Deck 11: Media Ethics and Criminal Justice

Question 1

Which of the following are characteristics of a "virtuous journalist"?

A)avoiding bias
B)serving the public
C)inviting criticism
D)all of these

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The War on Drugs strengthened the association between blacks and crime.The truth,however,is that ______.

A)Whites never have been engaged in drugs as much as blacks,a fact often reported in the media
B)the War on Drugs focused on heroin,a drug often used by blacks,a fact not usually in the media
C)Whites comprise almost 75% of illegal drug users and blacks 13%,a fact not usually incorporated in media accounts
D)Whites comprise almost 1/3 of illegal drug users and blacks almost 2/3,a fact often reported in the media

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What assumptions are commonly deployed by the media to characterize women's experience of crime,especially crimes of violence deemed more newsworthy?

A)feminine
B)victim-based
C)masculine
D)all of these

Answer 3

C

Question 4

There is a common perception that most crime is committed by ______.

A)Whites
B)Hispanics
C)Asians
D)Blacks

Question 5

What is perceived to be a desired ethical value and is seen as an end-goal developed by methodological rigor?

A)objectivity
B)truth
C)competence
D)cost

Question 6

______ is also a factor because taking information from apparently credible sources minimizes investigative expense.

A)Objectivity
B)Truth
C)Competence
D)Cost

Question 7

The absence of ______ is revealed when a journalist is unable to separate his or her personal beliefs from the subject matter of the reporting.

A)objectivity
B)truth
C)competence
D)cost

Question 8

The legal system is depicted as an obstacle to crime fighting with complex procedures and trials as well as dramatic adversarial contests.In reality,though ______.

A)few accused actually go to trial and unexciting plea bargains are the norm
B)the legal system is far more complex
C)the legal system makes it easier to fight crime because prosecutors know how to talk with the media
D)crime fighting is the complex part of the process

Question 9

Which of the following is not true regarding the media construction of crime?

A)The media construction of crime will define what are thought to be the causes of crime.
B)The media construction of crime will define what acts are regarded as criminal.
C)The media construction of crime will reduce the seriousness of the crime.
D)The media construction of crime will identify what policies of crime control should be adopted.

Question 10

What television show promoted the notion that all crimes can be solved using forensic science methods?

A)Law and Order
B)CSI
C)NCIS
D)Elementary

Question 11

Klaidman and Beauchamp (1987)hold the view that journalists ______ themselves,instead of believing the courts must first rule on what they want to publish.

A)should write their stories
B)ought to make the necessary ethical decisions
C)should not have absolute freedom
D)all of these

Question 12

Responsibility and competence are linked together and ______ may be the outcome of a moral failure of responsibility rather than a lack of skill.

A)panic
B)incompetence
C)criticism
D)adversity

Question 13

In overall ethical terms,the issue of limited freedom of the media is determined by ______,that media freedom is constrained by the rights of others.

A)the Constitution
B)the US Supreme Court
C)Kant's categorical imperative
D)competing moral rights

Question 14

The media police the boundaries of what is considered morally and socially acceptable behavior,and identify ______ as news.

A)moral perspectives
B)inadequacies
C)differences
D)transgressions

Question 15

Numerous studies have shown that most people gain their knowledge of events ______.

A)from the radio
B)from the media
C)in discussion with others
D)by reviewing newspapers online

Question 16

Klaidman and Beauchamp (1987)argue that,in covering stories where the public's right to know is a determining factor,stories should ______.

A)be substantially complete
B)be laden with values
C)be imbalanced
D)encourage subjective understanding

Question 17

Although the law is often concerned with ______,it is not the basic repository of our moral standards and values.

A)moral problems
B)law breakers
C)petty crimes
D)all of these

Question 18

It is suggested that the worldwide media,in an age of globalization,constitute ______.

A)a site for the construction of a moral order
B)the primary source of news
C)a responsible path for discussion of moral issues
D)a monopoly so that news is consistent

Question 19

Surette (2011)notes that in modern society the mediated crime event displaces the actual event and ______.

A)makes it seem far worse than it does when it is not displaced
B)allows us to frame our fear of crime differently
C)the vicarious pleasure of seeing crime on television is far preferable to being victimized
D)allows police to make an arrest more easily

Question 20

The media decides what is 'newsworthy,' and crime ranks ______ on that scale.

A)just below politics
B)just above politics
C)high
D)low

Question 21

Hirschfield and Simon (2010)contend that the media stereotypically construct police into various types.Which type "welcomes and is ready to use deadly force against dangerous criminals"?

A)professional
B)vigilante
C)oppressor
D)pessimist

Question 22

Media accounts that engender moral panics amplify deviance and function as ______.

