Deck 11: The Politics of the Media

Question 1

What event impelled President Lyndon B. Johnson to say he had lost the support of Middle America?

A) the high number of casualties in Vietnam
B) plunging presidential jobs polls
C) Democrats began opposing the war in Vietnam
D) Walter Cronkite's negative assessment of Vietnam

Answer 1

Walter Cronkite's negative assessment of Vietnam

Question 2

Lyndon Johnson, after watching Cronkite's February 27, 1968, broadcast, is quoted as saying, "That's it. If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America." What was the result of this statement?

A) Johnson pushed for civil rights legislation.
B) Johnson started making appearances on television.
C) Johnson gave up any possibility of seeking reelection.
D) Johnson pushed for a troop withdrawal from Vietnam.

Answer 2

Johnson gave up any possibility of seeking reelection.

Question 3

What is the reason for a free press?

A) to keep the government in line
B) to keep political factions in line
C) to keep the public in line
D) to keep the market in line

Answer 3

to keep the government in line

Question 4

__________ refers to any channel of communication reaching a vast audience.

A) Broadcast media
B) Network media
C) Popular media
D) Mass media

Question 5

A free media is important in a democracy because it __________.

A) allows elected officials to convey misinformation to the public
B) discourages involvement in the political affairs of the nation-state
C) encourages involvement in political affairs and improves understanding of policy issues and how government responds to those issues
D) aids elected officials in convincing the public to support specific actions

Question 6

__________ is best remembered for his coverage of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the Vietnam War.

A) John Chancellor
B) Walter Cronkite
C) Tom Brokaw
D) Peter Jennings

Question 7

According to your book, graduating high school seniors, on average, will have spent more time watching television than _______.

A) sleeping
B) interacting with all other media combined
C) any other cohort group
D) going to school

Question 8

Highly partisan newspapers popular in the early nineteenth century were known as __________.

A) party presses
B) broadsheets
C) penny dreadfuls
D) yellow news

Question 9

The first newspaper published in what would become the United States was the __________.

A) Wall Street Journal
B) Boston News-Letter
C) Boston Globe
D) Philadelphia Gazette

Question 10

The first of the penny press papers was the __________.

A) Wall Street Journal
B) New York Sun
C) Boston News-Letter
D) Boston Globe

Question 11

The Internet was developed in the early 1980s and was originally used __________.

A) in a joint research project between the University of California, Berkeley, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
B) to network Department of Defense computers
C) in a joint venture of Sun Microsystems, IBM, and Microsoft
D) by computer science students at the California Institute of Technology in a class project

Question 12

The __________ established the airways as a public good, subject to governmental oversight.

A) Broadcast Media Act of 1920
B) Radio Act of 1927
C) Federal Communications Commission Directive
D) U.S. Supreme Court decision in FOX v. CBS

Question 13

The practice of featuring sensationalism, comics, and scandal to sell newspapers in the nineteenth century was referred to as __________.

A) yellow journalism
B) tabloidism
C) red baiting
D) narrowcasting

Question 14

The general trend in media ownership in the twentieth century was __________.

A) toward decentralization, deregulation, and increased competition
B) toward greater consolidation and concentration of ownership
C) toward greater specialization
D) unchanged since the late nineteenth century

Question 15

In 1900, at the University of Pittsburgh, the first experimental radio transmission was made by __________.

A) Alexander Graham Bell
B) Reginald Fessenden
C) William Randolph Hearst
D) Edward Murrow

Question 16

Presidential election returns were broadcast over the radio airwaves for the first time in __________.

A) 1900
B) 1908
C) 1920
D) 1932

Question 17

In what two ways is television unique?

A) in its niche market and limited content
B) in its immediacy and its visual content
C) in its emotional appeal and content diversity
D) in its astounding rate of growth and its visual content

Question 18

With respect to the commercial development of television, World War II __________.

A) delayed commercial development
B) expanded commercial development
C) regulated commercial development
D) emphasized war propaganda

Question 19

The first newspapers in America were printed for __________.

A) the elite
B) farmers
C) government officials
D) the military

Question 20

Which was a significant result of yellow journalism?

A) the development of a professional code of ethics
B) mainstream popularization of sensational stories
C) simplification of newspaper language
D) investigative journalism

Question 21

How did freedom of speech concerns influence regulation of the rapidly growing industry of radio in the 1920s?

A) The Radio Act of 1927 established the airwaves as a private good.
B) Under the Radio Act of 1927 radio stations were government owned.
C) The formation of radio networks was severely restricted.
D) Regulation did not extend to content.

Question 22

Twenty-five percent of households had no access to the Internet as of 2012. Which is one of the reasons for this discrepancy?

