Mass Communication Exam Questions Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

MASS COMMUNICATION

1. ___________ is the placement of ads in natural or otherwise non-traditional settings, such as imprinting logos on beach sand.
   1. Brand entertainment
   2. Ambient advertising *
   3. Product placement
   4. Hypercommercialism
   5. Intrusive advertising

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. The content of traditional media messages is usually quite formulaic, meaning the content producers stay primarily with proven formulas in determining what will make a successful show, because ______________.
   1. the best way to succeed in the media business is to have average talent
   2. advertisers are wary of imaginative content
   3. their message must appeal to a mass audience *
   4. time constraints limit what can actually be done
   5. nothing succeeds like success

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: What Is Mass Communication?

1. Aliteracy, a decrease in thoughtful reading, is one of the potential adverse effects of __________.
   1. hypercommercialism
   2. media multitasking *
   3. media addiction
   4. video-game play
   5. better education

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Characteristics of Media Consumers

1. Jeb loves videogames. He plays them on his smartphone, his Xbox, his hand-held Gameboy, even on his cable television game channels. When it comes to game play, Jeb is ______________.
   1. platform agnostic *
   2. a media multi-tasker
   3. media literate
   4. aliterate
   5. media illiterate

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Characteristics of Media Consumers

1. A more fragmented media audience has led to ____________.
   1. more content choices overall as more and more media outlets compete for the audience’s attention *
   2. fewer content choices as the tastes of the audience become increasingly homogenized
   3. little change in the number of content choices
   4. a decrease in content quality as there is less money to be spent on content production
   5. greater amounts of advertising revenues for the major media outlets

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. The long-standing business models of traditional media industries are under constant attack from digital alternatives as they attempt to transform how they operate in a process known as ________________.
   1. globalization
   2. convergence
   3. disruptive transition *
   4. regression to the mean
   5. functional analysis

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. ____________ theory, based in Neo-Marxist theory, claims that elites in contemporary society attempt to control the public through their control of the superstructure, for example, cultural institutions such as schools and religion.
   1. Social cognitive theory
   2. Social responsibility theory
   3. Critical cultural theory *
   4. Symbolic interaction
   5. Relational Dialectics

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. “I’m not affected by media,” Sally often claims, “But those other people? They’re easily influenced by slick media messages.” Sally suffers from _________.
   1. the first-person effect
   2. the second-person effect
   3. the third-person effect *
   4. disassociation
   5. transportation

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Culture, Communication, and Mass Media

1. Important to critical cultural theory is the existence of dialectic, the ____________.
   1. control of the superstructure by the elite to make meaning
   2. on-going struggle between the media and the public to make meaning *
   3. decreased exchange of ideas through mass media as media messages dominate
   4. control of the base by the elite to make meaning
   5. on-going battle between advertisers and reluctant audiences

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. Three easily identifiable characteristics of today’s media consumers are that they are platform agnostic, media multitaskers, and susceptible to ___________.
   1. brainwashing
   2. cultural imperialism
   3. media addiction *
   4. aliteracy
   5. slick advertising

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Characteristics of Media Consumers

1. Disney releases a new film shown in theaters, Walmart then stocks games, accessories, and toys based on that movie, and Macy’s sells clothing with images of characters from the movie, all in the name of ________________.
   1. synergy *
   2. brand entertainment
   3. hypercommercialism
   4. ambient advertising
   5. consumerism

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. You hear too many commercials on your radio; the magazine article you’re reading before class if full of ads, even the walls of the restrooms at school are covered with ads. There is simply so much ____________ in your world that you start to block it all out.
   1. advertising clutter *
   2. commercial noise
   3. synergy
   4. ambient advertising
   5. consumer information

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. ____________ thought argues that without professional and responsible information created and dispersed to the people it is not possible for them to effectively govern themselves.
   1. Democratic
   2. Libertarian *
   3. Authoritative
   4. Neo-Marxist
   5. Socialist

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. Libertarian theory is a form of ___________ theory.
   1. democratic
   2. fundamentalist
   3. post-positivist
   4. interpretive
   5. normative *

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. The fusion of entertainment and content, for example the movie The Polar Bears being created by Coke as a way to capitalize on the popularity of its well-known holiday television commercials, is called ____________.
   1. branded content
   2. product content
   3. ambient advertising
   4. brand entertainment *
   5. cross branding

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. About how many hours a day do adults typically engage in daily media use?
   1. 2
   2. 8
   3. 10
   4. 12 *
   5. 16

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: What is Mass Communication?

