GOVERNMENT QUIZ VI

Which of the following is not an important function of the news media in our political system?

All of the above are important functions of the news media in our political system.

A country where the government heavily censors Internet news and search engines is

China.

Counting both print and online users, news readership of newspapers

Is up overall

__________ percent of surveyed adults indicated that they learned about the 2008 political campaign from comedy shows like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, or Saturday Night Live.

Thirty percent

Early TV network news programs focused their evening news programs on

an "anchorman."

The phrase "on background" means that media are permitted to

anonymously quote material without identifying the source.

It is quite possible that campaign coverage is affected by a(n) __________ among journalists.

anti-incumbent bias

The phrase "off the record" means that media

are not allowed to print the information.

By improving the quality of information transmitted to the people about their government, the mass media

at various times serve both the majoritarian and the pluralist models of American politics

Private ownership of the media in the United States makes the American news industry

dependent on advertising revenues.

The traditional division of mass media into _________ has been made problematic by the Internet.

Print and broadcast

The first media technology to make broadcast journalists into household names was

Radio

Most politicians and many scholars believe that the media's greatest influence on politics is its ability to

Set the political agenda

More and more, cable news seems analogous to

early partisan newspapers.

Journalistic norms of objectivity and accuracy grew, some say, because of

lack of competition, allowing focus on quality rather than sensationalism.

Some research indicates that people who watch partisan news become

more extreme in their politics.

Representatives of the mass media frequently defend the importance of freedom of the press, even if it comes at the expense of

order.

General entertainment programming that often includes discussions of political affairs, such as The Daily Show, The Today Show, and The View is called

soft news.

Despite new technological options, and despite criticism that in its current form it polarizes politics in an unhealthy way, _____ of Americans listen to traditional AM/FM radio weekly.

90%

___________ are group leaders who follow news in specific areas.

Attentive policy elites

When the media regularly focus public attention on violent crime, political corruption, or economic woes, they are engaged in

Agenda setting

Crime rates fell in every major category (rape, burglary, robbery, assault, and murder) from the 1980s until very recently, but as one journalist said, "Crime coverage is not editorially driven; it's_________."

Economically driven

The _________ Amendment prohibits Congress from abridging freedom of the press.

First

The media executives, news editors, and prominent reporters who decide which events to report and how to report them are known as

Gatekeepers

The current debate about "net neutrality" concerns whether

ISPs should be allowed to charge people more if they consume a large amount of bandwidth.

A poll of Americans who had seen or heard of Michael Moore's 2007 documentary Sicko found that _________ changed their mind and said health-care reform was more necessary.

Nearly half

Until the early 1960s, most Americans cited __________ as the source from which they got most of their news.

Newspapers

The text suggests that in the early days of radio, owners sought government regulation of the airwaves to

Restrict others' freedom to enter broadcasting and compete

The amount of information online is so vast that most people rely on _________ to help them determine which news is real and important.

The mainstream media

After the 2012 election, which of the following received the lowest rating from Americans?

The media

Which of the following statements is most accurate?

The media in the United States have played an important role in advancing equality

Which president first provided space in the White House for reporters?

Theodore Roosevelt

Officials send out __________ when they intentionally leak news to gauge the reaction of the public or other political leaders.

Trial balloons

When excluding horserace stories, media coverage of Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential campaign, compared to coverage of Barack Obama, was

about the same

Advocates of dropping all FCC content regulations believe that

broadcast media should be treated the same as other media.

Most news printed about Congress comes from

congressional press releases and prepared reports

Available evidence seems to indicate that there are __________ among editors and owners of the major news media.

conservative leanings

Regarding the Internet, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

does not have jurisdiction to regulate Internet content.

A 2011 news analysis found that cable TV was particularly devoted to __________ whereas online news sites and newspapers provided more coverage of __________.

election coverage; foreign affairs

During a presidential election, the tendency of journalists to limit coverage of campaigns to coverage of which candidate is leading or behind in the polls at the time, rather than chiefly covering the issues, is known as

horse race journalism.

Reaction to a film posted on YouTube made by an Egyptian-American that mocked the Muslim prophet Muhammad is an example of the influence of new media platforms; that they

impact the types of stories that get picked up by the "mainstream media."

The Internet was started

in 1969, with support from the U.S. Department of Defense

To stay in business in the digital age, many newspapers have __________ their online content, with varying degrees of success.

instituted paywalls for

The "television hypothesis" is the belief that television

is to blame for the low level of citizens' knowledge about public affairs.

In the United States today, the mass media

provide a two-way channel of communication between the people and the government.

The fairness doctrine, the equal opportunities rule, and the reasonable access rule are all rules under which the FCC has

regulate broadcast media content.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996

relaxed the rules governing media ownership.

Newspapers owned by publicly-traded chains are more likely to

resort to negative or positive spin on the news.

Currently, _________ is (are) most Americans' primary news source.

television

Newspapers did not move toward independent ownership and large circulation until

the 1830s

_________ occurs when a media outlet such as a magazine informs a relatively small number of group leaders who follow news in a specific area, and those leaders in turn mobilize their followers to put pressure on public officials.

the two-step flow of communication

How do the mass media influence the socialization process?

they play contradictory roles, sometimes promoting popular support for government and sometimes eroding public confidence in it.