Deck 10: The Media

Question 1

Political scientist Shanto Iyengar argues that a process known as ________ sets a context that helps people understand important events and matters of shared interest.

A) infotainment
B) the 24/7 news cycle
C) media framing
D) media consumption
E) priming

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which issue has been identified by political scientist Pippa Norris as a common frame through which journalists generate political stories?

A) age
B) gender
C) income
D) ethnicity
E) race

Answer 2

B

Question 3

New media includes all of the following, EXCEPT

A) blogs.
B) television.
C) websites.
D) social networking sites.
E) YouTube.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which pre-Revolutionary British legislation directly attacked colonial American newspapers?

A) Navigation Acts
B) Declaratory Act
C) Tea Act
D) Stamp Act
E) Townshend Act

Question 5

How can today's media consumers be sure that the information that they are receiving is accurate?

A) Consumers should depend more on the Internet to gain accurate news.
B) Consumers should gather news from media outlets with a track record of adhering to journalistic standards.
C) Consumers should rely on citizen journalists, rather than corporately held media news outlets.
D) Consumers need not worry about accuracy because the media is sworn to uphold journalistic standards.
E) Consumers should only rely on the traditional news networks to gather their news.

Question 6

Gallup Organization polls show that public trust and confidence in the mass media

A) is much higher now than it was in the mid-1970s.
B) is a bit higher now than it was in the mid-1970s.
C) is about the same now as it was in the mid-1970s.
D) is a bit lower now than it was in the mid-1970s.
E) is much lower now than it was in the mid-1970s.

Question 7

Traditional media sources include all of the following, EXCEPT

A) newspapers.
B) magazines.
C) radio.
D) websites.
E) television.

Question 8

Before the advent of non-print media, the most notable exception to the historically one-way tradition of people forming opinions based on what they read, heard, and saw was

A) the political broadside.
B) the letter to the editor.
C) the colonial leaflet.
D) the forum.
E) printed ephemera.

Question 9

Which of the following is the best way to describe the manner in which the media influence the setting of the public agenda?

A) priming
B) framing
C) yellow journalism
D) information overload
E) fairness doctrine

Question 10

The sheer quantity and constant availability of information, which may cause media consumers to dismiss the significance of particular events, is known as

A) media framing.
B) infotainment.
C) muckraking.
D) information overload.
E) information priming.

Question 11

The media perform which of the following political functions?

A) providing political information
B) helping interpret policy and events, and influencing the national policy agenda
C) providing a forum for political conversations
D) socializing children to political culture
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 12

Shows such as Jon Stewart's The Daily Show that unite comedy and political content are best described as

A) docudrama.
B) yellow journalism.
C) narrowcasting.
D) infotainment.
E) media framing.

Question 13

Which of the following has had the GREATEST influence on enabling people to communicate their views?

A) the Internet
B) cell phone technology
C) newspaper
D) television
E) radio

Question 14

Which of the following is the dominant medium by which young children receive both entertainment and socialization?

A) radio
B) the Internet
C) television
D) children's books
E) preschool

Question 15

Early in the nineteenth century, advances in technology allowed newspapers to drop their prices, which made possible newspapers known as the

A) penny press.
B) daily dime.
C) nightly nickel.
D) quarter quarterly.
E) ten-cent chronicle.

Question 16

Which of the following statements about the press in the 1830s is NOT true?

A) The field of journalism was flourishing.
B) Advertising first became part of the newspaper business.
C) The consumption of media was becoming an increasingly elite pursuit.
D) Newspaper circulation increased.
E) New technology made possible the advent of cheaper newspapers.

Question 17

Encouraging the outbreak of the Spanish-American War is the most famous example of what type of journalism?

A) analytic journalism
B) citizen journalism
C) tabloid journalism
D) muckraking
E) yellow journalism

Question 18

What major factor, in addition to new technology, caused newspapers in the 1830s to lower their prices?

A) increased readership among the elite
B) decreased literacy rates
C) sale of advertising
D) falling circulation
E) lack of journalistic standards

Question 19

Where was the battleship Maine when it exploded in February 1898?

A) Puerto Rico
B) the Philippines
C) Cuba
D) Spain
E) Jamaica

Question 20

Which of the following best describes the journalists in the era of muckraking?

A) highly technological, reporting on the scientific knowledge of the day
B) sensational, writing about lurid stories to increase readership
C) completely objective, reporting only about government policy from an unbiased view
D) critical, writing exposés of corruption in government and industry
E) overly-supportive, biased commentary about the government and industry

Question 21

Which of the following statements about traditional network television is the MOST accurate?

