of assessing TV fiction than Television news,' as it seems closer to their own lives and the world in which they reside, whereas the world of television news may as well have been broadcast in from another planet (Lewis 1991). It appears that the faraway world of "the news" is so divorced from common experience that many viewers are incapable of exercising critical judgement. Therefore, regardless of how far they feel from it, they lack any alternate perspective on the events it depicts.

One result of this, according to Lewis, is that people who feel this type of detachment from 'global news' continue to rely on frameworks to grasp news iterms that originate inside the news themselves. In the absence of any alternative source of data or opinion, they are compelled to rely on the media's framework, according to his argument. Many viewers are incapable of situating the media's portrayal of events within any other critical framework (from where would they obtain it?). To this extent, argues Lewis. Gerbner, also his colleagues (see Gerbner et al. 1986; Signorielli and Morgan 1990) may be correct in assuming that viewers absorb the dominant perspectives and "associative logics" given by the media simply under their recurrence. This is not to imply that such viewers necessarily believe or explicitly accept these perspectives; rather, it is to point out that they have no other starting point, regardless of how cynical they may be about 'not believing what you see on television,' and they may therefore tend to rely on 'what was said on television. In a way, this may be considered the opposite of Hall's negotiated code. (1980), as taken over from Parkin (1973). Parkin had suggested that many working-class individuals exhibit a split consciousness,' in which they accept ideas from the dominant ideology on an abstract level, but 'bargain' or 'discount' the relevance of these ideological truths to their circumstances. Here, by contrast, we are confronted with a situation in which people frequently express cynicism in general (so that Hot believing what you see in the media is merely common sense), but in any particular case, they are frequently forced to rely on the mainstream media's account of anything beyond the realm of their direct personal experience, simply for lack of an alternative viewpoint.

Finding out about the world from television news reading  questions

Question 1– 8

Complete the summary below using words from the box. 

Write your answers in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.

According to Justin Lewis, television news lacks the 01)_________ element of other sorts of programming. Consequently, many viewers find it uninteresting and possibly 02)_________. This is because most 03)______ stuff is shown first, followed by 04)____________ details. In television news, there is no 05)__________________ progression towards a conclusion and nothing 06)___________ to discover. In fact, he argues that television news is an illustration of how the 07)_____________ process in the television industry may result in something that is 08)_____________  to what makes a compelling broadcast.

controversial
step-by-step
overwhelming
contusing

secondary
routine
additional
related

 

fast-moving
informal
mysterious
diverse

 

creative
opinionated
story-telling
informative

 

upsetting
contrary
crucial
repetitive

Practice IELTS Reading summary completion to acquire a better understanding of this question type.

Question 9 – 13

Are the following claims consistent with the data presented in the Reading Passage?

Write in boxes 9 - 13 of your answer sheet.

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

09) Lewis regrets that audiences prefer soap operas to televised news.

10) Lewis feels that consumers' perceptions of the dependability of television news are  inconsistent.

11) According to Parkin, many members of the working class view themselves as exceptions to general ideas.

12) The author of the text feels that viewers should be less responsive to what the media conveys to them.

13) Lewis says that viewers occasionally discover that television news contradicts their worldview.

Practice IELTS Reading true false not-given to know this question type.

Question 14

Complete the sentence below. Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

14) Lewis is more concerned with the ____________________  than with their content.

 Practice IELTS Reading sentence completion to answer the questions in a better way.

Finding out about the world from television news reading answers with explanations

Evaluate your score with the ‘Finding out about the world from television news reading answers’ given here as it is given with the detailed explanation.

1.Story-telling.

Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, line 7

Explanation:  From the passage, you’ll get the synonym word as 'narrative'.

2.Confusing.

Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, line 9

Explanation: People "cannot understand" news programs, which demonstrates that they find it confusing.

3.Crucial.

Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, line 10

Explanation: The reading passage specifies that "the most important information appears first." This indicates that the most crucial details are presented first.

4.Secondary.

Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, line 11

Explanation: IN the paragraph it clearly shows the word "less and less significant matters". Secondary means "less significant."

5.Step-by-step.

Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, line 12

Explanation: The passage relates to fiction in which a problem is progressively resolved. This indicates that the issue is resolved in phases, rather than all at once; "step-by-step progress" refers to the completion of a task in stages.

6.Mysterious.

Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, line 13

Explanation: According to the given passage, there is no enigma in television news. An enigma is anything that people do not understand or find unusual, yet are attracted by or greatly interested in; "mystery" refers to something that is strange and attractive.

7.Creative.

Keyword Location: Paragraph 1, line 13

Explanation: The paragraph refers to individuals attempting to "design" a television programme, which is synonymous with having the ideas and creating one. Therefore, the 'creative' process relates to designing a programme.

8.Contrary

Keyword Location: Paragraph 2, line 1

Explanation: The passage states that if individuals attempted to develop a programme with all the elements a programme should not have, they would produce the television news; in other words, the television news contains all the features a programme should not have. It is consequently completely dissimilar to an engaging television programme. Contrary to is synonymous with "totally different from" or "opposite of."

9.NOT GIVEN.

Keyword Location: Paragraph 3.

Explanation: People prefer soap operas to television news, according to Lewis, because their personal lives have more in connection with what they see on soap operas than with television news. They can 'identify with' characters in soap operas, but television news presents them with a 'remote' and 'far' world that makes them feel 'disconnected' from its events. However, we are not told if he finds it unfortunate that this is the case or whether he has an opinion on whether this is a good or negative thing.

10.True.

Keyword Location: Paragraph 4.

Explanation: This is not to indicate... Lewis asserts that people talk about "not believing what you see on television" and have a generally "cynical" attitude toward it, but that they still "fall back on what was said on television". In other words, they have an inconsistent attitude (one that varies from time to time) - they say they don't believe what they see on television news, but they do, because they lack the information or experience to recognize it is false.

11.True.

Keyword Location: Paragraph 4.

Explanation: "Parkin argued," Working-class people, according to Parkin, "accept propositions from the dominant ideology on an abstract level" (in theory, they accept the most widely held beliefs in their culture), but in practice, they find ways that these beliefs do not have to apply to them (in the "particular circumstances of their own situation"). Therefore, they consider themselves exceptions to these general rules.

12.NOT GIVEN.

Keyword Location: Paragraph 4.

Explanation: In the final sentence, the author explains that although people tend to distrust the media in general, they are "pushed back into dependence on" (forced to rely on) what the media are saying since they have no method of proving that it is false. Therefore, he asserts that individuals are forced to be passive media consumers, but he does not assert that they are in the wrong or that they have any recourse.

13.False.

Keyword Location: Paragraph 3 and 4.

Explanation: According to Lewis, many viewers believe that television news originates "from another planet." It depicts a "remote universe" that is "unrelated" to their own life experiences. They feel "alienated" from it but lack an "alternative perspective" to evaluate what they observe. This indicates that they have no relevant personal information or experience when viewing the news. The issue is not that the news fully contradicts what people have experienced, but rather that it has no link to what they know or have encountered.

14.Structure of Programmes

Keyword Location: Paragraph 2, Line 9.

Explanation: The author of the text argues that Lewis's theories have flaws; there are "counter-examples of his arguments" (examples that imply his theories are incorrect) and he focuses too much on the "formal aspects" of television programmes rather than the crucial issue of their substance.

Check the other reading passages

Conclusion

Refer to our “Finding out about the world from television news reading answers” and practise the Summary Completion, True False Not Given and Sentence Completion IELTS reading question types which frequently appear in the test.

arivarasi

About Author Arivarasi

Arivarasi is an experienced author with expertise in the study abroad industry and preparing test materials for exams like IELTS, TOEFL, GRE, SAT, PTE, etc. She stays up-to-date with university and college requirements for international students which allows her to provide guidance on course selection, documents like SOP, LOR, and scholarship opportunities. She has written numerous articles on study abroad exams, destinations, universities & colleges requirements, admission procedures, and the entire process of studying abroad. Collaborating with industry experts and counselors, she crafts informative articles that make students take the right decisions.

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