Deck 3: Making Sense of Research on Media Effects and Media Culture

Question 1

The idea that messages that affect all people powerfully and directly refers to

A) Agenda setting
B) Two-step flow
C) Magic bullet
D) Gatekeepers

Answer 1

C
Explanation: Also known as the hypodermic theory, the magic bullets assumes an instant effect of messages on people, much like a shot in the arm.

Question 2

How media affect the standards people use to evaluate what they see and hear is called

A) Priming
B) Framing
C) Agenda setting
D) Opinion leaders

Answer 2

A
Explanation: Priming is the process through which people develop standards to judge things. This process happens through media.

Question 3

Which body of theory explores the intersections of economics and culture?

A) Critical theory
B) Political economy
C) Cultural colonialism
D) Cultivation studies

Answer 3

B
Explanation: Political economy studies the impacts of business practices on cultural products.

Question 4

Which body of theory attempts to show how stereotyping in media extends power relationships?

A) Cultivation studies
B) Culture studies
C) Political economy studies
D) Polysemous studies

Question 5

The possibility of a text possessing multiple interpretations means that it is

A) Primed
B) Propaganda
C) Polysemous
D) Political

Question 6

By definition, mass media research involves applying what kind of method to understand or solve problems regarding mass media?

A) Deliberate
B) Qualitative
C) Quantitative
D) Systematic

Question 7

Which of the following is true according to the graph concerning the percentage of U.S. households with home internet access?

A) Elderly people are online more, as they are usually retired and have more free time
B) Lower income people are online more than those with higher incomes
C) College-educated people are online more than those with high school educations
D) Households with non-English speaking parents are online more, as they use the internet for social interaction

Question 8

Some scholars believe a text is open to many meanings because people may interpret it differently. What word do the scholars use for such a text?

A) polysemous
B) polymorphous
C) polytheorous
D) polylingous

Question 9

The text refers specifically to a cable television series that has come under heavy criticism due to its extremely violent content. What series is it?

A) Breaking Bad
B) Game of Thrones
C) The Walking Dead
D) American Horror Story: Coven

Question 10

Table 2.1 in the text compares various media research theories. What is the aim of the Annenberg School in that table?

A) cultivation studies
B) historical approaches
C) anthropological approaches
D) searching for community

Question 11

Again, referring to Table 2.1 in the text concerning Media Research Theories. Lazarsfeld, Katz and Merton are participating researchers in which school of theory?

A) Columbia School
B) Annenberg School
C) Chicago School
D) Frankfurt School

Question 12

Das Capital, written by Karl Marx, was of great interest to which school during the 1930s and 1940s?

A) Harvard University
B) The Frankfurt School
C) Columbia University
D) Deutscher Akademischer Dienst Universitat

Question 13

The naturalistic experiment was used to study the effects of which of the following?

A) subliminal advertising
B) propaganda
C) vertical integration
D) product placement in films

Question 14

The idea that messages delivered through the mass media persuade all people powerfully and directly without the people having any control over the way they react is known as what theory?

A) scatter theory
B) agenda setting theory
C) magic bullet or hypodermic needle approach
D) shotgun approach

Question 15

The following quote appears at the start of the chapter. "There are in fact no masses; there are only ways of seeing people as masses." Who said that?

A) Raymond Williams, Cultural Philosopher
B) Thomas Edison, Inventor
C) Thomas Mann, Author and Philosopher
D) Jay Leno, Television Personality

Question 16

Empirical research

A) uses concepts as jumping-off points for study
B) is often guided by conceptual research
C) contributes to the development of theories
D) all of these

Question 17

Harold Laswell and other researchers feared that mass media could be used

A) to undermine democracy
B) as weapons of persuasion
C) for propaganda purposes
D) all of these

Question 18

Journalist Walter Lippman

A) wrote an important book titled Public Opinion in 1920
B) wrote about how the work routines of reporters contributed to the propaganda function of journalism
C) argued that news media are a primary source of "the ideas in our heads"
D) all of these

Question 19

The "magic bullet" concept of mass communication

A) was shared by the early researchers interested in propaganda
B) held that mass communication was powerful and direct
C) held that people had little control over how they reacted to mass media messages
D) all of these

Question 20

The Columbia School

A) discovered the two-step-model
B) emphasized the idea of active audiences
C) conducted a survey of how people used radio and newspapers
D) all of these

Question 21

Paul Lazarsfeld conducted his panel survey

A) during the 1940 presidential election
B) during the early years of the war in Iraq
C) during the 2004 presidential selection
D) as part of the Payne Fund Studies

Question 22

Uses and gratifications research understands the audience as

A) especially susceptible to manipulation
B) active
C) naïve
D) spectators

Question 23

Hovland's research revealed that under normal circumstances, where all aspects of the communication environment could not be equal, the mass media's ability to change people's attitudes and behaviors on controversial issues was

A) uniform
B) dependent on education
C) minimal
D) an outcome of the agenda

Question 24

The concept of priming is closely associated with the concept of

A) agenda setting
B) two-step-flow
C) stereotypes
D) uses and gratifications

Question 25

The research orientations referred to as the mainstream approaches developed out of research activities at

A) the Yale School
B) the Columbia School
C) the Payne Fund Studies
D) all of these

