Test Bank for Media of Mass Communication, 11/e
Chapter 2 Media Technology
2.1 Multiple-Choice Questions
1) A defining characteristic of mass communication is that it
A) can easily survive without technological assistance.
B) relies on technology.
C) preceded technology.
D) continues to exist despite technological advances.
2) When people communicate face-to–face, we call it
A) individual communication.
B) non-applied media.
C) interpersonal communication.
D) basic pedagogy.
3) Traditional media products and new products are emerging from
A) analog technology.
B) landlines.
C) digital technology.
D) broadcasting.
4) Photography and movies have relied on this technology throughout most of their history.
A) chemical technology
B) print technology
C) electronic technology
D) digital technology
5) The first of the electronic media was
A) film.
B) sound recording.
C) television.
D) e-mail
6) In addition to printing technology, mass media have been based on all of the following EXCEPT
A) chemical technology.
B) digital technology.
C) electronic technology.
D) nanotechnology.
7) This innovation made the printing press an agent for mass communication.
A) paper in rolls
B) lithographic film
C) printing ink
D) movable metal type
8) The man who invented movable type and printed at least 200 Bibles with it was
A) Richard Hoe.
B) Frederick Ives.
C) Johannes Gutenberg.
D) Martin Luther.
9) Although the Chinese invented paper and created the first print culture, their movement toward
the mass production of printed works in China stalled because of
A) a lack of materials.
B) the Chinese language having more than 5,000 basic characters.
C) an internal civil war.
D)insufficient financial support.
10) This technological innovation of the 1440s allowed scientists to print their theories and
experimental results for wide dissemination.
A) photography
B) printing paper
C) rotary press
D) movable metal type
11) In the years following Gutenberg’s invention of movable metal type, society was transformed in
all of the following ways EXCEPT
A) the oral tradition of story-telling was displaced by people reading stories for themselves.
B) national languages emerged and gradually replaced local dialects.
C) books and literacy became subject to tighter control and scrutiny by church authorities.
D) authors who were previously ignored began to be recognized and paid for their work.
12) Richard Hoe perfected the high-speed, rotary press during the __________, a period when the
technology to mass produce paper on large rolls wasalso developed.
A) American Revolution
B) Industrial Revolution
C) French Revolution
D) Media Revolution
13) Frederick Ives invented this process in 1876 that allowed visual images to be printed to
accompany the words printed on a page.
A) photography
B) halftone
C) camera obscura
D) movable type
14) The process of reproducing black-and white images by printing variously sized dots of ink that
will look like different tones of gray is
A) halftone printing.
B) ink dot process.
C) celluloid imagery.
D) digital photography.
15) In 1934, Time founder Henry Luce launched another visually-oriented magazine called
A) Harper’s Bazaar.
B) Life.
C) Better Homes and Gardens.
D) Time.
16) By the time of the U.S. Civil War, this still-developing technology made it possible to capture a
new kind of archival record.
A) photography
B) printing press
C) video recording
D) radio
17) All of the following contributed to development of motion pictures as a mass medium EXCEPT
A) exposure to light making silver nitrate turn dark.
B) persistence of vision in the human eye.
C) projecting images on a wall instead of showing them in a personal viewing box.
D) television’s ability to transmit visual images to another location.
18) The first sound recording and playback machine was the
A) telegraph.
B) microphone.
C) dictaphone
D) phonograph.
19) This inventor of the telegraph talked Congress into spending $30,000 to string electricity-
conducting wire 41 miles from Washington to Baltimore.
A) Thomas Edison
B) Samuel Morse
C) Emile Berliner
D) William Dickson
20) The first recording machine, the phonograph, was invented in 1877 by
A) Thomas Edison.
B) Emile Berliner.
C) Samuel Morse.
D) George Eastman.
21) Guglielmo Marconi is well known for transmitting the first
A) photographic image.
B) wireless message.
C)television signal.
D) text message.
22) Hertzian waves, named for Heinrich Hertz who proved their existence in 1877 are now more
commonly called
A) dopler waves.
B) electronic waves.
C) radio waves.
D) television waves.
23) Idaho farm boy Philo Farnsworth developed the first practical
A) talking pictures.
B) television receiver.
C) transmitting tower.
