Deck 9: Television: Reflecting and Affecting Society

Question 1

Television is turned on approximately ___ hours a day in the average American home.

A) 2
B) 4
C) 6
D) 8

Answer 1

8

Question 2

The "father" of television, determined by a lawsuit, was

A) Philo Farnsworth
B) Vladimir Zworykin
C) David Sarnoff
D) Milton Berle

Answer 2

Philo Farnsworth

Question 3

Although TV was invented in 1927, it wasn't formally introduced to the public until the World's Fair in

A) 1929
B) 1936
C) 1939
D) 1946

Answer 3

1939

Question 4

What effect did World War II have on television?

A) it made television cheaper
B) it provided more programming
C) it required a change in the number of lines of resolution
D) it froze development

Question 5

Poor quality films taken directly from television monitors in the studios were called

A) affiliates
B) kinescopes
C) cavalcades
D) film strips

Question 6

Critics point out that television's golden age wasn't golden for

A) women
B) Native Americans
C) Latinos
D) all of these

Question 7

Cable television began

A) as an attempt to bring TV into hard-to-reach areas
B) to allow people to receive additional channels
C) as an alternative to satellite TV
D) all of these

Question 8

Fox network started in the

A) 1950s
B) 1960s
C) 1970s
D) 1980s

Question 9

Broadcast television networks are in a fight for survival with

A) cable television
B) video games
C) the Internet
D) all of these

Question 10

Geostationary refers to

A) television transmitters
B) microwave links
C) wireless cable
D) satellite orbits

Question 11

Television programs originate from

A) the station or cable channel itself
B) a network
C) a syndicator
D) all of these

Question 12

Strip programming is showing a program

A) right after a highly rated program
B) in a back-to-back sequence
C) in the same time period five times a week
D) in the same time period once a week

Question 13

A rating is the percentage of homes

A) with TVs that are tuned into a particular station
B) with TVs in use that are tuned into a particular station
C) with access to cable or satellite
D) none of these

Question 14

The top-rated television program of all time was

A) the Super Bowl in 1972
B) the movie Gone with the Wind in 1976
C) the last episode of M*A*S*H in 1983
D) the Winter Olympics in 1994

Question 15

The best-known television rating service is

A) Billboard, Inc.
B) Arbitron Research
C) Nielsen Media Research
D) none of these

Question 16

A ratings device that allows each family member to record viewing habits is called a

A) Viewer Diary
B) People Meter
C) TV Checkpoint
D) Personal Monitor

Question 17

Most television programs are designed to make limited intellectual and aesthetic demands on their viewers

A) to not offend children
B) because it's the least expensive to produce
C) to reach the largest audiences
D) to satisfy strict FCC regulations

Question 18

Lowest-common-denominator programming damages viewers intellectually and emotionally, according to Neil Postman in his book:

A) Amusing Ourselves to Death
B) Sex and Violence on TV
C) Change Channels, Change Minds
D) The Rise and Fall of American TV Programming

Question 19

TV commissioner Newton Minnow called TV programming

A) the boob tube
B) the idiot box
C) the vast wasteland
D) all of these

Question 20

__ percent of premium cable programming includes violence.

A) 25
B) 50
C) 65
D) 85

Question 21

Which of the following is NOT true about TV wrestling programs?

A) Coca-Cola has withdrawn its ads
B) it is one of the fastest growing types of programming
C) children mimic the moves of the professional wrestlers
D) the wrestlers don't get hurt

Question 22

The FCC requires TV stations to air three hours of children's programs every week between

A) 7
B) 10
C) 7.
D) 2 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Question 23

A device that allows parents to block out undesired programming is called a

A) censor device
B) rating controller
C) parental controller
D) V-chip

Question 24

An "FV" notation on a television program means it is

A) about family values
B) a foreign version
C) recommended for family viewing
D) none of these

Question 25

Compulsive television viewers

A) watch more television than the average person
B) are not very selective in what they view
C) use television as a distraction
D) all of these

Question 26

"The CSI effect" refers to jurors who have unrealistic expectations about forensic science from watching shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Question 27

Lines of resolution are rows of pixels that make up a television picture image.

Question 28

Movie studio executives were excited about early television, as it gave them another outlet for feature film distribution.

