Learning Objective: LO 9.4: Describe the media’s role in elections and the
associated problems and benefits.
Page Reference: 284
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Short Answer Questions
91. What forms of media make up news media, and what has recently changed for
each of them?
1. Describe the different forms of news media including print media,
television, radio, and electronic media such as the Internet and social
media sites.
2. Explain how the print media have struggled to keep readership
numbers, while television and radio remain persistent in their reach to the
American public.
3. Discuss how the rapid growth of the Internet and social media sites has
greatly increased the ability of Americans to connect to each other in
addition to accessing news information quickly.
Topic: The Influence of the Media on Politics
Learning Objective: LO 9.1: Describe changes in the nature and extent of the
political influence of the various news media.
Page Reference: 266 – 268, 270 – 272
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
92. What is investigatory journalism, and what is its role in political reporting?
1. Explain that investigatory journalism is an outgrowth of the media’s
watchdog responsibility to expose corruption, wrongdoing, and
malfeasance by government and politicians.
2. Explain how investigatory reporting helps keep government
accountable to citizens, drawing upon specific examples such as the
Washington Post exposure of Watergate or the 60 Minutes report on the
torture of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Topic: The Changing Role of the U.S. News Media
303
Learning Objective: LO 9.2: Trace the evolution of the news media over the
course of U.S. history.
Page Reference: 275
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
93. For many younger people, the era of the “big three” took place in the past.
Describe the new norm of 24/7 news and explain why it exists.
1. Explain the rise in news consumption.
2. List and describe the technologies that make such a cycle possible.
Topic: The Influence of the Media on Politics
Learning Objective: LO 9.1: Describe changes in the nature and extent of the
political influence of the various news media.
Page Reference: 268
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
94. Define and explain the role of agenda setting.
1. Define agenda setting as the media helping to determine what topics
will become the subject of public debate and legislation by drawing the
public’s attention to certain issues.
2. Note that while the media can help set the national agenda and spur
public discussion, they do not have absolute power and are limited by the
nature of the issues and the audience.
Topic: The Changing Role of the U.S. News Media
Learning Objective: LO 9.2: Trace the evolution of the news media over the
course of U.S. history.
Page Reference: 279 – 280
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
95. Explain the concept of yellow journalism. What type of new journalism did it give
rise to?
1. Explain that yellow journalism was a development in the newspaper
industry in the late nineteenth century that sought to appeal to new
304
immigrants and a mass population by relying on comics, color, and
sensationalism.
2. Discuss how the sensationalism of yellow journalism gave rise to
objective journalism, the sentiment that the media should be independent
and focus on facts, not exaggeration.
Topic: The Changing Role of the U.S. News Media
Learning Objective: LO 9.2: Trace the evolution of the news media over the
course of U.S. history.
Page Reference: 273 – 274
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
96. Explain campaign events. Why do political candidates stage these events, and
why do media sometimes choose not to cover them?
1. Define campaign events as scheduled events, such as press conferences
2. Explain that candidates stage these events hoping to reach voters
through favorable media coverage.
3. Note that the media do not necessarily consider these events
newsworthy, or they believe they are too staged, and sometimes choose
not to cover them.
Topic: The Media and Public Opinion
Learning Objective: LO 9.4: Describe the media’s role in elections and the
associated problems and benefits.
Page Reference: 284
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
97. What is media bias? In your opinion, is the media biased? Give concrete examples
and relate them to what you’ve learned.
1. Explain that media bias is the concern that the major media outlets
exhibit an ideological slant that affects the content of the news they
deliver.
2. Provide an argument as to whether or not the student thinks the media
exhibit bias, drawing upon specific examples such as the perceived bias of
Fox News, the New York Times, MSNBC, or AM talk radio.
3. Relate this argument and the accompanying examples back to the
discussion in the book.
Topic: The Media and Public Opinion
Learning Objective: LO 9.3: Evaluate the media’s influence on public opinion
and attention.
Page Reference: 280 – 281
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
98. Explain audience fragmentation. Is it a good thing or not? What are some positive
and negative consequences of it?
1. Define audience fragmentation as the scattering of audiences across
multiple press outlets due to the growth of cable television and the Internet
and the subsequent specialization of the media content for those venues.
