Understanding And Evaluating Mass + Test Bank Chapter.1

Chapter 1 Understanding and Evaluating Mass Communication Theory

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 1

1) _______ are older forms of mass media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, movies, and most importantly television.

Feedback: To differentiate them from contemporary Internet-based social media, more traditional forms of media have come to be known as legacy media.

Page reference: Overview

a. Large-scale social media

b. Fake media

c. Legacy media

d. Linear media

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 2

2) ________ is a state of mind in which audience members automatically take in and respond to message content without critical reflection.

Feedback: Much media consumption, for example “zoning out” while watching television or YouTube or browsing through Facebook pages, occurs without reflection.

Page reference: Defining and Redefining Mass Communication

a. Introspection

b. Routinization

c. Automaticity

d. Feedback

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 3

3) When social media were initially developed, it was assumed that they would ________.

Feedback: It was thought that social media would undermine the ability of legacy media to hold peoples’ attention and interest.

Page reference: Defining and Redefining Mass Communication

a. empower individuals

b. become a prime outlet for advertising

c. become a prime source for interesting videos

d. replace newspapers as the main source of people’s news

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 4

4) Humans think about their behavior, values, beliefs, and attitudes. In other words, they are ___________

Feedback: People constantly revise their goals and make highly subjective determinations about their potential for success or failure.

Page reference: Science and Human Behavior

a. impossible to study scientifically

b. deduced

c. reflexive

d. causal

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 5

5) The type of mass communication theory that might be involved when studying how well the mainstream American press serve democratic principles is ______________ theory.

Feedback: A normative media theory explains how a media system should operate in order to conform to or realize a set of ideal social values.

Page reference: Defining Theory

a. critical

b. postpositivist

c. interpretive

d. normative

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 6

6) There are several reasons social science has difficulty providing definitive answers to questions of human behavior. Which of the following is among those listed in the text.

Feedback: The implementation of the scientific method is difficult for those studying the social world in part because most of the significant and interesting forms of human behavior are quite difficult to measure.

Page reference: Science and Human Behavior

a. If causality does exist in human behavior, its roots may simply be too complex for identification through social science.

b. Humans are very often motivated by money.

c. Humans often respond to cultural forces rather than direct stimuli.

d. Causality simply does not exist in human beings.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 7

7) “I’m not affected by media,” Sally often claims, “But those other people? They’re easily influenced by slick media messages.” Sally suffers from _________.

Feedback: Many people think they don’t need to be protected from media influence, but others might; they’re not as smart.

Page reference: Science and Human Behavior

a. disassociation

b. first-person effect

c. second-person effect

d. third-person effect

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 8

8) ______________ theories are based on empirical research and adherence to the scientific method.

Feedback: This type of theory is based on empirical observation guided by the scientific method, but it recognizes that humans and human behavior are not as constant as elements of the physical world.

Page reference: Defining Theory

a. Critical

b. Post-positivist

c. Normative

d. Interpretive

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 9

9) Questions of the place of values in theory and research are issues of_______.

Feedback: Theories are developed by humans, and humans naturally bring their values to that work.

Page reference: Defining Theory

a. axiology

b. epistemology

c. ontology

d. metatheory

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 10

10) ________ occurs when a given factor influences another, even by way of an intervening variable.

Feedback: If one variable produces the same effect on another variable under the same conditions every time, a causal relationship exists.

Page reference: Science and Human Behavior

a. Connection

b. Science

c. Theory

d. Causality

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 11

11) British cultural studies, which focuses on media and their role in promoting the interests of dominant elites at the expense of less powerful groups, is based on __________ notions of mass communication.

Feedback: British cultural studies focused heavily on mass media and their role in promoting a hegemonic worldview and a dominant culture within society at large.

Page reference: Four Trends in Media Theory

a. limited effects

b. conspiracy theory

c. mass society

d. Neo-Marxist

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 12

12) Which was the first dominant perspective on mass media?

Feedback: Mass society theory is actually an amalgam of a wide variety of thinking of the time that all pointed to media’s corrupting influence on society.

Page reference: Four Trends in Media Theory

a. Media primacy theory

b. Mass society theory

c. Yellow journalism

d. Limited effects theory

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 13

13) Interpretive theorists who set aside their values when investigating a text are said to be ___________.

Feedback: Researchers who wish to minimize the impact of their personal values on their work recognize them, set them aside, and then do their work.

Page reference: Four Trends in Media Theory

a. scientific

b. ethical

c. vacillating

d. bracketing

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 14

14) At the heart of the meaning-making trend in theory is a focus on a more-or-less active audience that uses media content to _________.

Feedback: Important media effects often occur over longer time periods and these effects can be intended by users.

