Deck 13: Leisure and Media

Question 1

In the past, which group of people had the time and resources necessary to pursue recreational activity?

A) only the wealthy
B) almost everyone
C) the middle class and the upper class
D) only the very poor
E) only the clergy

Answer 1

A

Question 2

How are changes in technology changing the nature of recreation?

A) Recreation is more dangerous than ever before.
B) Recreation is moving into public spaces and away from the home.
C) Recreation is less likely to involve members of the immediate family.
D) Recreation has become safer.
E) Recreation is moving inside the home and away from public spaces.

Answer 2

E

Question 3

The terms "recreation" and "leisure" are both defined by their difference from:

A) recreational drug use.
B) paid work.
C) family life.
D) sports and physical fitness.
E) shopping.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

What led to the increase in leisure time in the twentieth century?

A) changes in values and norms made leisure disappear
B) increases in industrial productivity and time-saving technologies
C) decreases in family size
D) increases in life span and better health care
E) urbanization

Question 5

In the premodern world, the line between work and play was not very clearly defined. Why was this the case?

A) Religious beliefs prohibited this distinction.
B) Too many people died young.
C) People had fewer recreational options.
D) Warfare occupied too much of people's time.
E) People didn't have adequate technology for recreation.

Question 6

Today leisure is increasingly dominated by ____________, "the 800-pound gorilla of leisure time."

A) the Internet
B) video games
C) shopping
D) sports
E) television

Question 7

How have activities that were once necessities changed as they became recreational activities?

A) They now come with a wide variety of commodities.
B) They are less rewarding than before.
C) More people do them than in the past.
D) They require more skill than before.
E) They no longer require us to spend money.

Question 8

How has the Internet changed the way people use leisure time?

A) Older people are more likely to be in touch with younger generations.
B) There is increasing contact between people in different areas of the world, but sometimes individuals from the same family spend less time with one another.
C) There is increasing contact between family members and less contact between people in different areas of the world.
D) There has been a radical increase in the amount of time people spend shopping.
E) There has been a radical decline in the amount of time people spend shopping.

Question 9

Because popular music is so strongly associated with leisure, what is the most underappreciated aspect of the work that professional musicians do?

A) how much they get paid
B) the conditions under which they work, particularly on tour
C) the role individual creativity and inspiration play in the music business
D) how long a career most professional musicians have
E) that it is work

Question 10

What is the difference between recreation and leisure?

A) Leisure is a kind of activity; recreation is a kind of time.
B) Leisure requires money; recreation does not.
C) Leisure is a kind of time; recreation is a kind of activity.
D) Recreation requires money; leisure does not.
E) Recreation involves the use of technology; leisure does not.

Question 11

What sort of activities can be considered recreation?

A) those that cannot be done for a wage
B) those that involve friends and family
C) those that are done on the weekend
D) those that are done away from home
E) those that are enjoyable

Question 12

What development has not changed the way leisure time is used?

A) the decline of public life
B) the commodification of recreational activities
C) the rise of formal organization in recreation
D) the increase in desire for leisure and recreation
E) the change in technology

Question 13

Which of the following sounds most like recreation, as your textbook defines it?

A) a student's time between getting out of class and going to work
B) a guitarist on tour who has to sell T-shirts and CDs at the merchandise table after each show
C) the "recess" period given to children in primary school, when they can spend unstructured time on the playground
D) someone learning the calculus required to compute the amount and type of fuel needed to power a model rocket he wants to launch in a park
E) a magician who puts up flyers and works at children's birthday parties

Question 14

What does your textbook cite as the ultimate example of the commercialization of leisure?

A) sports
B) video games
C) shopping
D) television
E) the Internet

Question 15

Imagine that you've come across someone rebuilding an engine. Which of the following questions would you need to ask to discover if this was a recreational activity as recreation is defined in your textbook?

A) how much money she was spending on parts and supplies
B) if she had to take time off work to do it
C) if there was any way for her to benefit from the activity in an economic sense
D) how much time she spent on it each week
E) how rebuilding engines made her feel

Question 16

What is the shift from people making their own fun to people purchasing it as goods and services called?

