Deck 4: The Emergence of the Media-Effects Trend in Mass Communication Theory

Question 1

The Payne Fund research on the effects of movies on children _____.

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

Answer 1

C

Question 2

The Lazarsfeld approach to theory construction, because it assumed that research should begin with empirical observation, is said to be ___.

A) deductive
B) phenomenistic
C) inductive
D) audience-centered

Answer 2

C

Question 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 _________.

A) an early decider
B) a waverer
C) a crystallizer
D) a convert

Answer 3

A

Question 4

In two-step flow, opinion leaders, because they consume media messages, reinterpret them, and then pass them on, are ______.

A) opinion followers
B) arbiters
C) gatekeepers
D) change agents

Question 5

Early effects researchers like Lazarsfeld and Hoveland consistently found that media ___________.

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

Question 6

When they began their research in the 1940s, Lazarsfeld and Hovland were determined to use empirical research methods in order to ______.

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

Question 7

Which of the following is a generalization found in limited-effects theory?

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

Question 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.

A) selective recall
B) selective perception
C) differential dissonance
D) selective attention

Question 9

The Yale Group attitude change research _______.

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

Question 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 _____.

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

Question 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, _______________.

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

Question 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.

A) experimental manipulation
B) controlled variation
C) layered surveys
D) limited effects theory

Question 13

Lazarsfeld concluded in his voter study that the most important influence of mass media was to ____________.

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

Question 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 _________.

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

Question 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 _______.

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

Question 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.

Question 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.

Question 18

Someone enjoying ideological homophily communicates with people from across the political spectrum.

Question 19

People who enjoy a somewhat heterogeneous circle of friends are exposed to cross-cutting (ideologically discordant) content.

Question 20

Information that is consistent with a person's already-held attitudes creates psychological discomfort, or dissonance.

Question 21

The Payne Fund research was the first well-funded effort to comprehensively study media effects using postpositivist methods.

Question 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 20^th century, viewed media as a powerful social and cultural force.

Question 23

The media-effects trend in understanding media influence finds is support primarily in postpositivist research.

Question 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.

Question 25

Persuasion research demonstrates that those who are more intelligent are typically less susceptible to persuasive arguments.

Question 26

The largest category of subjects Lazarsfeld discovered in his voter study were early deciders.

Question 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.

Question 28

High-credibility communicators produce increased amounts of attitude change; low-credibility communicators produce less attitude change.

Question 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.

Question 30

Social scientists who developed media-effects theory and research during the 1940s and 1950s were primarily methodologists-not theorists.