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Test Bank for Media of Mass Communication, 11/e
Chapter 13 Mass Media Effects
13.1 Multiple-Choice Questions
1) Who produced the famous radio drama War of the Worlds?
A) Orson Welles
B) Paul Lazarsfeld
C) David Sarnoff
D) William Paley
2) The effects of the War of the Worlds broadcast were particularly amazing considering
A) how well educated the U.S. population was in 1938.
B) that H.G. Wells’ story was in most French literature anthologies.
C) scientific knowledge and understanding was so well understood at the time.
D) the announcer said the show was fiction at four points during the broadcast.
3) All of the various theories about the effects of mass media can be grouped into three categories
that does NOT include
A) cumulative effects theories.
B) minimalist effects theories.
C) passive effects theories.
D) powerful effects theories.
4) Walter Lippmann argued that we see the world as
A) it really is with all its blemishes and warts.
B) a conspiracy masterminded by media moguls.
C) a distortion of reality based on our personal world view.
D) pictures in our heads even of things we have not personally experienced personally.
5) The idea that media have immediate, direct influence on individuals is known as
A) limited effects theory.
B) two-step flow model
C) powerful effects theory.
D) immediacy theory.
6) What Yale psychologist studied World War II propaganda and developed a model of mass
communication: who says what, in which channel, to whom, with what effect?
A) Walter Lippmann
B) Harold Lasswell
C) W.P. Davison
D) Paul Lazarsfeld
7) The theory that sees the media as a kind of hypodermic needle, injecting concepts into its
viewers, is essentially the same as approach called the
A) third person effect theory.
B) two-step flow model.
C) magic bullet model.
D) status conferral theory.
8) Early mass communication scholars wrongly assumed that
A) people are active, not passive media users.
B) people absorb messages like sponges.
C) audiences are intelligent.
D) people review media content critically.
9) Another popular name for the overrated powerful effects theory is the
A) unlimited effects theory.
B) spiral of silence.
C) two-step flow model.
D) bullet model.
10) The belief that individuals underestimate the impact media have on them personally but
overestimate the impact media messages have on other people is called the
A) aggressive stimulation theory.
B) consistency theory.
C) third-person effect.
D) selective exposure.
11) Which of the following statements is an example of the third-person effect?
A) “I worry that violence on TV is going to change the way I treat my kids.”
B) “Violence on TV doesn’t have much of an effect on society one way or the other.”
C) “Violence on TV makes most people more violent, but not me. I know it’s not real.”
D) “My kids and I fight with each other more after we’ve played a lot of video games.”
12) Sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld conducted voter behavior studies in the 1940s and found that
A) his research supported the powerful effects theory.
B) the bullet theory was essentially true for political issues and candidates.
C) Individuals were influenced more by the mass media than by their friends.
D) voters were more influenced by other people than by the mass media.
13) Who was the sociologist who became known for studying the effects of the media on elections?
A) Walter Lippman
B) Harold Lasswell
C) Paul Lazarsfeld
D) T.E. Lawrence
14) The Lazarsfeld studies in the 1940s found that most voters
A) value friends and acquaintances’ opinions more than editorial endorsements.
B) actively seek out media information in weighing choices of candidates.
C) value media more than friends for advice.
D) check their choices against media recommendations.
15) According to the two-step flow model, we are motivated less by the media and more by people
we know personally and respect. These contacts are known as
A) opinion leaders.
B) researchers.
C) cumulative contacts.
D) network effectors.
16) Opinion leaders are key in understanding the
A) narcoticizing dysfunction.
B) powerful effects theory.
C) two-step flow model.
D) self-induced passivity.
17) When media decide to cover certain issues and people, the media are producing an effect called
A) status conferral.
B) agenda setting.
C) two-step flow.
D) hypodermic needle model.
18) This theory states that the media tell people what to think about, not what to think.
A) Two-step model
B) Bullet model
C) Mean-world theory
D) Agenda-setting theory
19) The notion that the media lull people into passivity is called
A) the passivity premise.
B) the nonactivity notion.
C) the narcoticizing dysfunction theory.
D) the hypodermic needle model.
20) People so overwhelmed by the high volume of news available to them that they withdraw from
involvement in public issues are examples of
A) cumulative withdrawal.
B) information anxiety.
C) narcoticizing dysfunction.
D) passive participiality.
21) Who was the German scholar whose media studies resulted in the cumulative effects theory
that says the media may not have immediate effects, but their effects over time are profound?
A) Herbert Schiller
B) Don Shaw
C) Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann
D) Max Ernst
22) The redundancy of advertising takes advantage of Noelle-Neumann’s
A) information overload theory.