A)advocacy for greater levels of social control
B)a warning to the public
C)assistance to law enforcement to make an arrest
D)a key profit maker for the media

Question 23

In a 2016 content analysis of representations of rape in 30 comic books,almost 1/3 of rape scenes reinforced the following rape myth(s)that ______.

A)women can prevent rape by fighting back
B)women who do not fight back are complicit in the rape
C)rape is the result of the offender's sexual desire
D)all of these

Question 24

______ of crime and of being victimized by crime are key influences in criminal justice policy making and in the promotion of punitive policies.

A)Fear
B)Justification
C)Causes
D)Factors

Question 25

Content analyses of crime stories reveal what Surette (2011)terms the law of ______,because the nature of crime,criminals,and victims portrayed in the media is generally the complete opposite of the pattern shown through official crime statistics or victim surveys.

A)opposites
B)opposites attract
C)evil
D)media perception

Question 26

Many studies have found associations between media consumption patterns and measures of ______.

A)support for a restorative justice policy in the criminal justice system
B)juvenile delinquency
C)crime rates
D)fear of crime

Question 27

An analysis of press reports found that ______% of articles supported explanations that lethal force used by police was justified.

A)67.5
B)69.5
C)72.5
D)77.5

Question 28

Elias (1994)has argued that the media ______ the situation of crime victims by distorting the causes and impact of victimization.

A)denies
B)perpetuates
C)misrepresents
D)allows

Question 29

Which of Hirschfield and Simon's (2010)stereotypically constructed media police types is circumscribed by endless rules and regulations?

A)professional
B)vigilante
C)oppressor
D)pessimist

Question 30

The media has been accused of perpetuating the image of the ideal victim by ______.

A)focusing attention only on victims who meet that standard of victimhood
B)focusing only on the very young and the very old victims
C)reporting,on the visual media,pictures of victims
D)reporting sympathetic stories of victims who have also been charged with crimes

Question 31

In inner-city areas,it is fair to say that media coverage of crime tends to ______ what people already know and what some have already experiences through having been victimized.

A)diminish
B)reinforce
C)undermine
D)hinder

Question 32

The ______ woman assumption assigns the categories of whores and vamps to women who are sexually available.

A)good
B)bad
C)feminine
D)masculine

Question 33

What is a distorted or unfair judgment or disposition caused by the values of a reporter,editor,or institution?

A)disposition
B)perception
C)inaccuracy
D)bias

Question 34

Which of the following is an inaccurate comment about what is more "newsworthy" in the media in regard to crime?

A)Homicides are considered more "newsworthy" when the victim is White
B)Victims who are perpetrated against by a stranger are considered more "newsworthy" than a victim who knows the perpetrator.
C)Rape is the most likely crime to be reported.
D)Crimes against children are considered more "newsworthy" than crimes against adults.

Question 35

Which of the following is not one of Barak's (1994)aims of "news-making criminology"?

A)demystifying images of crime and punishment
B)allowing criminologists to deploy their knowledge and show themselves to be unreliable voices in public policy
C)call on criminologists to develop the necessary media skills to participate in dialogues on crime and justice
D)strive to affect public attitudes and discourses about crime and bring about public policy based on structural and historical analyses of institutional development

Question 36

The ______ woman assumption assigns the category of Madonna or virgin to marriageable women.

A)good
B)bad
C)feminine
D)masculine

Question 37

Following the killing of Diallo by NYPD police in 1999,there was a shift in how the media stereotypically constructed police.Previous stereotypes of professionals and vigilantes were replaced by a new framing of police as civil rights ______.

A)protectors
B)oppressors
C)advocates
D)heroes

Question 38

In 2013,the media actively promoted a moral panic referred to as the ______ that involved alleged random black-on-white assaults for fun.

A)assault game
B)hit game
C)knockout game
D)none of these

Question 39

Recent studies have shown that girls who are victims of sexting privacy violations ______.

A)are represented as ideal victims by the media
B)regularly encounter victim-blaming and slut-shaming
C)are most often sympathetically portrayed in the media
D)must register as sex offenders after sexting

Question 40

Which of the following is a correct statement in regard to bias?

A)distorted or unfair judgment or disposition
B)always ideological
C)omitted by mistake
D)partisanship is always bias

Question 41

While it is difficult to identify a specific media effect,it is likely that the media play a part is stoking fear of crime simply because they manipulate crime stories to for the purpose of making us fearful.

Question 42

Even after the Black Lives Matters movement gained momentum,news media continued to accept unexamined police accounts as definitive sources of what had occurred.Media also revealed victims' criminal histories and past conduct they considered relevant to the victims' death.

