Media-Effects In Mass Theory Verified Test Bank Chapter 4 8e - Updated Test Bank | Mass Comm Theory 8e Baran by Stanley J. Baran. DOCX document preview.
Chapter 4 The Emergence of the Media-Effects Trend in Mass Communication Theory
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 1
1) The Payne Fund research on the effects of movies on children _____.
Feedback: Many of the Payne Fund social scientists were young and they were using relatively new, crudely developed empirical methods.
Page reference: Overview
a. led to increased regulation of movies by government
b. was directed by Paul Lazarsfeld and Carl Hovland
c. used innovative, postpostivist research methods
d. Challenged direct-effects assumptions
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 2
2) The Lazarsfeld approach to theory construction, because it assumed that research should begin with empirical observation, is said to be ___.
Feedback: Research should begin with empirical observation of important phenomena, not with armchair speculation. After the facts are gathered, they are sifted, and the most important pieces of information are selected.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. deductive
b. phenomenistic
c. inductive
d. audience-centered
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 3
3) You are a participant in Lazarsfeld’s voter study. You favored Willkie at the start of the campaign and stayed with that choice throughout the election. You are _________.
Feedback: If media had powerful effects as mass society theorists believed, there would have been few early deciders in the study because they would have constantly changed their opinions given the media they had recently seen.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. an early decider
b. a waverer
c. a crystallizer
d. a convert
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 4
4) In two-step flow, opinion leaders, because they consume media messages, reinterpret them, and then pass them on, are ______.
Feedback: Heavy users might act as gatekeepers—screening information and passing on only items that would help others share their views. Lazarsfeld called them opinion leaders.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. opinion followers
b. arbiters
c. gatekeepers
d. change agents
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 5
5) Early effects researchers like Lazarsfeld and Hoveland consistently found that media ___________.
Feedback: These researchers initially thought media to be quite powerful, but insisted on scientific evidence before they accepted that influence.
Page reference: The Development of the Postpositivist Effects Trend
a. were just as powerful in shaping attitudes and behaviors as commonly thought
b. had lasting effects only on the most isolated individuals
c. had lasting effects only on the heaviest consumers of television
d. were not as powerful in shaping attitudes and behaviors as commonly thought
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 6
6) When they began their research in the 1940s, Lazarsfeld and Hovland were determined to use empirical research methods in order to ______.
Feedback: Like other social scientists of the time, they were alarmed by the effective use of propaganda in World War II by enemy powers.
Page reference: The Development of the Postpositivist Effects Trend
a. preserve and defend democracy from totalitarianism
b. sell products more effectively
c. create limited effects theory
d. serve the interests of the media industries
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 7
7) Which of the following is a generalization found in limited-effects theory?
Feedback: The influence of mass media is rarely direct because it is almost always mediated by individual differences and almost always mediated by group membership or social relationships.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. media typically have direct influence
b. most people have weak commitments to social groups
c. when effects occur, they are modest and isolated
d. the third-person effect is legitimate
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 8
8) You and a friend watched the big game together and he is convinced that the refs were clearly favoring your team. But you watched the very same game with the very same refs and you are equally sure that the refs favored his team. Clearly, _______ is at work here.
Feedback: Selective perception is the mental or psychological recasting of a message so that its meaning is in line with a person’s beliefs and attitudes.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. selective recall
b. selective perception
c. differential dissonance
d. selective attention
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 9
9) The Yale Group attitude change research _______.
Feedback: Each new discovery led to new questions about different variables in the persuasion process and how they might interact.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. found that attitude change was a complex process
b. found the magic keys to persuasion
c. was a complete failure
d. led directly into studies of media uses and gratifications
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 10
10) When the Yale Group studied the power of "counter-norm communications,” they found that committed, highly involved group members (such as fans of sports team) are _____.
Feedback: The more highly people value their membership in a group, the more closely their attitudes will conform to those of the group and, therefore, the more resistant they will be to changes in those attitudes.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. show the usual limited effects of persuasion
b. easily persuaded that another group is better than theirs
c. vulnerable to a persuasion strategy based on attitudinal inversion
d. resistant to arguments that other groups are superior
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 11
11) World War II provided three important motivations for social scientists interested in attitude-change research. Among them was the simple fact of convenience. That is, _______________.
Feedback: Whereas the military saw soldiers in training, psychologists saw research subjects—well-tracked research subjects.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. the war hastened the development of more efficient communication tools
b. new military recruits provided a ready source of subjects with similar attitudes about the war
c. new military recruits provided a ready source of subjects who were demographically quite similar
d. new military recruits provided a ready source of subjects for experiments and surveys
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 12
12) Hovland’s methodological advance, ______, was to take a piece of stimulus material (for example, a film) and systematically isolate and vary its potentially important elements independently and in combination to assess their effects on audience members undergoing similar variation.
Feedback: Earlier attitude research focused on the question of the effectiveness of the stimulus, not what could make it more or less effective.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. experimental manipulation
b. controlled variation
c. layered surveys
d. limited effects theory
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 13
13) Lazarsfeld concluded in his voter study that the most important influence of mass media was to ____________.