B) cumulative effects theory.
C) spiral of silence model.
D) uses and gratifications theory.
23) How does the spiral of silence model function?
A) Overloaded by media messages, audience members increasingly “tune out” until they have
surrounded themselves with silence.
B) As messages accumulate, fewer and fewer are heard until a virtual silence develops.
C) The lack of immediate feedback in many media discourages two-way communication.
D) The vocal majority intimidates opposing views into silence and thereby makes the majority view
appear to be a universal consensus.
24) What media function is served when people use the media to learn about how to fit in with
other people?
A) surveillance
B) diversion
C) entertainment
D) socialization
25) When a child walks by a television set or a computer screen that contains adult images and
themes, the child is involved in
A) prosocialization.
B) intergenerational eavesdropping.
C) anti-social behavior.
D) role modeling.
26) People who picked up the phrase “yadda-yadda-yadda” from watching Seinfeld are intentionally
or unintentionally demonstrating the effects of A) role modeling.
B) socialization.
C) status conferral.
D) third-person effect.
27) When a movie director puts a white hat on a cowboy to depict a “good guy,” that shorthand
communication is known as
A) product placement.
B) evocation.
C) historical transmission.
D) stereotyping.
28) All of the following statements about stereotyping in the mass media are true EXCEPT
A) benign stereotypes are not objectionable and pose few, if any, problems.
B) the FCC has banned any broadcast of demeaning stereotypes over the public airwaves.
C) newspapers typically use lots of stereotypes in their headlines.
D) stereotypes are a kind of shorthand that can communicate a lot quickly and easily.
29) Reacting to negative stereotypes, newspaper editor Kathleen Rutledge banned any reference to
sports team names or mascot nicknames that might be offensive to
A) Asians
B) Latinos
C) Native Americans
D) African Americans
30) The communication of cultural values to later generations is called
A) contemporary transmission.
B) historical transmission.
C) diffusion of history.
D) cataloguing history.
31) What is it called when mass media communicate cultural values to different cultures?
A) contemporary transmission
B) historical transmission
C) role modeling
D) cultural Imperialism
32) The process through which news, ideas, and information are spread is called
A) historic transmission.
B) intercultural communication.
C) diffusion of innovations.
D) transmittal transformation.
33) What is the term for the dominance of one culture over another?
A) cultural imperialism
B) revisionism
C) exocentrism
D) diffusion of culture
34) Concerns about American cultural imperialism are now being reconsidered in light of all of the
following EXCEPT
A) Al-Jazeera’s transition from a small regional news medium into a global news channel.
B) changes that have occurred in four decades since Schiller first published his book.
C) the impact of Pokėmon, Manga comics, and other Japanese imports in the U.S..
D) the worldwide expansion of MTV and ESPN and overseas editions of USA Today.
35) What Austrian psychiatrist theorized that the human mind is unconsciously susceptible to
suggestion?
A) John Milton
B) George Schultz
C) Sigmund Freud
D) Ernest Dichter.
36) Ernest Dichter’s interviewing method called motivational research was used to
A) seek subconscious appeal that can be used in advertising.
B) seek subliminal messages that propel audiences to react.
C) create color schemes that trigger positive feelings.
D) design Internet ads.
37) What type of message can be effective even though it cannot be consciously perceived?
A) motivational
B) viral
C) subliminal
D) suggestive
38) What market researcher said subliminal messages can affect media consumers?
A) Jim Vicary
B) Wilbur Schramm
C) Ernest Dichter
D) Richard Branson
39) What prosocial theory states that people learn behavior by seeing it in real life?
A) contemporary transmission
B) observational learning
C) cultural behaviorism
D) user-gratifications theory
40) Which theory dates back to Greek philosopher Aristotle and says that people who watch
violence actually release their violent inclinations by seeing them portrayed.
A) aggressive stimulation theory
B) desensitizing theory
C) cathartic effect theory
D) scapegoating theory
41) A positive effect of media violence, as evidenced by reaction to The Burning Bed, is that it
A) frightens people into violent acts.
B) encourages people in risky situations.
C) prompts people to socially positive action.
D) reduces violence in schools.
42) The theory that people are inspired to violence by media depictions is called
A) aggressive stimulation.
B) mirrored behavior.
C) role modeling.
D) violent reaction.
43) The Bobo doll studies found that children playing with dolls after watching a violent movie
A) were less violent.
B) were more violent.
C) demonstrated no difference from those who didn’t watch the movie.
D) became quiet and withdrawn.
44) What researcher conducted the Bobo doll studies?