2. Make a clear argument for why fragmentation is or is not beneficial by
illustrating the benefits of fragmentation (diffuses the influence of the
media, works against the effects of conglomeration) versus the costs
(fragmentation and separation of audiences who cannot understand the
issues of others).
Topic: The Media and Public Opinion
Learning Objective: LO 9.3: Evaluate the media’s influence on public opinion
and attention.
Page Reference: 282
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
99. What does “personality over substance” mean as it pertains to political
candidates? Is there a case to be made that the media should cover candidates’
characters and personalities?
1. Explain that the media are criticized for focusing too much on a
candidate’s personality traits and background rather than on the substance
of issues and policy.
2. Explain that some people view character and personality as important
factors in their voting decisions, and they find the media’s focus
appropriate and even helpful.
Topic: The Media and Elections
Learning Objective: LO 9.4: Describe the media’s role in elections and the
associated problems and benefits.
306
Page Reference: 287
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
100. Explain issue framing, using one real-world example of an issue that can be
framed two different ways. In your opinion, is framing a good or bad thing? Why?
1. Define framing as the process by which the media creates a context for
a story that shapes the way the public thinks about it.
2. Using a real-world example, demonstrate how an issue can be framed
two different ways.
3. Provide a clear argument for why framing is either good (it helps shape
the dynamic of a discussion) or bad (it artificially constrains discussion
within a specific framework).
Topic: The Media and Public Opinion
Learning Objective: LO 9.3: Evaluate the media’s influence on public opinion
and attention.
Page Reference: 280
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Difficulty Level: Difficult
101. If you were a media consultant and your candidate had an “image problem,” what
would you do to fix it? Tie your ideas back to what you’ve learned.
1. Discuss generally that media consultants either try to make their
candidate look better or try to make the opposition candidate look worse
(or both).
2. Explain how the candidate could be coached on how to act and behave
on TV by using the results of focus groups and public opinion polls to
bring the candidate’s positions in line with what the public thinks is good.
Topic: The Media and Elections
Learning Objective: LO 9.4: Describe the media’s role in elections and the
associated problems and benefits.
Page Reference: 286 – 287
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Difficulty Level: Difficult
102. Define and analyze the role of political socialization. What affect on politics does
it have?
307
1. Define political socialization as the education process by which citizens
acquire political beliefs, attitudes, and values.
2. Explain that while the media themselves are factors in the political
socialization process, our political beliefs and values provide a lens
through which we filter our perceptions of the media and the content they
deliver.
3. Illustrate the point by drawing upon the example in the text of how a
Republican from Arizona might see bias in the “liberal eastern networks”
(or some other relevant example).
Topic: The Media and Public Opinion
Learning Objective: LO 9.3: Evaluate the media’s influence on public opinion
and attention.
Page Reference: 281
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
103. Analyze the role of media consultants. Explain what contributed to their rise in
politics.
1. Explain that a media consultant is a campaign professional who
provides a candidate with advice and services regarding media relations,
advertising strategies, and opinion polling.
2. Explain that the rise of the consultant is in part attributed to the media’s
focus on a candidate’s personality and its highlighting of candidate gaffes.
It is also attributed to the need to reach a new mass audience and the
power of television as a political medium.
Topic: The Media and Elections
Learning Objective: LO 9.4: Describe the media’s role in elections and the
associated problems and benefits.
Page Reference: 286 – 287
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
104. Explain what “horse race journalism” means and analyze its impact on political
campaign coverage.
1. Define horse race journalism as the media’s tendency to comment more
on who is ahead in the polls than on a candidate’s actual positions on
issues.
2. Explain how the obsession with “game,” or tactics and strategies of the
campaigns, that accompanies horse race journalism has the effect of
displacing the coverage of political issues.
Topic: The Media and Elections
Learning Objective: LO 9.4: Describe the media’s role in elections and the
associated problems and benefits.
Page Reference: 287
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Difficulty Level: Difficult
105. How has audience fragmentation affected broadcast media and newspapers?
1. Define audience fragmentation as the scattering of audiences across
multiple press outlets due to the growth of cable television and the
Internet.
2. Explain that due to audience fragmentation, the impact of the press has
become more diffuse and thus works to counteract the effects of media
conglomeration.
3. Note that this effect will be minimized as media conglomerates move to
both acquire cable stations and promote their own online Web sites.
