Exam Prep Sports and the Media Chapter.12

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1) The chapter on sports and the media is based on the assumption that

A) human beings around the world are slaves to the media.
B) the power of the media has no limits.
C) media content informs people's experiences.
D) all forms of sports have been corrupted by the media.

2) Which of the following is an accurate statement about sports and the media?

A) Media coverage involves selective representations of sports.
B) Media coverage reverses the effects of commercialization on sports.
C) The media destroy opportunities for interactivity between athletes and spectators.
D) Media content today focuses more on information than entertainment.

3) Which of the following is NOT provided by the media?

A) Entertainment.
B) Interpretation.
C) Information.
D) Distortion.

4) When media are privately owned, their major interest is profit-making; when media are controlled and operated by the state, their major interest is

A) shaping values and providing a public service.
B) generating revenues for the state.
C) funding artists who work for the state.
D) creating images that expand people's experiences.

5) The people who make media content decisions as they select the images and messages to be represented to us are best described as

A) image and message "filters".
B) propaganda artists.
C) agents of corporate capitalism.
D) political and social prophets.

6) Most media content is tied to power relations in the sense that they

A) cause people to question major political decisions in society.
B) emphasize images and messages consistent with dominant ideologies.
C) are direct reflections of the interests of politically powerful people.
D) are controlled and censored by the most powerful people in society.

7) In the case of sports, those who control the media influence sports because

A) they cover only sports that they and their associates played in the past.
B) media viewers mimic whatever they consume in the media.
C) they decide which sports and events to cover and how they are covered.
D) people in sports will do whatever is necessary to receive coverage.

8) When the media are privately owned and depend on audience ratings, televised sports events are "reproduced" in a way that usually emphasizes

A) forms of soap opera-like storytelling.
B) a critical perspective on sports and sport participants.
C) how much work goes into preparing for a sporting event.
D) the specific technical skills of athletes.

9) The images and commentary in a televised representation of a sporting event are

A) accurate depictions of all of what occurs at the event.
B) selected to distort what happens in the event for the sake of the sponsors.
C) mostly fictional depictions of what the producers want us to see and hear.
D) carefully edited and selected for many different reasons.

10) Nearly all television broadcasts of sports events are sponsored by

A) environmental groups devoted to conservation.
B) feminist groups and other women's organizations.
C) corporations and other for-profit businesses.
D) nonprofit groups that promote socially progressive ideas.

11) New media, including all digital and social media, have impacted sports primarily by

A) eliminating the sports sections of small-town newspapers.
B) altering relationships in the production and consumption of sports content.
C) undermining the commercial value of spectator sports.
D) recruiting more women and children to be loyal fans of sports teams.

12) The Internet is different from traditional television in that it

A) has sites that are sponsored only by corporations.
B) provides users with high-quality sports programming.
C) cannot give users the same quality of sports commentary as television can.
D) gives users control that can radically alter their media experiences.

13) At this time, people generally use online access to

A) extend and complement what traditional media already provide.
B) shift their attention to sports they've never played.
C) calculate the statistics they need to play fantasy sports.
D) interact directly with mainstream media announcers.

14) Large mainstream media companies are currently lobbying federal legislators to

A) abolish certain forms of new media.
B) guarantee that new media are organized around democratic values.
C) restore the reputation of traditional print media.
D) extend their control over how new media are used.

15) The major sociological question about the Internet is whether it will

A) democratize social life or become tools to promote capitalist expansion.
B) replace other forms of communications technology.
C) undermine the productivity rates of male workers worldwide.
D) destroy the sport-related travel and tourism business worldwide.

16) Fantasy sport leagues allow media sport consumers to put themselves in the position of

A) an owner of a sports team.
B) a top media executive.
C) a professional athlete.
D) a professional sports agent.

17) Major sport media companies like fantasy sports because they

A) appeal mostly to minority and female consumers.
B) create loyal media consumers and new revenues.
C) empower fans in realistic ways.
D) emphasize the win-loss records of teams.

