Deck 10: Mass Communication

Question 1

___________ is the placement of ads in natural or otherwise non-traditional settings, such as imprinting logos on beach sand.

A) Brand entertainment
B) Ambient advertising
C) Product placement
D) Hypercommercialism
E) Intrusive advertising

Answer 1

B

Question 2

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 ______________.

A) the best way to succeed in the media business is to have average talent
B) advertisers are wary of imaginative content
C) their message must appeal to a mass audience
D) time constraints limit what can actually be done
E) nothing succeeds like success

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Aliteracy, a decrease in thoughtful reading, is one of the potential adverse effects of __________.

A) hypercommercialism
B) media multitasking
C) media addiction
D) video-game play
E) better education

Answer 3

B

Question 4

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 ______________.

A) platform agnostic
B) a media multi-tasker
C) media literate
D) aliterate
E) media illiterate

Question 5

A more fragmented media audience has led to ____________.

A) more content choices overall as more and more media outlets compete for the audience's attention
B) fewer content choices as the tastes of the audience become increasingly homogenized
C) little change in the number of content choices
D) a decrease in content quality as there is less money to be spent on content production
E) greater amounts of advertising revenues for the major media outlets

Question 6

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 ________________.

A) globalization
B) convergence
C) disruptive transition
D) regression to the mean
E) functional analysis

Question 7

____________ 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.

A) Social cognitive theory
B) Social responsibility theory
C) Critical cultural theory
D) Symbolic interaction
E) Relational Dialectics

Question 8

Important to critical cultural theory is the existence of dialectic, the ____________.

A) control of the superstructure by the elite to make meaning
B) on-going struggle between the media and the public to make meaning
C) decreased exchange of ideas through mass media as media messages dominate
D) control of the base by the elite to make meaning
E) on-going battle between advertisers and reluctant audiences

Question 9

Three easily identifiable characteristics of today's media consumers are that they are platform agnostic, media multitaskers, and susceptible to ___________.

A) brainwashing
B) cultural imperialism
C) media addiction
D) aliteracy
E) slick advertising

Question 10

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 ________________.

A) synergy
B) brand entertainment
C) hypercommercialism
D) ambient advertising
E) consumerism

Question 11

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.

A) advertising clutter
B) commercial noise
C) synergy
D) ambient advertising
E) consumer information

Question 12

____________ thought argues that without professional and responsible information created and dispersed to the people it is not possible for them to effectively govern themselves.

A) Democratic
B) Libertarian
C) Authoritative
D) Neo-Marxist
E) Socialist

Question 13

Libertarian theory is a form of ___________ theory.

A) democratic
B) fundamentalist
C) post-positivist
D) interpretive
E) normative

Question 14

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 ____________.

A) branded content
B) product content
C) ambient advertising
D) brand entertainment
E) cross branding

Question 15

About how many hours a day do adults typically engage in daily media use?

A) 2
B) 8
C) 10
D) 12
E) 16

Question 16

Smartphones should be considered as a mass medium because _________.

A) many people use them
B) they allow conference calling
C) they allow people to create and distribute their own mediated messages
D) they have Internet access
E) they are global

Question 17

Interpersonal communication and mass communication are similar, in part, because _________.

A) they both take place in specific and deliberate content environments
B) people can use Twitter for both
C) they both involve verbal communication
D) feedback is immediate for both
E) nonverbal communication is central to both

Question 18

The six major companies that own the majority of today's media are _________.

A) Verizon, Disney, Apple, Comcast, PBS, and FOX
B) Comcast, Disney, News Corp, Time Warner, Viacom, and CBS
C) Apple, Facebook, Samsung, Costco, CNN, and Blackberry
D) Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Linkedin
E) Apple, Disney, Comcast, the Tribune Company, and New York Times

Question 19

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.

A) ambient advertising
B) advertising clutter
C) brand advertising
D) cross branding
E) product placement

Question 20

Which example best demonstrates the operation of social cognitive theory?

A) A child talks back to her parent because her friend told her to.
B) A teacher give all her students high grades so she would receive positive ratings on Rate My Professor.
C) A boy goes out and buys the new Air Jordans because he saw Lebron James wearing them on a TV commercial.
D) A dad buys Charmin toilet paper because his family likes to squeeze it.
E) A couple gets married in a church because it is a family tradition to do so

Question 21

_______________ demonstrating the fear of globalization that other countries often express.

A) Communist China and democratic South Korea both limit the number of American movies that can be shown in their movie theaters,
B) American people use the terms "French fries" and "French toast,"
C) Cuba limits Americans from entering their country,
D) President Obama addresses the United Nations to discuss foreign policy,
E) Americans trail the rest of the modern world in the number of citizens who learn a foreign language,

Question 22

_________theory argues that people learn through observation.

A) Social Responsibility
B) Critical Cultural
C) Social Cognitive
D) Normative
E) Social Constructionist

Question 23

___________ theory argues that in exchange for a great degree of freedom, media have a responsibility to serve the public.

A) Social Responsibility
B) Critical Cultural
C) Social Cognitive
D) Normative
E) Social Constructionist

Question 24

____________ theory argues that media industries serve to support structure, but people's agency can have influence.

A) Social Responsibility
B) Critical Cultural
C) Social Cognitive
D) Normative
E) Social Constructionist

Question 25

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.

