Deck 11: Politics and Technology

Question 1

Which of the following has been most instrumental in decreasing the income-based digital divide?

A) wired broadband technology
B) Internet technology
C) access to high-speed services
D) unlimited data plans
E) cellular technology

Answer 1

E

Question 2

A service that compiles all the news that we want from various outlets into one location is known as a

A) news aggregator.
B) micro-blog.
C) wiki.
D) vlog.
E) bandwidth.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which of the following statements about the blogosphere is most accurate?

A) The popularity of blogs peaked in 2005 and remains steady.
B) Blogs lack variety, as most deal with political issues.
C) The traditional media discourage blogs.
D) Some blogs are written by professional journalists.
E) All these answers are correct.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following is the best example of the way new technology has enabled the exchange of information between elected leaders and constituents?

A) Google.com
B) the Drudge Report
C) congressional Facebook pages
D) CNN.com
E) YouTube's Town Hall

Question 5

With respect to civic engagement and participation, online groups

A) perform different, often more negative, civic functions than offline groups.
B) are less effective in mobilizing political participation.
C) perform work that is very different than that of the face-to-face groups that preceded them.
D) spur activism that may not have been possible through offline groups.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 6

As a result of new technology, communication is now

A) a two-way street.
B) mediated by news outlets.
C) less direct.
D) a one-way street.
E) about information reception.

Question 7

Who of the following would be most likely to use the Internet?

A) a 65-year-old African American man from a large city
B) a 25-year-old, college-educated Hispanic female from the suburbs
C) a white, middle-aged farm worker from a small agricultural town
D) a 30-year-old, white urban dweller without a high school diploma
E) a 70-year-old, white high-school graduate from the suburbs

Question 8

Reflecting the change in political campaigning, how did President Obama announce his bid for reelection in April, 2011?

A) prime-time address
B) in front of hometown crowds in Illinois
C) before the first caucus in the state of Iowa
D) by tweet
E) through a YouTube video

Question 9

All of the following are news aggregators EXCEPT

A) Google News.
B) Huffington Post.
C) network television news.
D) Yahoo News.
E) Drudge Report.

Question 10

Which decade brought about the advent of the Internet as we know it (graphic Web browsers, email)?

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

Question 11

The modern media revolution began with the advent of

A) television.
B) radio.
C) social networking.
D) the Internet.
E) cellular technology.

Question 12

Which of the following is a cause of the digital divide?

A) earnings levels
B) lack of high-speed Internet access
C) geography
D) consumer disability
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 13

Which of the following statements about who uses the Internet is most accurate?

A) Internet usage is skewed toward older, high-income earners.
B) Because of its universality, there is no correlation between educational attainment and Internet use.
C) The younger the person, the more likely they are to use the Internet.
D) Hispanics are less likely to use the Internet than are African Americans or whites.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 14

Considerable research indicates that the use of social media ________ civic engagement and participation in the real world.

A) decreases
B) has no impact on
C) rarely increases
D) increases
E) drastically decreases

Question 15

________ helped spur the Internet revolution with the invention of hypertext.

A) Bill Gates
B) Steve Jobs
C) Al Gore
D) Tim Berners-Lee
E) the U.S. government

Question 16

Which of the following was a watershed event in the use of new technology in politics?

A) passage of the Affordable Health Care Act in 2010
B) Bill Clinton's 1996 campaign
C) John McCain's 2008 presidential bid
D) passage of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform in 2002
E) Barack Obama's 2008 presidential bid

Question 17

Unequal access to computer technology is known as

A) the digital divide.
B) hacktivism.
C) Foursquare.
D) netroots.
E) Net neutrality.

Question 18

Which of the following has had the biggest influence on the increase in sophistication of Web content?

A) users
B) bandwidth
C) blogs
D) social networking
E) email

Question 19

Which of the following can be described as a platform that enables users to construct a profile, specify other users with whom they have a connection, and view others' connections?

A) social networking
B) vlog
C) blogosphere
D) wiki
E) netroots

Question 20

The ability of cellular technology to make the Internet portable and constantly available has been revolutionary. What percentage of American adults own a smartphone today?

