GRE作文范例之观点陈述型作文

Issue
　　"The reputation of anyone who is subjected to media scrutiny will eventually be diminished."
　　Sample Essay
　　The intensity of today’s media coverage has been greatly magnified bythe sheer number and types of media outlets that are available today.Intense competition for the most revealing photographs and the latestinformation on a subject has turned even minor media events intoso-called "media frenzies". Reporters are forced by the nature of thecompetition to pry ever deeper for an angle on a story that no one elsehas been able to uncover. With this type of media coverage, it doesbecome more and more likely that anyone who is subjected to it willhave his or her reputation tarnished, as no individual is perfect.Everyone makes mistakes. The advances in technology have made muchinformation easily and instantaneously available. Technology has alsomade it easier to dig further than ever before into a person’s past,increasing the possibility that the subject’s reputation may be harmed.
　　The above statement is much too broad, however. "Anyone" covers allpeople all over the world. There are people whose reputations have onlybeen enhanced by media scrutiny. There are also people whosereputations were already so poor that media scrutiny could not possiblydiminish it any further. There may very well be people that have donenothing wrong in the past, at least that can be discovered by themedia, whose reputations could not be diminished by media scrutiny. Tobroadly state that "anyone" subjected to media coverage will have hisor her status sullied implies that everyone’s reputation worldwide issusceptible to damage under any type of media scrutiny. What aboutchildren, particularly newborn children? What about those people whosepast is entirely unknown?
　　Another problem with such a broadstatement is that it does not define the particular level of mediascrutiny. Certainly there are different levels of media coverage. Doesmerely the mention of one’s name in a newspaper constitute mediascrutiny? What about the coverage of a single event in someone’s life,for example a wedding or the birth of a baby? Is the media coverage ofthe heroic death of a firefighter or police officer in the line of dutyever going to diminish that person’s reputation? It seems highlyunlikely that in these examples, although these people may have beensubjected to media scrutiny, these individual’s reputations areundamaged and potentially enhanced by such exposure.
　　Without adoubt, there are many examples of individual’s whose reputations havebeen diminished by media scrutiny. The media’s uncovering of formerU.S. President Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky will mostlikely overshadow the entire eight years of his administration.Basketball superstar Michael Jordan’s sterling reputation has beentarnished more than once by the media; first by media coverage of hisgambling habits, then most recently (and in a much more harmful manner)by news reports of his marital infidelities and the divorce from hiswife of thirteen years. Fame and fortune can turn an ordinaryindividual into a media target where reporters will stop at almostnothing to "dig up dirt" that will sell more newspapers or entice moreviewers to watch a television program. It could even be argued thatmedia scrutiny killed Princess Diana as her car sped away from theprivacy-invading cameras of reporters in Paris. There is no doubt thatthere are a large number of people who have been hurt in one way oranother by particularly intense media scrutiny.
　　In summary, itseems impossible that for every person that is subjected to mediascrutiny, his or her reputation will eventually be diminished. Millionsof people are mentioned in the media every day yet still manage to goabout their lives unhurt by the media. Normal individuals that aresubjected to media scrutiny can have their reputation either enhancedor damaged depending on the circumstances surrounding the mediacoverage. The likelihood of a diminished reputation from the mediarises proportionally with the level of notoriety that an individualpossesses and the outrageousness of that person’s behavior. The lengthof time in the spotlight can also be a determining factor, as thelonger the person is examined in the media, the greater the possibilitythat damaging information will be discovered or that the individualwill do something to disparage his or her reputation. But to broadlystate that media scrutiny will diminish anyone’s reputation is tooverstate the distinct possibility that, given a long enough time and acertain level of intensity of coverage, the media may damage a person’sreputation.
　　(766words)
　　xx