1. Smartphones should be considered as a mass medium because _________.
   1. many people use them
   2. they allow conference calling
   3. they allow people to create and distribute their own mediated messages *
   4. they have Internet access
   5. they are global

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: What is Mass Communication?

1. Interpersonal communication and mass communication are similar, in part, because _________.
   1. they both take place in specific and deliberate content environments *
   2. people can use Twitter for both
   3. they both involve verbal communication
   4. feedback is immediate for both
   5. nonverbal communication is central to both

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: What is Mass Communication?

1. The six major companies that own the majority of today’s media are _________.
   1. Verizon, Disney, Apple, Comcast, PBS, and FOX
   2. Comcast, Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, and CBS *
   3. Apple, Facebook, Samsung, Costco, CNN, and Blackberry
   4. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Linkedin
   5. Apple, Disney, Comcast, the Tribune Company, and New York Times

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. You notice that every character on your favorite TV drama drinks either Budweiser or Budweiser Lite beer. The Budweiser company has obviously paid to make this __________ happen.
   1. ambient advertising
   2. advertising clutter
   3. brand advertising
   4. cross branding
   5. product placement *

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. Which example best demonstrates the operation of social cognitive theory?
   1. A child talks back to her parent because her friend told her to.
   2. A teacher give all her students high grades so she would receive positive ratings on Rate My Professor.
   3. A boy goes out and buys the new Air Jordans because he saw Lebron James wearing them on a TV commercial. *
   4. A dad buys Charmin toilet paper because his family likes to squeeze it.
   5. A couple gets married in a church because it is a family tradition to do so

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. _______________ demonstrating the fear of globalization that other countries often express.
   1. Communist China and democratic South Korea both limit the number of American movies that can be shown in their movie theaters, *
   2. American people use the terms “French fries” and “French toast,”
   3. Cuba limits Americans from entering their country,
   4. President Obama addresses the United Nations to discuss foreign policy,
   5. Americans trail the rest of the modern world in the number of citizens who learn a foreign language,

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. _________theory argues that people learn through observation.
   1. Social Responsibility
   2. Critical Cultural
   3. Social Cognitive *
   4. Normative
   5. Social Constructionist

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. ___________ theory argues that in exchange for a great degree of freedom, media have a responsibility to serve the public.
   1. Social Responsibility *
   2. Critical Cultural
   3. Social Cognitive
   4. Normative
   5. Social Constructionist

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. ____________ theory argues that media industries serve to support structure, but people’s agency can have influence.
   1. Social Responsibility
   2. Critical Cultural *
   3. Social Cognitive
   4. Normative
   5. Social Constructionist

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. Little Timmy sees cartoon Tom hit cartoon Jerry with a big stick, and later, when frustrated by playmate Little Arthur, strikes him with his plastic pail and shovel. Timmy has __________ what he saw in the cartoon.
   1. imitated
   2. assimilated
   3. identified with *
   4. internalized
   5. represented

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. ___________ is the increasing amount of commercial content appearing in all media.
   1. synergy
   2. brand entertainment
   3. hypercommercialism *
   4. ambient advertising
   5. cross branding

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. One way to grasp the true influence of mass media is to understand its power as cultural _____________ who shape our ideas, feelings, and thoughts through the messages they send, ultimately shaping and defining our realities.
   1. arbiters
   2. structuralists
   3. storytellers *
   4. elites
   5. barkers

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Culture, Communication, and Mass Media

1. In the mass communication process, the vehicle conveying the message is the ________.
2. agency
3. sender
4. medium *
5. encoder
6. transmitter

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: What is Mass Communication?

