Question 1

The Payne Fund research was the first well-funded effort to comprehensively study media effects using postpositivist methods.

Accepted Answer

The Payne Fund studies, conducted in the late 1920s and early 1930s, were among the first to use systematic, empirical research methods to study the effects of media, particularly films, on children and adolescents.

Question 2

The media-effects trend, an approach to media theory and research that came to dominate how many U.S. researchers studied and thought about media in the last half of the 20^th century, viewed media as a powerful social and cultural force.

Accepted Answer

The answer of The media-effects trend, an approach to media...

Question 3

The media-effects trend in understanding media influence finds is support primarily in postpositivist research.

Accepted Answer

The media-effects trend is supported by postpositivist research, which emphasizes empirical observation and the scientific method to understand media influence.

Question 4

Selective exposure is our tendency to interpret messages, to make meaning from them, in ways that are consistent with the values, beliefs, and attitudes we already hold.

Accepted Answer

Selective exposure refers to the tendency to prefer information that aligns with our existing beliefs, while the definition provided describes selective perception, which is about interpreting messages in line with our existing beliefs.

Question 5

Persuasion research demonstrates that those who are more intelligent are typically less susceptible to persuasive arguments.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Persuasion research demonstrates that those who are...

Question 6

The largest category of subjects Lazarsfeld discovered in his voter study were early deciders.

Accepted Answer

Lazarsfeld's study found that the largest category of voters were those who had decided early on which candidate they would support, indicating that many people's political decisions are made well before the actual election campaign intensifies.

Question 7

Social categories theory assumes that there are broad collectives, aggregates, or social categories in modern societies whose behavior in the face of a given set of stimuli is more-or-less uniform.

Accepted Answer

Social categories theory posits that individuals within broader collectives or social categories (such as gender, race, or class) tend to exhibit similar behaviors or responses to certain stimuli, due to shared experiences, norms, or socialization processes. This theory is used to understand how societal structures and categories influence individual and group behavior.

Question 8

High-credibility communicators produce increased amounts of attitude change; low-credibility communicators produce less attitude change.

Accepted Answer

High-credibility communicators are more persuasive, leading to greater attitude change, because their messages are viewed as more trustworthy and reliable compared to messages from low-credibility communicators.

Question 9

One-sided messages are less effective with people already in favor of the message; two-sided presentations are also less effective with those holding divergent perspectives.

Accepted Answer

One-sided messages tend to be more effective with people who are already in favor of the message, while two-sided presentations are more effective with those holding divergent perspectives because they address counterarguments, increasing credibility and reducing resistance.

Question 10

Social scientists who developed media-effects theory and research during the 1940s and 1950s were primarily methodologists-not theorists.

Accepted Answer

During the 1940s and 1950s, media-effects research was heavily focused on empirical methods and data collection, with an emphasis on methodological rigor rather than theoretical development.

Quiz 4: The Emergence of the Media-Effects Trend in Mass Communication Theory