Deck 6: Controls on Media Content Government Regulation, Self-Regulation, and Ethics

Question 1

Reporters allowed to travel with military personnel are called

A) Pool reporters
B) Field reporters
C) Embedded reporters
D) Unilateral reporters

Answer 1

C
Explanation: These reporters received permission to travel with the troops so long as they respected strategic information.

Question 2

Suggesting that a reporter exercised a lack of reasonable care when reporting a story is an example of

A) Actual malice
B) Simple malice
C) Actual negligence
D) Simple negligence

Answer 2

D
Explanation: Simple negligence refers to the lack of reasonable care in reporting a story, such as not confirming facts or not obscuring your identity enough (if that was promised).

Question 3

If a reporter agrees not to reveal the name of a source in a story, to which constituency does she owe it to keep her word?

A) Audiences
B) Profession
C) Promiseholders
D) Society

Answer 3

C
Explanation: Promiseholders are those whom reporters make promises and are obligated to keep those promises.

Question 4

Ethical standards in the mass media involve all of these levels EXCEPT

A) Audience
B) Personal
C) Professional
D) Societal

Question 5

According to the First Amendment to the Constitution, who shall make no law abridging certain freedoms?

A) The President
B) The Supreme Court
C) Congress
D) The United Nations

Question 6

A reporter who receives permission from the military to travel with a military unit across the battlefield is called a

A) investigative reporter
B) embed
C) synchophant
D) pool reporter

Question 7

According to Table 5.3 in the text, which of the following is not a listed activity that media firms sometimes carry out when creating content?

A) appropriation
B) public disclosure
C) intrusion
D) prior restraint

Question 8

The National Association of Broadcasters offers seven Ratings Categories for content. Of the seven categories, which one is suitable for the largest possible audience, so everyone can watch it?

A) TVPG
B) TVG
C) TVY7
D) TVY

Question 9

Ethical standards for the mass media often involve at least three levels. Which of the following is not one of those levels?

A) the professional level
B) the societal level
C) the personal level
D) the global level

Question 10

Control of the market by a select few firms is known as what kind of system?

A) a monopoly
B) an omnipoly
C) an oligopoly
D) a duopoly

Question 11

What does the acronym FCC stand for?

A) Federal Contract Commission
B) Federal Communications Commission
C) Federal Contact Commission
D) Federal Compliance Commission

Question 12

The text identifies three external pressures on the media to self-regulate. Which of the following is not one of those pressures?

A) pressure from advertisers
B) pressure from members of the public
C) pressure from advocacy organizations
D) pressure from competing stations

Question 13

Table 5.2 in the text lists a number of "red flag" words that the courts have generally considered libelous per se. Which of the following is not listed?

A) thief
B) idiot
C) blockhead
D) drunk

Question 14

At the start of the chapter, who said the following: "What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages, they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books."?

A) V.C. Andrews
B) J.D. Salinger
C) Stephen King
D) Sigmund Freud

Question 15

In the U.S., the government regulation of media is influenced by

A) politics
B) economics
C) culture
D) all of these

Question 16

In the 1925 case of Gitlow v. New York, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that

A) individual states may abridge the First Amendment
B) Gitlow was guilty of criminal anarchy
C) The New York State Supreme Court had acted correctly
D) all of these

Question 17

The U.S. Supreme Court has approved government restrictions on speech and on the press that place restrictions on

A) time
B) place
C) manner of expression
D) all of these

Question 18

Pornographic materials are subject to restraint if they are

A) sexually explicit
B) declared obscene
C) distributed with sexually explicit images on the outer packaging
D) all of these

Question 19

The U.S. military has controlled or influenced news coverage of recent wars by means of

A) news blackouts
B) pool reporters
C) embeds
D) all of these

Question 20

Fair use regulations allow a person or a company to use small portions of copyrighted work

A) with written approval from the copyright holder
B) if the general social good is enhanced
C) without asking permission of the copyright holder
D) if a small fee is paid to the copyright holder

Question 21

A public figure is someone who may be

A) elected or appointed
B) willingly or unwillingly involved in a public controversy
C) a famous movie star
D) all of these

Question 22

If a newspaper publishes information that it knows to be false about a person, the newspaper may have demonstrated

A) simple malice
B) actual malice
C) simple negligence
D) dramatic negligence

Question 23

In a libel case, the plaintiff must show that the defamatory material

A) caused harm to the plaintiff
B) identified the plaintiff
C) was actually published
D) all of these