A) Seymour Feshbach
B) Aristotle
C) Albert Bandura
D) Walter Lippmann
45) What theory holds that media violence plays a contributing role in violent behavior, but not a
triggering one?
A) catalytic theory
B) aggressive stimulation theory
C) cathartic effect theory
D) accessory influence theory
46) In the catalytic theory, the chances of media violence triggering real-life violence is affected by
how the media violence is seen. Which of the following is NOT a factor in triggering real-life
violence?
A) whether the violence in the media is rewarded
B) whether the media exposure is heavy and frequent
C) whether the media violence is watched during the day or at night
D) whether a violent person fits other behavioral profiles
47) Which of the following is a plausible alternative explanation for a correlation between media-
depicted and actual violence that does not blame the media for real-life violence?
A) People who are otherwise passive can suddenly erupt into violent behavior.
B) Media-depicted violence conveys the message that violence solves all problems.
C) Media-depicted violence mellows out a person who’s had a bad day.
D) People whose general view tends toward aggressiveness gravitate to violent media fare.
48) What does George Gerbner view as an end result of violence in the media?
A) Demands for more aggressive police protection, even police-violence, to ensure public safety.
B) Depictions of violence will drive people to self-reliance as they seek to protect themselves.
C) Depictions of violence will exaggerate people’s fears of a police state.
D) The freedom to express anything, including violence, strengthens the principles of violence.
49) Who concluded that media-depicted violence scares far more people than it inspires to
violence, leading them to believe the world is more dangerous than it really is?
A) Paul Lazarsfeld
B) Wilbur Schramm
C) Hadley Cantril
D) George Gerbner
50) Which of the following suggests that media-depicted violence has a numbing and callusing
effect?
A) aggressive cues research
B) desensitizing theory
C) catalytic model
D) catharsis theory
51) What have studies performed by the Violence Assessment Monitoring Project found?
A) a steady presence of violent acts on prime time television
B) a dramatic increase of violence on television
C) fewer incidences of serious violence on television than previously thought
D) children exposed to violence on television are more likely to perform violent acts
52) ___________ , after reviewing the literatures on violence studies, concluded most media violence
research is flawed.
A) William McQuire
B) George Gerbner
C) Sigmund Freud
D) Elizabeth Peers
13.2 True/False Questions
1) Innocently and apparently without intending to do so, Orson Welles created a national panic
with his dramatic re-creation of the novel War of the Worlds on radio.
2) The War of the Worlds caused about 35 million people to brace for the worst, suspending
disbelief to think that aliens were attacking earth.
3) Researchers estimate that one of every six people who heard the fictitious radio drama War of
the Worlds believed it was true and reacted in genuine fear.
4) War of the Worlds remains a milestone in radio and mass media history because it so powerfully
demonstrated the effects that mass media can have on their audiences.
5) Walter Lippmann argued that we see the world exactly as it really is.
6) The powerful effects theory likened the media to a hypodermic needle.
7) The bullet model is another name for the two-step model.
8) Psychologist Harold Lasswell developed a mass communication model that said mass media
have little effect on people.
9) One thing that all effects theories agree on is that people who want to do so can control the effect
the mass media have on them.
10) The third-person effect can be reduced to, “It’s the other guy who can’t handle it, not me.”
11) Researcher Paul Lazarsfeld found people were more influenced by other people than by mass
media.
12) The minimalist effects theory says that media effects are mostly indirect.
13) In the two-step flow model, opinion leaders are always in positions of authority.
14) Opinion leaders are important to the two-step flow model of media effects.
15) The multistep flow model of mass communication says that the media affects people through
complex interpersonal connections.
16) Status conferral results when the media ignore prominent people.
17) The mass media are said to direct people’s attention to issues, people, and other subjects
through a process called status conferral.
18) According to the agenda-setting model, the media not only tell people what to think about, they
tell them what to think.
19) Agenda-setting is the process by which the media create knowledge and attitudes.
20) Narcoticizing dysfunction describes an excess involvement in public events that is driven by
media coverage.
21) People who are exposed to high volumes of mass messages about politics can become so over-
whelmed they become passive about elections and public issues.
22) Early theories about the effects of mass media generally said the effects are more or less
instantaneous.
23) According to the cumulative effects theory, the effects of mass media generally are short term
and more or less instantaneous.
24) The spiral of silence model suggests that minority voices can band together and build until they
overwhelm the vocal majority.
25) The spiral of silence says that a vocal majority intimidates others into silence.
26) The socialization function of the media helps people keep up-to-date about what’s going on in
society.
27) The socialization function of the media helps people fit in to society.
28) The socialization process is essential to perpetuating cultural values.
