媒體與廣告（Media / Advertising）題佔 Task 2 約 8%。後真相時代題目變形快——從古典的「廣告讓人買不需要的東西」到新型的「社群平台該不該為假新聞負責」。
五種子題
| 子題 | 典型提問 | |-----------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------| | 兒童與廣告 | Should advertising aimed at children be banned? | | 假新聞 / 錯誤資訊 | Who should be responsible for stopping fake news? | | 名人文化 | Do we give too much attention to celebrities? | | 新聞業的未來 | Is free journalism still possible when people refuse to pay? | | 政府管制 | Should governments regulate what appears on social media? |
四個萬用論點
萬用論點 1：Attention as commodity 注意力作為商品
適用：社群平台、廣告、新聞、演算法。
The defining feature of the contemporary media environment is that users are not customers but product. Platforms earn revenue by capturing and reselling attention to advertisers, which creates a structural incentive to maximise engagement — even when the content most likely to engage is outrageous, misleading or harmful.
萬用論點 2：Asymmetric persuasion 不對稱的說服
適用：兒童廣告、政治廣告、弱勢族群。
A core ethical concern with advertising arises when one party possesses vastly more psychological insight than the other. Teams of behavioural scientists design campaigns aimed at children who lack the cognitive development to recognise persuasion, producing an imbalance that the market, left to itself, does not correct.
萬用論點 3：Freedom vs harm 言論自由 vs 傷害
適用：假新聞、仇恨言論、政府管制。
Debates about media regulation invariably return to a difficult line: at what point does restricting speech cause more damage than the speech itself? History suggests that overreaction is as dangerous as inaction, but also that genuinely harmful misinformation — vaccine denial during a pandemic, for example — carries measurable costs in lives. Neither pure permissiveness nor heavy-handed censorship is defensible.
萬用論點 4：Media literacy 媒體識讀
適用：任何媒體題的收尾。
Ultimately, no regulatory regime can substitute for citizens who know how to interpret what they read. A population trained from school age to identify sources, recognise emotional manipulation and compare claims across outlets is more resilient to misinformation than any filtering algorithm yet developed.
台灣考生的容易失分處
台灣考生寫媒體題最常出現的問題是立場搖擺不定——寫到一半突然反轉立場，結果 Coherence 被扣分。另一個是把「廣告」跟「媒體」混為一談——IELTS 裡這兩個字意義不同（advertising 是付費宣傳，media 包含新聞、娛樂、社群）。看題目時圈出關鍵字，確認你在討論哪一個。
主題詞彙
| 中文 | 英文 | |---------------|---------------------------------------------------| | 主流媒體 | mainstream / legacy media | | 社群媒體 | social media platforms | | 假新聞 | fake news / misinformation | | 有意誤導 | disinformation | | 調查報導 | investigative journalism | | 新聞自由 | press freedom | | 言論自由 | freedom of expression | | 審查 | censorship | | 演算法放大 | algorithmic amplification | | 媒體識讀 | media literacy | | 同溫層 | echo chamber / filter bubble | | 注意力經濟 | the attention economy | | 廣告商 | advertisers | | 置入性行銷 | product placement / sponsored content | | 政府管制 | regulatory oversight |
範例段落（兒童廣告題）
The case for restricting advertising aimed at young children rests on a simple asymmetry of power. On one side sit global corporations with multimillion-dollar research budgets devoted to understanding exactly how a six-year-old's brain responds to colour, music and character licensing. On the other sits the child, whose developmental stage does not yet permit the recognition that persuasion is taking place. Calling such an exchange "consumer choice" stretches the term beyond recognition.
為什麼 Band 7：rests on a simple asymmetry 是高階 verb phrase、stretches the term beyond recognition 是 idiomatic 但 formal、整段用類比畫面（兩邊對比）而非抽象說理——Band 7+ 的 coherence 特徵。
快速練習
題目：Some people believe that social media platforms should be legally responsible for fake news posted by their users. Others argue this would threaten freedom of expression. Discuss both views.
試寫 intro（60 字）+ §3 你的那一側。挑戰：用 nevertheless 或 having said that 承認對方一次，再強化自己的立場。