Unit 4: Vocabulary from Readings 1

This list covers "How News Has Changed," "How Headlines Change the Way We Think," and "Why Partisans View Mainstream Media as Biased and Ideological Media as Objective."
11 words 4 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. precipitous
    done with very great haste and without due deliberation
    This was an erosion of the concept and standards of quality news, and it happened precipitously in the 1980s and 1990s.
  2. recourse
    something or someone turned to for assistance or security
    That was the first really serious blow to the traditional news media. When their ad and classified revenues dropped, the only recourse in their view at the time was to cut costs.
  3. prominence
    relative importance
    In the online environment where information comes as a steady linear stream, where it’s not divided up with a front page, an opinion page, and different specialized news sections (that prioritize news information according to prominence, urgency, civic importance, or local, national, and international orientation), it’s all just mixed together.
  4. anomalous
    deviating from the general or common order or type
    The slight rise, the article pointed out, was an anomalous side note; the longer trend was what was important.
  5. inadvertently
    without knowledge or intention
    A criminal implication is paired with a photograph, and the photograph may inadvertently be tainted as well.
  6. emanate
    proceed or issue forth, as from a source
    Yet over the past decade, harsh criticism of the mainstream media has also increasingly emanated from the left...
  7. pervasive
    spreading or spread throughout
    Across national settings, there is an ever pervasive belief in various forms of media bias.
  8. normative
    relating to or dealing with typical standards or patterns
    Individuals who feel most strongly about an issue tend to see their own side’s views as being more a product of objective analysis and normative concerns, and less influenced by ideology, than the other side’s views (Robinson, Keltner, Ward, & Ross, 1995).
  9. hew
    adhere to; be compatible or in accordance with
    In a range of studies, when news audiences who hew to opposing sides on an issue are given the same news coverage of the topic to evaluate, both view this identical coverage as biased in favor of the other side (Gunther & Schmitt, 2004; Vallone et al., 1985).
  10. congruent
    corresponding in character or kind
    Of consequence here is that partisans will fail to recognize bias in news that is in fact biased, in instances when that bias is congruent with their pre-existing views.
  11. polarize
    become divided in a conflict or contrasting situation
    Americans' trust in news sources has become deeply polarized in recent years—with Republicans, for example, attributing more credibility to the conservative Fox News and less to most other news organizations than Democrats (Pew Research Center, 2008).
Created on Tue Nov 30 13:48:51 EST 2021 (updated Thu Jan 20 15:15:29 EST 2022)

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