18) Scholars in the sociology of sport are interested in fantasy sports because they

A) have reduced the commercial value of college and professional sports.
B) tend to undermine the interests of gambling organizations.
C) have "gamified" media-sport consumption for many fans.
D) are more attractive to older fans than to younger ones.

19) Information on video games that simulate real-time sports shows that

A) people who play them withdraw from most social relationships.
B) the realism of game action is important for the popularity of a sport video game.
C) children outnumber the adults who play these games.
D) athletes have rejected these games because they are unrealistic.

20) As esports have become more popular among young people, they have been

A) embraced as a revenue-producing sport by the NCAA.
B) viewed as pointless distractions by professional sports organizations.
C) failures when turned into spectator events.
D) approved as official high school varsity or club sports in many U.S. states.

21) The sport-media relationship in the U.S. is organized so that

A) high school sports are more popular than college sports on cable TV channels.
B) youth sports now depend on media coverage.
C) commercial forms of media and sports depend on each other for profits.
D) sports programming is dominated by international sporting events.

22) The financial success of commercial sports today depends heavily on

A) the rights fees paid by television companies to broadcast sport content.
B) spectators who watch television broadcasts in sports bars.
C) local businesses that seek the right to sell concessions at sports events.
D) newspapers that publish the schedules of games and events.

23) The fees paid for the exclusive rights to cover certain sports and sporting events have

A) created new interest in the sports sections of major newspapers.
B) increased the profitability of certain commercial sports and sporting events.
C) enabled public organizations to sponsor more community-based sports.
D) destroyed the profitability of high school sports.

24) According to data in Figure 12-1, the rights fees for the Olympic Games have

A) declined since 2001 and the associated threats of terrorism.
B) always been higher for the winter games than the summer games.
C) been high only when the games are hosted in North America.
D) increased consistently and dramatically since the 1970s.

25) According to data in Table 12-1 and Figure 12-2, rights fees for major sports have

A) gone up and down with major economic trends.
B) increased steadily through 2018.
C) declined steadily between 2007 and 2018.
D) remained stable over the past 20 years.

26) The author notes that one of the downsides of the media-sports relationship is that

A) sports venues have become smaller as crowd size has dwindled.
B) teams have been forced to hire consultants to train athletes for media interviews.
C) halftime periods in certain sports have been lengthened to benefit players.
D) the element of play has become less relevant than the element of spectacle in coverage.

27) The urgency and uncertainty that are so compelling in sports are best captured and represented in

A) visual media.
B) radio broadcasts.
C) books written by coaches.
D) the writing of sports journalists.

28) The media most dependent on sports are

A) books and magazines.
B) the Internet and radio.
C) newspapers and television.
D) television and film.

29) The amount of news space given to the coverage of sports in major city newspapers is

A) less than 5 percent.
B) about 25 percent.
C) about 50 percent.
D) between 50 and 80 percent.

30) The author notes that as more people go online and stream coverage of national and international sports, the print editions of local newspapers

A) hire sportswriters with national reputations.
B) focus more coverage on local high school and college teams.
C) no longer cover professional sports.
D) drop their sports sections and increase their coverage of politics.

31) Even though many sporting events have low ratings, television companies want to broadcast them because they fill "dead time" on weekends and because they

A) last longer than a normal half-hour or one-hour show.
B) bring family members together around the television.
C) appeal to children and other impressionable people.
D) attract audiences that sponsors want to reach.

32) Golf and tennis are frequently covered sports on television because they

A) have more viewers than most other sports events.
B) are tied to the real estate and corporate interests of television executives.
C) attract ad revenues from companies hoping to reach high-income consumers.
D) have a special character that attracts people interested in pure sports.

33) Women's sports events do not receive more coverage in the media partly because the viewers of women's sports

A) have not been identified by advertisers as a unique target audience.
B) come primarily from low-income households.
C) are mostly stay-at-home moms who have little money to spend.
D) are mostly young men who see women athletes as sex objects.