D)two-way radio.
24) The first communication satellite was launched in 1960 and called
A) Westlink 1.
B) Startel.
C) CNN.
D) Telstar.
25) A ground station that beams a signal to an orbiting communication satellite is called
A) an uplink.
B) a downlink.
C) an exciter
D) a router.
26) A ground station that receives a signal relayed from a communication satellite is called
A) an uplink.
B) a downlink.
C) a retriever.
D) a derouter.
27) Any telecommunication connection using cable laid across the land, buried underground, or
suspended from poles is called a
A) landline.
B) circuit.
C) downlink.
D) landlink.
28) Thin, flexible fibers of glass that transmit signals using bursts of light are called
A) fiber-optic cables.
B) coax cables.
C) jumper cables.
D)digital cables.
29) The silicon chips that provide the foundation for digital technology are
A) digital conductors.
B) Lays chips.
C) semiconductors.
D) Bell Labs chips.
30) The melding of print, electronic and photographic media into digitized form is called
A) media convergence.
B) a digital mash up.
C) digicommunication.
D) media integration.
31) The early version of what became the Internet linked government contractors and universities
so researchers could exchange information and was known as
A) Comp-U-Link.
B) Compuserve .
C) U.S.A. Net.
D) ARPAnet.
32) The type of technology through which media messages are coded into 1s and 0s for
transmission and delivery then decoded into their original appearance for consumers is
A) digital.
B) analog.
C) mixed media.
D) convergent.
33) This high-capacity global telephone network links computers.
A) the Internet
B) cellular communication
C) satellite communication
D) Global Net
34) Another name for the current digital revolution affecting communication all over the world is
A) media clash.
B) fragmentation.
C) democratization.
D) media convergence.
35) Tim Berners-Lee invented the
A) communication satellite.
B) fiber-optic cable.
C) Internet.
D) World Wide Web.
36) The development of cloud computing has fueled all of the following trends EXCEPT
A) dramatic increases in the number of Apps available for mobile devices.
B) increasing prices for high-speed, game-ready laptops and smart phones.
C) decreasing the need for ever-larger-capacity hard-drives in laptop computers.
D) decreasing the weight of laptops, tablets, cell phones, and other mobile devices.
37) “Apps,” the software programs usually found on mobile devices,
A) are called “Apps” because the first ones were for Apple computers and phones.
B) must sell for $9.95 or less.
C) are simpler and more narrowly-focused programs than software suites.
D) use cloud computing technology and cannot work unless they’re “in the cloud.”
38) This Yale professor devised one of the most long-lived and elegantly simple narrative models of
mass communication in the 1950s.
A) Guglielmo Marconi
B) Harold Lasswell
C) Johannes Gutenberg
D) Ed Parsons
39) In Lasswell’s model the medium through which a message is sent to a mass audience is called a
A) channel.
B) system.
C) network.
D) path.
40) The narrative model of mass communication includes four key questions. Which of the
following is NOT one of them?
A) Who says what?
B) In which channel?
C) To whom?
D) Under what circumstances?
41) Hiebert, Ungurait and Bohn developed an excellent model that visually presents the process of
mass communication as
A) boxes with directional arrows between them leading from the sender to the audience.
B) a staircase of operational steps that go upward from idea to understanding.
C) concentric circles representing the factors that affect the outcome of mass communication.
D) several sets of circles that are entwined and connected in different ways.
42) The center ring in the concentric circle model of mass communication represents
A) the media environment from which all of the other elements arise.
B) the audience being targeted by the mass media messages.
C) the messages that are shaped and affected by all the surrounding influences.
43) Media people who make judgments about what to include in news broadcasts, newspapers,
websites and other media products are called
A) regulators.
B) gatekeepers.
C) fact checkers.
D) subject matter experts.
44) Amplification in relation to mass communication theory means
A) increasing the number of people delivering the message.
B) increasing the type size in printed messages or the volume of spoken messages..
C) increasing the potential audience size through channel selection.
D) increasing the action or emotional appeal of a message to attract more people.
45) A military censor who blocks a combat story from being released is acting as
A) an amplifier.
B) a gatekeeper.
C) a regulator.
D) a mediator.
