Chapter 11: Public Relations
Baran: Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture, 9e TB-11 | 1
whole or part.
Chapter 11: Public Relations
Test Questions
1. Which group calls for an industry to adopt a position of full and total disclosure of
information?
a. floggers
b. transparentists
c. flacks
d. lobbyists
2. An event staged specifically to attract public attention is a
a. pseudo-event.
b. photo op.
c. managed moment.
d. nonevent.
3. The first U.S. presidential press secretary was
a. P. T. Barnum.
b. Mason Weems.
c. John Jay.
d. Amos Kendall.
4. “A sucker is born every minute” was the public relations philosophy of what legendary PR
practitioner?
a. P. T. Barnum
b. Mason Weems
c. John Jay
d. Amos Kendall
5. The first corporate public relations department was established in 1889 by
a. the New York Central Railroad.
b. the New York World.
c. the Publicity Bureau.
d. Westinghouse Electric.
6. The first publicity company, _____________, was established in 1906 to help the railroad
industry challenge legislation it opposed.
Chapter 11: Public Relations
Baran: Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture, 9e TB-11 | 2
whole or part.
a. N. W. Ayers & Sons
b. the New York World
c. the Publicity Bureau
d. Lord and Thomas
7. Around 1913, public relations pioneer _____________ issued his Declaration of Principles,
which moved the profession’s focus from primarily dispensing publicity to providing
information.
a. Mason Weems
b. George Creel
c. Edward Bernays
d. Ivy Lee
8. President Woodrow Wilson appointed _____________ to head the Committee on Public
Information to build public support for U.S. participation in World War I.
a. Mason Weems
b. George Creel
c. Edward Bernays
d. Ivy Lee
9. Around the 1920s, public relations pioneer _____________ began stressing two-way
communication—that is, public relations practitioners talking to people, and in return listening
to them when they talked back.
a. Mason Weems
b. George Creel
c. Edward Bernays
d. Ivy Lee
10. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made impressive use of which medium as a public relations
tool to sell his New Deal directly to the people?
a. mass-circulation newspapers
b. mass-circulation magazines
c. radio
d. talking movies
11. The Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, which required anyone who engages in political
activities in the United States on behalf of a foreign power to register as an agent of a foreign
power with the Justice Department, was a result of which public relations pioneer’s contacts
with Nazi Germany?
a. Mason Weems
b. George Creel
Chapter 11: Public Relations
c. Edward Bernays
d. Ivy Lee
12. As a result of the public’s distrust of public relations, Congress passed the _____________ in
1946, requiring that those who deal with federal employees on behalf of private clients
disclose those relationships.
a. Foreign Agents Registration Act
b. Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act
c. Public Relations Control Act
d. Truth in Publicity Act
13. During the 1950s and 1960s, women began to assume prominent roles in public relations.
Among the most notable was President Dwight Eisenhower’s associate press secretary
a. Leone Baxter.
b. Anne Williams Wheaton.
c. Peggy Lee.
d. Roberta Johndrew.
14. Some public relations firms bill clients according to the performance of a specific set of
services for a specific and prearranged fee, a method known as
a. Fixed-fee arrangements.
b. collateral materials.
c. flat rate billing.
d. retainer billing.
15. Some public relations firms bill clients by adding a surcharge as high as 17.65% for such
things as printing, research, and photographs, which are known as
a. fixed fee arrangements.
b. collateral materials.
c. flat rate billing.
d. retainer billing.
16. The public relations activity of getting media coverage for clients is called
a. public affairs.
b. lobbying.
c. promotion.
d. publicity.
Baran: Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture, 9e TB-11 | 4
whole or part.
17. The public relations activity of interacting with officials and leaders of the various power
centers with whom a client must deal is known as
a. public affairs.
b. financial public relations.
c. promotion.
d. publicity.
18. The public relations activity that involves enhancement of communication between investor-
owned companies and their shareholders, the financial community (for example, banks,
annuity groups, and investment firms), and the public is known as
a. public affairs.
b. financial public relations.
c. promotion.
d. publicity.
19. The public relations activity known as _____________ typically uses a large-scale public
relations campaign designed to move or shape opinion on a specific issue.
a. public affairs
b. issues management
c. promotion
d. media relations
20. ________, outright lying or obfuscation, is antithetical to authentic communication and should
be avoided by PR professionals, according to executive Roxanne Taylor.
a. Embedding
b. Dissembling
c. Spin
d. Covering up
21. The research tool _____________ employs small groups of a targeted public that are
interviewed in detail to provide a public relations operation and its clients with feedback.
a. polling
b. one–on-one interviewing
c. focus groups
d. delineating
22. Public relations firms with particular skill at countering the PR efforts of environmentalists are
said to be good at
a. whitewashing.
b. greenwashing.
c. enviro-manipulation.
Chapter 11: Public Relations
d. countermentalism.
23. _____________ is the PR practice of offering clients’ spokespeople for interview by a
worldwide audience via videoconferencing.
a. Video news release
b. Satellite-delivered media tour
c. Internet interviewing
d. “Flooding”
24. Public relations professionals have ____________ over the placement of their information,
and advertising professionals have _____________ over the placement of their information.
a. control; no control
b. no control; control
c. control; control
d. no control; no control
25. When a PR firm actively combines public relations, marketing, advertising, and promotion into
a more or less seamless communication campaign that is as at home on the Web as it is on
the television screen and magazine page, it is engaging in
a. full-service public relations.
b. integrated marketing communications.
c. PR convergence.
d. greenwashing.
26. The history of public relations is divided into four stages—early public relations, the
propaganda-publicity stage, early two-way communication, and
a. the modern technological era.
b. advanced two-way communication.
c. the cyberage.
d. the laissez-faire approach.
27. In 1896, presidential contenders William Jennings Bryan and _____________ both
established campaign headquarters in Chicago, where they issued news releases, position
papers, and pamphlets.
a. Wendell Wilkie
b. Abraham Lincoln
c. William McKinley
d. Teddy Roosevelt
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28. Around 1920, the beginning of the _____________ era of public relations, PR companies
began talking to people and listening to them when they talked back—in other words,
representing their various publics to their clients, just as they represented their clients to
those publics.
a. early public relations
b. propaganda–publicity stage
c. early two-way communication
d. modern technological era
29. The PR strategy that relies on targeting specific Internet users with a given communication
and relying on them to spread the word is referred to as
a. spreading the news.
b. interconnecting essential publics.
c. Web-based marketing.
d. viral marketing.
30. There are many publics with whom PR professionals interact, including an organization’s
_____________with company newsletters, social events, and internal and external
recognition of superior performance.
a. employees
b. stockholders
c. communities
d. media
31. There are many publics with whom PR professionals interact, including an organization’s
_____________; they own the organization (if it is a corporation), and their goodwill is
necessary for the business to operate.
a. employees
b. stockholders
c. communities
d. media
32. PR professionals interact with an organization’s _____________, or neighbors, to generate
goodwill.
a. employees
b. stockholders
c. communities
d. media