Deck 14: Mass Media and Governance

Question 1

When Linda McMahon, known as the queen of the World Wrestling Federation, decided to run for the U.S. Senate she faced all of the following challenges EXCEPT

A) convincing voters that being CEO of WWE qualified her to hold a high political office.
B) overcoming voters' memories of the bitchy image and antics she presented ringside on TV.
C) putting $50 million of her own money into her campaign.
D) raising contributions from deep-pocketed donors and special interest groups.

Answer 1

raising contributions from deep-pocketed donors and special interest groups.

Question 2

What is known as the fourth estate of government?

A) judiciary
B) executive
C) legislative
D) press

Answer 2

press

Question 3

Who first coined the phrase "Fourth Estate" in the mid-1700s in England?

A) Edmund Burke
B) King George III
C) Lord Liverpool
D) Thomas Attwood

Answer 3

Edmund Burke

Question 4

Another name for the "Fourth Estate" when referring to the media is the

A) Fourth leg.
B) Fourth stool.
C) Fourth division.
D) Fourth branch

Question 5

The U.S. government, during its early formation, saw the role of the press as

A) informers.
B) watchdogs.
C) evangelists .
D) vipers.

Question 6

The concept of the press as a skeptical and critical monitor of government is called the

A) new media role.
B) watchdog role.
C) strategic mission.
D) New Partisanship.

Question 7

What requires that stations must allow competing political candidates to advertise under the same conditions?

A) fairness doctrine
B) framing law
C) equal time rule
D) media rule

Question 8

The equal time rule mandates that broadcasters

A) provide air time for the opposition party to immediately respond to a political message like the State of the Union.
B) grant non-profit advertisers the same amount of airtime as given to corporate advertisers.
C) must provide the same amount of coverage to all sides of a political issue.
D) charge a flat, across-the-board rate for all political advertisers so they can be assured of equal ad access.

Question 9

Why did Congress establish the equal-time rule?

A) To guarantee reply time during elections.
B) To preserve the two-party system.
C) To guarantee debate among political candidates.
D) To ensure that people using the limited number of broadcast channels would be even-handed.

Question 10

The former government requirement that stations air all sides of public issues was the

A) equal time rule.
B) C-Span rule.
C) fairness doctrine.
D) framing doctrine.

Question 11

The fairness doctrine was abandoned because

A) it was found to be unconstitutional.
B) it was giving communists a chance to infiltrate U.S. broadcasting.
C) the public could find lots of diversity in the growing number of stations.
D) authoritarian views had become more widely accepted.

Question 12

Radio station owner Don Burden lost his license because he

A) favored some political candidates over others.
B) promoted certain products on-air.
C) used his stations to promote the Communist Party.
D) was sued for labor law violations.

Question 13

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Tornillo case

A) said the First Amendment was less applicable to print media than to broadcast media.
B) established rules mandating equal time for candidates.
C) blocked attack ads in print media.
D) said First Amendment protections apply more directly to print media than to broadcast media.

Question 14

Newspapers that were considered dissident in Chicago and Ohio were shut down during what war?

A) Vietnam
B) World War I
C) Civil War
D) World War II

Question 15

All of these mass media are virtually unregulated in terms of political content EXCEPT

A) the Internet.
B) television.
C) magazines.
D) newspapers.

Question 16

What inhibits Internet political content?

A) government fees
B) federal law
C) web site filters
D) civil suits between individuals on issues like libel and invasion of privacy

Question 17

Which of the following is supposed to shape what we think about, but should not shape how we think about it?

A) a television political commentator
B) a high school or college
C) media news coverage
D) a Wall Street stock analyst

Question 18

Scholars Maxwell McCombs and Don Shaw are best known for their pioneering work focusing on

A) news conflict.
B) agenda setting.
C) visual communication.
D) news scheduling.

Question 19

Agenda-setting is the process by which the media

A) establish the course of a political argument.
B) tell people what to think.
C) arrange political stories in a particular order for broadcast.
D) tell people what to think about.

Question 20

News coverage of such issues as civil rights, Watergate and the White House scandals demonstrate that news coverage

A) by and large calls on people to take a position.
B) is against government.
C) doesn't cause change directly but serves as a catalyst to start discussions.
D) is informative but has little impact beyond the events covered.

Question 21

What is the CNN Effect?

A) news organizations going to 24 hour formats
B) more brief headline stories
C) the power of television to interest people in faraway issues
D) Atlanta replacing Washington as the nation's news capital

Question 22

What is the term for the ability of television, through emotion-raising video, to elevate distant issues on the domestic public agenda?

A) CNN effect
B) framing
C) agenda-setting
D) sound-bite effect

Question 23

When media coverage shapes how people see issues, this is called

A) framing.
B) homogeneity..
C) conflict.
D) status conferral

Question 24

Which of the following best summarizes framing?

