Deck 2: Media Impact: Mass Communication Research and Effects

Question 1

Research studies at two universities indicate that playing video games like the Grand Theft Auto series

A) leads to aggressive behavior in players
B) has no connection to real world violence
C) both leads to aggressive behavior and has no connection to real world violence
D) none of these

Answer 1

both leads to aggressive behavior and has no connection to real world violence

Question 2

Systematic research into effects of the media began with studying the effects of

A) printed Bibles in the late 1400s
B) Uncle Tom's Cabin in the late 1800s
C) WWI propaganda in the 1920s
D) The War of the Worlds in the late 1930s

Answer 2

WWI propaganda in the 1920s

Question 3

The Payne Fund Studies were

A) part of the "People's Choice" studies
B) dismissed because they were funded by a corporation
C) accepted because of reliable research methods
D) one of the first large-scale investigations into media effects

Answer 3

one of the first large-scale investigations into media effects

Question 4

The Payne Fund studies used

A) content analysis
B) survey methods
C) laboratory experiments
D) all of these

Question 5

When people with different attitudes interpret the same messages differently, it's called

A) selective exposure
B) selective perception
C) selective retention
D) all of these

Question 6

Opinion leaders are part of

A) the individual differences theory
B) the two-step flow of communication
C) the cumulative effects flow of communication
D) the agenda-setting theory

Question 7

The American Soldier studies examined

A) desensitization
B) individual differences
C) uses and gratifications
D) social learning

Question 8

Applied research involves studies

A) conducted for universities
B) conducted for commercial purposes
C) paid for by the government
D) none of these

Question 9

The first major study conducted by Dr. Wilbur Schramm in the late 1950s looked at

A) how people respond to opinion leaders
B) how people seek out messages consistent with their beliefs
C) how children use television
D) the effects of comic books on children

Question 10

What is NOT true of Dr. Fredric Wertham's study of comic books?

A) He found a link between comic books and violence
B) His study was not supported by scientific research
C) His study documented the gory and racy detail found in the medium
D) His study demonstrated the minimal effects model

Question 11

A popular explanation for the failure of onlookers to come to the aid of mugging victims in major cities is called

A) reinforcement
B) selective exposure
C) desensitization
D) content analysis

Question 12

A set of related statements that seek to explain and predict behavior is called

A) a powerful effects model
B) a theory
C) a minimal effects model
D) a mixed effects model

Question 13

According to the bullet theory

A) media effects flow directly from media to individual
B) media affects different people in different ways
C) media flows in a multi-step flow
D) media flows in a two-step process

Question 14

Which is NOT true about social learning theory?

A) it is the same as modeling theory
B) it is based on the assumption that people learn how to behave by watching others
C) it is seen in early experiments with Bobo, the clown
D) it tells people what to think about

Question 15

The assumption that media shapes how people view the world is

A) diffusion of innovations theory
B) agenda setting theory
C) cultivation theory
D) individual differences theory

Question 16

The theory that predicts that the amount of attention given to an issue in the media affects the level of importance assigned to it by the public.

A) agenda setting theory
B) cultivation theory
C) individual differences theory
D) diffusion of innovations theory

Question 17

The goal of impartiality is sometimes abandoned in

A) scientific research
B) cultural studies
C) content analysis
D) applied research

Question 18

Political-economic analysis is based on the work of

A) Karl Marx
B) Marshall McLuhan
C) Maxwell McCombs
D) Sigmund Freud

Question 19

Changing language patterns as seen in the uses of the words "pregnant" and "sucks" in the media can be explained by

A) cultivation theory
B) agenda setting theory
C) social learning research
D) all of these

Question 20

_____ refers to the concept that media exposure is always affecting us, whether we realize it or not.

A) Fluctuation analysis
B) The baseline effect
C) Mass media theory
D) Media wack

Question 21

Most researchers believe media have

A) powerful effects
B) minimal effects
C) mixed effects
D) none of these

Question 22

The idea that viewing violence tends to reduce violent behavior is called

A) modeling
B) correlation
C) catharsis
D) socialization

Question 23

Correlation means

A) there are powerful media effects
B) one thing caused another
C) two things happen at the same time, or in close succession
D) there are high statistics in one variable

Question 24

Entertainment executives defend dramatic violence saying

A) the connection to real-life violence is tiny
B) it is essential to plot or character
C) it reflects our real-life violent society
D) all of these

Question 25

Author Steven Johnson says that media is making us smarter because

A) TV story lines are more complex than they used to be
B) Video games require us to figure out the rules as we play them
C) Comedies often contain allusions to politics, cinema or philosophy
D) all of these

Question 26

Research supports the idea that video games like Grand Theft Auto are good for children.