34) In recent years, 80-percent of the highest-rated television programs in the United States have been

A) Major League Baseball World Series games.
B) professional wrestling matches.
C) NFL games.
D) men's track and field events in the Olympic Games.

35) Sports-media programming has become increasingly diverse over the past three decades. As a result of this

A) pay-per-view sports programming has dominated television coverage of sports.
B) the rights fees for special interest events are higher than they are for the NFL.
C) the audiences for media sports have fragmented.
D) the rights fees for the NBA and NFL have stayed about the same.

36) The marriage of sports and the media is held together by vast amounts of corporate money and the desire of corporate executives to

A) shape political policy.
B) foster a way of life that is based on consumption.
C) develop relationships with celebrity athletes.
D) become leaders of sports organizations.

37) Like Hollywood films and television soap operas, the sports we see on television are

A) forms of edited fiction.
B) symbolic constructions.
C) gender identity rituals.
D) anti-social influences in society.

38) Sports coverage in the media generally consists of images and narratives that

A) distort the meaning of sports.
B) undermine the celebrity status of top athletes.
C) exaggerate the spectacular and create drama.
D) make team owners and coaches more important than athletes.

39) According to critical studies scholar Garry Crawford, much of the language used in the media to describe sports stars draws on the narrative of

A) melodrama.
B) sports sociology.
C) modern art critiques.
D) political campaigns.

40) As opposed to coverage in many other countries, the images and messages in televised sports in the U.S. tend to highlight

A) records, final scores, and competitive success.
B) teamwork and coach-athlete relationships.
C) the connection between fans in the stands and the athletes on the field.
D) the friendships between those who compete against each other in sports.

41) A person in the U.S. who watches sports on network television

A) sees sport-related action over 80-percent of their time.
B) usually watches with the sound turned off.
C) is more likely to be a baseball fan than a fan of any other sport.
D) sees and hears commercials during 20-percent of their time.

42) Research on media coverage of men's and women's sports has generally found that

A) coverage focuses on women's sports that involve speed and power.
B) the coverage of men's and women's sports is nearly equal today.
C) men's sports receive about 95% of all sports coverage in the media.
D) women's sports are covered as if they are more exciting than men's sports.

43) Research by Mike Messner and Cheryl Cooky and their colleague shows that between 1989 and 2012 the television air time given to women's sports in news and highlight programs

A) closely matched the increases in sport participation among females.
B) declined to the point that it almost disappeared.
C) increased so much that males boycotted women's sports in the media.
D) increased for women's professional sports but declined for college sports.

44) The author notes that the media coverage of women's sports on has stayed much the same over the past two decades primarily because

A) women in sports media organization have been slow to "lean in."
B) the culture of sports media organizations has been shaped by heterosexual men.
C) women's sports have remained the same in terms of talent.
D) women in media organizations insist on covering sports as men do.

45) The upward mobility of women in sports reporting and announcing for men's sporting events largely depends on

A) covering men's events in ways that reaffirm how men have covered them.
B) covering men's events in new ways that will attract more female fans.
C) their willingness to report on gay athletes and their lifestyles.
D) their ability to convince male athletes to discuss their private lives.

46) Patterns associated with gender in the media coverage of sports have been slow to change because

A) media organizations are gendered institutions.
B) men in sports journalism refuse to cover women's events.
C) women in sports journalism refuse to cover women's events.
D) women athletes shy away from media coverage.

47) Compared to past coverage, current media representations of race and ethnicity

A) present fewer narratives that reproduce racist stereotypes.
B) present fewer images of the lifestyles of successful black male athletes.
C) avoid images of black male athletes as angry and fearsome.
D) ignore the records and achievements of black athletes.

48) When sports journalists ignore in their coverage the dynamics of living in a white-dominated, white-identified, and white-centered society, they

A) reproduce dominant racial ideology as they claim to be color blind.
B) allow all athletes to escape the influence of race in their sport.
C) ultimately serve as positive role models in society as a whole.
D) help white athletes get along with teammates from diverse racial backgrounds.