A) less than 20 percent
B) nearly 25 percent
C) almost 35 percent
D) nearly 50 percent
E) about 75 percent

Question 21

What has been the effect of the rapid expansion of Internet technology on the ability of presidential campaigns to manage the news?

A) It has made managing the news somewhat easier.
B) The effect is mostly neutral.
C) It has made managing favorable news easier and unfavorable news more difficult.
D) It has made managing the news more difficult.
E) It has had no effect on the ability of presidential campaigns to manage the news.

Question 22

The old way the government did things, in paper form or via outdated computer systems, is part of the government's

A) Foursquare.
B) legacy system.
C) transparency.
D) wiki.
E) e-mobilization

Question 23

The WikiLeaks website, which released millions of secret government documents, is an example of what mode of political participation?

A) e-campaigning
B) macro-protesting
C) hacktivism
D) microtargeting
E) e-mobilization

Question 24

The success of which candidate in using the Internet to recruit volunteers and raise money in 2004 brought into sharp focus the potential of the Internet as a force in political campaigns?

A) Barack Obama
B) Bill Clinton
C) Howard Dean
D) Jesse Ventura
E) Michael Dukakis

Question 25

Recognizing the role it plays in political campaigns, which of the following sites provides tips for the use of social networking as a campaign tool?

A) Yahoo.com
B) the Huffington Post
C) U.S. Politics page on Facebook
D) CNN.com
E) YouTube's Town Hall

Question 26

A canvasser for a candidate using E-motive software on a smartphone to survey potential supporters and then syncing the phone with a database that tracks citizens' preferences and concerns is participating in

A) an e-petition.
B) a macro-protest.
C) e-mobilization.
D) an e-campaign.
E) microtargeting.

Question 27

When an electronic document "goes viral", as in the case of the computer-altered image of Mitt Romney with five children whose T-shirts spell out the word "money", it becomes part of

A) a remarketing campaign.
B) e-mobilization.
C) a cyber cascade.
D) the blogosphere.
E) a macro-protest.

Question 28

Which of the following best defines the term netroots?

A) the use of social networking sites in campaigns
B) mobilizing voters through the Internet
C) websites that enable short communications
D) Internet-centered political efforts for candidates and causes
E) the homepage on a candidate's website

Question 29

Which of the following is the best way to describe a promoted tweet?

A) targeted advertisement
B) e-campaign
C) cyber cascade
D) e-mobilization
E) microtarget

Question 30

Which of the following industries was instrumental in the defeat of the Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) through their use of a macro-protest?

A) the traditional media
B) the entertainment industry
C) international hactivist groups
D) the technology industry
E) the legal profession

Question 31

Spawned by frustration over the partisan bickering surrounding President Clinton's impeachment hearings, two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs started MoveOn.org, which is now best known for its successful

A) e-mobilization.
B) hacktivism.
C) Foursquare.
D) micro blogging.
E) wiki.

Question 32

Professional wrestler Jesse Ventura credits the mobilization of voters through the Internet, or _______, for being elected governor of Minnesota despite his being a political outsider.

A) blogging
B) tweeting
C) remarketing
D) e-campaigning
E) netroots

Question 33

In what way was a 22-year-old woman able to pressure Bank of America to drop their plan to levy a monthly fee on debit cards in 2011?

A) cyber cascade
B) e-petition
C) macro-protest
D) promoted tweet
E) hacktivism

Question 34

Which of the following is a part of netroots?

A) grassroots organizing
B) blogs
C) political activism
D) online media
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 35

Which government agency played a major role in the development of the Internet?

A) Department of Commerce
B) Department of Defense
C) Central Intelligence Agency
D) State Department
E) Treasury Department

Question 36

When a Google advertisement for a political candidate appears on your screen based on cookies that you have dropped on other websites, Google is participating in

A) e-campaigning.
B) remarketing.
C) e-mobilizing.
D) hacktivism.
E) Foursquare.

Question 37

A site that enables short communications that are often specifically targeted at on-the-move audiences is known as a

A) netroot.
B) micro-blog.
C) promoted tweet.
D) cyber-cascade.
E) vlog.

Question 38

To mobilize supporters, organizers of the "Occupy" protests used sites like Twitter to distribute information to a large amount of people. This is known as

A) e-campaigning.
B) remarketing.
C) promoted tweets.
D) a cyber cascade.
E) micro-blogging.