A) Framing is a term that is only applied to issues related to politics or government.
B) Only political candidates frame issues.
C) Politicians deliberately frame issues while news reporters inadvertently frame them by deciding what to report.
D) Framing is a conscious activity by politicians but is never done by competentnews reporters.

Question 25

In a study of CBS Evening News , what percentage of the opening news stories featured the president?

A) 10
B) 25
C) 60
D) 90

Question 26

Why is conflict such an exciting subject for media coverage?

A) The language that describes conflict is usually more expressive and active.
B) It often illustrates the great issues by which society is defining and redefining values.
C) Conflict is often bloody.
D) Their responses to conflict help media outlets differentiate themselves from competitors.

Question 27

Journalists learn early in their careers that conflict

A) is not worth covering.
B) is comfortable, usually fun for everybody involved.
C) rarely occurs and hardly is an everyday event.
D) illustrates the issues by which society defines values.

Question 28

What happens when the news media treat politics like a horse race?

A) People place bets on the outcome.
B) Substantive issues are underplayed.
C) It becomes easier to track lesser-known candidates.
D) Reporters use racing and equine metaphors and slang.

Question 29

The actual voice of a figure in the news, usually sandwiched in a correspondent's report, is called a(n)

A) talking head.
B) announcement.
C) voice-over.
D) sound bite.

Question 30

How long is a candidate's sound bite in most of today's broadcast news stories?

A) 2-5 seconds
B) 10 seconds or less
C) 15-20 seconds
D) 30 seconds up to a one minute maximum

Question 31

Because sound bites have shortened over the years, political candidates have learned how to

A) offer catchy, clever comments.
B) expand on their issues.
C) talk at a rapid pace.
D) avoid the news media.

Question 32

Presidential candidates have learned to bypass the news media with less filtered exposure to voters through events such as

A) news blackouts.
B) news secretaries.
C) news briefings.
D) Oprah show appearances.

Question 33

One of the simplest ways government officials manipulate the news is deciding when to release it. President Teddy Roosevelt, for instance, tried to make most of his news announcements on

A) any day there wasn't a major sporting event that might attract more attention than his story.
B) Fridays because people have more time to spend reading newspapers on the weekend.
C) Saturdays so all the details of his story could be included in the jumbo-sized Sunday papers.
D) Sundays because Monday papers are short of news and would give his story lots of attention.

Question 34

All of the following are ways government officials can try to manipulate news coverage EXCEPT

A) news blackouts.
B) news leaks.
C) timing of announcements.
D) trial releases .

Question 35

Government officials try to shape news coverage with all of the following EXCEPT

A) press conferences.
B) stonewalling.
C) shilling.
D) trial balloons .

Question 36

When there is a deliberate leak of a potential policy to test public response, it's called

A) public relations.
B) putting a toe in the water.
C) a trial balloon.
D) a framed response.

Question 37

A deliberate disclosure of confidential or classified information by someone who wants to advance the public interest is called a

A) hole in the stonewall..
B) personal agenda.
C) break.
D) leak.

Question 38

To refuse to answer questions, sometimes refusing even to meet with reporters, is called

A) stonewalling.
B) a spiral of silence..
C) bad public relations.
D) closing down..

Question 39

In a news blackout

A) the government shuts down the news media to control the spread of information.
B) officials avoid watching or reading news to ensure minimal outside influence.
C) excess information is given to "blow the fuse" of the media and thus keep issues in the dark.
D) no statements are issued and no media questions are answered.

Question 40

Jon Favreau is best known for

A) his investigative news reports of President Bush.
B) being a speechwriter for President Obama.
C) being the campaign manager for President Obama.
D) his television reports on CNN.

Question 41

A President needs speech-writers like Jon Favreau for all of the following reasons EXCEPT

A) crafting messages the President is comfortable delivering and which resonate with audiences.
B) even an effective speech-writing President doesn't have time to write dozens of speeches a week.
C) to develop quality messages that don't rely on trickery with words to get attention.
D) to put words in the President's mouth for routine occasions he doesn't have time to think about.

Question 42

What is the name for a photogenic, staged event created to attract media attention?

A) photo-op
B) clip-op
C) PR-event
D) news-maker

Question 43

A staged event that lacks substance and is used to attract media attention is

A) illegal.
B) lobbying.
C) a news-maker.
D) a pseudo event.

Question 44

Political ads, usually on TV, in which a candidate criticizes the opponent are called

A) slam ads.
B) moderate ads.
C) negative ads.
D) stonewalling ads.

Question 45

Negative ads, especially savage ones criticizing an opponent and often playing fast and loose with context and facts, are called

A) negativism.
B) public relations.
C) attack ads.
D) viral advertising.

