Deck 1: Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture

Question 1

______ analyzes how linguistic and nonlinguistic cultural "signs" form systems of meanings, as when giving someone a rose is interpreted as a sign of love or getting an A on a college paper is a sign of mastery of the rules of the specific assignment.

A) Semiotics
B) Cultural studies
C) Globalization
D) Ethnography

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Unlike firms in many other nations, U.S. telephone and cable firms are not required to allow competitor broadband ISPs access to their wires, so there is virtually no meaningful competition in the now crucial broadband ISP industry. Why does the author think this is such a bad thing?

A) Smaller companies then have to try a lot harder and install their own wires.
B) Because deregulation has led to fewer enormous firms with far less regulation.
C) Because without competition, companies have no reason to try hard to deliver a good product.
D) Monopolies lead to corruption, which inevitably leads to harmful effects for society.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The author of the article talks about the rise of the Internet as a form of free communication, seemingly without limits, thus raising the prospect of vast new realms of human sociability and enhanced democratic possibilities. Yet, rather than a means of expanding human sociability, the Internet is being turned into ______.

A) a replacement to education
B) a new means of alienation
C) a communication hub but only for the privileged few
D) a limiting space for free thought

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Cultural studies insist that culture must be studied within the social relations and system through which culture is produced and consumed and that the study of culture is thus intimately bound up with the study of ______.

A) people, society, and ideas
B) economics
C) society, politics, and economics
D) politics and communication

Question 5

Consider this excerpt from the article: "On the one hand, they value their romances highly because the act of reading them literally draws (them) away from their present surroundings. Because they must produce the meaning of the story by attending closely to the words on the page, they find that their attention is withdrawn from concerns that plague them in reality." Who is Janice Radway referring to when she uses "they" and "them"?

A) all Americans
B) women
C) children
D) the elderly

Question 6

An alternative approach to fan experience is one that perceives "Trekkers" (as they prefer to be called) not as cultural dupes, social misfits, or mindless consumers but rather as ______.

A) "poachers" of textual meanings
B) social pariahs
C) consumers of television philosophy
D) cultural observers with a science fiction lens

Question 7

"They are developed in a social, political, and economic context. And this has strongly conditioned the course and shape of the communication revolution." What is the author referring to in this passage?

A) cultures
B) currencies
C) ideas
D) technologies

Question 8

In this article, the author mentions that ______ most important economic function came from its role as an instrument of legitimation for transformations in values initiated by the new economic imperatives of postwar America.

A) communication's
B) radio's
C) television's
D) consumerism's

Question 9

An escape that is both literal and figurative implies flight from some situation in the real world which is either stifling or overwhelming, as well as a metaphoric transfer to another, more desirable universe where events are happily resolved. What kind of experience does the author claim makes these escapes a reality?

A) romance reading
B) virtual reality headsets
C) interpersonal communication
D) watching television

Question 10

The power or dominance that one social group holds over others is ______.

A) mass media manipulation
B) hegemony
C) Marxist theory
D) mass-mediated ideologies

Question 11

The Italian intellectual Antonio Gramsci--to whom the term hegemony is attributed-- ______.

A) was unable to comprehend the true nature of hegemony and its effects in the United States
B) broadened hegemony into the realm of consumerism
C) thought that there was an "asymmetrical interdependence" of political-economic-cultural forces at play
D) broadened materialist Marxist theory into the realm of ideology

Question 12

In the media industry, vertical integration refers to ______.

A) the process in which a company neither grows economically nor shrinks but over time moves vertically above other companies through a process of buying and selling
B) the process by which one company buys different kinds of media, concentrating ownership across differing types of media rather than up and down through one industry
C) the process by which one owner acquires all aspects of production and distribution of a single type of media product
D) the idea that the media environment is quite different largely because of the vast size of the U.S. media industry but that private media ownership can be a huge political asset in the United States too if it is able to move in the right directions

Question 13

The idea is that ______ is one who is subservient to power above him or her and abusive of power to those below.