Question 27

Concerns about the impact of media began in the 1940s.

Question 28

In the survey method type of research, variables (such as sexual scenes) are isolated.

Question 29

An early media effects study found that heavy movie goers did worse in school.

Question 30

Selective exposure and selective retention are essentially the same concepts.

Question 31

The two-step flow of communication refers to ideas that flow from a medium to an opinion leader and then to someone else.

Question 32

The Why We Fight films encouraged servicemen to positively change their attitudes and further dedicate themselves to World War I.

Question 33

The first major study into the effects of television on children was conducted by Wilbur Schramm in the late 1950s.

Question 34

Dr. Fredric Wertham used accepted scientific methods in his studies of comic books.

Question 35

Children with high IQs tend to be heavy TV viewers when they are young, but become lighter viewers as they grow up.

Question 36

Urban riots discouraged studies of television violence during the 1960s.

Question 37

Surgeon Generals' reports found that most television programming contained some harmful violence that taught children to behave violently.

Question 38

The bullet theory is an example of multistep flow.

Question 39

Individual differences theory looks at how media users with different characteristics are affected the same way by media.

Question 40

In diffusion of innovations theory, early adopters are important opinion leaders.

Question 41

Heavy television users underestimate their chance of being involved in violence.

Question 42

Cumulative effects theorists believe that media teaches us what to think through redundancy.

Question 43

Married couples in 1950s era sitcoms, such as I Love Lucy, slept in separate twin beds.

Question 44

Isolated examples and anecdotes, rather than scientific research, are used to support conventional wisdom, the view held by the average person on the street.

Question 45

Correlation is the same as causation.

Question 46

Give evidence for and against the assumption that Grand Theft Auto influences players to act violently.

Question 47

What were the Payne Fund studies? Why were they important to mass media research?

Question 48

What is content analysis? Give an example of how a researcher would use it.

Question 49

Explain the difference between laboratory experiments and survey methods.

Question 50

Discuss the changes in media effects models that researchers have adopted over time. Give examples of studies that upheld each of the models you describe.

Question 51

What did the People's Choice Study examine? What was the main finding?

Question 52

Explain the difference between selective exposure, selective perception, and selective retention.

Question 53

Explain the two-step flow and the multi-step flow of communication.

Question 54

What was the basic design of the American Soldier Studies?

Question 55

Briefly describe Dr. Wilbur Schramm's study Television in the Lives of Our Children.

Question 56

What did George Gerbner and his colleagues discover about the difference between media violence and violence in real life?

Question 57

Discuss the diffusion of innovations theory and the individual differences theory. Apply these theories to an event from your own experience and show how they relate. How are these theories important in the adaptation of new technologies?

Question 58

Research that associates violence in the media with violence in real life can be interpreted in three conflicting ways. What are they?

Question 59

Explain catharsis theory. What does modern research reveal about this theory?

Question 60

Explain the difference between causation and correlation. Are they easily provable? Why or why not? Use examples. Why do you think people have trouble distinguishing the difference?

Question 61

______ is information that is spread for the purpose of promoting a doctrine or cause.

Question 62

Modeling is the ______ of behavior from media.

Question 63

Content ______ is a research method in which observers systematically analyze media subject matter.

Question 64

Variables are isolated and observed in a/an ______ experiment.

Question 65

______ sampling ensures that every member of the population being studied has an equal chance of being chosen.

Question 66

Selective ______ is the process by which people with different attitudes interpret the same messages differently.

Question 67

A process by which viewers of media develop callousness in the face of a real-life act of violence is called ______.

Question 68

A/An ______ is a set of related statements that seek to explain and predict behavior.

Question 69

The mixed ______ model predicts that media can have a combination of influences on behavior.

Question 70

The ______ theory implies that media effects flow directly from the media to an individual

Question 71

The two-step ______ is a communication process in which media effects travel through opinion leaders.

Question 72

Media effects are categorized within two perspectives: social science and ______ perspectives.

Question 73

Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase, "The medium is the ______."

Question 74

Social learning theory is also known as _____ theory.

Question 75

______ are the venturesome people who are eager to try new ideas.

Question 76

The ______ theory states that the media will shape and distort how people view the world.

Question 77

Uses and ______ theory looks at the ways media consumers choose media to meet their needs.

Question 78

Media ______ is a school of cultural study that suggests that media make up an environment for humans.

Question 79

The idea that viewing violence actually reduces violent behavior is called ______ theory.

Question 80

You prove ______ when you prove that two things occurred in close succession more often than chance alone would lead one to expect.