Topic: The Media and Public Opinion
Learning Objective: LO 9.3: Evaluate the media’s influence on public opinion
and attention.
Page Reference: 282
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Essay Questions
106. What is media consolidation, and what role has it had in political reporting?
1. Define media conglomeration as the recent trend that multiple types of
media are owned by an increasingly limited number of corporations.
2. Discuss how the increase in the number of media outlets, due to the
Internet as well as cable and satellite TV, has increased the accessibility of
information.
3. Explain how conglomeration might actually constrict the amount of
information due to an echoing of the same information in different media
outlets.
4. Explain how the nationalization of the news media has led to the
creation of media news personalities, such as Sean Hannity, who have a
major influence due to their large presence on radio, TV, the Internet, and
in print books.
5. Provide a clear and concise conclusion.
Topic: The Changing Role of the U.S. News Media
Learning Objective: LO 9.2: Trace the evolution of the news media over the
course of U.S. history.
Page Reference: 275 – 277
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
107. What are two criticisms of mass media? Choose a political topic in the news
today. Drawing on the coverage of the topic and what you’ve learned, are these
criticisms justified, in your opinion?
1. Discuss two criticisms of mass media, which could include the media’s
role in framing issues for citizens, setting the agenda by helping to
determine what issues become subjects of popular debate and draft
legislation, and the worry about ideological bias (both liberal and
conservative) in the media.
2. Form an argument, using a topic currently being covered in the news
today, as to whether these criticisms are justified by giving a clear and
logical explanation with appropriate support.
3. Provide a clear and concise conclusion.
Topic: The Media and Public Opinion
Learning Objective: LO 9.3: Evaluate the media’s influence on public opinion
and attention.
Page Reference: 278 – 281
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Difficulty Level: Difficult
108. What are three factors that limit media influence on public opinion? Focus on one
or more of these factors and give an example of how they affected the media’s
influence on you.
1. Discuss three factors that limit media influence on public opinion,
which could include political socialization (our attitudes and beliefs
toward the media or specific media outlets), selectivity both in terms of
the media consumed and the information perceived, needs (why people
use media), and audience fragmentation (the diffusion of audiences across
multiple media venues).
2. Select one or two factors and provide an example of how they affected
the influence of the media on the student.
3. Provide a clear and concise conclusion.
Topic: The Media and Public Opinion
Learning Objective: LO 9.3: Evaluate the media’s influence on public opinion
and attention.
Page Reference: 281 – 282
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Difficulty Level: Difficult
109. Compare and contrast the political impact of radio communication with the
phenomenon of the Internet.
1. Note that even though the Internet seems to dominate, radio remains an
effective and widely utilized form of political communication.
2. Explain that these two forms of media both have the ability to reach
vast audiences and to target specific audiences for political
communication.
3. Discuss how the Internet provides a less expensive medium for political
communication and one that is more directly accessible for citizens when
it comes to searching for information.
4. Comment on how the dramatic rise of social media sites in the past
decade has increased the ability of specific political groups, e.g., African
5. Provide a clear and concise conclusion.
Topic: The Influence of the Media on Politics
Learning Objective: LO 9.1: Describe changes in the nature and extent of the
political influence of the various news media.
Page Reference: 268, 271 – 272
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
311
110. Analyze how, over time, presidents have used the media to their benefit. Compare
and contrast two different presidents’ use of mass media.
1. Discuss how the mass media can serve as a political tool for presidents,
especially in keeping citizens informed.
2. Explain that as the nature of the media has changed, so has their utility
in advancing the political agendas of various presidents.
3. Note that the media provide the mechanism whereby presidents can
directly communicate their political agendas to the public and attempt to
sway public opinion in favor of their positions. For example, the student
might note how Roosevelt used the radio to have “fireside chats” with the
nation during the Great Depression and WWII.
4. Choose two presidents and compare and contrast their use of media. For
example, compare how Roosevelt and Obama both used the media to
connect directly with citizens but how the different media (radio versus
TV and social media) change the way that they mobilized the public.
5. Provide a clear and concise conclusion.
Topic: The Changing Role of the U.S. News Media
Learning Objective: LO 9.2: Trace the evolution of the news media over the
course of U.S. history.
Page Reference: 274 – 275
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult
312