29) Because of societal changes, most newspapers switched from afternoon to morning papers.
30) Joshua Meyrowitz, a communication scholar, says that media have reduced generational and
gender barriers through easy intergenerational eavesdropping.
31) The CIA’s Open Source Center scans Facebook, Twitter, traditional news outlets, and other
online sources to assess grassroots world opinion on a daily basis.
32) The CIA set up its Open Source Center to track worldwide postings on social media and other
Internet sites in response to a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission.
33) Except for major tragic events – e.g., 9/11 or Hurrican Katrina – that trigger sudden changes in
public opinion, mass media effects on opinion are gradual and hard to study conclusively.
34) The effect entertainment idols have on people’s actions and fashion is called stereotyping.
35) Fad fashions are an example of role modeling behavior.
36) The media helps perpetuate stereotypes in order to facilitate communication.
37) By using stereotypes, the mass media defuse their power and purpose.
38) Nicknames of mascots and teams that American Indians find insulting have been banned from
some newspapers.
39) In addition to usage bans by some mass media, the NCAA has also stepped up its pressure on
colleges to drop any offensive indian names or nicknames used by their athletic teams.
40) Mass communication not only binds large audiences culturally, it also can reinforce cultural
fragmentation.
41) The communication of cultural values to later generations is called historical transmission.
42) Newspaper reports and other media activities during the American Revolution demonstrated
how contemporary transmissions result in the diffusion of innovations.
43) Cultural imperialism refers to the phenomenon that an individual’s values can spread quickly
through his culture via the Internet.
44) Herbert Schiller’s concerns about cultural imperialism have had to be reconsidered in light of
the world changes that occurred in the four decades since he first published his ideas.
45) American cultural imperialism is even more troubling today than when Schiller wrote his book
because of the worldwide expansion of such American media as USA Today, MTV, and ESPN.
46) Extensive coverage of the protests against a bill in Congress to criminalize millions of
undocumented aliens is an example of media setting an agenda.
47) Activists claim that the social media have allowed them to re-shape and humanize the
immigration debate by offering people photos and videos of real people telling their stories.
48) Sigmund Freud theorized that the human mind is discerning enough to avoid being
unconsciously influenced by hidden motivations.
49) Motivational messages in advertising can move people to action to some extent.
50) It has NOT been proven conclusively that subliminal messages are universally effective.
51) Subception is receiving subconscious messages that can trigger some behavior.
52) The theory that people learn behavior by seeing it in real life, and in depictions of real life, is
called behavioral learning.
53) Seymour Feshbach conducted studies that support the cathartic effect theory that says people
release their violent inclinations through seeing them portrayed.
54) Some observers cite clear examples in which viewing violence in the media prompted socially
positive action.
55) Scholars all agree that media violence leads to real-life violence.
56 The Bobo dolls study found that children were no more violent after they viewed violence in
movies.
57) Catalytic theory states that violence in the media always triggers violent behavior.
58) Researchers found that the likelihood real-life violence will be triggered is increased if the
screen-violence is realistic and exciting.
59) Scholars in a 1960 book essentially said that for some children under some conditions some
television is harmful, while it is not for others.
60) Researcher George Gerbner found that people accurately assess how dangerous society is by
watching television.
61) Desensitizing theory sees media-depicted violence as callusing.
62) The Violence Assessment Monitoring Project by UCLA found that slapstick comedic violence has
the same effect as a graphic homicide.
63) Mass media can strengthen stereotypes and also dismantle or invalidate them.
13.3 Short Answer Questions
1) __________, a fictitious radio drama by the Mercury Theater of the Air, created widespread panic
when it was first broadcast in the United States in 1938.
2) There is no reason to believe that __________ who produced War of the Worlds was trying to do
anything other than produce a high-quality entertainment program.
3) In his highly influential book Public Opinion, __________ said the media shape the “pictures in our
heads” of things we’ve never seen.
4) Most of the earliest thinking about the effects of mass media can be categorized as __________
theories
5) The often-quoted narrative model of mass communication developed by __________ assumed that
the media had powerful effects on people.
6) Other names for the overrated powerful effects theory are the hypodermic needle model or the
__________ model.
7) The broad category of theories that say mass media effects are mostly indirect or even non-
existent is called __________ .
8) The __________ purports that people are motivated less by the media and more by opinion leaders.
9) __________ are people who are respected by others and to whom others look for information and
guidance about what to think.
10) Maxwell McCombs and Don Shaw articulated a theory that the mass media tell people what to
think about, not what to think, and called it __________.
11) The _________ theory suggests that media do not have powerful immediate effects, but rather
produce profound effects over time.
