The Logic of American Politics: Chapter 14 Quiz

Screaming headlines and sensational stories tempted newsstand browsers—this was known as blue journalism—a reference to the blue ink in which the comic strips were printed.

False.

The profusion of news across the spectrum of political ideology has resulted in a better-informed citizenry.

False.

To characterize the news media businesses discredits their integrity as suppliers of vital civic information.

False.

Veteran journalists point to two specific events—the Korean War and the Cuban Missile Crisis—as critical in fostering a pervasive and enduring credibility gap.

False.

When a government seeks to prevent the publication and dissemination of written and recorded speech, it is exercising prior restraint.

False.

Today, almost ___ percent of television households subscribe to cable or to satellite services.

90

The news media serve as a strictly neutral conduit for the flow of civic information to their intended audience.

False.

Working journalists are so eager to cover politics that they are willing to appear as though they are working as their paid publicists.

False.

The Watergate scandal broke and Richard Nixon was forced to resign largely due to which of the following?

The Senate investigation spurred by the "leaks" of "Deep Throat," later revealed to be FBI bureaucrat Mark Felt.

"Pack journalism" refers to journalists following the same story in the same ways because they talk to one another while reporting and read each other's copy for validation of their own reporting.

True.

Blogs have changed the media in another important way by providing media outlets and entrepreneurs with space to develop digital-only content.

True.

Both newspapers and broadcast media cover the regular sources of important stories in a systematic fashion by permanently assigning reporters to certain venues, traditionally called beats.

True.

Franklin Roosevelt's first fireside chat saw such a large audience and the outpouring of support, it prompted him to deliver more national radio addresses.

True.

If they could, politicians and the media would exploit the other since each possesses (and would prefer not to surrender) something the other needs.

True.

Local TV news broadcasts are typically rated more positively in terms of believability than any other mainstream news outlet.

True.

News producers, from journalism professors to corporate owners, fondly refer to themselves as occupying the "fourth branch of government."

True.

Public figures largely forfeit legal recourse to protect their reputation. Slander and libel do not apply here.

True.

Sarah Palin's use of twitter—rather than traditional campaign speeches—meant every tweet was covered extensively by the media.

True.

The "good old days" can best be described as when the print journalists ruled the news and worked closely with politicians on the basis of mutual trust and profit.

True.

The average politician has trouble getting his or her message to voters because he or she attracts too little news coverage and direct communication is far too expensive.

True.

The golden age of newspapers was so named because they held a monopoly over mass communication and were the only outlet for national political news.

True.

The most famous leaker in American history was "Deep Throat," who continuously provided news reporters at the Washington Post leads for investigating the June 1972 break-in at Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.

True.

The relationship between politicians and reporters is built on a tension between reciprocity and competition.

True.

To attract audience attention in the ever changing media environment, producers and editors will often package the news in more sensational ways.

True.

During his years in the White House, Franklin D. Roosevelt conducted ______ biweekly press conferences with a regular group of White House correspondents.

about 1000

The franking privilege:

allows members of congress free access to the postal system for official correspondence.

The news media:

are the organizations that gather, package, and transmit the news through some proprietary technology.

Joseph McCarthy always appeared before television cameras with loose sheets of paper, which he could wave at the camera and claim contained the names of known:

communists in the State Department.

The Sedition Act in 1798:

expressly forbade any criticism of the president and Congress.

Presidents have discovered that ________ lead(s) to more favorable news coverage.

foreign travel and visits to disaster sites.

Which of the following is a strategy used to monitor elected leaders?

frequent elections

Within a few decades of ratification of the First Amendment, the notion that the free press would guard the citizenry's liberties against the designs of ambitious politicians:

had been replaced by the press as dedicated partisan boosters.

The greatest barrier to successful media exposure:

is the sheer volume of competing news stories chasing media outlets on any given news day.

How many people were on Senator Joseph McCarthy's lists of the so-called communists in the state department?

it changed daily

Fox News became a conservative media outlet because:

it saw an opportunity to gain a profitable market niche by differentiating its product from that of CNN and the broadcast networks, Fox News introduced a conservative slant by hiring conservative news anchors and loosening traditional constraints on editorializing while presenting the news.

The transformation of newspapers into instruments of mass communication meant that:

politicians frequently found themselves bowing to powerful editors and publishers.

Rather than present an argument, presidents now typically speak in:

sound bites.

Which of the following is an example of an infotainment news program?

the Daily Show.

Illustrating the power of bloggers, in 1998, ______ scooped Newsweek's Michael Isikoff by suggesting an inappropriate relationship existed between President Bill Clinton and a White House intern.

the Drudge Report

In examining the case of the New York Times and the Pentagon papers, the Supreme Court's decision "any system of prior restraints of expression comes to this Court bearing a heavy presumption against its constitutional validity" means:

the government had to demonstrate - and in this case had failed to do so - that publication of the documents would damage national security.

Because carrying capacity is limited, on factor used by news organizations in deciding to run a story is:

the level of controversy: conflict and disagreement are preferable to consensus.

The financial decline of modern newspapers can best be attributed to:

the loss of ad revenue caused by the internet.

Thomas Jefferson explained to a friend: "The basis of our government being, the very first object should be to keep that right.":

the opinion of the people.

When politicians participate in newsmaking, they usually have two audiences in mind:

the public and fellow politicians.

Which of the following is a factor in what the news media chooses to cover?

the story's level of controversy

Once newspaper publishers and editors freed themselves from party control:

they discovered they were able to influence public opinion and, in turn, national politics.

The proliferation of alternative media gives viewers the opportunity:

to select the news sources they find most congenial with their political views.

During his years in the White House, Franklin D. Roosevelt conducted very few press conferences with a regular group of White House correspondents.

False.

When politicians strategically give important information to the news media on the condition that its source not be identified by name, this is referred to as:

a leak

In a trial balloon:

a politician "floats" a policy or some other idea with a reporter on the condition that the source of the story remain anonymous.