Question 26

Members of the Frankfurt School agreed that social power

A) has no place in mass communication
B) has limited influences
C) is evident in all aspects of media content
D) is not a factor in entertainment

Question 27

The Frankfurt School's writings about the corrosive influence of capitalism on culture came to be known as

A) anti-capitalist theory
B) critical theory
C) Marxist theory
D) European theory

Question 28

Political economists, like Ben Bagdikian, tend to focus

A) only on cultural issues
B) on how organizational relationships create demands for particular types of media content
C) uncritically on vertical integration
D) agenda setting

Question 29

Cultivation research

A) tends to regard TV violence as a source of release for audiences
B) does not concern itself with power relationships in society
C) tends to regard TV violence as a factor that reinforces power
D) focuses only on news and education, not on entertainment

Question 30

The area of cultural studies is composed of

A) many approaches to understanding the connection between mass media and social power
B) mainstream research approaches that view the audience as active
C) cultivation researchers
D) all of these

Question 31

In general, cultural scholars tend to highlight

A) the ways that media often functions like a "hypodermic needle" injecting media messages into the minds of consumers
B) meaning making practices related to technologies and texts
C) the relationship between video games and violence
D) networks of media ownership and influence

Question 32

Cultural studies research methods generally do NOT include

A) historical approaches
B) linguistic and literary approaches
C) critical theory approaches
D) "two-step flow" approaches

Question 33

Scholars who study Agenda Setting agree that

A) the liberal agenda has potentially dangerous effects on our society
B) the agendas of politicians are the most powerful force on our media
C) the media often guide people on what to think about through selective focus on issues.
D) all of these

Question 34

The writings of George Creel and Upton Sinclair were

A) solid examples of uses and gratifications research
B) works of critical propaganda analysis
C) largely the result of Russian leadership
D) mostly quantitative but still empirical

Question 35

The multiple approaches to mass communication research explored in this chapter

A) have been the source of contentious debates among scholars
B) represent different philosophical foundations
C) can be used as needed to best fit the specific research question
D) all of these

Question 36

Propaganda refers to messages designed to change people's attitudes and behaviors about social issues.

Question 37

In his book Public Opinion, Robert McChesney describes how the media places ideas in our heads.

Question 38

A panel survey involves getting a group of people together once and asking them questions.

Question 39

Digital divide refers to the differences among different groups of people in their getting access to information.

Question 40

George Gerbner and his colleagues at the Annenberg School for Communication are best known for originating the ideas on active audiences.

Question 41

Mass media research involves the use of systematic methods to understand or solve problems regarding the mass media.

Question 42

A content analysis counts certain aspects of media products.

Question 43

Reliability refers to the extent to which a study accurately describes the circumstances that exist in the real world.

Question 44

George Creel headed the U.S. propaganda effort during World War One.

Question 45

Carl Hovland's American Soldier research is an example of a naturalistic experiment.

Question 46

People who are information-rich to begin with get richer faster than people who are information-poor.

Question 47

The term digital divide refers to the separation of new and old media.

Question 48

The term knowledge gap refers to the differences that exist between print and electronic media.

Question 49

Media activist Robert McChesney has argued that a journalistic system that focuses more on attracting the attention of audiences rather than trying to build an informed society threatens the ability of citizens to participate in public affairs.

Question 50

Cultural colonialism is a term that refers to how different parts of the world specialize in doing what they do best.

Question 51

An understanding of media research is interesting but certainly not crucial to developing media literacy.

Question 52

Education has little influence in determining whether or not a person pays attention to news and public affairs.

Question 53

Opinion leaders are important elements in the two-step-flow.

Question 54

Although sociology has influenced mass communication research, anthropology has not.

Question 55

It is usually impossible for a media literate person to recognize how a particular example of media research fits into a particular research tradition.

Question 56

The two-step-flow model indicates that media influence people in ways consistent with the magic-bullet concept.

Question 57

Both quantitative and qualitative research are empirical.

Question 58

Scholars who study media effects tend to have little interest in television programs that contain acts of violence.

Question 59

Conceptual research has no influence on the types of questions asked by empirical researchers.

Question 60

Early communications researchers such as Elihu Katz explored what cultivation effects of what he called "hidden curriculum" TV violence.

Question 61

Unlike other Frankfurt School scholars Adorno stressed the positive aspects of what he called the "culture industry"

Question 62

Cultural studies researcher use a "two step flow" model to discuss the influence of government-sponsored media to citizens.

Question 63

Most critics of mainstream research feel that it focuses too much on the reinforcement of currently held beliefs.

Question 64

While early studies of media were foundational, today's media can scholars play an equally important role.

Question 65

Part of becoming media literate involves taking a stand on why the media are important.

Question 66

Explain the hypodermic needle approach to mass media influence and why the name of the model might be considered too simplistic to describe the actual tenets of propaganda analysis.

Question 67

Discuss the findings of Columbia School research in the 1940s.

Question 68

Discuss why proponents of the critical approach to mass media research criticize the mainstream approach.

Question 69

What is cultivation analysis, and what does it claim? "Cultivation studies, most associated with George Gerbner, look at the long-term influence of media representations on how mainstream audiences think about the world.

Question 70

Explain cultural colonialism as proposed by political economic theory.