49) The sports journalists most likely to avoid stereotypes related to ethnicity and nationality are those who have

A) studied the history of sports journalism.
B) covered high school sports in areas with large minority populations.
C) played sports themselves.
D) learned about the racial or ethnic heritage of the players they cover.

50) The most effective way to reduce subtle forms of racial, ethnic, and national bias in the media coverage of sports is to hire at all levels of media production people who

A) have degrees in communication studies.
B) see the world in colorblind ways.
C) come from diverse racial, ethnic, and national backgrounds.
D) had experiences in jobs that are unrelated to sport.

51) Research shows that color-blind media coverage of sports

A) privileges athletes of color and disadvantages white athletes.
B) should be the goal of all people in the media.
C) reproduces the racial and ethnic status quo.
D) allows journalists with knowledge about ethnic groups to get ahead.

52) Studies of the relationship between consuming media sports and the actions of spectators show that

A) the media coverage of sports is organized to discourage gambling.
B) people who watch sports on TV are more obese than other people.
C) the media have had a positive effect on attendance at all sporting events.
D) watching media sports does not influence patterns of sport participation.

53) Research on media audiences shows that

A) men and women who live together often watch sports together.
B) "football widows" are more common than many people believe.
C) watching television sports is the primary leisure activity of U.S. adults.
D) watching sports is disruptive for most married couples.

54) Research in the United States shows that when it comes to watching sports on television, the men and women in male-female married couples

A) seldom want to watch the same events.
B) seldom have similar viewing patterns but this does not affect their relationship.
C) often watch together and see this as a positive thing in their relationship.
D) often argue about watching patterns to the point that it leads to divorce.

55) Research examining the legacies of the Olympics for people in the country hosting the games has shown consistently that watching the television coverage of the Olympics is associated with

A) increased participation in outdoor sports.
B) increased viewing of televised sports.
C) pressuring children to play youth sports.
D) watching more women's sports after the Olympics.

56) As people acquire large screen, HD televisions for their homes, stadium managers try to maintain attendance at games by

A) making the stadium experience more like the home viewing experience.
B) dropping ticket prices and giving season ticket holders free seat upgrades.
C) banning all handheld media devices from stadiums.
D) hiring more cheerleaders who are assigned to certain seat sections.

57) Over the past few decades, independent investigative journalism has nearly disappeared. Emerging in its place has been

A) corporate journalism.
B) attack journalism.
C) entertainment journalism.
D) critical journalism.

58) ESPN provides more sports programming in the U.S. than any other media company. ESPN executives have tried to increase their profits in recent years by

A) presenting stories about the dangers of concussions in the NFL.
B) hiring more investigative reporters to cover controversial issues.
C) adopting a "stick to sports" approach in their programming.
D) copying journalists working for online sports reporting sites.

59) Tensions between elite athletes and sportswriters exist primarily because

A) there is a lack of trust between them.
B) journalists are controlled by teams and leagues.
C) athletes want to discuss their feelings about sport experiences.
D) sport management personnel for teams tell athletes to avoid journalists.

60) Tensions between elite athletes and sportswriters have intensified as

A) athletes have discovered that they can write their own stories online.
B) salary differences between athletes and sportswriters have increased.
C) journalists have ignored personal information in stories about athletes.
D) more sportswriters have come from low-income and minority backgrounds.

61) Sport team owners and officials in university athletic departments are so conscious of the tensions between athletes and media personnel that they

A) forbid athletes to do post-game interviews.
B) give media people the questions they are allowed to ask during interviews.
C) hire public relations companies to handle the athletes' social media posts.
D) train athletes to avoid saying things that sound bad or could be misinterpreted.

62) Most media coverage of sports today represents the interests of

A) those who control and profit from sports.
B) sports agents and lawyers.
C) the players with the highest celebrity rankings.
D) the companies that advertise on social media sites.