12) In the spiral of __________, those with minority views are intimidated into not speaking up so that
their opposing viewpoints fall into obscurity.
13) The __________ function of the media helps people fit in to society.
14) Socialization is a prosocial process that helps ensure the stability of society by transmitting the
__________ of one generation on to the next generation.
15) By airing adult topics while children may be in the audience, television and other media make
__________ easier and knock down what used to be carefully-guarded, age-based boundaries.
16) So-called __________ working for the CIA’s Open Source Center scan Facebook, Twitter, traditional
news outlets, and other online sources to assess grassroots world opinion on a daily basis.
17) When someone wears the same type of clothing as a popular pop singer, it is an example of the
effects of __________.
18) Using a black hat to depict a movie cowboy as a “bad guy” is an example of __________.
19) The mass media are contributing to status conferral and __________ when they give attention to
people or issues and thus make them matters of concern for the public.
20) Communicating cultural values to later generations is called __________ transmission.
21) The communication of cultural values to different cultures is called __________ transmission.
22) The process through which news, ideas, and information are spread is called the __________ of
innovations.
23) One culture’s dominance over another is called __________.
24) __________ is the Austrian psychiatrist who theorized that the human mind is unconsciously
susceptible to suggestion and hidden motivations.
25) Guided by Ernest Dichter’s __________, automobile manufacturers in the 1950s filled car ads with
suggestive phrasing and sexual innuendo to link automobiles and sex partners in men’s minds.
26) A(n) __________message is one that cannot be consciously perceived.
27) The __________ effect states that people release violent inclinations by seeing them portrayed.
28) The __________ stimulation theory suggests that people are inspired to commit real-life violence
by media depictions of violence.
29) The __________ theory holds that media-depicted violence has a numbing effect on people.
13.4 Matching Questions
Match each concept on the left with its best explanation or example from the right column.
1) Narcotizing dysfunction
A) Rethinking and de-villainizing cultural imperialism
2) Powerful effects
B) Watching violence reduces violent behavior
3) Opinion leaders
C) Media content is so overwhelming it triggers passivity
4) Agenda-setting
D) Tolerance of real-life violence grows from media violence
5) Transcultural enrichment
E) Friends, spouses, clergy and teachers
6) Historical transmission
F) Subconsciously triggers behavior
7) Subception
G) Essentially “status conferral” for issues
8) Cathartic effect
H) Bullet theory and hypodermic models
9) Catalytic theory
I) Passing culture values to later generations
10) Desensitizing theory
J) Media violence is one factor contributing to real-life violence
Match each media expert on the left with the appropriate finding or descriptor from the right column.
1) Orson Welles
A) Worries about the spiral of silence’s impact
2) Ernest Dichter
B) Found little media effect on election outcomes
3) Albert Bandura
C) Demonstrated radio’s power to scare listeners
4) Maxwell McCombs and Don Shaw
D) Early proponent of cathartic theory of violence
5) Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann
E) Classic Bobo doll beater
6) George Gerbner
F) Bemoaned America’s cultural imperialism
7) Paul Lazarsfeld
G) Media help lead society’s agenda-setting
8) Herbert Schiller
H) His motivational research put sexual innuendo in cars
9) Southern Belle
I) Media violence makes people fear for their own safety
10) Aristotle
J) Typical newspaper headline stereotype
13.5 Essay Questions
1) Discuss two important differences between the powerful effects theory and the minimalist
effects theory of media effects and explain how continuing research on media effects led to a change
from one to the other over the years.
2) Explain the cumulative effects theory and discuss where it falls on a continuum between the
powerful effects theories and the minimalist effects theories that were developed much earlier than
it was. To which of these earlier theories is it most similar?
3) Describe Noelle-Neumann’s spiral of silence and the impact it can have on a society. Explain why
it’s considered to be part of the cumulative effects theory and why its developer worries about its
4) Describe how the media help in the socialization of children and cite three examples of the
prosocial values that are portrayed by the media in the United States.
5) Describe the impact on children of increased intergenerational eavesdropping and discuss three
examples of it you recall from your own life experiences.
6) Describe the concept of cultural transmission and then, within that framework, discuss the
differences between historical transmission and contemporary transmissions. Be sure to include at
least two examples of each.
7) Describe the difference between the cathartic effect theory and the catalytic theory of being
exposed to violent content in the mass media and explain where these two theories fall on a
continuum running from “media violence is good for the audience” to “media violence is
8) Using the desensitizing theory, explain how an individual is likely to react to watching or reading
high volumes of media-depicted violence. In the long run, what are the likely effects on the
individual and on society as a whole from such exposure to media violence?
