Student Name: ________________________
English/Language Arts Teacher’s Name: ________________________
Date:________________
SCHOOL DISTRICT OF CLAY COUNTY
OneClay Writes – Fall 2015
Grade 7
Directions:
Read each passage carefully and respond completely to the writing prompt. Your writing should show
that you can organize and express your thoughts clearly and that you have responded completely to the
writing prompt. You are required to write your response in English. Responses written in languages
other than English will not be scored. You may NOT use a dictionary. If you aren’t sure how to spell a
word, spell it the best way you can. Manage your time carefully so that you can read the passages and
plan, write, revise, and edit your response. A planning sheet has been provided for you. You may use the
front and back of this planning sheet to jot down ideas, plan, and organize (prewrite, cluster, map, or
web) what you’ll write. It is important to use the planning sheet to plan what you will write, but make
sure that you allow enough time to complete your response in your answer sheet. The writing on your
planning sheet will NOT be scored. Only the response you enter in your answer sheet will be scored. You
have up to 120 minutes to read, plan, write, revise, and edit your response.
Writing Prompt:
After reading “Confessions of a Media Junkie” and “Misinformed”, write an informative essay in
which you explain how Mass Media impacts society. Support your response with evidence from
the text.
Passage #1
Confessions of a Media Junkie
I fully admit it: I'm a mass media junkie. Ever since I had the finger coordination to click a remote control, I've
rarely gone a day without some delicious helping of television, radio, or the Internet. I love it for the constant
access it gives me to news and information. I love it for the shows and games and funny images and blogs. I
love that it lets me watch celebrities being celebrities, and as crazy as it may sound, I even love the
commercials and advertisements. I've grown up in a society where mass media is no longer a luxury. It's a
necessity. There are many who argue that it's an unfortunate necessity—maybe not even a necessity at all—
and that we would probably be better off without it. In my opinion, such an attitude throws a whole world of
good out with a little bit of bad.
And I mean a whole world. Never in the history of the human species have so many individuals and cultures
been so closely connected to each other. Television and Internet news sources bring us images from around
the world. Without ever leaving our comfy couches here in America, we can learn a little bit about what it's
like to live in Japan, France, or Nigeria. We learn about the issues that affect people around the globe.
Through the Internet, we can even communicate on a daily basis with people we would never have
encountered in our lifetimes if we were still living in the pre-media dark ages. Mass media has helped us grow
a global culture, and for that reason, people around the world have more in common than they ever
have before.
Thanks to mass media of all kinds—print and electronic—we are much more informed on our own home
ground as well. Individuals and organizations are better able to get their message out to a large number of
people. Public service announcements that are widely distributed on radio and television stations raise
awareness of issues that affect the general population. They inform people about healthy eating, saving water,
preventing heart disease, and so many other actions that can make society better. Through political
advertisements, debates and news coverage of elections, candidates for public office can also make their
opinions clear. Voters can see a candidate's face, hear a candidate's voice, and consider the details of the
candidate's platform. They can then make a more informed voting decision than was ever possible before.
Likewise, people can make more informed decisions about how to spend their money. Commercials and
advertisements present us with a world of possibilities for making our lives easier, more comfortable, more
interesting, and more fun. What car is right for our lifestyle? What breakfast would help us get our day off to
the best possible start? What games would be most entertaining to play with our families on the weekends?
Product advertisements let us know what's out there. With this wealth of information, it's up to us to decide
what we need and what product would best fulfill that need.
Am I saying that every piece of information we get from mass media sources is trustworthy and undeniably
beneficial? Absolutely not. Advertisers, politicians, and even news organizations are all trying to sell something
to the public. There is no small amount of bias in mass media. But audiences are free to seek out further
information that verifies or disproves the claims made by those mass-media messages. The important thing is
that the information—and a great wealth of it—is available to the public. And finally, it's up to us to decide
whether to click the mute button, change the channel, or navigate to another webpage.
Passage #2
Misinformed
So many of our ideas, choices, and opinions are not really our own. We have absorbed them from what we
have seen and heard on TV, on the Internet, and in magazines and newspapers. In a culture where we live
and breathe media messages from the moment we wake to the moment we go to sleep, it's hard to imagine
things any other way. We've come to depend on such sources for information and entertainment. And we are
too entrenched to turn back now. No doubt about it, mass media is here to stay. But the messages it sends us
are often misleading, utterly wrong, or even quite harmful.
The most obvious of these misleading messages comes in the form of advertisements. Product ads are
necessarily biased. Advertisers want to convince you that their product is better, faster, or cheaper than other
products on the market. And they will bend the truth in order to make their case. Is one brand of paper towels
really more absorbent than another brand? Does one kind of soda really taste that much better? Most likely, it
makes almost no difference which brand you buy, but advertisers have to make you believe that it does, even
if the so-called information they're presenting is wrong or misleading.
Moreover, advertisements and other media images have a great deal of influence on how we see ourselves.
Standards of beauty, health, fashion, and what's "normal" are all shaped by mass media. Maybe we're driven
to buy a new pair of shoes or a different color of lipstick to keep up with a trend. It's one thing to have our
fashion sense defined by what celebrities are wearing on TV. But things get dangerous when we start
comparing ourselves and our lives to the artificial ideals presented in the media. Are we thin enough?
Attractive enough? Rich enough? Is our hair the right color and texture? Do we have enough stuff, the right
gadgets, the best things? These questions can have a serious and very negative effect on our selfesteem, our emotional wellbeing, and even our health.
But advertisements are an easy target for this kind of criticism. What's truly upsetting—and shocking—is that
even the so-called news we get through mass media sources is full of misinformation, distortion, and bias. This
has a great deal to do with who owns the media. About 95% of all of the media we get every day is owned by
only a handful of companies. And those companies are out to make money. News broadcasts—like almost any
other broadcasts—have to attract an audience. And how do they attract that audience? With flashy images,
sensational stories, and over-simplified information. The more drama in the news, the better. Dry, unbiased,
and detailed information is less likely to catch and hold the attention of the average viewer. Editors and
journalists are under pressure to present stories with broad appeal. These stories, often about crime and
disasters, become the centerpiece of news broadcasts, even while more important (though more complex and
less visually exciting) events are taking place. Audiences develop a skewed sense of what's happening in the
world. Consequently, when it comes time to make informed decisions as citizens about what officials to elect
and what causes to support we might find ourselves entirely ill-equipped for the task.
One might argue that it is up to the consumers of mass media to defend themselves against misinformation,
and that good information is out there, even if it takes some searching and "comparison shopping." But
wading through all those media messages can easily turn into a full time job. It's time that we stand up for
ourselves and demand that the suppliers of those messages take some responsibility for their content.
Student Name: __________________________________
PLANNING SHEET
Remember, use this sheet for planning what you will write. The writing on this sheet will NOT be scored.
Only the writing on the answer sheet will be scored.
Writing Prompt: After reading “Confessions of a Media Junkie” and “Misinformed”, write an informative
essay in which you explain how Mass Media impacts society. Support your response with evidence from
the text.
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Student Name:__________________________________
English/Language Arts Teacher:_____________________
Date:______________
ANSWER SHEET
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