A) an authoritarian "personality"
B) an idealist "personality"
C) a transformationalist leader
D) a democratic "personality"

Question 14

Select the answer that best shows what the author was describing with the Mama's Birthday example, and what it represents: ______.

A) The episode confuses the roles of economics and consumerism and misrepresents social norms to the audience
B) The conflict between social desires and government roles reflected the economy's role as mediator in American values
C) The conflict was a red herring and really represented the repressed and underlying effect of domestic values in society
D) The conflict between consumer desires and family roles reflected television's social role as mediator between the family and the economy

Question 15

Which term best describes when media companies become part of much larger corporations that own a collection of other companies that may operate in highly diverse business areas?

A) collude
B) conglomeration
C) horizontally collide
D) composite

Question 16

The author talks about how the role of media is often ______.

A) totally ignored when it comes to choosing a new leader
B) seen as a means to an end by those in power
C) providing accurate and reliable information about current leaders
D) creating fervent support for one perceived as a strong leader

Question 17

When audiences appropriate texts in line with the interests of the dominant culture and the ideological intentions of a text, they are performing ______.

A) interpretive engagement
B) use of media culture
C) dominant readings
D) multicultural politics

Question 18

As the author explains, we must begin to recognize that romance reading is fueled by ______ and ______ not by perfect contentment with woman's lot.

A) desire; boredom,
B) remorse; loneliness,
C) lust; power,
D) dissatisfaction; disaffection,

Question 19

As discussed in the article, from a cultivation theory standpoint, ______.

A) the results are not consistent with the idea that viewing films in the U.S. context provides a supportive environment for democratic values
B) the results are consistent with the idea that listening to the radio in the U.S. context provides cross-cultural values
C) the results are consistent with the idea that television viewing in the U.S. context provides a supportive environment for authoritarian values
D) the results had no conclusive link between authoritarian values and entertainment

Question 20

According to George Lipsitz, advertisers incorporated their messages into urban ethnic working-class comedies with which method?

A) indirect and direct means
B) only direct means
C) only indirect means
D) subliminal means

Question 21

Female fans are rare, and seldom transform Star Trek into women's culture, and always keep it as a "space opera." This is possibly because there is not really any unwritten feminine countertext that hides in the margins of the written masculine text.

Question 22

What are the political consequences of conglomeration?

Question 23

Mass-mediated ideologies are corroborated and strengthened by an interlocking system of efficacious information-distributing agencies and taken-for-granted social practices that permeate every aspect of social and cultural reality.

Question 24

Trading in ______ crosses a moral threshold and transforms social relations traditionally regulated by values that transcend money into exchange relations regulated by money.

A) cultural heritages, practices, or ideologies
B) radio, television, and film
C) identity, bodies, and personal or public services
D) ideas, ethics, and philosophy

Question 25

Cultural studies offered a more optimistic model in which people were not suffering from false consciousness but rather ______.

A) engaged in social change through charity
B) sought to find meaning in false consciousness
C) were left to endure their reality
D) contended against cultural institutions and elites

Question 26

Compare and contrast vertical and horizontal integration.

Question 27

Concentration of media ownership means that fewer corporations own the media.

Question 28

Another new approach the author mentions examined ______.

A) political discourses about governments that reveal institutional goals in relation to the social control of those civilizations
B) hegemonic discourses about audiences that reveal institutional goals in relation to the social control of populations
C) interpersonal relationships about couples that reveal romantic goals in relation to the cultural norms of the area
D) none of these

Question 29

Explain commodification.

Question 30

Although fanzines may take a variety of forms, fans generally divide them into two major categories: ______ that publish short articles and letters from fans on issues surrounding their favorite shows and ______ that publish short stories, poems, and novels concerning the program characters and concepts.

A) authoritative engagers; persuasive contenders
B) "daily" fans; "lifelong" fans
C) letterzines; fictionzines
D) super fans; fanfiction authors