A) the privatization of recreational activities
B) the commodification of recreational activities
C) the end of romance
D) formalizing recreation
E) conglomeration synergy

Question 17

In 2006 Nintendo released the Wii, its latest video game system. The system was widely noted for attracting demographic groups, including senior citizens, not often associated with video games. In fact, there were even reports of senior citizens forming leagues to play "Wii bowling" and other sports-related games. If true, these leagues would represent:

A) the fall of public man.
B) spontaneity in recreation and leisure.
C) a return to a less commodified style of recreational activities.
D) textual poaching.
E) a return of public life.

Question 18

What does the sociologist Richard Sennett mean when he says that modernity has seen the "fall of public man"?

A) People increasingly spend time with their immediate families or those with whom they have intimate associations, and the home becomes the site of leisure activities.
B) The ideals of public service and civic duty are seen as much less important than they were in the past.
C) Political corruption has increased.
D) Government provides far fewer services than it has in the past.
E) There are far fewer celebrities than at any other time in history.

Question 19

How did the rise of the suburbs affect the way people used their leisure time?

A) It encouraged them to join neighborhood groups and associations.
B) It encouraged them to take more vacations.
C) It led to an increase in communal activities such as bowling leagues.
D) It encouraged them to spend their leisure time in their own homes.
E) It led to an increase in outdoor activities.

Question 20

The sociologist Richard Sennett argues that we have seen the "fall of public man" and have become much more likely to seek refuge in "ties of family or intimate association." Given this, what else would you expect Sennett to believe?

A) Sociologists should spend much more time studying places where strangers come together, like large public buildings, as that's where the most important events in our society transpire.
B) Few people can take pleasure in great cities, which are full of strangers.
C) Religious ceremonies are a great source of pride and meaning.
D) More and more Americans are participating in local politics.
E) In the future, there will be far more people with mental health issues than there are today.

Question 21

In the early days of country music, there were a number of "family" groups, or families who became professional musicians together. This happened often, in part because many families made music together for fun. Today, far from singing together, the average family is more likely to have each member put on a pair of headphones and use an mp3 player to listen to music alone. What does this say about contemporary recreation and leisure?

A) We define leisure time in terms of public life and interactions with strangers.
B) Our recreation and leisure is mediated by material goods that we seem to "require" in order to have fun.
C) Our leisure time is much more formally organized than it was in the past.
D) Media-producing conglomerations are making fewer types of media available to us.
E) Changes in recreation and leisure have produced a great deal of inequality.

Question 22

Your hike might be considered part of the commercialization of leisure if:

A) you don't use maps and instead navigate your way around a national park using a compass and the sun.
B) you buy a $500 backpack with a solar panel to allow you to recharge your electronics.
C) you use your BlackBerry to check your e-mail every morning, even when you're away from buildings and computers.
D) you bring along a camera and document your hiking trip for your scrapbook.
E) you go hiking with a large group of family and friends.

Question 23

When one media conglomerate is able to market its products across a wide range of media, it is said to have:

A) synergy.
B) a monopoly.
C) consumption.
D) recreation.
E) antitrust.

Question 24

The Mall of America has more than ten thousand workers, occupies more than four million square feet, and receives more than forty million visitors each year. However, the mall offers more than just shopping. Concerts, plays, story times for children, flight simulators, and an indoor aquarium are just a few of the elements of what the mall calls its "retail experience." What point does this illustrate?

A) Many forms of leisure and recreation seem to have shifted from organized and formal activities to spontaneous or informal activities.
B) Alternative media sources are driving Americans to consider new ideas and experience life differently.
C) Rather than paying for things, more and more Americans are now making their own fun.
D) Americans are increasingly less likely to go out for a dose of the arts and more likely to stay home and enjoy performances in front of their home entertainment centers.
E) Shopping is now as much about entertainment as it is about purchasing things.

Question 25

How has technology enabled the shift from spontaneous to organized recreation?

A) It has made organized recreation more fun.
B) It has made organized recreation more competitive.
C) It has produced the tools necessary for recreation to even exist.
D) It has made shopping easier.
E) It has made it easier to organize people.

