Deck 9: Audience Theories: Uses and Reception

Question 1

According to uses and gratifications theory, what accounts for most of our use of media?

A) Social pressure from other people
B) Inertia; we start using media and can't stop
C) Various communication needs that we consciously know about.
D) Vague emotions that lead us to seek pleasure from media.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

According to uses and gratifications theory, we stop using media when we ____.

A) observe too many negative role models
B) develop inappropriate social expectations
C) fail to experience the satisfaction that we expect
D) form media inhibitions that produce phobic reactions

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Uses and gratifications theory is interested in________.

A) what people do with media
B) what media do to people
C) how people play with media
D) the value of news

Answer 3

A

Question 4

In the fraction of selection, expectation of reward is divided by ________.________

A) gratifications received
B) available alternatives
C) effort required
D) gratifications sought

Question 5

You regularly watch a certain television program because your friends watch it and you frequently talk about it with them. This example illustrates __________.

A) a homeostatic balance between uses sought and gratifications obtained
B) the operation of a media dependency process in a social environment
C) the way that media functions develop as a result of social pressures
D) how social situations lead individuals to develop specific media uses

Question 6

In critical theory, the producer-intended meaning of a piece of media content is called the __________.

A) preferred reading
B) source-dominated interpretation
C) negotiated meaning
D) oppositionally decoded understanding

Question 7

Media texts that are fundamentally ambiguous and legitimately open to interpretation in different ways are said to be ________.

A) source-dominated
B) active
C) polysemic
D) neo-Marxist

Question 8

Surveillance of the environment by journalists is an example of a media ____.

A) use
B) function
C) gratification
D) norm

Question 9

Uses-and-gratification researchers are intrigued by computer-mediated-communication's ______, the ability of the media users to select from a wide menu of content to tailor messages to their needs.

A) demassification
B) ubiquity
C) asynchroneity
D) reframing

Question 10

When active-audience theorists say that audience members are often obstinate, they mean that content consumers are _______.

A) very knowledgeable
B) bored with much media content
C) open to media influence
D) impervious to influence

Question 11

When Janice Radway questioned the readers of romance novels, she found that _____.

A) most had come to accept patriarchal myths embedded in these books
B) most didn't enjoy the books but could find nothing better to do
C) most preferred submissive and emotional female characters
D) most preferred strong but gentle male characters

Question 12

Entertainment theory is interested in _____.

A) how people play with media
B) what people do with entertainment media content
C) what entertainment media content does to people
D) how people learn from entertainment media

Question 13

Individuals' ability to reinvent or subvert media content to oppositionally redefine that content for themselves and others is referred to as _____.

A) reverse targeting
B) semiotic disobedience
C) the digital divide
D) negotiated meaning

Question 14

_______ is the storage of digital content, including personal information and system-operating software, on distant, third-party servers offering on-demand access.

A) Cloud computing
B) The World Wide Web
C) Streaming
D) 5G technology

Question 15

You tune in to Netflix's Stranger Things simply to be delighted by the situations its characters inevitably find themselves in. Watching is fun. You are enjoying the show for its ______ value.

A) eudaimonic
B) oppositional
C) hedonistic
D) preferred

Question 16

The Internet-with users rather than audiences-is an important factor in the revival of uses-and-gratifications theory.

Question 17

The reception studies approach was consciously developed as a complement to effects-trend notions.

Question 18

You like to "talk" to characters on the TV screen, often warning them of impending danger. You are engaging in hedonistic consumption.

Question 19

Mood management theory argues that a predominant motivation for using entertainment media is to moderate or control our moods.

Question 20

Some media content has media content has excitatory potential, the ability to direct viewers' thoughts away from things that induce a negative mood and toward other things that induce positive feelings.

Question 21

The Selective Exposure Self and Affect Management Model argues that media users select messages to manage and regulate their self-concept along with affective and cognitive states and behaviors.

Question 22

According to the Selective Exposure Self and Affect Management Model, when consuming media narratives, the boundaries of our true personal and social selves are expanded to accommodate the story's realities, assumptions, situations, and characters.

Question 23

When the meaning we make from a piece of content is the same one the producer hoped we would make, we have made a negotiated reading.

Question 24

A preferred reading and a dominant reading are different names for the same phenomenon.

Question 25

Active audience theories ask, "Should people be seeking information or entertainment from media?" and "What are the consequences for society when people routinely choose to use media in certain ways?"

Question 26

In the fraction of selection, the expectation of reward for a given media choice is divided by the effort required to access and enjoy it.

Question 27

The media function, correlation of parts of society, refers to the media's ability to communicate values, norms, and styles across time and between groups.

Question 28

A negative media function, for example poorly constructed news reports leading to an ill-informed public, is in reality a dysfunction.

Question 29

Uses-and-gratification researchers are intrigued by computer-mediated-communication's asynchroneity, the ability of users to select from a wide menu of content.

Question 30

Audience "activity" can include "utility," the idea that media have many uses for people, and people can put media to those uses.