Question 1

Which of the following statements about political advertising is LEAST accurate?

Accepted Answer

A)  Some western democracies ban paid advertising and instead give free airtime to candidates. 
B)  Some scholars believe attack ads depress voter turnout. 
C)  The long-term impact of negative advertising is a matter of dispute. 
D)  The effectiveness of advertising, positive and negative, has been clearly established and quantified. 
E)  One form of negative ad is the comparative message, which contrasts each candidate's position on a given issue.

Question 2

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, media outlets were accused of

Accepted Answer

A)  ignoring the government and focusing on human interest stories. 
B)  reporting too much on domestic news at the expense of foreign coverage. 
C)  providing a more entertainment-based coverage of events. 
D)  extreme partisan bias against a Republican president. 
E)  failing to scrutinize a popular president.

Question 3

Which of the following statements about local news coverage is generally LEAST accurate?

Accepted Answer

A)  Local news programs favor attractive, stylish anchors. 
B)  Local news programs emphasize lightweight banter over deep analysis. 
C)  Local news programs are increasingly less popular than national news programming. 
D)  Local news programs devote much airtime to covering crime stories. 
E)  Local news programs often focus as much, if not more, on entertaining viewers as on informing them.

Question 4

Describe the relationship between government officials and the press. How has this relationship changed over time? What is the state of that relationship today? What impact does this relationship have on the citizenry? How does the press cover different branches of government differently? How do government officials try to shape press coverage to their own benefit?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe the relationship between government officials and...

Question 5

The tools by which modern presidential administrations control their image include all of the following EXCEPT

Accepted Answer

A)  calling on members of the press corps who are known to throw out softball questions. 
B)  giving low-level members of the administration wide latitude to interact with the press and offer various, even competing, explanations of the president's policies. 
C)  issuing frequent press releases that clearly enunciate the reasoning behind presidential policy. 
D)  floating "trial balloons" to test the public response to an issue before making a wholehearted commitment about it. 
E)  briefing of the president on potential questions before a conference, and limiting reporters to only one follow-up question.

Question 6

Which of the following has been called into doubt by the successful presidential campaign of Donald Trump?

Accepted Answer

A)  the need for candidates to maintain a regular public presence during the campaign 
B)  the value of the Internet for engagement by a candidate with the public 
C)  the value of paid advertising in presidential campaigns 
D)  the need for presidents to take strong ideological positions 
E)  the need for presidents to make use of the media to get elected

Question 7

Which of the following networks is most likely to please conservatives?

Accepted Answer

A)  MSNBC 
B)  ABC 
C)  PBS 
D)  Fox 
E)  NPR

Question 8

Which of the following statements about young Americans is LEAST accurate?

Accepted Answer

A)  They increasingly develop their political ideas through online social networks. 
B)  They are less attentive to traditional news sources than are older generations. 
C)  They prefer local news programs to network news programs. 
D)  They are less skeptical of media sources and more likely to accept media claims than older Americans. 
E)  They consume news and information from more subjective sources.

Question 9

A Gallup poll revealed that as of 2017, the highest proportion of Americans (just 27 percent) expressed high confidence in which of the following?

Accepted Answer

A)  television 
B)  newspapers 
C)  magazines 
D)  Congress 
E)  the Internet

Question 10

Journalists frequently use sports metaphors to describe politics, and they are particularly likely to compare elections to

Accepted Answer

A)  baseball. 
B)  horseracing. 
C)  football. 
D)  tennis. 
E)  boxing.

Question 11

Discuss the rise of political blogs. What impact do they have on political discourse? In what ways are they similar to and different from traditional media outlets?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Discuss the rise of political blogs. What...

Question 12

The term muckraking refers to journalism that

Accepted Answer

A)  aggressively investigated real and apparent misdeeds by powerful entities. 
B)  relies on jingoistic appeals to attract readers. 
C)  focuses on celebrity news and infotainment at the expense of analysis. 
D)  engages in partisan slanders of political figures. 
E)  strives for high standards of objectivity even at the expense of missing a great "scoop."

Question 13

Which president enjoyed the longest honeymoon period with the press?

Accepted Answer

A)  Abraham Lincoln 
B)  Theodore Roosevelt 
C)  Woodrow Wilson 
D)  Franklin Roosevelt 
E)  Ronald Reagan

Question 14

Which of the following statements about exit polls is LEAST accurate?

Accepted Answer

A)  News outlets, eager to be the first to report a presidential winner, often rely on exit polls to predict the outcome of an election. 
B)  The media's exploitation of exit polls is a relatively recent phenomenon. 
C)  In 2000, all the broadcast networks relied on the same firm to provide them with exit poll data. 
D)  Announcing winners based on exit polls may lead to lower voter turnout in the far western states. 
E)  Exit polls exhibited impressive accuracy in predicting the winners of the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.

Question 15

The televised Nixon-Kennedy debate of 1960 revealed that

Accepted Answer

A)  the American public was not interested in politics. 
B)  the visual appearance of candidates affects viewers' assessment of their qualifications. 
C)  viewers ignore how candidates look on screen and hone in on what is said about the issues. 
D)  a candidate's performance during a debate will have little impact on the outcome of an election. 
E)  challengers have little to gain by acceding to debates, which generally allow frontrunners to enhance their leads.

Question 16

Which of the following terms best describes yellow journalism?

Accepted Answer

A)  sensational 
B)  adversarial 
C)  objective 
D)  investigative 
E)  partisan

Question 17

What inspired the more aggressive form of journalism known as muckraking in the early 1900s?

Accepted Answer

A)  a fear that partisan leanings were tainting news 
B)  the need to sell newspapers 
C)  the failure to investigate thoroughly 
D)  a desire to increase objectivity 
E)  sympathy for the plight of ordinary citizens

Question 18

In 2016, people were most likely to get campaign news from

Accepted Answer

A)  national newspapers. 
B)  local newspapers. 
C)  the combination of social media, websites, apps, and email. 
D)  local TV news. 
E)  cable news.

Question 19

Who was the first president to hold regular press conferences?

Accepted Answer