Exam 1: Understanding and Evaluating Mass Communication Theory

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.