A) public preference for television
B) continued relevance of talk radio
C) lack of rural Internet service providers
D) differences in socioeconomic class

Question 23

Which of the following demographic categories shows the greatest discrepancy among those who do and do not have Internet access?

A) race
B) age
C) household income
D) educational attainment

Question 24

When the media dispense political facts and opinions, helping people form their political belief structures and political culture, media are performing their __________ function.

A) interpretation
B) socialization
C) critical assessment
D) focusing

Question 25

Research on portrayals of public officials in entertainment media indicates that portrayals have become __________ since 1975.

A) more positive
B) more negative
C) less informative
D) less scandalous

Question 26

Who theorized that the media performs the three important social functions of surveillance, interpretation, and socialization?

A) Douglass North
B) Harold Lasswell
C) Walter Cronkite
D) Edward R. Murrow

Question 27

The media's surveillance function __________.

A) forms our political belief structures and culture
B) puts events into context
C) draws attention to important problems
D) reinforces economic and social values

Question 28

The Jungle, a critical examination of Chicago's meatpacking industry, was written by __________.

A) Sinclair Lewis
B) Frederick Jamison
C) Upton Sinclair
D) Edward R. Murrow

Question 29

When a journalist covers societal ills, such as corruption in politics or abuses in business, the journalist is said to be engaged in __________.

A) investigative reporting
B) causal reporting
C) yellow journalism
D) informative investigation

Question 30

By the 1980s, positive portrayals of the U.S. political system had become uncommon due to __________.

A) the Cold War and the Iran-Contra affair
B) Watergate and the Vietnam War
C) the failure of Ronald Reagan to connect with the public
D) Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon

Question 31

When former president Ronald Reagan died in 2004, the way in which the media drew historical parallels between Reagan and other presidents as part of their coverage reflects what societal role of the media?

A) surveillance
B) socialization
C) interpretation
D) contextual analysis

Question 32

Television shows such as The Real Housewives subtly reinforce the public's belief in __________.

A) capitalism
B) celebrities
C) infotainment
D) music

Question 33

In a democratic society, the media's role in socialization _______.

A) fulfills the function of investigative reporting
B) provides the "eyes and ears to the world"
C) shapes political belief structures and the political culture
D) puts news events into context

Question 34

The distinction between entertainment and __________ has become increasingly blurred as the news divisions of network media have come under pressure to be entertaining.

A) politics
B) news
C) education
D) interpretive journalism

Question 35

In the late 1990s, the Chicago Tribune exposed serious flaws in how the death penalty was administered in Illinois. This is an excellent example of __________, an aspect of surveillance that many Americans welcome.

A) reality reporting
B) news
C) investigative reporting
D) interpretive journalism

Question 36

According to Harold Lasswell, the second societal role of the media is to interpret the news, putting events into __________.

A) context
B) the news
C) education
D) the lowest common denominator

Question 37

The media are agents of __________, their political coverage helping form the political culture of the public.

A) context
B) change
C) education
D) socialization

Question 38

Although the media covers the judiciary less than the executive and legislative branches of government, it generally gives significant coverage to __________.

A) jury cases
B) judges' personal lives
C) Supreme Court decisions and controversial confirmation hearings
D) gatekeeping cases and agenda setting

Question 39

Which of the following presidents gave a large number of public talks, averaging more than 550 per year, every year of his presidency?

A) Jimmy Carter
B) Ronald Reagan
C) George H.W. Bush
D) Bill Clinton

Question 40

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas's confirmation hearing received heavy media coverage because he__________.

A) was accused of sexual harassment
B) was considered unqualified for the position
C) was the first African American nominee for the Court
D) had a poor record as director of the Equal Opportunities Commission

Question 41

What is earned media coverage?

A) positive press provided free of charge to candidates running for political office
B) events that appear to be spontaneous but are scripted by public relations experts
C) determining which stories will receive attention, and the stories' perspectives
D) process by which the media normalizes and contextualizes opinion stories

Question 42

The President's main spokesperson, responsible for holding daily conferences with news media outlets, is the __________.

A) press secretary
B) secretary of state
C) national security advisor
D) chief of staff

Question 43

An elected official attends the opening of a drug treatment center and makes a speech stressing the importance of rehabilitation, hoping that media will cover the event. The elected official is engaged in securing __________.

A) gatekeeping
B) narrowcasting
C) muckraking
D) earned media coverage

Question 44

The number of presidential press conferences held each year since the 1930s __________.

A) has increased
B) has decreased
C) has remained constant
D) spiked in the 1970s, but since declined

Question 45

Which of the following was likely a pseudo-event created to garner media coverage?

A) the invasion of Cuba authorized by John F. Kennedy
B) Vice President Biden being recorded calling the health care reform bill a "big f***ing deal."
C) Republican candidate for president Mitt Romney's Hurricane Sandy relief effort
D) George W. Bush being filmed reading a children's book upside down

Question 46

Which is the most likely example of agenda setting?

