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Chapter 8 News
Chapter 8 News
8.1 Multiple-Choice Questions
1) Brothers Jules and Maxwell Boykoff analyzed 14-years of news coverage that four leading
newspapers gave to the topic of
A) U.S. congressional politics.
B) global warming.
C) U.S. - Middle East relations.
D) expenditures for the exploration of space.
2) The best summary of the Boykoffs’ conclusions is that
A) the news media were out of synch with the majority of scientists in their reporting of science.
B) the news media were so committed to providing balanced reporting they unintentionally
amplified the view of skeptics and gave them more credibility than they deserved.
C) the newspapers down-played the critical nature of the situation to avoid creating a panic.
D) the newspapers over-dramatized and sensationalized the situation to sell more papers.
3) Conceptually, the fundamental notion underlying any definition of news is
A) accuracy.
B) balance.
C) change.
D) importance.
4) When there are more potential news stories than there is time or space to report them, decisions
about which ones will get reported are usually based on their
A) accuracy.
B) depth of coverage.
C) first sentence.
D) newsworthiness.
5) Newsworthiness is usually determined by all of the following EXCEPT
A) guidelines in the Associated Press Stylebook.
B) subjective journalistic values.
C) a feel for what the audience thinks is important.
D) the prominence of the people involved in the story and its timeliness.
6) What factor is NOT used in determining newsworthiness of a story?
A) proximity to audience
B) cost to collect information
C) prominence of people involved
D) impact on society
7) James Gordon Bennett, an early Penny Press publisher, helped establish the view of news as we
still know it by his emphasis on
A) allowing his reporters to express their own views on the stories they reported.
B) catchy headlines to attract readers’ attention and pull them into the stories.
C) emphasizing the people and personalities behind the news.D) stressing speed and timeliness in
gathering and reporting the news.
8) James Gordon Bennett
A) started the first penny press.
B) used newspapers to fight social ills that accompanied industrialization.
C) organized the first newsroom and reporting staff.
D) pioneered editorials.
9) The first newsroom was organized by
A) Edward Murrow.
B) John Peter Zenger.
C) James Gordon Bennett.
D) Horace Greeley.
10) Bennett’s paper was one of the first to use the practice of “news beats” which were
A) a “black mark” against a reporter who failed to beat the competition in reporting a story.
B) a regular or recurring theme or topic that would periodically show up in news coverage.
C) a subject or part of the city a reporter was assigned to cover for the sake of gathering news.
D) a token reward and recognition to a reporter who got a story before competing papers did.
11) As it evolved, the Bennett model of news became all of the following EXCEPT
A) deadline-driven.
B) event-based and reactive.
C) objective and neutral in tone.
D) bylined to feature highly visible reporters.
12) Which one of the following helped develop the concept of journalistic objectivity in news?
A) the Spanish-American War
B) creation of the Associated Press
C) increase in advertising revenue
D) government regulation
13) The problems that the text highlights with the Bennett model of news include all of the
following EXCEPT
A) deadline haste often undermined high-quality and in-depth reporting.
B) ego-driven reporters aggrandized themselves and got front-page coverage with sensationalism.
C) too often reporters simply accepted “the official version of stories” instead of investigating
D) trends that weren’t tied to big, recognizable events were often overlooked and went unreported.
14) The communist scare fueled by Senator Joseph McCarthy was characterized by all of the
following EXCEPT
A) an assassination attempt on McCarthy by Soviet KGB operatives.
B) reports of a spy ring operating with the U.S. State Department.
C) reporters accurately quoting and paraphrasing exactly what the Senator said.
D) reporters failing to examine discrepancies in McCathy’s allegations.
15) Senator McCarthy’s inconsistencies, questionable behavior, and unsubstantiated accusations
were finally revealed by
A) Bob Woodward while working as a reporter for the Washington Post.
B) Edward R. Murrow while working as a television reporter for CBS News.
C) Richard Nixon while heading a U.S. House investigative sub-committee.