A) Despite the competition, network television is gaining viewers.
B) The majority of the prime-time TV viewing audience still watches network television.
C) Among the networks' non-nightly news shows, viewership has stagnated.
D) Viewership of the network's nightly news is the only area in which viewership has increased.
E) When comparing audience share, the three major networks still dominate.

Question 22

The term narrowcasting means the practice of aiming media content at

A) many segments of the public.
B) specific segments of the public.
C) groups based on age or gender.
D) groups based on ethnicity or socioeconomic status.
E) groups based on religious affiliation.

Question 23

Which U.S. president's fireside chats were the first to exploit the value of radio as a device for political communication?

A) Dwight D. Eisenhower
B) Franklin D. Roosevelt
C) Herbert Hoover
D) Harry S. Truman
E) Theodore Roosevelt

Question 24

One of the ways that talk radio promotes civic discourse is that it

A) allows for a real-time exchange of information.
B) appeals to a diversified market of media consumers.
C) provides neutral and objective journalism.
D) promotes the understanding of various ideological viewpoints.
E) is less argumentative and emotional than similar programming on television.

Question 25

When did talk radio-a format featuring call-ins from listeners-bring about a renaissance in radio?

A) 1950s and 1960s
B) 1960s and 1970s
C) 1970s and 1980s
D) 1980s and 1990s
E) 1990s and 2000s

Question 26

Being telegenic first became a significant factor in politics in the

A) 1940s.
B) 1960s.
C) 1980s.
D) 1990s.
E) 2000s.

Question 27

American radio listeners first heard news in real time in which decade?

A) 1920s
B) 1930s
C) 1940s
D) 1950s
E) 1960s

Question 28

In general, minority journalists are more likely to be employed at newspapers with circulations of

A) less than 10,000.
B) 10,000-50,000.
C) 50,000-125,000.
D) 125,000-250,000.
E) 250,000-500,000.

Question 29

All these technologies are considered new media EXCEPT

A) the Internet.
B) blogs.
C) television.
D) smart phones.
E) satellite radio.

Question 30

The ability of advertisers to target African Americans on Black Entertainment Television or Latinos on Telemundo is due to

A) media segmentation.
B) narrowcasting.
C) media telegenism.
D) media convergence.
E) media consolidation.

Question 31

Which of the following statements about the newspaper industry today is the most accurate?

A) Newspaper readership is increasing.
B) Large cities are more likely to have smaller weekly publications that target specific demographic audiences.
C) With the new technologies, revenue has steadily increased.
D) Within the newsroom, women are most likely to be employed in the visual arts.
E) Minorities are much more likely to be employed by smaller-circulation newsrooms.

Question 32

Who wrote The Jungle, an exposé of the meat-packing industry that led to the establishment of the Food and Drug Administration?

A) Joseph Pulitzer
B) William Randolph Hearst
C) Ida Tarbell
D) Upton Sinclair
E) Lincoln Steffens

Question 33

The age of new media began in the

A) 1980s.
B) 1970s.
C) 1990s.
D) 2000s.
E) 1960s.

Question 34

In 2012, how many newsroom supervisors were women?

A) one-fifth
B) one-quarter
C) one-third
D) two-fifths
E) one-half

Question 35

Which media technology dominated between the 1940s and 1980?

A) newspapers
B) radio
C) broadcast television
D) cable television
E) satellite television

Question 36

Which of the following was a major factor in the growth of partisan radio programming?

A) the switch from the AM to FM band
B) the use by presidents to address the country
C) adoption of the FCC's fairness doctrine
D) repeal of the FCC's fairness doctrine
E) a lack of outlets for civic discourse

Question 37

In the first ever televised presidential debate, which person was the first to display telegenic qualities?

A) Richard Nixon
B) John F. Kennedy
C) Ronald Reagan
D) Bill Clinton
E) George W. Bush

Question 38

Which three networks dominated television news in the 1960s?

A) Fox, CBS, and CNN
B) ABC, CNN, and NBC
C) Fox, ABC, and MSNBC
D) ABC, CBS, and NBC
E) NBC, CNN, and ABC

Question 39

Whose exposé of the oil industry between 1902 and 1904 appeared in McClure's magazine?