Question 46

Senator Russ Feingold used what unusual type of political advertising during the 2004 Senate race?

A) negative ads
B) emotional ads
C) comparison ads
D) humorous ads

Question 47

Current federal regulations try to ensure a level playing field for all candidates for office during election campaigns by requiring radio and television stations to do all of the following EXCEPT

A) give equal opportunities for airtime to all candidates competing for any particular office.
B) limit political advertising to less than 60 percent of the station's total advertising time.
C) offer reasonable opportunities for the discussion of differing views of important public issues .
D) sell ad time to any and all candidates for President or for the U.S. House and Senate.

Question 48

Current federal regulations to ensure a level playing field for all candidates for office during election campaigns require that newspapers and magazines

A) do nothing different because they have a First Amendment guarantee of press freedom.
B) limit political advertising to less than 60 percent of their total page-space.
C) offer reasonable opportunities for the discussion of differing views of important public issues .
D) sell ad space to any and all candidates for President or for the U.S. House and Senate.

Question 49

All of the following statements about PACs are accurate EXCEPT

A) The largest PAC is a union, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.
B) PACs are allowed to directly funnel money into individual candidates' political campaigns.
C) PACs originated as a legal way to get around restrictions on political contributions.
D) The term "PAC" originally stood for People Against Corruption, which now seems very ironic.

Question 50

To get around Federal Election Commission regulations, some groups seek "527 status" from the IRS which means all of the following EXCEPT

A) candidates can distance themselves from distasteful attack ads while still benefiting from them.
B) in election years, they cannot begin running political ads until May 27, the origin of "527 status."
C) they are still a PAC but have slightly different rules about how they distribute their money.
D) they cannot give money directly to candidate, but they can buy ads to influence an election.

Question 51

By spending $50 million of her own money on her unsuccessful election campaign, Linda McMahon set a record for the most expensive campaign for the U.S. Senate in history.

Question 52

One lesson of Linda McMahon's unsuccessful run for the Senate is that a willingness to spend massive amounts of money ($50 million) is not enough, by itself, to win an election.

Question 53

As CEO of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch's million dollar contributions to Republican organizations seem to some to violate the long-time separation between news organizations and party politics.

Question 54

Historically, the only financial connection between political candidates and the news media was the purchase of advertising time and space by the candidates.

Question 55

A troubling question raised by Linda McMahon's $50 million Senate campaign is whether public office is now limited only to those rich enough to buy enormous amounts of ad time and space.

Question 56

The U.S. media are a watchdog of government on the people's behalf.

Question 57

The press is known as the third estate.

Question 58

The mass media have a formal responsibility defined in the U.S. Constitution to be watchdogs over government.

Question 59

Though not a formal part of the government's structure, the press is expected to serve a watchdog function.

Question 60

Calling the media the fourth branch refers to its role as a watchdog to the official three branches of government.

Question 61

If it has offered a political candidate airtime, a broadcaster must offer the candidate's opponent equal time under similar circumstances.

Question 62

The fairness doctrine refers to a former government rule that said that whenever the media covered an issue with two sides, the station was required to air all sides of the issue.

Question 63

The fairness doctrine has been strengthened in recent years.

Question 64

In the Burden opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the First Amendment protection of the print media, even if they are unbalanced and unfair in their coverage.

Question 65

Don Burden lost his radio stations' licenses after instructing the news staff to run only favorable stories on one U.S. Senate candidate and negative stories on the other.

Question 66

The Tornillo decision in the U.S. Supreme Court rejected attempts to extend the fairness doctrine to newspapers.

Question 67

Since the Tornillo decision, the fairness doctrine applies only to print media.

Question 68

As the Supreme Court sees it, the First Amendment applies more directly to print media than broadcast media.

Question 69

Supreme Court decisions have clearly indicated that the First Amendment protects print media more fully than it protects broadcast media.

Question 70

Videos on blogs are covered by campaign law.

Question 71

Political content on the web is almost entirely unregulated.

Question 72

The mass media have a minor role in shaping the public's issues agenda.

Question 73

Media news coverage shapes what we think about, but high-principled journalism should never try to tell us how we should think about it.

Question 74

Agenda-setting suggests that the press determines exactly what people should think.

Question 75

Media agenda- setting played a significant role in the U.S. racial integration that followed the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.

Question 76

Investigative news coverage of the 1972 Watergate burglary led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Question 77

The CNN Effect takes place when coverage is so thorough that the public becomes immune to its impact.

Question 78

In the process called framing, the media selects aspects of an event for coverage in their messages, thereby shaping the audience's perception.

Question 79

Framing is used almost exclusively by the television news media.

Question 80

Partisan framing is usually easy to spot. Commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck, as well as many bloggers, are so blatantly partisan that their framing is obvious.