Question 43

Fear of crime and victimization do not impact criminal justice policy decisions.

Question 44

Following George Zimmerman's shooting of unarmed Trayvon Marin 2013,the Black Lives Matter movement emerged.This called for increased investigation of and media attention to ______.

A)the racial dynamics of interactions between police and black males
B)circumstances of police' differential application of lethal force in interactions with black Americans
C)official police accounts of justified killings
D)all of these

Question 45

Beginning from the late 1980s,crime related infotainment began to appear on television and ______.

A)other forms of media
B)the boundary between crime and entertainment dissolved
C)crimes were solved at an increased rate
D)the media outlets immediately saw an increase in ratings and revenue

Question 46

It is easy to see how ______ the public trust in the media would result in the public paying less regard to the media and being less well informed.

A)allowing
B)eroding
C)justifying
D)none of these

Question 47

The ______ principle states that a "person's liberty may justifiably be restricted to prevent harm that that person's actions would cause to others."

A)reasonable standard of care
B)moral blame
C)morality
D)do no harm

Question 48

With media assistance,MADD succeeded in characterizing drunk drivers as a new menace to society for whom laws had to be made tougher.

Question 49

Using ______ to increase profits by selling more newspapers or to increase the salacious content of a publication are not ethically justifiable acts.

A)Disclosures
B)Crime
C)Bias
D)Lies

Question 50

Which of Hirschfield and Simon's (2010)stereotypically constructed media police types is one who uses legal violence to repress minorities?

A)professional
B)vigilante
C)oppressor
D)pessimist

Question 51

Victims of police violence are treated more sympathetically by the media than other murder victims because media accounts tend to present such incidents as a double victimization.

Question 52

Which of the following is not an unethical manipulation technique that may be used by the media?

A)Using persuasive interviewing techniques to influence others to disclose material they would normally not disclose.
B)When a journalist makes an attempt in hard news to persuade using emotional rhetoric rather than fact.
C)When a journalist relies on an unsubstantiated argument without noting its weaknesses to produce a desired conclusion.
D)Any intentional and successful influence of a person by non-coercively altering the actual choices available to the person or by non-persuasively altering the other's perceptions of those choices.

Question 53

Journalists ought to rely on the courts to make the necessary ethical decisions instead of adopting the approach that they have absolute freedom to publish anything.The press cannot be relied upon to develop procedures that assure the balance of rights and interests can be accomplished effectively.

Question 54

Virgins are assigned the label of the bad women.

Question 55

Which of the following illustrate that a media review of a new product can make it or break it?

A)Media power allows consumers to recognize politics.
B)Politics and economics are key interests for most of the public.
C)Media power is formidable in political,economic and social fields.
D)Super Bowl commercials cost more per minute of air time than any other time.

Question 56

Truthfulness is fundamental to trust and is associated with ______.

A)fidelity and loyalty
B)morals and ethics
C)avoiding harm
D)manipulation

Question 57

Infotainment is defined as ______.

A)using the media to report fictitious events so law enforcement can catch the real criminal
B)the marketing of edited,highly formatted information about the world in entertainment media vehicles
C)the placement of crime stories on television late at night hoping a viewer will be able identify the offender
D)using entertainment to reenact criminal events

Question 58

In articles about use-of-force by police,Lawrence (2000)found that almost ______% of articles relied on official sources for their reporting.

A)70
B)75
C)80
D)85

Question 59

The predator principle says a person's liberty may justifiably be restricted to prevent harm that that person's actions would cause to others.

Question 60

One of the most urgent moral concerns in journalism is securing and keeping the ______ of the public.

A)confidence
B)trust
C)revenue
D)good ratings

Question 61

Define manipulation.

Question 62

Define infotainment.

Question 63

Beginning from the late 1980s,crime related infotainment began to appear on television and ______ dissolved.

Question 64

Klaidman and Beauchamp suggest that ______ are critical in a profession such as journalism where stories are often produced in haste and under pressure of events.

Question 65

Define what constitutes manipulation by the press.

Question 66

Define the do no harm principle.

Question 67

Describe what a historical account of "press freedom" in the U.S.reveals.

Question 68

A clear distinction must be drawn between a story being in the public interest and a story that ______.

Question 69

Cooperation between police and the media is now a norm worldwide.

Question 70

In inner-city areas,media coverage of crime tends to reinforce what people already know and what some have actually experienced through having been victimized.

Question 71

______ will be ascribed to those who acted carelessly resulting from failure to discharge a morally imposed duty to take care or behave reasonably toward others.

Question 72

Identify Hirschfield and Simon's three media stereotypes of police.