Page reference: Four Trends in Media Theory

a. create meaningful experiences

b. pass time in an otherwise busy world

c. learn more about politics

d. challenge important assumptions about life

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 1, Question 15

15) Among the factors that have recently intensified and renewed research on many different types of media effects are the popularity of________, new postpositivist research methods, and the rise of meaning-making theory.

Feedback: Contemporary thinking sees the audience/media relationship as much more complex and nuanced than older perspectives.

Page reference: Revitalized Effects Research

a. video streaming services like Netflix

b. large-scale social media

c. critical cultural studies

d. media socialism

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 16

16) Contemporary mass communication theories must be reconsidered inasmuch as large-scale social media, unlike more traditional forms of media, do not rely on advertising for their revenues.

Feedback: Despite several apparent differences between legacy media and large-scale social media, advertising forms the basis of financial support for both.

Page reference: Defining and Redefining Mass Communication

a. True

b. False

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 17

17) One of the driving forces behind the development of new mass communication theories is changes in media technology.

Feedback: Mass communication theory is dynamic.

Page reference: Mass Communication Theory

a. True

b. False

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 18

18) Important in judging the worth of any theory is the question, “How parsimonious is it?” In other words, how well does it explain real-world outcomes of media use.

Feedback: Is the theory the simplest explanation possible of the phenomenon in question?

Page reference: Evaluating Theory

a. True

b. False

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 19

19) When evaluating postpositivist theory, it is important to ask how well does it predict future events, behaviors, or relationships?

Feedback: The goal of post-positivist research is explanation, prediction, and control.

Page reference: Evaluating Theory

a. True

b. False

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 20

20) Most, if not all, who call themselves social scientists adhere to the same standards for conducting research and accepting evidence.

Feedback: Because social science deals with human beings and their social existence it must be flexible in the questions it asks and the evidence it accepts.

Page reference: Flexible Social Science

a. True

b. False

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 21

21) Because one essential argument of mass society theory was that media subvert and disrupt the existing social order, fierce debate broke out over who should be trusted control media.

Feedback: Different elites of the time were convinced only they had the answer to media’s negative influence.

Page reference: Four Trends in Media Theory

a. True

b. False

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 22

22) Normative theorists view media as a public arena in which cultural battles are fought and a dominant, or hegemonic, culture is forged and promoted.

Feedback: Normative theory evaluates media against a set of system-specific expectations. Critical theorists see media as a site of cultural conflict.

Page reference: Four Trends in Media Theory?

a. True

b. False

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 23

23) Grand theories try to explain entire media systems and their role in society.

Feedback: Grand theories have fallen out of favor in recent times as contemporary thinking sees the media/audiences/society relationship as too complex for one-size-fits-all theorizing.

Page reference: Defining and Redefining Mass Communication

a. True

b. False

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 24

24) Like legacy media, large-scale social media are largely unregulated and are bound by few social or professional norms.

Feedback: Despite several apparent differences between legacy media and large-scale social media, advertising forms the basis of financial support for both.

Page reference: Defining and Redefining Mass Communication

a. True

b. False

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 25

25) In the marketplace of attention, social media compete primarily against each other rather than against legacy media to gain and hold the attention of people.

Feedback: Despite several apparent differences between legacy media and large-scale social media, advertising forms the basis of financial support for both, so large-scale social media do compete against all forms of media.

Page reference: Defining and Redefining Mass Communication

a. True

b. False

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 26

26) Social scientists apply logic and observation to the understanding of the social world, rather than to the physical world.

Feedback: Causal relationships are easier to demonstrate in the physical world than they are in the social world.

Page reference: Science and Human Behavior.

a. True

b. False

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 27

27) More so than other mass communication theorists, critical cultural theorists rely heavily on the scientific method when conducting research.

Feedback: Post-positivists rely on the scientific method as it minimizes the impact of their values and biases.

Page reference: Four Trends in Media Theory

a. True

b. False

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 28

28) One of the difficulties in applying notions of causality to human behaviour is that people have goals and are self-reflexive.

Feedback: Causal relationships are easier to demonstrate in the physical world than they are in the social world.

Page reference: Science and Human Behavior

a. True

b. False

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 29

29) Mass communication researchers sometimes differ in their view of the nature of reality, that is, in their epistemology.

Feedback: Ontology has to do with questions of reality; epistemology has to do with issues of what is knowable.

Page reference: Defining Theory

a. True

b. False

Type: True or False

Title: Chapter 1, Question 30

30) Normative theory’s axiology is, by definition, value-laden.

Feedback: A normative media theory explains how a media system should operate in order to conform to or realize a set of ideal social values.

Page reference: Defining Theory

a. True

b. False