question

The news provides a refracted version of reality because it

answer

emphasizes dramatic and compelling news stories.

question

In comparison with today's newspapers, early American newspapers

answer

could not have survived without political party support.

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The technological change that brought about the decline of the partisan press was the

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invention of the high-speed rotary press.

question

The yellow journalism of the late nineteenth century was characterized by

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the emphasis on sensationalism as a way of selling newspapers.

question

Objective journalism is based on the idea that the reporter's job is to

answer

report the facts and cover alternative sides of a partisan debate.

question

The Communications Act

answer

mposed on broadcasters an "equal time" restriction that prevented preference for some political candidates over others.

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Which of the following is true of age differences in news consumption?

answer

Age differences in news consumption shrink for Internet-based news but do not disappear.

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The federal government's licensing of broadcasting is based primarily on

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the scarcity of broadcasting frequencies.

question

Most successful Internet blogs

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have a liberal bias.

question

The term "framing" is used to describe

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the process of selecting certain aspects of reality and making them the most salient part of the communication, thereby conveying a particular interpretation of a situation.

question

What is the "Rose Garden strategy"?

answer

the presidential strategy of controlling communications by making nearly all pronouncements from the same location

question

The FCC's equal time requirement

answer

prohibits broadcasters from selling or giving time to political candidates and denying it to their opponents.

question

What development brought about a dramatic reduction in television's capacity to generate an interest in news?

answer

the rapid spread of cable

question

One of the reasons the reporting of national news is relatively uniform among news sources is that

answer

a small number of news organizations and news services generate most of the news.

question

At which of the following times did the American media step back from their watchdog role?

answer

after the September 11th terrorist attacks

question

How has the Internet affected the watchdog capacity of the media?

answer

It has expanded the watchdog capacity of the media.

question

In contrast with European news media, American news media are more likely to

answer

act primarily as neutral transmitters of information.

question

The media perform the signaling role by

answer

informing the public of breaking events and new developments.

question

In terms of news consumption, since the 1980s young adults

answer

have been less informed than older ones.

question

The news media's common-carrier role is based on the idea that

answer

the press should provide a channel through which political leaders can communicate their views to the public.

question

Which institution receives the most news coverage from the national press?

answer

the presidency

question

The Watergate scandal illustrates the

answer

power of the media to serve as watchdog to safeguard against abuses of power.

question

Agenda-setting is an action that falls under which of the major roles played by the press?

answer

signaling

question

Which of the following is one of the two major advantages of journalists in covering the political game and strategic aspects of news instead of the policy frame?

answer

The political game is a constant source of fresh material.

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The reason the news product is designed to fascinate as well as to inform is because

answer

news organizations are fundamentally businesses and must obtain revenue to survive.

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On both radio and television, most successful partisan talk shows

answer

have been hosted by conservatives

question

CNN and MSNBC have responded to Fox's ratings success by

answer

installing talk-show hosts with partisan or hard-edged appeals.

question

Which of the following statements is true?

answer

Objective journalism is based on communication of facts and fairness.

question

The Gazette of the United States was founded to promote the policies of President

answer

George Washington

question

One special contribution of Internet-based news is that it

answer

provides the ordinary citizen with an opportunity to be part of the news system

question

Which newspaper was the first to reduce the price of a daily copy to a penny?

answer

New York Sun

question

Yellow journalism contributed to public support for the

answer

Spanish-American War

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________ once said, "You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."

answer

William Randolph Hearst

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The traditional media have "softened" their news by

answer

infusing it with more stories about celebrities, crime, and the like.

question

In the 1960s, presidential candidates

answer

had longer sound bites, on average, in broadcast television newscasts.

question

Which of the following characteristics does the Internet have that traditional media lack?

answer

the ability to allow readers to interact with news reporting

question

Which of the following statements has been shown by scholarly research to be true?

answer

Network journalists tend to be negative.

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On-the-scene coverage of a natural disaster is an example of the press's role of

answer

signaler

question

During what decade did the American news audience change from a growing to a shrinking one?

answer

the 1980s

question

Among the following, the news media are usually guided by events that

answer

are timely

question

Historically, the American press has shifted from

answer

a political to a journalistic orientation

question

During the era of objective journalism, the commitment of newspapers to two-sided news reporting

answer

did not extend to their editorializing

question

Which of the following does NPR serve as an example of?

answer

the one true success story of public broadcasting

question

The "long tail" is a phenomenon related to

answer

the rate of Internet news readership.

question

Explain the term partisan press. Why was it superseded by the objective press?

answer

A partisan press is one that concentrates on advancing a particular ideological or partisan viewpoint. The American media, with few exceptions, no longer follows this pattern, although some European newspapers still do so. At one time, the American press was quite partisan. This situation changed with technological innovations such as the telegraph and rotary printing press, which changed the economics of American newspapers. Partly as a reaction against the excesses of yellow journalism, newspapers turned to the objective model of reporting, which concentrates on objective reporting of facts and reports on differing sides of controversial issues. They accomplished this in part by a direct company policy focus on objective reporting and a new focus on the professional ethics of objective journalism by journalism schools

question

Explain the four roles of the modern media

answer

The modern media effectively perform four significant roles: those of signaler, common-carrier, watchdog, and partisan advocate. The signaling role requires the press to bring relevant events and problems into public view. In its common-carrier role, the press serves as a channel through which political leaders can address the public. The watchdog role requires the press to scrutinize official behavior and uncover evidence of deception, carelessness, or corruption. Finally, the press functions as a partisan advocate. Although the traditional media perform this function to a degree, the newer media (the talk shows and blogs) specialize in it.