Question 26

Little League baseball and other organized community sports are examples of what phenomenon?

A) the use of technology in recreation
B) expressions of inequality in leisure activities
C) the formalization of recreation
D) the spatialization of recreation
E) spontaneous recreation

Question 27

Given the ways spectatorship has changed in recent years, which of the following trends is it most closely related to?

A) increasing levels of conglomeration
B) the increase in third places
C) the decline of public life
D) the commercialization of leisure
E) the growth of cybernetics

Question 28

A flash mob is a sudden assembly of strangers in a public place for the purpose of performing some novel action (clapping for no reason, singing a song together, dancing, etc.) and then rapidly dispersing. Although they appear to be spontaneous to outsiders, in reality flash mobs are organized through e-mails, social networking sites, and text messages. This is a good example of how technology can:

A) shift recreation to the private sphere.
B) concentrate media power.
C) promote self-regulation and censorship in the media.
D) make it easier to organize people.
E) commodify recreation and leisure.

Question 29

A small child asks his babysitter if he can play "tag." The child means the simple outdoor game wherein one player chases the other players until she can "tag" one of them with her hand to trade roles. However, the babysitter is confused and goes to the entertainment center to look for a DVD or a video game named "Tag." What phenomenon could be responsible for this confusion?

A) the increase in leisure time spontaneity
B) the popularity of simple outdoor activities
C) the commercialization of leisure
D) the decline of public life
E) the formalization of recreation

Question 30

In August of 2009, the Newbury Astronomical Society held a "Twitter Meteorwatch," posting photographs of the Perseid meteor shower as well as tweets about what was going on in the night sky as it happened. This represented a remarkable new expansion of:

A) democracy.
B) hegemony.
C) spectatorship.
D) socialism.
E) commodification.

Question 31

Why should leisure not be treated as a minor and unimportant topic?

A) Leisure is the opposite of work.
B) Leisure and recreation absorb a lot of time, energy, and resources.
C) All facets of life should be considered equally important.
D) The wealthy and powerful do different things with their leisure time than the poor do with theirs.
E) Leisure and recreation increasingly involve technology and media.

Question 32

How has the principle of the free press as a voice of the people been watered down since the founders guaranteed it in the Constitution?

A) through blogs and zines
B) through conglomeration and media concentration
C) through the tabloid press
D) through a decreasing desire for sensationalism
E) through the rise of celebrity gossip

Question 33

A typical media conglomerate is most likely to include all of the following EXCEPT:

A) a book and magazine publisher.
B) radio and television broadcasters.
C) a sports franchise.
D) a newspaper.
E) a restaurant chain.

Question 34

Seagram's, a company best known for its gin, also owns Universal Records. This is an example of what trend in the media industry?

A) regulation
B) monopoly
C) antidisestablishmentarianism
D) inequality
E) conglomeration

Question 35

During the first decade of the twenty-first century, daily newspapers were in trouble all across the country, many having closed and many others poised to do so. This worried some scholars who believed that newspapers are vital for maintaining:

A) third places.
B) volunteerism.
C) censorship.
D) interpretive communities.
E) democracy.

Question 36

Americans seem to have much more choice about which media to consume than in the past. Why is this choice deceptive?

A) Many choices are owned by foreign companies.
B) Many choices are confined to small, marginal outlets.
C) Many choices are owned by the same company.
D) Many choices are not available in all areas.
E) Many choices are very expensive.

Question 37

On ESPN.com, men's college basketball is presented as "college basketball," while women's college basketball is called "women's college basketball" and shares a web page with women's professional basketball. This is an example of:

A) the concentration of media power.
B) inequality.
C) privatization.
D) commercialization.
E) the decline of public life.

Question 38

Reading a book you checked out from the library might seem to be an example of a recreational activity that is totally uncommercialized, but it is still directly connected to commercial activity and work because:

A) you had to eat and pay for utilities on the day you went to the library.
B) you might learn something valuable by reading.
C) most people read only when they are required to.
D) books from libraries are expensive, as they have expensive bindings.
E) people were paid to write, edit, print, ship, and shelve the book.