1. Critical cultural theorists believe that the reality of our social world is the product of the interaction between ___________.
2. structure and agency *
3. agency and culture
4. language and society
5. structure and society
6. in groups and out groups

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. Neo-Marxism differs from traditional Marxist theory in that in contemporary times elites exert their influence not through ownership of the __________, but by their control of the___________.
2. superstructure/base
3. base/superstructure *
4. media/government
5. government/media
6. agriculture/manufacturing

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. Advocates of social cognitive theory would most likely make which of the following claims?
   1. Children playing violent video games will be more likely to commit violent crimes. *
   2. Contemporary young people are media multitaskers.
   3. The financial interests of media owners and economic elites too often are the same.
   4. Democracy relies on an informed public.
   5. Media addiction is a real problem.

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. In the American commercial mass media system, the real customers, the people whom media producers must ultimately satisfy, are the __________, not the ________.
   1. advertisers/Federal Communications Commission
   2. advertisers/audience *
   3. Federal Communications Commission/advertisers
   4. audience/advertisers
   5. elites/people

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Culture, Communication, and Mass Media

1. __________ theory argues that people see the world as a more dangerous place because of the heavy exposure television gives to crime and violence.
   1. Cultivation *
   2. Social cognitive
   3. Critical cultural
   4. Social responsibility
   5. Relational Dialectics

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. People using today’s generation of videogame consoles can play single or multi-player games, download movies and television shows, surf the Internet, check their Facebook accounts, stream iHeart Radio, and tune in to the Weather Channel, Sports Center, and HBO. This technology represents a good example of ______________.
   1. audience fragmentation
   2. clutter
   3. convergence *
   4. concentration
   5. media addiction

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: What is Mass Communication?

1. According to technology writer Dan Gilmor, because we are no longer mere recipients of media content; we are also creators, we have become the ___________.
   1. true consumers in the mass communication process
   2. people formerly known as the audience *
   3. true media multitaskers
   4. modern-day equivalent of the Colonial pamphleteers
   5. faceless, tasteless audience

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: What is Mass Communication?

1. An important distinction between interpersonal communication and mass communication has to do with feedback. In interpersonal communication it is ___________; in mass communication it is ___________.
   1. indirect & inferential/direct & immediate
   2. imbued with nonverbal cues/imbued with mediated symbols
   3. direct & immediate/indirect & inferential *
   4. imbued with mediated symbols/imbued with nonverbal cues
   5. masked by nonverbal communication/masked by visual communication

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: What is Mass Communication?

1. Mass communication messages tend to be ____________ than those typically found in interpersonal communication.
   1. much more idiosyncratic
   2. much more personal
   3. much less flexible *
   4. much less subject to cultural values
   5. much more impersonal

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: What is Mass Communication?

1. One similarity between mass communication and interpersonal communication is that their messages often are ___________; that is, they can be interpreted in many ways depending on the receivers’ fields of experiences.
   1. personal
   2. nuance-rich
   3. geographically bound
   4. ambiguous *
   5. analogous

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: What is Mass Communication?

1. Although we are never really free from media’s influence, when we contest the culture, we, _____________ , determine our own stories.
   1. not the media industries *
   2. with the help of our various bounded cultures
   3. given our individual bringing up
   4. in addition to our cultural elites
   5. with the help of advertisers

Bloom’s: Understanding

A-head: Culture, Communication, and Mass Media

1. In the American commercial mass media system, ______________.
   1. we are the product *
   2. we are the consumers
   3. we have ultimate power over what ultimately appears as content
   4. content producers cater primarily to our wants and needs
   5. we are the medium

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Culture, Communication, and Mass Media

1. As you prepared for this exam you probably used not only your text and class notes, but you used your computer, occasionally linking over to check your Facebook, e-mail, and Twitter accounts, all while listening to music and watching Dancing with the Stars on television. You were probably texting on your cell, too. You were ____________.
   1. platform agnostic
   2. media multitasking *
   3. media literate
   4. alliterate
   5. media illiterate

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Characteristics of Media Consumers

1. The ultimate danger of the concentration of media ownership is ___________.
   1. too few media outlets
   2. too many media outlets, leading to even more audience fragmentation
   3. a depleted number of perspectives *
   4. so many perspectives that there is cultural confusion
   5. foreign takeover of our media system

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. The financial benefits of _________ clearly lie with those who can afford to buy up smaller outlets and create big media conglomerates. Smaller, potentially more daring or challenging outlets struggle to survive as they attempt to compete with financial giants like Disney, Time Warner, and Sony.
   1. operating in a socially responsible manner
   2. audience fragmentation
   3. converging media industries
   4. the globalization of media
   5. concentration of media ownership *

