Deck 13: Incivility, Negativity, and Bias in the Media

Question 1

Where do most American's think news bias comes from?

A) consumer demand
B) the biases of journalists within news organizations
C) the sources consulted by reporters
D) owners

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What are the four information biases that actually matter?

A) fragmentation, personalization, dramatization, and ideological bias
B) the authority-disorder bias, informational, personalization, and dramatization bias
C) dramatization, fragmentation, personalization, and the authority-disorder bias
D) none of these

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following is largely to blame for negativity in campaign news coverage?

A) the norms and routines of journalism
B) the economics of news
C) the campaigns' behaviors and tactics
D) the preferences of audiences
E) all of these

Answer 3

E

Question 4

Of the three broad categories of media bias described in the textbook, which two are the most systematic and pervasive, according to research?

A) affective and informational biases
B) partisan and ideological biases
C) partisan and affective biases
D) ideological and informational biases
E) ideological and affective biases

Question 5

Which of the following are worrisome possible consequences from incivility in political news?

A) public cynicism
B) inability to see credible arguments from the other side
C) distrust of government and institutions
D) none of these
E) all of these

Question 6

Though audiences like it, critics complain about horserace coverage because of which of the following?

A) It offers little relevant information for general election voters.
B) It persuades people to like the winning candidate.
C) It crowds more substantive stories out of the small news hole reserved for politics.
D) A and C only

Question 7

Which of the following do journalists most often list as the main reason people distrust the media today?

A) media errors
B) general mistrust of institutions
C) political polarization in mass public
D) belief that media is corporate puppet
E) all of these

Question 8

There are some positive aspects of partisan news.

Question 9

The fact that audiences are "active" means that there is less concern about persuasive effects from partisan news.

Question 10

Demand-side bias comes from catering to the preferences of audiences.

Question 11

The most pervasive and systematic effect from media bias is persuasion.

Question 12

Affective news biases are, in part, a response to the human negativity bias.

Question 13

Negativity and incivility are examples of information bias in news.

Question 14

Structural media biases are far more common than political media biases.

Question 15

What are the three major types of media bias that have been identified by scholarship and public debate?

Question 16

Name and briefly define three of the four information biases.

Question 17

What is demand-side media bias? What is supply-side media bias?

Question 18

What are some common forms of negative political news content?

Question 19

Describe negative consequences that may come from game frame campaign coverage.

Question 20

What is the relationship between candidate behavior and negativity in campaign news coverage?

Question 21

What is a thematic news frame? Briefly describe and/or give an example. What is an episodic news frame? Briefly describe and/or give an example.

Question 22

What do we mean when we distinguish between supply-side media bias and demand-side media bias? Is one more problematic than the other? Why or why not? Which is more verified empirically? In your answer be sure to define both types of media bias and explain the difference before answering the second part of the question.

Question 23

What is the objectivity norm? Where did it come from and what is the justification for it? What are some of the news content related consequences of the objectivity norm? On the whole, do you think the objectivity norm is a helpful thing or a harmful thing? Why?

Question 24

Link the various information biases or structural biases we have learned about this term to the commercially oriented media system we have in the United States. Does our media system lead to the pervasiveness of such biases? How? What does all this together mean for what we get in our political news? Are there any solutions?

Question 25

What's more common, partisan news bias, affective news bias, or informational news bias? Which of these is most harmful from a democratic perspective? Why? What is the origin of this kind of bias? How could it be curbed?