Question 39

Why is free time (nonwork time) not necessarily leisure time?

A) It doesn't count as leisure time unless money is being spent.
B) Leisure activities can also earn money.
C) Leisure time implies the ability to make choices.
D) Leisure time often happens at work.
E) Work can also be fun.

Question 40

Leisure and work are complementary activities. What links them together?

A) food
B) consumption
C) the weekend
D) democracy
E) children and the family

Question 41

Which of the following is NOT considered to be protected speech?

A) material considered to be obscene
B) information about the personal lives of political candidates
C) pictures taken of celebrities on public property
D) information about bombs and weapons
E) hateful language directed at racial and ethnic minorities

Question 42

Today, four companies sell more than 80 percent of the compact discs purchased in the United States, although this fact is not obvious because the four companies have purchased many smaller record labels over the years. What is this called?

A) synergy
B) new voices
C) the media and democracy
D) a monopoly
E) concentration of media power

Question 43

Thomas Beatie, a transsexual man who got pregnant, went on the Oprah Winfrey Show and let Oprah's camera crew tape his ultrasound. This is an example of:

A) a nonmainstream individual gaining access to a mass audience.
B) bloggers and zines circumventing the constraints of the mainstream media.
C) the effect of deregulation.
D) the way media shift when antitrust legislation is passed.
E) one of the insidious effects of media concentration.

Question 44

Why are blogs, zines, and podcasts valuable?

A) They provide an opportunity for disenfranchised, nonmainstream individuals to be heard.
B) They provide daytime entertainment.
C) They provide a window into an alternate lifestyle.
D) They provide in-depth political reporting.
E) They provide news and opinion from non-Western societies.

Question 45

A sociologist who is concerned that people will uncritically accept political biases in the media they consume probably believes that:

A) audiences are active.
B) audiences seek out the same media to meet different needs.
C) audiences can transform pieces of the media to suit their own needs.
D) the media are largely a grassroots effort.
E) audiences are mostly passive.

Question 46

When sociologists reject the hypodermic needle model, they tend to stop asking ____________ and start asking ____________.

A) what people do with media; what media does to people
B) what writers and critics do with media; what media does to people
C) what media does to people; what people do with media
D) what media does to people; what writers and critics do with media
E) what critics do with media; what people do with media

Question 47

What does the uses and gratifications paradigm of media consumption assume about audiences?

A) They uncritically accept the messages encoded in media.
B) They are passive viewers.
C) They take a media product and manipulate it to tell their own story.
D) They tend to avoid exposure to the media whenever possible.
E) They are actively engaged.

Question 48

In 1996 Congress passed telecommunications legislation that fundamentally altered the way the radio business worked, removing most of the barriers that prevented a single company from owning large numbers of stations. What is this called?

A) antitrust legislation
B) deregulation
C) self-regulation
D) encoding and decoding
E) textual poaching

Question 49

Which of the following could NOT be explained by the uses and gratifications paradigm?

A) talking to co-workers about a television show you all watch
B) forgetting your own worries while you watch cartoon robots blow each other up
C) asking for a martini "shaken, not stirred" because that's how James Bond does it
D) deciding how to vote based on information received from a newscast
E) believing that a fake documentary, or a mockumentary, about a fictional country music star was real and attempting to buy one of his records

Question 50

Some cell phone providers are now offering hardware, like small laptops, and media to play on it, like songs and TV shows. Phone companies believe that each product they offer will encourage and promote other products, as phones can easily send data to laptops, which can store media that can easily be watched on phones, and so on. What is this called?

A) media concentration
B) conglomeration
C) the hypodermic needle theory
D) bandwidth
E) synergy

Question 51

If scholars assume that audiences are active rather than passive, what does this imply about the meaning of media "texts"?

A) Media producers manipulate audiences in order to sell goods.
B) Media content is "shot" into audience members, who respond instantaneously to its stimulus.
C) Every media consumer experiences meanings in the same way.
D) The meaning of any particular media text isn't very important.
E) Consumers can alter and even invert meanings to suit their own purposes.