A) coverage of an automobile accident
B) coverage of a flood
C) coverage of a major upset in the NFL playoffs
D) coverage of negative job growth

Question 47

Which would qualify as a leak leading to more government transparency?

A) an unnamed source leaking information about a criminal prosecution
B) an unnamed source leaking information about a possible policy decision
C) an organization leaking classified documents directly attributable to a government agency
D) an organization leaking information from a verbal source with no documentation

Question 48

Media coverage of shooting victim Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, is an example of media influence known as __________.

A) transparency
B) agenda setting
C) muckraking
D) yellow journalism

Question 49

__________ are staged in order to attract attention to a politician, campaign, or policy.

A) Investigative reports
B) Press releases
C) Pseudo-events
D) Gatekeepers

Question 50

Historical concerns about the media's role as __________ have changed recently, partly due to the increase in the number of individuals who participate in the creation of news and contribute to news stories.

A) investigative reporters
B) socialization mechanisms
C) agenda setters
D) gatekeepers

Question 51

Why do the media cover pseudo-events?

A) These events are the favorite for media coverage.
B) The media are always willing to provide positive coverage for politicians.
C) They are often afraid of getting scooped by rivals
D) It is their primary responsibility as gatekeepers.

Question 52

According to your knowledge of the current patterns of media use, what strategy would best maximize the efficiency of a political candidate's election campaign?

A) create earned media coverage
B) spark an adversarial relationship with a reporter
C) minimize or eliminate pseudo-events
D) act in a gatekeeper role

Question 53

Which of the following is true about the similarity between pseudo-events and news conferences?

A) The media plays the role of gatekeeper in both.
B) Both are spontaneous events that the media often fail to cover.
C) Both are events that result in negative coverage for the politician.
D) Both are staged events used to shape and control the content of a political message.

Question 54

A study of the 2008 presidential election found that __________.

A) there was far more negative candidate coverage of McCain and more positive coverage of Obama
B) John Kerry had more effectively managed the media than George W. Bush
C) the distribution of favorable and unfavorable coverage was even across all news sources
D) most Americans were cynical and apathetic toward the candidates

Question 55

Locales with two or more news organizations that can check one another's accuracy and neutrality of reporting are known as __________.

A) gatekeepers
B) narrowcastings
C) news monopolies
D) competitive news markets

Question 56

The 1960 presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon was noteworthy because __________.

A) Nixon won the debate but lost the election
B) television viewers said that Kennedy won the debate, while radio listeners said that Nixon won the debate
C) television viewers said that Nixon won the debate while radio listeners said that Kennedy won the debate
D) it was the last televised presidential debate until the 1980 election cycle

Question 57

The increasing centralization and concentration of media ownership is an issue of concern because it __________.

A) offers fewer perspectives on current events
B) makes news gathering less efficient
C) makes reporting more expensive
D) undermines the profitability of the news media

Question 58

The public advocate theory of the media is also referred to as the __________.

A) devolution theory
B) libertarian theory
C) social responsibility theory
D) prospective governance theory

Question 59

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 __________.

A) eliminated the Federal Communications Commission
B) deregulated many limitations on media ownership
C) introduced public airwave decency regulations
D) reimposed the fairness doctrine

Question 60

Until 1985, under the __________, the Federal Communications Commission required broadcast media to allow time for all "reasonable positions" on controversial issues of public interest.

A) neutrality doctrine
B) right of the rebuttal
C) equalization rule
D) fairness doctrine

Question 61

Across societies, most laws regulating the media stem from what kind of concerns?

A) concerns about news monopolies
B) national security concerns
C) concerns about a free market
D) concerns about personal freedoms

Question 62

Because we believe that a free press is the bedrock of a free society, the American courts are hesitant to allow __________.

A) prior censorship
B) yellow censorship
C) narrowcasting
D) equal time rule

Question 63

The publication of false and malicious material defaming an individual's reputation is referred to as __________.

A) yellow journalism
B) defamation
C) libel
D) slander

Question 64

This Federal Communication Commission rule requires equal airtime for all major candidates competing for political office.

A) the equal time rule
B) the right of the rebuttal
C) the equalization law
D) the fairness doctrine

Question 65

The right to privacy often conflicts with press coverage of sensitive information. Why would a news organization not publish the name or names of crime victims?

A) It would fear a libel charge.
B) It cannot publish information that is not part of the public record.
C) To do so would be a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
D) It is adhering to rules that are a matter of decency.

Question 66

The idea that differing thoughts and ideas compete for acceptance is sometimes known as the __________.

A) free expression theory
B) limited acceptance thesis
C) marketplace of ideas
D) information flow theory