question

What steps did the government have to take to regulate broadcast media, and why were those steps necessary?

answer

The development of the broadcast media brought initial chaos primarily because nearby stations often used the same or adjacent radio frequencies, interfering with each other's broadcasts. Congress passed the Communications Act, which regulated broadcasting and created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to oversee the process. Broadcasters had to be licensed, and because the number of frequencies is limited, licensing required political impartiality. The Communications Act also contained an "equal time" provision, which prohibits broadcasters from selling or giving airtime to a political candidate without offering to sell or give an equal amount of airtime to other candidates for the same office.

question

How do the motivations of the press differ and often lead to a greater coverage of crime stories than the political process or world events?

answer

The concern of the press is with the dramatic; it attempts to find and develop good stories. The press is not accountable to the public, but it does rely on revenue generated through advertising, and thus must attempt to maximize readership or viewership. The focus on crime stories increased in the early 1990s in an attempt to bolster sagging audiences.

question

Identify the factors that account for the relative uniformity in news reporting among major American news institutions.

answer

A reason for the relative uniformity of news reporting is objective journalism, in which the emphasis on facts and salient events provides journalists with a basis for agreement. Put differently, because almost all journalists view the world and their job in roughly the same way, they tend to report the same things. Another reason for the lack of diversity in reporting is that a small number of news organizations generate most of the news. For example, the Associated Press (AP) wire service is the major source of national and international news for most newspapers. National networks tend to report the same stories and to agree on what are the most important aspects of those stories, and network correspondents cover the same beats and rely on many of the same sources, which leads them to report more or less the same things.

question

3. (p. 319) What technology led editors to substitute news reports for opinion commentary? A. radio B. telegraph C. broadcast TV D. cable TV E. power-driven printing press

answer

B. telegraph

question

6. (p. 321) The FCC restriction requiring broadcasters to "afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views of public importance" was known as the A. "Equal Time" rule. B. objective-reporting model. C. signaling function. D. common-carrier function. E. Fairness Doctrine.

answer

E. Fairness Doctrine.

question

14. (p. 326) One of the reasons the reporting of national news is relatively uniform among news sources is that A. the government dictates much of what is reported. B. there are only a few important events each day that merit news coverage. C. the network newscasts are brief and the day's top stories tend to dominate. D. reporters are not given much freedom by their editors. E. modern journalists have become fairly lazy and use mostly wire reports to create news copy for the network newscasts.

answer

C. the network newscasts are brief and the day's top stories tend to dominate.

question

31. (p. 320) The circulation battle of which two newspapers may have contributed to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War? A. Chicago Tribune and Boston Herald B. Los Angeles Times and New York Times C. New York Journal and New York World D. Gazette of the United States and National Gazette E. San Francisco Examiner and New York Journal

answer

C. New York Journal and New York World

question

35. (p. 320-321) The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has regulatory oversight over which of the following? A. radio B. cable TV C. Internet content D. newspapers E. All these answers are correct.

answer

A. radio

question

11. (p. 327) Which of the following broadcast news sources has seen its audience grow? A. ABC B. CBS C. NBC D. NPR E. None of these answers is correct.

answer

D. NPR

question

According to polls, men and women tend to disagree on certain issues. Of the following issues, about which are men and women closest in agreement? A. abortion rights B. affirmative action C. poverty assistance D. education assistance E. use of military force

answer

A

question

Scholars have done the LEAST study into the political influence of ________ on American citizens. A. religion B. families C. schools D. media E. peers

answer

A

question

A member of Congress who wants to act on what the majority of his or her constituency thinks on a particular issue would be advised to respond to which of the following indicators? A. letters from constituents B. the editorial positions of newspapers in the constituency C. public demonstrations by constituents D. a poll based on a random sample of constituents E. the number of yard signs on major streets

answer

D

question

The accuracy of a poll is usually expressed in terms of A. population density. B. census parameter. C. population error. D. sampling error. E. interview error.

answer

D

question

The term public opinion is frequently used in reference to all of American society. This perspective is A. accurate, since Americans are one people & indivisible. B. less accurate than a view of public opinion based on the majority, since the political system operates on the principle of majority rule. C. less accurate than the idea that Americans form many publics, which differ greatly in such things as the level of attention they pay to politics. D. less accurate than a view of public opinion based on what the news media are saying about the public. E. accurate, because there is little diversity in American public opinion.

answer

C

question

In his definition of public opinion, the author claims that the opinions of private individuals become public opinion when they A. first enter people's heads. B. are openly expressed. C. become part of the conflict between the Rep. & Dem. parties. D. are measured in opinion polls. E. become part of the conflict between populists and libertarians.

answer

B

question

The key factors in determining the accuracy of an opinion poll are the A. population size and the sample size. B. sample size and the timeline over which the sample was taken. C. size of the sample and whether the sample was selected from the population by a random method. D. sample size and whether the sample has the same percentage of men and women as the population. E. anonymous nature of the sampling process and sample size.

answer

C

question

Sources of polling error can include A. question order. B. unrepresentative samples. C. respondents' lack of knowledge or interest in the issue. D. question wording. E. All these answers are correct.

answer

E

question

The process of political socialization in the United States is A. normally cumulative; political beliefs attained earlier in life tend to be retained to a substantial degree. B. highly structured; children are subjected to an intense system of government-mandated political indoctrination. C. highly effective; Americans are the best informed citizens in the world. D. extremely narrow; most Americans get nearly all their opinions from a single source. E. uniform; there are almost no differences in the opinions of various groups, such as northerners and southerners.

answer

A

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