Question 52

Why does it make sense that mp3 players, like iPods, would replace the compact disc in a postmodern economy?

A) There are limits to the number of CDs you can sell to any one person, but more "ephemeral" products like mp3s and downloaded movies can be sold faster and more often.
B) Mp3 players are better designed than CDs and make use of the same technologies (the computer chip) that are driving the information economy.
C) Mp3 players are less portable and mobile than CDs.
D) Mp3 players allow more control of the dissemination of information, which undermines the constitutional rights of the average citizen to have her voice heard.
E) Mp3 players could only exist after the removal of government restrictions on the media industry allowed companies to gain control of ever-larger chunks of the media market.

Question 53

Sometimes teenage boys watch football games on Sunday only because they wish to be able to make conversation with their classmates on Monday. Which theory best explains this?

A) textual poaching
B) structural functionalism
C) conflict theory
D) the magic bullet theory
E) the uses and gratifications paradigm

Question 54

Given what you know about David Harvey and the postmodern economy, how does our society manage to consume all of the additional goods produced as a result of the incredible increases in efficiency?

A) Many more products last longer and work more efficiently, thus ensuring consumer loyalty.
B) Many more types of products will be subject to fashion and will go out of style.
C) Media deregulation and the concentration of media power have decreased the persuasive quality of advertising.
D) Passing stronger antitrust legislation has led to variety as well as quantity.
E) Using and consuming more textual poaching and consumer-driven media has led to increased consumerism.

Question 55

Why would media outlets impose self-censorship?

A) to compete with online blogs and underground publications
B) to avoid outside regulation by the government
C) to improve values and morals
D) to protect children
E) to increase subscriptions

Question 56

Some lawyers working for the Department of Justice worry that Google is abusing its power and behaving like a monopoly in the way it charges for ads. If the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit, what type of suit would it be?

A) commodification
B) prima facie suit
C) antitrust
D) synergistic
E) new media

Question 57

The assumption that media consumers automatically accept whatever meaning is in the "texts" they consume is called:

A) the active audience model.
B) the encoding/decoding model.
C) textual poaching.
D) the magic bullet theory.
E) uses and gratification theory.

Question 58

Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer believed that "the triumph of advertising . . . is that consumers feel compelled to buy and use its products even though they see through them." If this is all you know about Adorno and Horkheimer, you might conclude that they:

A) are functionalists.
B) accept that reinforcement theory explains the way advertising works.
C) accept that audiences are nonexistent.
D) believe in the hypodermic needle theory.
E) rely on the uses and gratification paradigm to understand media.

Question 59

Why do some argue in favor of increased censorship of the media?

A) They believe censorship will provide a voice for disenfranchised groups.
B) They believe it will protect American companies from foreign competition.
C) They believe it will increase sales overseas, especially in conservative societies.
D) They believe that violent and sexual media content has a negative impact on society.
E) They believe it would increase sales.

Question 60

In 2001 Sirius and XM started offering satellite radio services, but both struggled to make a profit. In 2007 Sirius acquired XM, part of a process called:

A) introducing new voices in the media.
B) self-regulation.
C) encoding.
D) conglomeration.
E) spectatorship.

Question 61

What part of Stuart Hall's theory resembles the magic bullet model?

A) the assumption that specific ideological messages are loaded into cultural products
B) the assumption that individuals will respond to media messages in a wide variety of ways
C) the assumption that audience members manipulate cultural products for their own ends
D) the assumption that an audience actively interprets a text
E) the assumption that audience members will listen to "opinion leaders"

Question 62

Which of the following activities is NOT part of a fan's relationship with a celebrity?

A) reading celebrity gossip magazines
B) attending a book signing or other event
C) masterminding a fan-staged encounter with a celebrity
D) reading about celebrities in class
E) stalking a celebrity

Question 63

A wildly popular subgenre of fan fiction takes the emotional connection between male "buddies," like Starsky and Hutch or Frodo and Samwise, and turns it into a physically intimate connection, presenting the pair as lovers. What is this called?