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. _____________ has allowed more viewing choices overall as more media outlets compete for audience attention. Audience members’ interests can be met more easily as content makers now worry less about reaching the largest possible audience and can focus on winning over a specific group of content consumers.
   1. Globalization
   2. Convergence
   3. Audience fragmentation *
   4. Concentration of media ownership
   5. Media multi-tasking

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. As media companies ______________, the amount of formulaic content increases as they limit dialogue and complicated narratives in favor of more visually translatable and exciting stories.
   1. encounter an increasingly multitasking audience
   2. continue to target a wider, global audience *
   3. face growing challenge from Facebook and Twitter
   4. fend off government regulation
   5. encounter an increasingly media literate audience

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: What is Mass Communication?

1. In 2010, the video chain Blockbuster closed the last of its stores after falling victim to a growing number of video delivery methods such as downloads, streaming, and movies-on-demand. It was a victim of ____________ media technologies.
   1. fragmented
   2. hypercommercialized
   3. concentrated
   4. globalized
   5. converging *

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. Cultivation theory focused originally on __________ effects, but has been expanded to consider the effects ____________.
   1. political advertising/of all advertising
   2. printed media/of visual media
   3. television/of other media *
   4. traditional media/of the Internet
   5. US-based/more globally

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. Social cognitive theory suggests that people learn behaviors, or model them, _________.
   1. if those behaviors are culturally reinforced
   2. simply by observing them *
   3. if there is sufficient repetition in the media
   4. if parents approve of those behaviors
   5. if they are taught in school

Bloom’s: Remembering

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. For centuries homosexual Americans were shunned and discriminated against. But over the last few years, regardless of cultural norms and even official laws against gay unions, people of the same sex openly committed to one another, eventually changing public opinion and the law in their favor. According to critical cultural theory, they exercised their ____________.
   1. human commitment to one another
   2. structure
   3. agency *
   4. base instincts
   5. dialectic

Bloom’s: Analyzing

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

SHORT ANSWER

1. What is the relationship between television, cultivation theory, and the Mean World Syndrome?

Main theme: Cultivation argues that television has long-term effects which are gradual but significant.

Answer must have: Connection between heavy amounts of TV violence cultivating an increased belief that the world is a cruel place, producing the Mean World Syndrome, the view that the world is a much more dangerous place than it really is.

Answer may have: Commentary on contesting these depictions or agency and structure.

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. What challenges do platform agnostics present for contemporary media industries? Offer examples.

Main theme: As platform agnostics, media consumers are neutral about the medium through which they access their content.

Answer must have: Recognition that platform agnostics place more importance on the content than on the technology through which it is delivered. The primary challenge for media businesses is that they want repeat customers loyal to their specific methods of delivery but agnostics don’t have that loyalty. Examples must make sense.

Answer may have: Mention of synergy and fragmenting audiences.

A-head: Characteristics of Media Consumers

1. Why, in the contemporary media environment, are advertisers forced to find new ways to attract and hold people’s attention? What are 5 ways they are attempting to do this? Offer examples.

Main theme: Hypercommercialism leads to clutter which people can, and do, work to avoid.

Answer must have: Mention of hypercommercialism, clutter, product placement, brand entertainment, ambient advertising, and synergy. Examples must be accurate representations of each of the strategies.

Answer may have: Mention of concentration of ownership, globalization, and fragmenting audiences.

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. Social Cognitive theory differentiates between two types of modeling. What are they? Please define and give an example of each and offer your opinion on which is a more likely effect of mass media.

Main theme: people learn behaviors, or model them, simply by observing them. This behavior can manifest itself through either imitation or identification.

Answer must have: Correct identification and definitions. Imitation occurs when the observed behavior is directly replicated. Identification is copying the observed behavior to a degree but not replicating it. Examples must make sense, and although answers will vary, identification is more likely (for example, we can’t imitate a super hero, but we can identify with her).

Answer may have: Mention of Albert Bandura, TV violence, and Bobo doll experiment.

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. List, describe, and offer an example of the three identifiable characteristics of today’s media consumers.

