Intro to Mass. Communication Exam 1 (Korpi)

Although the mass media often operate relatively independently of each other, they form a tightly integrated system in your use of them.

True

Virtually everyone forms their picture of the world based on one medium and message at a time.

False

The most important element in the mass communication system is not the printing press, the camera, or the communication satellite; it is you.

True

The creators of media messages--like journalists, producers, and advertisers--have far more control than you do over the information and meanings that you get from the media.

False

The authors argue that understanding media as a ________, and from the vantage point of a _______, will help you understand individual media in different and more useful ways than you did before.

system; receiver

Although most adults in our society spend a tremendous portion of their lives watching television, they can easily reduce this consumption dramatically or eliminate it altogether.

False

Considering all electronic media, traditional print media, and direct communication with other people on a typical day, the average American spends _____ hours in a communication environment.

10-12

There are 4 worlds of information; which world consists of everything that is within range of your perception in your lifetime?

Second

The first world is the world in your head.

False

With a reasonable amount of effort and focusing on just one specific topic, it is possible to read, listen to, or view all of the information for that topic.

False

Your understanding of war has a one-to-one relationship with all of the bits of information about war you have encountered in your lifetime, since these are the bits that make up your fourth world.

False

Which one of the four worlds is the same for everyone?

First

On almost any important issue, as time goes on you are exposed to a steadily increasing number and variety of bits of information, as well as encountering some of the same bits many times.

True

Who or what is most responsible for the kinds of information to which you are exposed?

You

In assessing scientific models, we are primarily concerned with simplicity.

False

Which of the following is NOT true of models?

Tend to draw ones attention to specific instances

The most interesting property of a model because it leads to new predictions that can be tested.

uncertain analogy

Help sources adjust their communication to their audience.

The most important function of feedback

The Westley-MacLean model of communication is useful in that it adds feedback as an important element in the communication process.

True

The Source-Message-Channel-Receiver model of communication grossly distorts the great differences among individuals in patterns of exposure and ways of processing the information they receive.

True

What do we mean when we say that meanings are not in words or pictures, that meanings are in people?

Individuals do not receive meanings, they construct them.

You, like others, go through your communication environment in different ways at different times.

True

When you encounter information about one topic, your interpretation of it will be affected by the other issues or topics about which you are getting information.

True

What do scholars who accept the mosaic conception of communication mean by "cumulative meanings"?

A person's meaning for almost anything keeps developing as they encounter new bits of information.

the communication environment is like a vast mosaic of information bits

mosaic model is based off of

The filled-in squares in the mosaic model represent:

either the third or fourth world

Memory/time is one dimension of the mosaic model.

True

Since your fourth world is your mental representation of the real world, you build it almost exclusively from facts.

False

In what sense do the sources to which you are exposed in your communication mosaic interact?

Each affects your interpretation of information from the others.

Important information about a topic that we did not notice or that was not in any of the messages we received.

gaps in the mosaic

In what sense is the world in your head a "fiction"?

In the sense that it is an interpretation of reality; it is not reality.

Schemata are the structures of the newspaper stories, television programs, or other media products to which you are exposed.

False

Your perception of something you are reading, seeing, or hearing is based, in part, on your memory of past experiences.

True

In what sense is it valid to say that you cannot tell people anything they do not already know?

People cannot perceive or understand anything unless they can relate it in some way to prior experience.

If people are watching a television news story, set or expectation tends to have the greatest effect on their perception when:

They have a well-established script or schema for that type of situation.

The degree to which people are unable to perceive or evaluate information independent of their prior attitudes, beliefs, and needs is labelled by communication scholars as:

Dogmatism

Selective Perception is best explained by variety theory.

False

Interpret information in a way consistent with one's prior knowledge, attitudes, and behavior.

Selective Perception

How do reference groups affect our processing of information?

We tend to test our interpretations of what we read, hear, and see on our family, friends, and others with whom we associated.

Seeing or focusing on largely one particular theme in the news, such as recession or sexism, so that everything else becomes simply background, is similar to what perception phenomenon?

Figure-ground phenomenon

"Chunking style" refers to the size of the bits, or number of bits, of information you take in at a time.

True

Memory is an important factor in helping us fill gaps in the information we grasp from our communication mosaics.

True

Although there are many exceptions, in general, listeners to a newscast remember best and are most influenced by:

What they heard first and last.

Becker and Roberts argue that the boundaries between fact and fiction, or news and entertainment, have broken down so that the news we get is almost always, in some sense, partly fiction, while fiction is, in some sense, partly fact, or even news. What is the most important implication of this for the world you construct in your head?

We get important bits of information for that world from the fiction and entertainment to which we are exposed, as well as from news and so-called informational media.

"Information overload" is a new phenomenon, caused solely by the fact that we have so many media of communication today.

False

It is useful to think of ourselves and our society as "systems" because that leads us to ask and study such important questions as:

How do the media help these systems operate and maintain their equilibrium?

If you are not sure for whom you vote and you study information about each candidate that is published in your local newspaper, that paper is serving a latent function for you.

False

Each has internal pressures to make our attitude, our beliefs, and our actions consistent.

Dissonance Theory

Individual functions are the purposes for which individuals use the media; societal functions are about how maintain stability or bring about change:

Distinction between individual and societal functions.