A) Joseph Pulitzer
B) William Randolph Hearst
C) Ida Tarbell
D) Upton Sinclair
E) Lincoln Steffens

Question 40

Between 1992 and 2012, viewer audiences for network television

A) declined significantly.
B) declined marginally.
C) remained steady.
D) increased marginally.
E) increased significantly.

Question 41

Like the penny papers of the 1830s, blogs often lack

A) a large following.
B) advertisements.
C) political content.
D) neutrality.
E) professional journalists.

Question 42

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 did which of the following?

A) resulted in a limiting of options for consumers
B) provided specific enforcement provisions to root out indecency
C) approved consolidation of several news outlets
D) defined what content was "decent" for broadcast
E) opened communications markets to telephone companies

Question 43

Explain and identify the political functions performed by the media.

Question 44

All of the following are powerful media audience attractors EXCEPT

A) celebrity and sports news.
B) fires and violent crime.
C) political and sports scandals.
D) good news reports.
E) sex scandals.

Question 45

Which of the following ideological perspectives are favored by giant media conglomerates?

A) strong liberal bias
B) mild liberal bias
C) ideological neutrality
D) mild conservative bias
E) strong conservative bias

Question 46

The emergence of the multimedia start-up Politico is an example of the merging of various forms of media under one corporate roof with one set of business and editorial leaders. This is known as

A) consolidation.
B) narrowcasting.
C) convergence.
D) media segmentation.
E) new media.

Question 47

Traditionally, media outlets and journalists have been labeled

A) mostly conservative.
B) somewhat conservative.
C) both conservative and liberal.
D) somewhat liberal.
E) mostly liberal.

Question 48

Outline the early role of the press in the United States.

Question 49

Studies by various political scientists have found that most news stories

A) actually contain a conservative bent.
B) are liberally biased.
C) take the form of a debate.
D) present only one point of view.
E) are tinged by the journalist's personal viewpoint.

Question 50

Which of the following statements about the ideological bias in the media is correct?

A) Democratic elected officials believe that newer media outlets are dominated by conservatives.
B) Democratic and Republican officials believe that newer media outlets are controlled by independents.
C) Democratic officials believe that newer media outlets are controlled by corporate interests.
D) Republican officials believe that newer media outlets are controlled by liberal media interests.
E) Republican officials believe that the newer media are liberally biased in the same ways as traditional media.

Question 51

Which of the following public perspectives on media bias gained the highest response rate?

A) too liberal
B) just about right
C) too favorable toward special interests
D) too conservative
E) too extreme

Question 52

Most of the FCC's rules deal with media

A) ownership.
B) content.
C) participants.
D) profits.
E) access.

Question 53

The number of corporations that supply the majority of news to Americans has shrunk from 50 in 1983 to just 6 today. This is a result of

A) consolidation.
B) convergence.
C) media segmentation.
D) new media.
E) narrowcasting.

Question 54

Which of the following words BEST describes the evolutionary development of the U.S. media industry ownership over the last several decades?

A) diversification
B) devolution
C) consolidation
D) deleveraging
E) cross-pollination

Question 55

Identify various forms of media that are present today.

Question 56

All of the following are concerns about large corporate conglomerate control over the media EXCEPT that

A) too much competition will dilute the quality of the news.
B) this type of control will deter balanced reporting.
C) it will impact the unbiased presentation of issues.
D) it will remove a valuable check on what the media does.
E) large corporations exert too much influence over the news the average American reads on a given day.

Question 57

Which of the following statements about blogs is NOT accurate?

A) Blogs play a role in shaping the agenda of the traditional media establishment.
B) Blogging has dramatically increased in the past few years.
C) Blogs are an important platform for citizen journalists.
D) Bloggers often break new stories that then become a traditional media firestorm.
E) The media establishment is mostly uninfluenced by blogs.

Question 58

The use of portable cellular technology like phones and tablets has

A) decreased news consumption as a whole.
B) increased consumption of news briefs, but decreased consumption of "long form" news.
C) increased the traffic on major newspaper websites.
D) has made television irrelevant for consuming news.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 59

Define yellow journalism and explain its impact.

Question 60

Outline how radio altered the relationship between politicians and their constituents.

Question 61

Discuss the role of the blogosphere as an influence on contemporary politics.

Question 62

Does the media have an ideological bias?

Question 63

Explain the effects of the ending of the fairness doctrine by the FCC.

Question 64

Define and discuss narrowcasting and explain how it has changed political media content.

Question 65

Discuss the changing nature of the business of news.