A) slash
B) textual poaching
C) uses and gratifications
D) mimetic verisimilitude
E) magic bullets

Question 64

The producers, writers, and actors of Die Hard meant for the audience to cheer for the protagonist, a blue collar hero who defeats a team of German terrorists single-handedly. If you met someone who instead was rooting for Hans Gruber, the murderous leader of the terrorists, you could say that she was:

A) being used by the mass media to influence other members of the public.
B) being more or less "brainwashed" by the effects of the mass media.
C) being informed and educated by the media.
D) decoding the movie differently than it was encoded.
E) taking the original product and manipulating it to tell a story very different from the original.

Question 65

The English music star Morrissey got his start in the band The Smiths, singing about radical vegetarianism and bisexuality in the 1980s. He was effeminate, bleak, and sarcastic. Today, his fan base has expanded far beyond the disaffected English teenagers who bought his original records. In fact, some of his most devoted fans are Hispanics in Southern California. How is it possible that British teenagers in the 1980s and Hispanic Californians can appreciate the same music?

A) There are very few differences between these two groups.
B) Even though members of the two groups have very different experiences and perspectives, they understand Morrissey's music in the same way.
C) They bring different interpretive strategies to the experience of listening to Morrissey's music.
D) Music is universal, and all people experience it in the same way; if one group can be moved by it, then any other group will feel the same way.
E) Morrissey is transmitting messages to certain targeted audiences that subconsciously absorb them.

Question 66

What is a group of like-minded individuals called that shares a similar sensibility and enjoys cultural products in similar ways?

A) an interpretive community
B) textual poachers
C) an active audience
D) producers
E) paparazzi

Question 67

Which theory of media consumption combines elements of both the magic bullet theory and the uses and gratifications theory?

A) Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model
B) Henry Jenkins's textual poaching model
C) Stanley Fish's interpretive community model
D) Emile Durkheim's functionalist model
E) Karl Marx's conflict model

Question 68

In the 1990s, kids who chanted, "I want to be like Mike!" to express their admiration for Michael Jordan had:

A) an overidentification with media figures.
B) serious delusions.
C) all been paid by Nike to do so.
D) a role model relationship with a celebrity.
E) a serious consumption addiction.

Question 69

When fans of the original Star Trek series edit recorded episodes of the TV show to make it appear that Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are passionate gay lovers, they are doing all the following EXCEPT what?

A) textual poaching
B) subverting the meaning of the original product
C) being an active audience
D) expressing an ideology very different from the one the show's producers encoded in the original "text"
E) agenda setting

Question 70

According to John Caughey, what is the contemporary American equivalent of interacting with gods, spirits, or ancestors?

A) owning a pet
B) taking vacations
C) visiting tourist sites associated with nature and ecotourism
D) relationships between fans and celebrities
E) going to church on Sunday

Question 71

According to the two-step flow model, which of the following would be most likely to sway public opinion concerning the ethical treatment of farm animals?

A) a billboard with a famous actress and a slogan on it
B) an editorial in a local paper
C) a news story that makes the front page of a national paper
D) a short clip on the local news
E) a documentary aired on cable television

Question 72

When audience members manipulate commercially produced media products, often to tell stories or express ideas very different from the original, they are doing what Henry Jenkins called:

A) textual poaching.
B) encoding.
C) gratification consumption.
D) hypodermic media consumption.
E) reinforcement.

Question 73

If, as Stanley Fish argues, an individual reader interprets a text and thereby gives it meaning, then there are an infinite number of potential meanings for any given text. Why, then, do so many people interpret things in the same ways?

A) People tend to look to a small number of critics to explain any particular piece of culture.
B) People have very little imagination and don't like to focus too much on any given text.
C) People who consume the same texts come from similar backgrounds and have similar interpretive frameworks.
D) People passively absorb meanings from the media that lead them to see the world in the same ways.
E) The meaning of any text is encoded by the author or producer, and it is very hard for an individual to see another meaning.

Question 74

Although critics might see soap operas as brainwashing their viewers to accept a particular version of gender roles, some sociologists would insist that the people who produce soap operas actually have to be constantly attentive to the desires of their audience and are to some extent responding to the audience. If you believe this, then you probably see soap opera viewers as:

A) new voices in the media.
B) the bourgeoisie.
C) collectors.
D) an active audience.
E) helpless dupes.