Main theme: There are three easily identifiable characteristics of today’s media consumers. They are platform agnostic, media multitaskers, and are susceptible to media addiction.

Answer must have: Correct listing and description of each (neutral about the medium, rarely use one medium at a time, over-attached to media). Examples must fir descriptions.

Answer may have: Mention of aliteracy and harms of media addiction.

A-head: Characteristics of Media Consumers

ESSAY

1. How has concentration of ownership in the media industry affected the mass communication process? What are the possible dangers of increased concentration for the media industries and their audiences? Is there a possible up-side to concentration of ownership? Please offer examples throughout.

Main theme: The ownership of many different media companies by an increasingly small number of conglomerates, has dramatically reduced the diversity of media sources available to consumers.

Answer must have: Correct explanation of concentration of ownership, and although answers may vary a bit, there should be mention of reduced perspectives and its threat to self-governance and increased devotion to the bottom line. The alternative view, richer companies can do better work, should be mentioned.

Answer may have: Mention of Internet as a corrective force or Critical Cultural Theory.

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. Explain the effect that each of the five forces that are shaping mass communication have on the media/audience relationship. Which of the five forces do you believe has the biggest impact on mass communication? Why?

Main theme: Media industries, old and new, are being shaped and reshaped by several forces that not only affect their economic structures, but the nature of mass communication itself.

Answer must have: Correct listing and description of the five forces: concentration of ownership, hypercommercialism, fragmentation, globalization, and convergence. Argument for the most disruptive force must make sense.

Answer may have: Mention of disruptive transition and how long-standing business models are under attack from digital alternatives.

A-head: Characteristics of Media Industries

1. Explain the key similarities and differences between interpersonal and mass communication. Where do blurred areas exist between the two and what is responsible for this blurring of distinctions? Give solid examples.

Main theme: Convergence is making it a bit difficult to think of interpersonal and mass communication as completely different, but they do share some similarities as well as differences.

Answer must have: Complete and accurate listing of differences (two or a few people vs millions of communicators; direct and immediate vs inferential and delayed feedback; immediately alterable vs unalterable; flexible vs formulaic messages) and similarities (both are symbolic, ambiguous, and context bound). Rest of answer should vary, but should mention convergence.

Answer may have: Mention of forces reshaping mass communication.

A-head: What is Mass Communication?

1. What is the basic argument of Critical Cultural Theory? Do you think its representation of the contemporary media/people relationship is accurate? In the ongoing dialectic between media and people, who do you think has the greater responsibility and who has the greater amount of power? Please use examples to support your augments.

Main theme: Critical cultural theory attempts to explain how media industries dominate meaning making, but does afford audiences some responsibility and power.

Answer must have: Accurate rendering of critical cultural theory: Our social world is the product of the interaction between structure and agency, and although media industries tend to support structure and would seem to have the advantage in the mass communication process, audiences have power in agency, that is, their beliefs, values and behaviors. From there answers will vary, but arguments for greater responsibility and power must make sense and examples must do the same.

Answer may have: Mention of theory’s roots in Neo-Marxism and distinction between base and superstructure.

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication

1. Social responsibility theory argues that media industries and professionals must serve the public if they are to be free of government control. For American media, this theory identifies eight basic assumptions regarding the operation of media outlets and performance of media professionals. What are they and how realistic do they remain in our contemporary times of significant media industry upheaval? Offer examples where useful to your argument.

Main theme: Social Responsibility theory is a normative theory, setting standards (norms) to guide media conduct that are based on society’s ideal values, and it is against those standards that the public should judge the media’s performance.

Answer must have: Mention that in exchange for the great deal of freedom they enjoy, U S media industries must meet certain standards of socially responsible operation, not the least of which is to put service above profit. There should also be accurate rendering of the 8 basic assumptions (Media have obligations to society; must meet them by setting high or professional standards; self-regulating; avoid whatever might lead to crime or give offense to minority groups; reflect the diversity of their society and give access to various points of view; people have a right to expect high standards of performance; media should be accountable to society as well as to the financial bottom line). Remainder of answer will vary.

Answer may have: Mention of impact of financial and other changes in contemporary media industries.

A-head: Theories of Mass Communication