D) Walter Cronkite while he was the anchorman for CBS Evening News.
16) The Pulitzer-Hearst circulation war can be traced to
A) a battle for the affections of Nellie Bly.
B) a desire to use the newspaper as a stepping stone to political office.
C) a quest to sell more copies.
D) a desire to gain access to the wealthiest circles in New York City.
17) Some historians argue that yellow journalism may have helped to precipitate which war?
A) the U.S. Civil War
B) the Revolutionary War
C) the Spanish-American War
D) World War I
18) When was the first paper published in the original colonies that became the United States?
A) 1540s
B) 1650s
C) 1690s
D) 1710s
19) It has been an ongoing journalism tradition since the Colonial Period that
A) the public only approves of censorship for matters of national security.
B)news should be defined by the readers’ interest not the government’s decree.
C)reporters sometimes must lie to be able to find and report the truth.
D) the news media should report on but not try to meddle in creating public policy.
20) All of the following are characteristics of the Penny Press EXCEPT
A) their one-cent selling price didn’t even cover the cost of producing the newspaper.
B) their one-cent selling price was still higher than average working people could afford..
C) they established the newspaper industry’s financial dependence on advertising.
D) they were the first medium to truly attract and appeal to a mass audience.
21) What period of journalism during the late 1800s was marked by sensationalism that often
included untrue stories?
A) Yellow Press
B) Victorian Period
C) Manifest Destiny
D) Age of Expansion
22) One of the biggest circulation wars of the Yellow Journalism Era was between
A) the Baltimore Sun and Benjamin Day’s New York Sun.
B) Robert McCormick’s Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times.
C) the New York Times and the New York Sun.
D) Pulitzer’s New York World and Heart’s New York Journal.
23) The term “yellow journalism” which became synonymous with sensationalism and excess
actually came about as a result of
A) a botched attempt to print sensational headlines in red ink that came out looking yellow.
B) an ownership struggle over the rights to publish a comic strip called “The Yellow Kid.”
C) a racial slur aimed at the Chinese workers who printed most newspapers in the 1890s.
D) the yellowish tint of the cheap paper used for newspapers in the 1890s.
24) The Hutchins Commission called on the news media to become more social responsible by
A) offering a more balanced analysis of politically sensitive issues .
B) presenting the news in a context that gives it meaning.
C) reducing the number of celebrity-focused stories and concentrating more on ideas.
D) reducing the ability of advertisers to influence what news gets reported.
25) Although welcomed by some, especially academicians, the Hutchins Commission Report was
criticized by all of the following EXCEPT
A) Henry Luce, the publisher of Time and Life, who had funded the commission’s work.
B) journalists who thought it encouraged inappropriate “editorializing.”
C) Richard Nixon who wanted to place more government control on the media.
D) Robert McCormick of the Chicago Tribune who commissioned a book to rebut the report.
26) The Hutchins Commission wanted the media to provide a context for the news as well as an
account of the day’s events that was all of the following EXCEPT
A) comprehensive.
B) equally balanced.
C) intelligent.
D) truthful.
27) Since neither the Bennett model of news nor the Hutchins model is totally suited to today’s
news environment, a new hybrid model has been introduced by
A) The Associated Press.
B) CNN.
C) John Vivian, author of The Media of Mass Communication.
D) The New York Times.
28) The Hutchins Commission’s call for increased social responsibility in reporting the news was
partly fueled by its concerns about
A) the extremely high level of profits that were turning newspaper owners into Republicans.
B) the increase in one-newspaper towns where there was no news-reporting competition.
C) the increasing arrogance of rich newspaper publishers and their lavish lifestyles.
D) printed media not having to follow the government’s Fairness Doctrine for the broadcast media.
29) Today, the Hutchins Commission’s concerns about the declining number of news sources
A) has become a moot point due to the proliferation of Internet and cable news sources.
B) has been effectively counteracted by the demassification of media audiences.
C) is more valid than ever due to the impact of the Internet on traditional news sources.