Question 39

Which of the following is an example of a macro-protest?

A) collection of 300,000 signatures on an e-petition
B) mobilization of like-minded voters
C) the destruction of electronic files in pursuit of a political goal
D) cyber cascade of campaign photos
E) coordinated blackout of websites to influence legislation

Question 40

Through the use of e-Government, the United States government hopes to

A) offer services more efficiently.
B) offer services cost-effectively.
C) increase transparency.
D) provide more information about government services and processes.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 41

What are some of the downsides of the use of technology in politics?

Question 42

How did the use of technology in the 2008 presidential election make it different from previous presidential elections?

Question 43

The ability to geographically target a specific cell phone signal using directional data from cell towers is known as

A) recognition biometrics.
B) tower triangulation.
C) cloud computing.
D) hacktivism.
E) remote servicing.

Question 44

Which of the following is true of the Internet and the American guarantee of freedom of speech?

A) The vastness of the Internet has overwhelmed the American guarantee of free speech.
B) The United States does not regulate hate speech on the Internet.
C) A large number of hate sites register their domains in the United States because of the country's free speech protections.
D) Free speech on the Internet becomes problematic because it allows extremists to spread their message.
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 45

What has been the effect of the rapid expansion of Internet technologies on the ability of presidential campaigns to manage the news?

Question 46

The on-demand news cycle has done which of the following?

A) increased the news cycle
B) made candidates more capable of manipulating the news cycle
C) allowed candidates to be better able to manage unanticipated media coverage
D) made it necessary for candidates to be constantly ready to spin events in their favor
E) All these answers are correct.

Question 47

Discuss the free speech concerns that have arisen because of the rapid rise of the Internet and related technologies.

Question 48

In what ways can technology be an equalizer in political campaigns?

Question 49

To eliminate the need for cumbersome streams of emails containing revised versions of documents, some government officials rely on an Internet-based editing tool that allows documents to be created and edited online by multiple individuals. This is known as a

A) Foursquare.
B) wiki.
C) micro-blog.
D) vlog.
E) virtual community.

Question 50

Which of the following statements about the use of the Internet in politics is most accurate?

A) The massive volume of information available on the Internet makes it easy for people to become accurately informed.
B) The use of the Internet has allowed for more personal privacy.
C) Media consumers need to think less critically about the political information they get on the Internet.
D) Political slander is much easier to root out and stop on the Internet.
E) The Internet has contributed to the decline in civility in political discourse.

Question 51

Discuss the transformation of media from a "one-way" format of information transmission to "two-way" street of information exchange.

Question 52

Which of the following statements about new technology and democracy is NOT accurate?

A) New technology has created an uneven playing field for candidates and political groups.
B) New technology makes mobilization more affordable.
C) New technology has made young people more interested in the news.
D) New technology increases the likelihood of unanticipated negative media coverage.
E) New technology can be a tool to bring democracy to the masses.

Question 53

Describe virtual communities and discuss their impact on civic engagement and participation in the real world.

Question 54

The result of the Internet's selective exposure is

A) less political discourse.
B) more moderate viewpoints.
C) increased polarization.
D) broader exposure to contradictory views.
E) increased desire to compromise.

Question 55

The idea that Internet traffic should flow through the Internet pipeline without interference or discrimination by those who own or are running the pipeline is known as

A) bandwidth.
B) the digital divide.
C) netroots.
D) Net neutrality.
E) remarketing.

Question 56

Which of the following is evidence of the change in the nature of political advertising?

A) negative ads
B) data-driven Internet ads
C) 60-second ads
D) television ads
E) the need for a media strategy

Question 57

Who uses the Internet? Discuss the digital divide.

Question 58

What is Net neutrality? Should those who own or are running the Internet pipeline be able to control the information that flows through it?

Question 59

Which of the following services will enable government to provide direct services to residents and visitors so that they can search nearby restaurants by health-department grade or access timely emergency services?

A) Foursquare
B) wiki
C) legacy systems
D) Twitter
E) Facebook

Question 60

Outline some of the new modes of political participation brought about by technology.