A) imitated
B) assimilated
C) identified with
D) internalized
E) represented

Question 26

___________ is the increasing amount of commercial content appearing in all media.

A) synergy
B) brand entertainment
C) hypercommercialism
D) ambient advertising
E) cross branding

Question 27

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.

A) arbiters
B) structuralists
C) storytellers
D) elites
E) barkers

Question 28

In the mass communication process, the vehicle conveying the message is the ________.

A) agency
B) sender
C) medium
D) encoder
E) transmitter

Question 29

Critical cultural theorists believe that the reality of our social world is the product of the interaction between ___________.

A) structure and agency
B) agency and culture
C) language and society
D) structure and society
E) in groups and out groups

Question 30

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___________.

A) superstructure/base
B) base/superstructure
C) media/government
D) government/media
E) agriculture/manufacturing

Question 31

Advocates of social cognitive theory would most likely make which of the following claims?

A) Children playing violent video games will be more likely to commit violent crimes.
B) Contemporary young people are media multitaskers.
C) The financial interests of media owners and economic elites too often are the same.
D) Democracy relies on an informed public.
E) Media addiction is a real problem.

Question 32

In the American commercial mass media system, the real customers, the people whom media producers must ultimately satisfy, are the __________, not the ________.

A) advertisers/Federal Communications Commission
B) advertisers/audience
C) Federal Communications Commission/advertisers
D) audience/advertisers
E) elites/people

Question 33

__________ theory argues that people see the world as a more dangerous place because of the heavy exposure television gives to crime and violence.

A) Cultivation
B) Social cognitive
C) Critical cultural
D) Social responsibility
E) Relational Dialectics

Question 34

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 ______________.

A) audience fragmentation
B) clutter
C) convergence
D) concentration
E) media addiction

Question 35

According to technology writer Dan Gilmor, because we are no longer mere recipients of media content; we are also creators, we have become the ___________.

A) true consumers in the mass communication process
B) people formerly known as the audience
C) true media multitaskers
D) modern-day equivalent of the Colonial pamphleteers
E) faceless, tasteless audience

Question 36

An important distinction between interpersonal communication and mass communication has to do with feedback. In interpersonal communication it is ___________; in mass communication it is ___________.

A) indirect & inferential/direct & immediate
B) imbued with nonverbal cues/imbued with mediated symbols
C) direct & immediate/indirect & inferential
D) imbued with mediated symbols/imbued with nonverbal cues
E) masked by nonverbal communication/masked by visual communication

Question 37

Mass communication messages tend to be ____________ than those typically found in interpersonal communication.

A) much more idiosyncratic
B) much more personal
C) much less flexible
D) much less subject to cultural values
E) much more impersonal

Question 38

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.

A) personal
B) nuance-rich
C) geographically bound
D) ambiguous
E) analogous

Question 39

Although we are never really free from media's influence, when we contest the culture, we, _____________ , determine our own stories.

A) not the media industries
B) with the help of our various bounded cultures
C) given our individual bringing up
D) in addition to our cultural elites
E) with the help of advertisers

Question 40

In the American commercial mass media system, ______________.

A) we are the product
B) we are the consumers
C) we have ultimate power over what ultimately appears as content
D) content producers cater primarily to our wants and needs
E) we are the medium

Question 41

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 ____________.

A) platform agnostic
B) media multitasking
C) media literate
D) alliterate
E) media illiterate

Question 42

The ultimate danger of the concentration of media ownership is ___________.

A) too few media outlets
B) too many media outlets, leading to even more audience fragmentation
C) a depleted number of perspectives
D) so many perspectives that there is cultural confusion
E) foreign takeover of our media system

Question 43

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.

A) operating in a socially responsible manner
B) audience fragmentation
C) converging media industries
D) the globalization of media
E) concentration of media ownership

Question 44

_____________ 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.

A) Globalization
B) Convergence
C) Audience fragmentation
D) Concentration of media ownership
E) Media multi-tasking

Question 45

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.

A) encounter an increasingly multitasking audience
B) continue to target a wider, global audience
C) face growing challenge from Facebook and Twitter
D) fend off government regulation
E) encounter an increasingly media literate audience

Question 46

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.

A) fragmented
B) hypercommercialized
C) concentrated
D) globalized
E) converging

Question 47

Cultivation theory focused originally on __________ effects, but has been expanded to consider the effects ____________.

A) political advertising/of all advertising
B) printed media/of visual media
C) television/of other media
D) traditional media/of the Internet
E) US-based/more globally

Question 48

Social cognitive theory suggests that people learn behaviors, or model them, _________.

A) if those behaviors are culturally reinforced
B) simply by observing them
C) if there is sufficient repetition in the media
D) if parents approve of those behaviors
E) if they are taught in school

Question 49

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 ____________.

A) human commitment to one another
B) structure
C) agency
D) base instincts
E) dialectic

Question 50

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

Question 51

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

Question 52

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.

Question 53

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.

Question 54

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

Question 55

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.

Question 56

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?

Question 57

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.

Question 58

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.

Question 59

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.