Chapter 13 Mass Comm

Which of the following theories argues that media do not tell us what to think, but what to think about?

the agenda setting theory

When adults consume entertainment media, they intentionally accept as real what is put before them. This is known as

the willing suspension of disbelief.

The view of mass media as central to the maintenance of society over time and the representation of shared beliefs is the ______ perspective.

Ritual

Neo-Marxist theory focuses on the elite's control of the base, or means of production.

False

Selective exposure predicts that people will interpret messages in a manner consistent with their preexisting attitudes and beliefs.

False

During the ______ era of mass communication theory, the media were believed to be corrupting influences that undermined the social order, and "average" people were considered defenseless against their influence.

mass society theory

Which of the following is the study of how economic and other influences on the way news is produced distort and bias news coverage toward those in power?

Which of the following theories rely on the idea that the media operate primarily to justify and support the status quo at the expense of ordinary people?

critical cultural theories

Theorists in the 1930s who valued serious art and saw consumption of art as a means to elevate people to a better life represented

the Frankfurt School.

Questions about media's impact on issues, such as what kind of nation we are building or what kind of people we are becoming, are characteristic of ______research.

Critical

The theory of ______ says that television constructs a reality of the world that, although possibly inaccurate, becomes the accepted reality simply because we as a culture believe it to be true.

Cultivation analysis

The daily time and cost demands of U.S. journalism result in newspapers and broadcasts composed of a large number of brief, capsulated stories with little room for perspective and context, resulting in ______ news.

Fragmented

You've "met" people in the media from a different bounded culture from your own, and now you seem to not only to better understand them but you've also come to develop improved attitudes toward them. You are experiencing

Parasocial contact.

In social construction of reality theory, ______ are collections of meanings assigned to some phenomenon or situation.

typification schemes

Mass society theory is an example of a middle-range theory.

False

The belief foremost in cultivation analysis is that because we all share a common public message system (television), the ______ of reality occurs, moving individual and different people toward a shared, television-created understanding of how things are.

Mainstreaming

Which of the following theories argues that media don't do things to people; rather, people do things with media?

uses and gratifications theory

Because institutions and the people in them, for example politics and politicians, must respond to the demands of the medium in which they wish to express themselves, they must apply media logic.

True

In social construction of reality theory, collections of meanings that individuals assign to specific phenomena and situations are called typification schemes.

True

Because mass communication theories are created by people, and are therefore influenced by human biases, the times in which we live, the position we occupy in the mass communication process, and a host of other factors, we can say that these theories are

Human Constructions

The emergence of cultural theory in mass communication signaled a return to

the belief in powerful effects

The idea that there is a direct causal relationship between violent content and aggressive behavior is known as

the stimulation model.

The idea that information from the media, and therefore media effects, travel from media through opinion leaders to opinion followers is called ______theory.

Two-Step Flow

In limited effects theory, the influence of media is thought to be limited by people's intelligence and education, in other words by their

individual differences

In mass communication theory, the_______argues that active audience members use media content to create meaning, and meaningful experiences, for themselves.

meaning-making perspective

Because the environments in which they are created change constantly, mass communication theories are said to be

Dynamic

People's psychological dissonance is reduced through the selective processes, one of which is ______, the process by which people interpret messages in a manner consistent with their preexisting attitudes and beliefs.

selective perception

The idea that media don't tell us what to think, but what to think about, is called dependency theory because people are dependent on media for information.

False

People's psychological dissonance is reduced through the selective processes, one of which is ______, the process in which people attend to only those messages that are consistent with their preexisting attitudes and beliefs.

Selective Exposure

The mass society theory idea that media are a dangerous drug, or a killing force that directly and immediately penetrates a person's system, is summed up in the

Hypodermic Needle Theory

Marxism rests on the belief that people are oppressed by those who own the factories and the land—the means of production, or

Base

In social cognitive theory, seeing a model rewarded for prohibited or threatening behavior increases the likelihood that the observer will perform that behavior. This is called

Disinhibitory effects

Modern neo-Marxist mass communication theorists believe that people are oppressed by those who control the culture, or ______; in other words, religion, politics, arts, literature, and the mass media.

Superstructure

People frequently use symbolic interaction theory when they are studying advertising's influence because advertisers often succeed by employing ______, or encouraging the audience to perceive their products as symbols that have meaning beyond their actual function.

Product Positioning

Media effects that occur at the cultural level are said to be

Macro- Level effect

Which of the following theories argues that people who share a culture also share an ongoing correspondence of meaning?

social construction of reality theory

Which of the following theories produced theorist Stuart Hall, who first developed the idea of media as a public forum?

British cultural theory

In two-step flow theory, the power of media to change attitudes and behaviors is thought to be enhanced through the intervention of opinion leaders.

Falae

Which of the following theories explains how people's attitudes are formed, shaped, and changed through communication and how those attitudes influence behavior?

the attitude change theory

Which of the following theories argues that cultures give symbols meaning and then those symbols control behavior?

the symbolic interaction theory

Ideas that explain or predict only limited aspects of the mass communication process are called

Middle Range Theories

Social cognitive theorists call the direct replication of an observed behavior

Imitation

In social cognitive theory, seeing a model punished for a behavior reduces the likelihood that the observer will perform that behavior. This is called

Inhibitory Effects