Feedback: Individual differences, group membership, and the influence of opinion leaders ensured that media would serve primarily as reinforcers.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. bring voters’ attention to issues they might otherwise have ignored
b. change people’s voting preference
c. turn voters to more liberal positions
d. reinforce a vote choice that had already been made
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 14
14) The body of middle-range theory now called limited- or minimal-effects theory has that name because of its assumption that the media have minimal or limited effects, as those effects _________.
Feedback: The influence of mass media is rarely direct because it is almost always mediated by individual differences and almost always mediated by group membership or social relationships.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. are mitigated by a variety of mediating or intervening variables
b. occur only for a limited array of media
c. occur only for a limited number of audiences
d. are minimal when considered against other important social factors such as economics
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 4, Question 15
15) People seek out media messages consistent with the values and beliefs of those around them as they work to preserve their existing views by avoiding challenging messages. They do this because they _______.
Feedback: People work consciously and unconsciously to reduce the cognitive dissonance created by inconsistent messages.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. they are not intelligent enough to deal with counter-normative ideas
b. challenging messages rarely make it into traditional media
c. seek cognitive consistency
d. seek the latitude of acceptance
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 16
16) Selective perception is people’s tendency to attend to media messages they feel are in accord with their already-held attitudes and interests and the parallel tendency to avoid those that might create dissonance.
Feedback: This describes selective exposure. Selective perception is the mental or psychological recasting of a message so that its meaning is in line with a person’s beliefs and attitudes.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. True
b. False
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 17
17) Outrage-based content, for example much of talk radio and angry social network screeds, is selected by political partisans not so much for its attitude-confirming information as for its satisfaction of the social need to find community in safe ideological spaces.
Feedback: There is great cognitive consistency in a community of like-minded people.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. True
b. False
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 18
18) Someone enjoying ideological homophily communicates with people from across the political spectrum.
Feedback: The opposite is true. Research indicates that ideological homophily is relatively rare, even online.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. True
b. False
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 19
19) People who enjoy a somewhat heterogeneous circle of friends are exposed to cross-cutting (ideologically discordant) content.
Feedback: Such cross-cutting frequently occurs online.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. True
b. False
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 20
20) Information that is consistent with a person’s already-held attitudes creates psychological discomfort, or dissonance.
Feedback: The opposite is true, as people tend to seek cognitive consistency.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theorie
a. True
b. False
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 21
21) The Payne Fund research was the first well-funded effort to comprehensively study media effects using postpositivist methods.
Feedback: Many of the Payne Fund social scientists were young and they were using relatively new, crudely developed empirical methods.
Page reference: Overview
a. True
b. False
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 22
22) The media-effects trend, an approach to media theory and research that came to dominate how many U.S. researchers studied and thought about media in the last half of the 20th century, viewed media as a powerful social and cultural force.
Feedback: The media-effects trend saw media as relatively powerless in shaping public opinion in the face of more potent intervening variables like people’s individual differences and their group memberships.
Page reference: Overview
a. True
b. False
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 23
23) The media-effects trend in understanding media influence finds is support primarily in postpositivist research.
Feedback: Previous theory and research on media influence was based on speculation rather than systematic inquiry.
Page reference: The Development of the Postpositivist Effects Trend
a. True
b. False
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 24
24) Selective exposure is our tendency to interpret messages, to make meaning from them, in ways that are consistent with the values, beliefs, and attitudes we already hold.
Feedback: This describes selective perception. Selective exposure is people’s tendency to attend to media messages they feel are in accord with their already-held attitudes and interests and the parallel tendency to avoid those that might create dissonance.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. True
b. False
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 25
25) Persuasion research demonstrates that those who are more intelligent are typically less susceptible to persuasive arguments.
Feedback: Few individual difference variables work this directly. In fact, intelligent people are more likely to be persuaded if the message they receive is from a credible source and based on solid logical arguments.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. True
b. False
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 26
26) The largest category of subjects Lazarsfeld discovered in his voter study were early deciders.
Feedback: Because media’s primary influence in electoral politics of the time was reinforcing already existing preferences, early deciders dominated.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. True
b. False
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 27
27) Social categories theory assumes that there are broad collectives, aggregates, or social categories in modern societies whose behavior in the face of a given set of stimuli is more-or-less uniform.
Feedback: It also assumes that people with similar backgrounds (e.g., age, gender, income level, religious affiliation) will have similar patterns of media exposure and similar reactions to that exposure.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. True
b. False
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 28
28) High-credibility communicators produce increased amounts of attitude change; low-credibility communicators produce less attitude change.
Feedback: A trusted source naturally will have more influence.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. True
b. False
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 29
29) One-sided messages are less effective with people already in favor of the message; two-sided presentations are also less effective with those holding divergent perspectives.
Feedback: The opposite is true; holders of divergent views have their positions challenged in two-sided messages.
Page reference: From Propaganda Research to Attitude-Change Theories
a. True
b. False
Type: True or False
Title: Chapter 4, Question 30
30) Social scientists who developed media-effects theory and research during the 1940s and 1950s were primarily methodologists—not theorists.
Feedback: They argued that new research methods made possible observations that would allow them to draw objective conclusions about the effects of media. These conclusions would guide the construction of more useful theory grounded in systematic observation, not wild speculation.
Page reference: The Development of the Postpositivist Effects Trend
a. True
b. False