Question 75

In 2008, to celebrate the release of Lawrence Lessig's book, Bloomsbury Academic Press hosted a competition called Remix the Remixer. Entrants were asked to find a video, interview, or written work of Lessig's, mash it up with another piece of Lessig's work, and create something new-a video, photo, or text. What is this sort of artistic activity called?

A) interpretive communities
B) a two-step flow model
C) textual poaching
D) magic bullets
E) uses and gratifications

Question 76

In his study of British television, The Nationwide Audience, David Morley argued that the success or failure of a television program "in transmitting the preferred or dominant meaning will depend on whether it encounters readers" with "codes and ideologies derived from other institutional areas (e.g. churches or schools) which correspond to and work in parallel with those of the program or whether it encounters readers" with beliefs "drawn from other areas or institutions (e.g. trade unions or 'deviant' subcultures) which conflict to a greater or lesser extent with those of the program." Which theory of mass media consumption is Morley using?

A) the hypodermic needle theory
B) the uses and gratifications paradigm
C) the spectatorship paradigm
D) the encoding/decoding model
E) the magic bullet theory

Question 77

A series of polls in 2003 showed that people who primarily got their news from the Fox News Channel were significantly more likely to believe that Iraq had played a part in the 9/11 attacks. Many people saw this as evidence of the way the media shaped public opinion, but some believed that those who already believed this simply gravitated to Fox. This is an example of:

A) textual poaching.
B) symbolic interactionism.
C) encoding/decoding.
D) reinforcement theory.
E) agenda-setting theory.

Question 78

Stanley Fish argues against older understandings of media and literature, which held that a text is unchanging and universal. But although he argues that each member of an audience can interpret and so "create" a work, he doesn't claim that each audience member has absolute freedom to interpret in unique ways because:

A) each member of an audience is part of a larger interpretive community.
B) the author or creator of a work imposes his own ideas on the audience.
C) the "texts" an audience consumes are transmitted unaltered and absorbed straight into their consciousness.
D) most members of an audience have specialized training that allows them to understand what an author means.
E) the mass media can influence the public by the way stories are presented.

Question 79

Henry Jenkins argues that, while any piece of media could become the object of textual poaching, some are far more likely to do so. Specifically, he argues that textual poaching is most likely when there is a prolonged relationship with a particular narrative universe that is rich and complex enough to sustain interest over time. This encourages the media to be more attentive to audiences and use the Internet to solicit feedback, as well as to monitor unsolicited fan responses to products. Which of the following is an example of the media using feedback?

A) Intellectual property, which has proven popular with mass audiences, has enormous economic value, and companies seek to tightly regulate it in order to maximize profits and minimize the risk of diluting their trademark.
B) The real action online comes from access to the writers, directors, actors, and staff of the shows. Not every creator goes online, of course, or posts online. But when they do-as with Freaks and Geeks, where creators responded regularly to fans on the official website during the show's run-it's a jolt of electricity.
C) They're creating a social system in which the part of their lives that matters isn't the part that stresses over a PowerPoint presentation, but the part that charges into battle and does great things.
D) Fan fiction ticks off some professional authors. Legal action has been taken by Anne Rice to deter fanfic of her vampire books and by J.K. Rowling to stop "adult" takes on Harry Potter. Fanfics often lead with disclaimers that their writers don't claim to own the characters or seek profit from their "fair use" extensions.
E) The First Amendment protects free speech, but there is also a copyright clause in the Constitution. These two legal rights are often in conflict, so the rights of fan fiction writers to write and speak freely and the rights of the copyright owner must be balanced.

Question 80

Every year Project Censored posts a list of the twenty-five most censored news stories. These stories are "censored" not in the sense that the media are legally prohibited from covering them, but rather in the sense that most major media outlets have systematically ignored them and, in the process, determined what the public will think about. What theory explains this?

A) agenda-setting theory
B) reinforcement theory
C) structural functionalism
D) the magic bullet theory
E) the two-step flow theory