Provides a window into both the external and internal happenings of a society.

Surveillance

As political scientist Harold Lasswell pointed out, one of the societal functions that the mass media can never serve is the transmission of the social inheritance. This must always be done by family members, teachers, and other elders with whom one regularly associates.

False

According to Lazarsfeld and Merton, status conferral is

A media function

How do the mass media enforce social norms, according to Paul Lazarsfeld and Robert Merton?

By publicizing deviations from those norms, so the community can no longer ignore them.

The mass media have little, if any, effect on our political behaviors.

False

Aside from reading specific philosophies and taking polls, which of the following is the best way to measure public beliefs and values?

Evaluating Entertainment

Which of these best describes the part local media play with regards to the integration of individuals new to a community?

Local media helps newly integrated members learn about the values of their new community.

We must believe that we understand our world reasonably well in order to avoid undue tension.

True

Watching a couple argue in a movie or show contributes to the construction of our ideas about how relationships work.

True

When the media gives us the opportunity to read about, hear, and view a variety of people in different kinds of situations, both actual and fictional, it is giving us a chance to:

Develop our concept of ourselves

You and a friend both watched the same episode of an Amazon Prime Original and talk about it over coffee. What function is the media serving in this situation?

The facilitation of social interaction

Which of these people would most likely find parasocial interaction most useful?

An elderly widow who lives alone

What is the common element found in all forms of media-based gratification?

A change from one emotional state to another

It takes particular kinds of media content to provide escape for people from tensions and alienation.

False

A great deal of evidence suggests that people have a need for organization and clear structure in their lives. Media provide that order for some people, thus serving what function?

Ritual

The mass media was feared by governments in the earliest days of the press because of what main factor?

Its ability to transfer huge amounts of information at rapidly increasing rates

It would be fair to say that the mass media is not without its drawbacks.

True

Serious fears about the possible negative effects of the mass media did not arise until television became popular.

False

The civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s and early 1970s stimulated

Research on media stereotyping of women and minorities.

Are the effects of mass communication direct or indirect?

Mostly indirect, partially direct

Whenever we talk about "the media" causing something, we are referring to the content of the media as the cause.

False

Communication scholars who are interested in "variable effects" are attempting to understand why the same sort of mass communication experience has different effects on different people.

True

Which pair of theoretical ideas below are most closely related?

Modeling theory and identification

People have "scripts" or "schemas" in their heads that generally:

Make it easier for them to interpret media messages.

the people who watch a great deal of television have more similar beliefs about police and crime than people who do not watch much television. People who do not watch much television have more varied beliefs.

Cultivation Theory

According to the Spiral of Silence theory, when most of the mass media take a consistent position on an issue, most people will not argue with it because:

They believe the media represent the views of the majority of the public and they fear being isolated from other people.

When people are confronted with the fact that one of their attitudes, one of their beliefs, and one of their behaviors are inconsistent, they will almost always change their behavior.

False

The changes that occur in public events when radio microphones or television cameras are introduced can be explained by Systems theory.

True

Becker and Roberts describe four worlds in which each of us lives. Which of the following is NOT one of those worlds?

Your social world, the world made up of what the people with whom you associate know and believe.

An abstract description of the communication process.

Communication Process

one person, and the various topics they could possibly know about

Mosaic represents:

The Mosaic Model best fits which of the following definitions of communication?

takes place when a person constructs meanings from words, pictures, objects, or actions that have symbolic value for him or her

For the purpose of distinguishing between them, it is accurate to say that "communications" is a process that characterizes much of human interaction, and that "communication" is things, messages.

False

Why do large media firms produce commodities in large volumes?

To pursue economies of sale.

Newspapers are organized the way they are because that form has been found to be most profitable.

Economic determinists take this position...

Why is ownership control probably more of a problem today than it was forty or fifty years ago?

More media have been taken over by giant, international corporations that have financial interests in many of the issues the media report on.

According to technological determinism, society guides the media and its development.

False

The process by which communication technologies spread through society can be explained by ____.

Diffusion of Innovations

According to diffusion of innovations theory, which category of adopters has the highest degree of opinion leadership?

Early Adopters

According to Rogers, an innovation is any idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual (or other unit of adoption).

True

For which category of adopters (in diffusion of innovations theory) is interpersonal communication the LEAST important?

Innovators

Analog is a continuously variable representation or a representation selected from a continuous range.

True

One reason digital is so pervasive in communication technology is that computers are good at digital.

True

Human perception is analog, and therefore a digital message requires conversion before we can perceive it.

True

In order for it to be digital, data must be represented in ones and zeroes.

False

The digital media we typically watch and listen to typically involve ALL of the following EXCEPT:

Perfect reproduction of the original.

Compression artifacts are "mistakes" caused by compressing digital data.

True

Digital is always better than analog.

False

Daniel Pink argues in the the book "Drive," that rewarding small, medium, and large achievements with corresponding small, medium, and large rewards is an absolutely vital strategy for dealing with most workers in the information workforce.

False

If you reward something, you get more of the behavior you want and if you punish something you get less of it.

False

Which of the following network types increase in value in direct proportion to the number of communication connections?

Broadcast