Question 29

60 Minutes was the first televised news magazine.

Question 30

The first show to feature a nearly all-black cast was Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which depicted blacks as ignorant and clownish.

Question 31

Cable TV has a smaller channel capacity than standard TV.

Question 32

In the mid-1980s, The WB became the first new national network in 40 years.

Question 33

Movie studios tried to make VCRs illegal.

Question 34

The cultural effects of the VCR included time shifting and zapping.

Question 35

Independent stations are more valuable than stations with a network affiliation.

Question 36

Basic cable is the least expensive program that cable providers offer.

Question 37

The first superstation was the Cable News Network.

Question 38

Pay-per-view is the same thing as video on demand.

Question 39

A geostationary satellite orbits the earth at the same speed that the earth rotates on its axis.

Question 40

Television ratings are taken in households as well as places of business.

Question 41

Nielsen ratings households are selected every year from a pool of applicants.

Question 42

Premium cable channels generally have the most violent programming.

Question 43

Research indicates that exposure to televised stereotypes increases viewer acceptance of stereotypes.

Question 44

One form of stereotyping is making an ethnic minority invisible.

Question 45

On television, S ratings are for suggestive dialog and D ratings are for death by violence.

Question 46

In what ways did radio pave the way for the development of television?

Question 47

How did Philo T. Farnsworth and Vladimir Zworykin contribute to the invention of television?

Question 48

Why did the FCC place a four-year freeze on television license applications after World War II?

Question 49

What were the names of the original television networks, and where did they originate?

Question 50

Discuss the factors that came together resulting in 1948-1958 becoming television's golden age.

Question 51

Some critics suggest that television's golden age wasn't golden for everyone. What do they mean? Use examples

Question 52

Why did the movie studios consider television a threat?

Question 53

Discuss the original intent for cable television, and what it was subsequently used for.

Question 54

Discuss the development of the three new broadcast television networks that emerged after 1980. Include the factors that made their development a good idea.

Question 55

Describe some of the newer technologies that compete with broadcast television.

Question 56

Explain the impact of the Carnegie Commission's recommendations in 1967.

Question 57

Why is professional wrestling a controversial genre of television programming? Use examples.

Question 58

What aspects of television entertainment and news cause the most controversy? Discuss both sides, giving examples.

Question 59

Television has been accused of both stereotyping minorities and not employing them fully as actors and business executives. Discuss this criticism. What statements has the television industry made in its defense?

Question 60

Describe the traits and the resulting problems that researchers say compulsive television viewers have. Do you agree or disagree that compulsive television viewing is a problem? Why or why not?

Question 61

______ paved the way for the development of television.

Question 62

Television was first shown to the public in ______ at the World's Fair in New York.

Question 63

Channel ______ is the placement of assigned spots on the electromagnetic spectrum to individual broadcast stations.

Question 64

The years from 1948 through 1958 were known as network television's ______ age.

Question 65

During early television, women were portrayed as stereotypical ______.

Question 66

The television program ______ was the first ratings success for a program with black heroes and white villains.

Question 67

Televised programs like the Super ______ created an obsession with sports among American males.

Question 68

CATV became _____ television in the 1970s when it began to offer additional signals from distant stations.

Question 69

Must-______ rules are FCC regulations that require cable systems to carry all local television stations within the system's area of coverage.

Question 70

Public ______ Channels are provided by cable systems as part of their community franchise agreements.

Question 71

HDTV has 1,125 scanning lines instead of the ______ lines of conventional TV.

Question 72

VOD refers to video on ______.

Question 73

One cultural effect of the VCR was ______ shifting, releasing consumers from the television station's schedule.

Question 74

An independent station is one that is not affiliated with or owned by a ______.

Question 75

The Carnegie Commission, in 1967, used the key term ______, rather than "educational" in its report on noncommercial television.

Question 76

Fox syndicates its programs to ______, where the shows sell for $1.99 an episode.

Question 77

The power of ______ demonstrates just how important the audience is to the television industry.

Question 78

Nielson's ______ Meter collects information from family members on what programs they are viewing.

Question 79

Sweeps months include November, February, May and ______.

Question 80

Research into television entertainment indicates that television programs contain ethnic, racial and sexual
______.