Deck 5: Research: Understanding Public Opinion

Question 1

Which public type faces an indeterminate situation but does not recognize it as a problem.

A) intervening publics
B) latent public
C) internal public
D) aware public
E) active public

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What is the most common type of research process performed by public relations practitioners?

A) content analysis
B) copy testing
C) experimental design
D) survey
E) mall intercept

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The process of issues management must be informed at every stage by ______________.

A) the board of directors
B) research data
C) intuition
D) decision matrices
E) evaluation

Answer 3

B

Question 4

__________________ are generally assembled prior to survey research to help the researcher have enough information to ask appropriate questions on the survey questionnaire.

A) Special committees
B) Key contacts
C) Data bases
D) Employee groupings
E) Focus groups

Question 5

Which of the following is NOT one of the steps in a public relations audit?

A) finding out what the organization thinks
B) finding out what the public thinks
C) evaluating the disparity between what the organization thinks and what the public thinks
D) recommending a public relations program
E) persuading the public to adopt the stance of the organization

Question 6

______________________ help determine the clarity of a written message and its appropriateness to the educational level of an audience.

A) Readability studies
B) Comprehension studies
C) Content analyses
D) Network analyses
E) Communicative ability studies

Question 7

Results of a survey by the Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education revealed that __________________________ is the fastest-growing category of public relations research.

A) social auditing
B) copy testing
C) issues monitoring
D) environmental monitoring
E) media surveillance

Question 8

Which of the following is one of the disadvantages to interviews?

A) the use of open-ended questions
B) the personality of the interviewer can influence responses
C) interviews can not be conducted over the telephone
D) interviews are sometimes unstructured
E) nonverbal cues cannot be recorded

Question 9

_____________________ allows each member of a public an equal chance of being selected.

A) Simple random sampling
B) Formal research
C) Systematic sampling
D) Telephone surveying
E) Stratified sampling

Question 10

Which of the following is NOT an informal research technique?

A) reviewing records of past PR activities
B) forming special committees to identify critical issues
C) content analysis of company newsletters
D) casual monitoring of material presented to stakeholders
E) investigating data banks for information to guide a campaign

Question 11

____________________ are generally attitude and opinion surveys that measure the perceptions of various publics about an organization's social responsiveness.

A) organizational audit
B) communication audit
C) public relations audit
D) relevance audit
E) social audit

Question 12

A public is a group of people who share a common problem or goal and recognize _______________.

A) public relations efforts
B) a common leader
C) their demographics
D) the attitudes they share
E) their common interest

Question 13

Which of the following is an example of using secondary research?

A) Moderating a focus group to test new slogans
B) Surveying local opinion leaders on perceptions of your organization
C) Asking employees to fill out a "greatest concerns" questionnaire to gauge internal audiences
D) Reviewing someone else's research data
E) Conducting an experiment to determine the best format for a client Web site

Question 14

A network analysis is generally conducted during a ______________________.

A) organizational audit
B) communication audit
C) public relations audit
D) relevance audit
E) social audit

Question 15

Scientific research is also known as _________________ research.

A) formal
B) informal
C) focus groups
D) data base
E) secondary

Question 16

Using inferential statistics,a public relations practitioner can infer the characteristics of a very large public from a ____________________.

A) focus group
B) experiment
C) sample
D) population
E) questionnaire

Question 17

The ___________________ is a broad-scale study that examines the internal and external public relations of an organization.

A) organizational audit
B) communication audit
C) public relations audit
D) relevance audit
E) social audit

Question 18

Why is it important to demonstrate the value of public relations to management?

A) PR effects are often difficult to see when simply looking at income generated
B) PR is still not respected by management
C) PR effects are impossible to measure
D) Evaluation is a key step in PR campaigning
E) Public relations is expensive considering its limited value

Question 19

Experimental research is generally divided into what two categories?

A) laboratory and field
B) informal and formal
C) qualitative and quantitative
D) nominal and ordinal
E) primary and secondary

Question 20

Mass opinion represents _________________ taken from a group with many different opinions.

A) replies
B) a list of attitudes
C) an average
D) data
E) all data

Question 21

Which of the following is not an informal research technique?

A) Focus Groups
B) Surveys
C) Casual Monitoring
D) Record Keeping
E) Internet Research

Question 22

__________ allows a researcher to describe characteristics of people not included in a large survey.

A) Descriptive statistics
B) Qualitative data
C) Inferential data
D) Snowball sampling
E) All of these

Question 23

What research method allows the researcher to observe reactions to different types of stimulus materials.

A) Surveys
B) Content Analysis
C) Personal Interviews
D) Experiments
E) Focus Groups

Question 24

____________ research provides a researcher control over outside stimuli that might contaminate results.

A) Surveys
B) Field Experiments
C) Personal Interviews
D) Laboratory Experiments
E) Focus Group

Question 25

_________________ is the monitoring,evaluating,and disseminating of information to key decision makers within an organization.

A) Environmental scanning
B) Casual monitoring
C) Public opinion polling
D) Content analysis
E) Communications audit

Question 26

The theory of probability is the basis of all ______________.

A) descriptive statistics
B) inferential statistics
C) case study research
D) focus group research
E) All of these

Question 27

Systematically screening material in print,broadcast and Internet media is a form of ____________.

A) casual monitoring
B) content analysis
C) experiments
D) secondary research
E) focus group research

Question 28

One of the major uses of public relations research is in ___________

A) knowledge management
B) issues management
C) digital rights management
D) communications audits
E) social audits

Question 29

Which of the following research methods allows researchers to see forms of nonverbal communication among a small number of people who share the same demographic characteristics.

A) Surveys
B) Content Analysis
C) Personal Interviews
D) Experiments
E) Focus Groups

Question 30

A technique that allows each member of a public an equal chance of being selected is ______________.

A) simple random sampling
B) snowball sampling
C) stratified sampling
D) non-probability sampling
E) All of these