Deck 6: Mass Media Audience: Individual Perspective

Question 1

You are sitting in a classroom watching a film on advertising. During the film you ask yourself: What am I getting out of this? Why am I interpreting the film's messages the way I am? You are in the

A) automatic state.
B) self-reflexive state.
C) transported state.
D) cognitive state.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Attention to a media message requires first exposure to the respective message and then also

A) conscious awareness of the message.
B) unconscious encounter with the message.
C) being transported.
D) All of the above

Answer 2

A

Question 3

When we pay attention to a media message, that attention

A) always stays the same.
B) can vary.
C) is subliminal.
D) is unconscious.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

If you are mindlessly flipping through channels while focused on the conversation you're having with you friend, you are consuming television messages in

A) the attentional state.
B) the transported state.
C) the automatic state.
D) the self-reflexive state.

Question 5

When we say that a person was exposed to a media message, we refer to

A) physical exposure.
B) perceptual exposure.
C) psychological exposure.
D) All of the above

Question 6

The distinguishing element of which exposure state is conscious awareness of messages?

A) Automatic
B) Cognitive
C) Transported
D) Attentional

Question 7

Physical exposure refers to

A) a person's unique interpretation of a message.
B) human ability to receive appropriate auditory and visual input.
C) a person's proximity to a media message.
D) All of the above

Question 8

Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A) The media create much of our filtering code for us.
B) We filter out the majority of information we encounter.
C) We are conscious of most of our filtering processes.
D) We are constantly flooded with information.

Question 9

The psychological criterion of exposure can be met

A) by a great variety of elements.
B) only consciously.
C) only unconsciously.
D) only when cataloged into long-term memory.

Question 10

We are constantly engaged in the following types of decisions during exposures:

A) listening, thinking, and watching.
B) filtering, meaning matching, and meaning construction.
C) analyzing, interpreting, and grouping.
D) None of the above

Question 11

All of the following statements are accurate, except

A) there is an aggressive media competition for our attention.
B) the term exposure is often used synonymously with the term attention.
C) for attention to a media message to occur, people must first be exposed to that message.
D) attention is exactly the same as exposure.

Question 12

In the transported state, people are _____________, while in the self-reflexive state, people are _____________.

A) highly involved cognitively; highly involved emotionally
B) highly involved emotionally; highly involved cognitively
C) paying close attention to messages; paying little attention to messages
D) paying little attention to messages; paying close attention to messages

Question 13

Stimuli that are outside the boundaries of human perception are labeled with the following term:

A) subconscious.
B) subliminal.
C) unconscious.
D) subsensory.

Question 14

Perceptual exposure refers to

A) a person's unique interpretation of a message.
B) human ability to receive appropriate auditory and visual input.
C) a person's proximity to a media message.
D) All of the above

Question 15

Gabe's mother pulled the plug on his video game system and yelled, "You've been on that thing for six hours!" When the screen turned off, he looked at the clock and could not believe that he had been playing for so long. He had completely lost track of time while being so caught up in the game. While playing the video game, Gabe was in

A) the automatic state.
B) the subconscious state.
C) the self-reflexive state
D) the transported state.

Question 16

Which exposure state resides above the threshold of human sense perception but below the threshold of conscious awareness?

A) The automatic state
B) The attentional state
C) The transported state
D) The self-reflexive state

Question 17

When Albert watches football games on television, he does not pay much attention during the commercial breaks. This is an example of

A) message filtering.
B) meaning matching.
C) meaning construction.
D) All of the above

Question 18

The goal of filtering messages is

A) to pay attention to messages that have usefulness and ignore other messages.
B) to synthesize across several meaning options.
C) to interpret messages.
D) to access previously learned meanings.

Question 19

For psychological exposure to occur,

A) a person must be paying conscious attention to a message.
B) a person must watch a message in the self-reflexive state.
C) there must be some trace element of the message created in a person's mind.
D) None of the above

Question 20

The transported state of exposure is

A) simply the high end of attentional state.
B) simply the high end of the automatic state.
C) simply the high end of the self-reflexive state.
D) qualitatively different from the attentional state.

Question 21

Our ability to understand and control our emotions is called

A) emotional tolerance.
B) emotional ability.
C) emotional intelligence.
D) emotional ambiguity.

Question 22

In meaning matching, the goal is to make decisions about which messages to ignore.

Question 23

Our ability to understand and control our emotions is called conceptual differentiation.

Question 24

People in the transported state lose track of their real-world environment and experience narrative time rather than real time.

Question 25

Which of the following statements is true?

A) Meaning construction is based on denotative meanings.
B) Meaning construction results in the same meanings for everyone.
C) We can program our minds to automatically construct meaning when we are confronted with a range of decisions about exposures.
D) None of the above

Question 26

Matty and Spencer both read the same news article about the President's new gun control proposal, but based on their political affiliations and attitudes toward the President, they both had very different interpretations of the story. Matty and Spencer engaged in

A) biased reading.
B) meaning matching.
C) meaning construction.
D) None of the above

Question 27

We can develop media literacy by

A) becoming more impulsive.
B) developing field dependency.
C) developing our natural abilities.
D) focusing on vertical thinking.

Question 28

Once the hurdles of physical, perceptual, and psychological exposure are cleared, attention to the message is guaranteed.

Question 29

Meaning matching

A) involves creative interpretation.
B) never becomes routine.
C) does not involve one's memory.
D) is about connecting symbols to meaning.

Question 30

Field independency is our natural ability to distinguish between the signal and the noise in any message.

Question 31

Meaning matching requires _____________ while meaning construction requires _____________.

A) competencies; skills
B) connotative meanings; denotative meanings
C) personal experience; universal symbols
D) conscious thought; automaticity

Question 32

All psychological exposure happens consciously.

Question 33

People with a high degree of conceptual differentiation classify objects into

A) a large number of mutually exclusive categories.
B) a large number of broad categories.
C) a small number of broad categories.
D) a small number of specific categories.

Question 34

The processes of meaning matching and meaning construction are intertwined.

Question 35

While watching a scary movie, Melissa hears the suspenseful music intensifying. She knows that this means that something bad is going to happen soon. Melissa is engaging in the following type of decision during exposures:

A) filtering messages.
B) meaning matching.
C) meaning construction.
D) memorized perception.

Question 36

Stimuli that are outside the boundaries of human perception are called subliminal.

Question 37

Having a high tolerance for ambiguity is the ability to

A) understand ambiguous emotions.
B) ignore messages that do not meet our expectations.
C) distinguish between right and wrong.
D) follow situations into unfamiliar territory.

Question 38

With media literacy, it is important to distinguish between exposure and attention.

Question 39

In the automatic state of exposure, people are exposed to media messages but are not aware of them.

Question 40

Which type of decision during exposures does not occur automatically?

A) Meaning construction
B) Meaning matching
C) Filtering
D) None of the above; all type of decision during exposures are automatic.

Question 41

Name and explain each of the four exposure states.

Question 42

Discuss how developing your natural abilities can help you become more media literate.

Question 43

What three criteria must be met before we say that a person is paying attention to a media message? Explain each criterion.

Question 44

Name and explain the three types of decisions during exposures.

Question 45

Explain the difference between subliminal and subconscious stimuli and their implications for exposure.