Question 1

Social marketing theory recognizes contemplators, people who have prioritized an attitude, service, or behavior but must be confronted with a situation in which they are compelled to act.

Accepted Answer

Social marketing theory identifies contemplators as individuals who are aware of and have a positive attitude towards a behavior but have not yet taken action, often requiring a triggering situation to prompt them to act.

Question 2

Knowledge gaps are typically found between people of different educational levels.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Knowledge gaps are typically found between people...

Question 3

When the amount of serious news coverage increases, knowledge gaps tend to increase.

Accepted Answer

When serious news coverage increases, it often requires prior knowledge to understand fully, leading to larger knowledge gaps between those already well-informed and those who are not.

Question 4

Knowledge gap research has identified a constant gap; that is, the knowledge gap remains regardless of people's level of access to a growing number of news sources.

Accepted Answer

The knowledge gap hypothesis suggests that as the amount of information in society increases, people with higher socioeconomic status tend to acquire this information at a faster rate than those with lower status, potentially widening the gap. Access to news sources can influence this gap.

Question 5

Shanto Iyengar and Donald Kinder's agenda-setting research identified the influence of priming, the idea that that dramatic news accounts undermined rather than increased television's agenda-setting power.

Accepted Answer

Shanto Iyengar and Donald Kinder's research primarily focused on how television news shapes the criteria by which the public evaluates political leaders, through processes like agenda-setting and priming, rather than undermining television's agenda-setting power. They found that by highlighting certain issues, news media can influence the importance of these issues in the minds of viewers, thereby setting the agenda.

Question 6

People remain silent about issues when they think prevailing opinion is against them because they fear isolation or separation from those around them.

Accepted Answer

This phenomenon is known as the Spiral of Silence theory, which posits that individuals may refrain from expressing their opinions when they perceive their views to be in the minority, due to fear of isolation or social rejection.

Question 7

Research on spiral of silence is sufficiently robust that there is little criticism of this important theory.

Accepted Answer

The spiral of silence theory, while influential, has faced significant criticism and debate regarding its applicability across different cultures, situations, and with the advent of online communication platforms, which may not fully align with the theory's original premises. Critics argue that the theory does not account for the complexity of individual behavior and the influence of digital media environments.

Question 8

Research has demonstrated that the position of a report in a news broadcast influences its agenda-setting power.

Accepted Answer

Studies in communication and media have shown that the placement of a report within a news broadcast can significantly affect its agenda-setting power, with items placed earlier often perceived as more important by the audience.

Question 9

Agenda-setting theory states that media tell us what to think.

Accepted Answer

Agenda-setting theory suggests that while the media may not tell us what to think, they significantly influence what we think about by choosing which issues to highlight.

Question 10

One reason that audiences have a scarcity of opinion to choose from in the media, according to Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, is cumulation, the idea that news media tend to repeat stories and perspectives across their different individual programs or editions, across the different media themselves, and across time.

Accepted Answer

Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's theory of the Spiral of Silence suggests that media can create a perception of consensus or dominance of certain opinions through mechanisms like cumulation, where repeated coverage of specific viewpoints across various platforms and over time can limit the diversity of visible opinions, leading to a scarcity of perceived options in public discourse.

Quiz 11: Effect of Media on Knowledge, Information, and Perception of Social Issues