46) In communication theory, “noise” is an impediment to communication that occurs before a
message reaches a receiver and includes all of the following EXCEPT
A) semantic noise.
B) digitization noise.
C) channel noise.
D) environmental noise.
47) A speaker who slurs his speech during a televised address is creating A) channel noise.
B) environmental noise.
C) semantic noise.
D) articulated noise.
48) The biggest problem in trying to apply older models of mass communication to 21st century
mass communication is that
A) message preparation and transmission technology are now decentralized.
B) computers weren’t included in earlier models but are crucial for communication today.
C) the speed of communication today is faster than earlier theorists could have imagined.
D) audiences are much bigger today than they ever were in the past.
49) The World Wide Web has shifted much of the control of communication from the mass media to
A) Internet monitors.
B) message senders.
C) message recipients.
D) software designers.
50) These types of mass communication can all be described with the same Points Model EXCEPT
A) book publishing.
B) motion pictures.
C) radio broadcasting .
D) web communication.
2.2 True/False Questions
1) The Internet and other computerized communication systems are so important that computer
sabotage committed by another country is considered an act of war that warrants a military
response from U.S. armed forces.
2) Mass communication is any technology-enabled process that permits long-distance messaging.
3) The media landscape evolves with the rise of new technology.
4) Mass production of the written word became possible with movable metal type.
5) Johannes Gutenberg invented movable metal type in the mid-1800s.
6) Movable metal type made the printing press an agent for mass communication.
7) The growing quantity of printed materials fueled literacy and, slowly, a standardization in
written languages.
8) Books and other print publications immediately became plentiful after the printing press was
created because of the plentiful supply of paper and ink.
9) Originally only 2,000 Gutenberg Bibles were printed.
10) Movable metal type allowed more effective exchanges of information among scientists and
other scholars.
11) Pulp fiction is a derisive term for cheap novels.
12) Photography began to increase the communicative power of the written word in the mid–
1900s.
13) Halftones allow us to see shapes and images produced by variously sized dots of ink.
14) With the launch of Sports Illustrated in 1934, photography moved the magazine industry into
new visual ground.
15) Henry Luce started Life magazine in 1964.
16) Photography and movies have relied on chemical technology throughout most of their history.
17) The technology involved in early film and movies was electrical chemistry.
18) Mathew Brady is known for his photographic coverage of the U.S. Civil War.
19) The Kodak brothers opened the first motion picture exhibition hall.
20) Television programming cannot be presented in 3–D because of the human eye’s persistence of
vision.
21) The first sound recording and playback machine was called the phonograph.
22) The telegraph allowed for long-distance communication between point A and point B.
23) Samuel Morse invented the telephone in 1844.
24) Granville Woods pioneered a wireless way to communicate with moving trains.
25) In 1895, Guglielmo Marconi used Morse code, a telegraph key, and his knowledge of Hertzian
waves to successfully send the first wireless messages.
27) The concept of using geosynchronous satellites for worldwide communication was advocated
by sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke.
28) Telstar was the first communication satellite to transmit telephone signals.
29) An uplink is a ground station that beams a signal to an orbiting communication satellite.
30) A downlink is a ground station that receives a signal relayed from a communication satellite.
31) Copper wires are replacing fiber-optic cables as a more efficient way of carrying telephone
messages.
32) The first cable television systems were created to provide television to apartment complexes in
metropolitan areas.
33) Satellite technology dramatically reshaped the fundamental structures and operating practices
of the telephone, television, and radio industries but had little impact on printed media. Answer:
34) The semiconductor has had little influence in the development of digital technology.
35) The high cost of Internet production and delivery will hinder the expansion of media content.
36) The Internet is a high-capacity global telephone network that links computers.
37) University and military researchers were the driving forces behind the early rendition of the
Internet.
38 The melding of print, electronic and photographic media is called the melting pot.
39) Steve Jobs invented the World Wide Web
40) Jesuit scholar Walter Ong worries that online reading has “technologized the written word” so
much that traditional printed media may become obsolete.
41) For the first time in media history, a new technology and medium – the Internet – may actually
be threatening previously developed media.
42) The size of your computer’s internal hard drive is less important than it used to be due to the
growth of cloud computing.
43) Harold Lasswell devised the narrative communication model.