Question 24

Defenses in libel cases include

A) public apologies
B) financial restitution
C) truth
D) all of these

Question 25

If a defendant in a libel case proves that a defamatory statement was privileged (and thus not public), he or she has

A) admitted to the libel charge
B) presented a valid defense against the libel charge
C) demonstrated reckless disregard
D) demonstrated actual malice

Question 26

A news organization can put a person in a false light by means of

A) appropriation
B) disclosure
C) distortion
D) disrespecting

Question 27

As the law stands now, the invasion of privacy includes

A) libel
B) false opinion
C) distortion
D) intrusion

Question 28

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 requires

A) children to identify themselves as children on certain websites
B) that websites must get parental approval before collecting information from children
C) parents to monitor how their children are using websites
D) all of these

Question 29

The Federal Trade Commission

A) enforces federal antitrust laws
B) ensures that markets function competitively
C) stops actions that threaten consumers' opportunities to make informed choices
D) all of these

Question 30

Public advocacy organizations

A) can be regarded as stakeholders in the media system
B) form to bring pressure on media industries
C) are sometimes specific to media
D) all of these

Question 31

An ombudsperson is hired by a media organization to deal with

A) distribution
B) translations
C) complaints
D) competitors

Question 32

The film industry's Ratings Board

A) requires all films to be submitted to it
B) considers several criteria, including drug abuse
C) uses the rating "R" to designate films that are released
D) all of these

Question 33

Scholars have argued that media practitioners are ethically obligated to several constituencies. Which of the following is NOT one of them.

A) their audience
B) the employer or firm
C) governmental officials
D) the profession

Question 34

Groups with opposing demands on media organizations often share a concern about:

A) the spiritual problems of abortion
B) the negative effects of too much government
C) the decline of social service programs
D) the media's effect on society

Question 35

According to the First Amendment, only the Federal Government can make laws that affect media industries.

Question 36

Transformative regulations allow individuals to use small portions of a copyrighted work without the author's permission or compensation.

Question 37

A public person has more difficulty winning a libel claim than a private person.

Question 38

A monopoly is control of a market by a small handful of firms.

Question 39

Only government regulation can address and resolve ethical issues.

Question 40

During World War One, the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act prevented so-called "disloyal" publications from being mailed via the U.S. Postal Service.

Question 41

During World War Two, the Office of Censorship examined mail, cables, newspapers, magazines, films, and radio broadcasts for content deemed as threatening to the U.S. war effort.

Question 42

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that homeowners may record copyrighted TV shows for their personal, noncommercial use.

Question 43

Parodies of original works are not covered by the concept of fair use.

Question 44

Over the years, the U.S. Supreme Court has made clear its view that the Constitution allows the government a level of control over noncommercial speech that it does not tolerate when commercial speech is involved.

Question 45

In U.S. libel law, simple malice means hatred or ill will toward another person.

Question 46

In the famous 1964 case of New York Times V. Sullivan, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution protected false and defamatory statements made about public officials only if the false statements were not published with actual malice.

Question 47

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment requires proof of simple negligence even when private persons sue the mass media for libel.

Question 48

In 2007, the FCC forced Univision to pay a record $24 million fine for airing telenovelas with children during the time it claimed it was fulfilling the children's educational requirement from 2004 to 2006.

Question 49

The term oligopoly is used to describe a market controlled by just a select few of firms.

Question 50

Critics of the Family Friendly Programming Forum fear that the Forum's influence will result in programs that romanticize a kind of fictional nuclear family.

Question 51

Most media organizations have operating policies that spell out guidelines for everyday operations.

Question 52

Although all media industries subscribe to professional codes of ethics, the advertising and public relations industries do not have similar codes of ethics in place for their practitioners.

Question 53

Press council have the job of arbitrating disputes between competing newspapers and news magazines.

Question 54

Arguments with media firms are almost never based on fear about the media's effect on other segments of society.

Question 55

Media laws and regulations can be seen as a way to formally enforce agreed-upon norms of behavior.

Question 56

Obscene materials are not protected by the First Amendment

Question 57

The phrase "by the press" in the First Amendment strictly refers to the journalistic press.

Question 58

To be constitutional, government restrictions on speech must serve a significant governmental interest.

Question 59

Explain what available laws limit media organizations' ability to collect data from individuals and share private data without the knowledge of the individual involved.

Question 60

What constitutes fair use? Explain customary fair use exceptions.

Question 61

What is the difference between obscenity and pornography, according to the Supreme Court?

Question 62

Explain the four areas of privacy.

Question 63

Explain libel and its defenses.