44) One aspect of the narrative communication model is that it explores which channel is being
used to communicate.
45) Gatekeepers are media people who make judgments about the content of messages.
46) The Federal Communication Commission is an example of a regulator.
47) A military censor who stops a combat story from being released is called a gatekeeper.
48) Unlike “noise,” a filter does not impede mass communication.
49) One obstacle in regulating the Internet is that it is decentralized.
50) Unlike broadcasting, web communication shifts much of the control of the communication
process to the recipient.
Chapter 2 Media Technology
2.3 Short Answer Questions
1) __________ most often involves two people communicating face-to-face.
2) Even old and traditional mass media have been adapting to __________ technology since the
dawning of the 21st century.
3) __________ technology made the birth of the book, newspaper and magazine industries possible.
4) Photography and movies have relied on __________ technology through most of their history.
5) __________ invented movable metal type in the mid-1440s.
6) The __________, invented by Omar Mergenthaler in 1884, automated and dramatically increased
the speed with which text could be typeset for printing.
7) Reproduction of an image in which the various tones of gray or color are produced by variously
sized dots of ink is called __________.
8) Time founder Henry Luce launched __________ magazine in 1934.
9) Mathew Brady is known for creating a photographic record of the __________.
10) __________ of vision allows motion pictures to trick our eyes into perceiving motion when we’re
actually being shown a series of still images.
11) Advocates of __________ such as Jeffrey Katzenberg of DreamWorks believe it will further
enhance movies, television, and other visual media by giving viewers “the feeling of being
immersed in the stories and characters.”
12) Sound recording and playback were made possible by a machine called the __________.
13) The inventor of the telegraph was __________.
14) In 1887, Granville Woods discovered a way to send messages to and from moving __________.
15) Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the first __________ messages in 1895.
16) Philo Farnsworth was the inventor of the “image dissector,” a device we would call a __________
today.
17) A ground station that receives a relayed signal from a communication satellite is called a(n)
_________.
18) Communication satellites are most effective when placed in __________ orbit so they appear to
remain in a constant position above the earth.
19) The high-capacity, global-telephone network that links computer is also known as the __________.
20) As a result of media convergence, even traditional mass media are increasingly using the
__________ to deliver their content.
21) __________ computing lets people store and access their data and programs on the Internet
instead of on their own computer or other digital device.
22) Harold Lasswell’s model of mass communication is: Who says what? In which channel?
__________? With what effect?
23) Hiebert, Ungurait and Bohn’s model of mass communication is drawn as concentric circles with
the __________ in the center.
24) Impediments to communication that occur before a message reaches a receiver are called
_______.
2.4 Matching Questions
Please match each inventor/innovator in the left column with his invention/innovation in the right
column.
1) Johannes Gutenberg
A) Telegraph
2) Frederick Ives
B) Thermoplastic disks (records) for playing recorded sound
3) Philo Farnsworth
C) Wireless messages
4) Samuel Morse
D) Movie projector and movie house
5) Guglielmo Marconi
E) Television
6) Emile Berliner
F) Linotype typesetting machine
7) Lumiere Brothers
G) Movable metal type
8) Omar Mergenthaler
H) HTML and the World Wide Web
9) William Dickson
I) Halftones for including photos in printed works
10) Tim Berners-Lee
J) First movie camera
2.5 Essay Questions
1) Discuss the four primary technologies on which mass media have been built and identify at least
one mass medium based on each of these technologies.
2) Discuss at least threeways Gutenberg’s invention of metal movable type impacted society.
3) Explain why photography and movies were considered chemical technologies throughout most
of their history. What has happened to them in the last few decades to change that and make them
4) Television and movies both show moving images to viewers, but they do it using very different
technologies. Describe and explain the differences between the way television captures and
presents images and the way movies do.
5) Start by sketching Hiebert, Ungurait, and Bohn’s model of mass communication and correctly
label at least four of its eight concentric circles. Explain what the model is meant to show happening
between its center and the outer-most circle.
6) Discuss the difference between gatekeepers and regulators and describe the kinds of impact they
can have on mass communication. Provide at least two examples of each.
7) Explain the differences between linear communication, mass communication and web
communication. (This may but does not have to include sketches of the three models.) Describe at
least one example of each.