D) remains critical with daily papers going out of business and radio abandoning news programs.
30) Seeking a middle-ground between fact-centric event coverage and trying to provide context,
The New York Times now labels stories with all of the following categories EXCEPT
A) Editor’s Perspective.
B) Man in the News.
C) News Analysis.
D) Reporter’s Notebook.
31) Seeking a middle-ground between fact-centric event coverage and trying to provide context,
The New York Times now labels stories with all of the following categories EXCEPT
A) Appraisal.
B) Manhattan Outlook.
C) News Column.
D) Review.
32) With its new approach that adds more perspective and context to traditional news coverage,
the New York Times has chosen to alert readers to these different types of stories by
A) adding a colored byline if the writer’s opinion or interpretation is included in the story.
B) color-coded headlines: black = traditional news; red = opinion; blue = expert analysis; etc.
C) including the story category of interpretative pieces in a heading above the headline.
D) an index number (0 for all news; 7 for personal opinion; 4 for balanced report) on each story.
33) The notion that news reporting should be “objective” gradually developed in response to all of
the following influences EXCEPT
A) the Associated Press’s desire to serve the informational needs of all its member newspapers.
B) the desire to not lose money by offending advertisers or readers with partisanship.
C) the fear of violating the First Amendment by appearing to take sides in political campaigns.
D) the Penny Press’s desire to appeal to the largest possible audience.
34) Which of the following reflect the values that sociologist Herbert Gans discovered in his study?
A) Journalists have mainstream values.
B) Journalists are liberals.
C) Journalists are conservative.
D) Journalists are way out of the mainstream.
35) The fact that American journalists favor U.S. style democracies and capitalism is evident in all of
the following observations made by Herbert Gans EXCEPT
A) business corruption and misbehavior are treated as understandable common practices.
B) coverage of other forms of government emphasizes corruption, conflict, and abuses of power.
C) their clear expectation that governments should serve the public interest.
D) their expectation that businesses will eschew unreasonable profits and exploitation of workers .
36) According to Herbert Gans, whether American journalists are reporting on physical or social
disorders, their primary interest is in
A) contributing in some way to helping correct the problem and restore order.
B) emphasizing the unusual and tragic aspects of the situation.
C) finding a unique and interesting angle to set their story apart from other coverage.
D) making the impact of the disorder real and tangible to the audience so they identify with it.
37) Seeing things on the basis of personal experience and values is known as
A) federalism.
B) sensationalism.
C) objectivity.
D) ethnocentrism.
38) One common trait Herbert Gans found among American journalists is that they
A) romanticize large cities.
B) celebrate rural life.
C) prefer stories on corporate individuals who live out the American dream.
D) love stories about rugged individualists who overcome adversity.
39) The news media role to monitor the performance of government and other institutions is called
the
A) explorative function.
B) big brother function.
C) watchdog function.
D) journalistic oversight.
40) Who was given a talk show on MSNBC in 2008?
A) Rachel Maddow
B) Nancy Grace
C) Katie Couric
D) Ann Coulter
41) The amount of available time or space, also known as the __________, tends to be much more
consistent in broadcasting than in newspapers or magazines.
A) audience size
B) advertising budget
C) news staff
D) news hole
42) A story that may make the evening news one day but not another could be the victim of
A) inverted pyramid.
B) seditious libation.
C) tug-of-war.
D) news flow.
43) How can similar news coverage between competitors be explained?
A) news flow
B) altruistic democracy
C) herd journalism
D) proximity
44) What academicians call “the consensible nature of news” can more colloquially called all of the
following EXCEPT
A) getting a confirming source.
B) a herd mentality.
C) pack journalism.
D) playing catch-up with the news.
45) The consensible nature of news means that different news agencies
A) will not offend one another’s advertisers.
B) are likely to offer the same type of news coverage.
C) compete to find different images or sounds to accompany their news.
D) rarely offer coverage similar to their competitors’.
46) All of the following are variables that affect what is and isn’t reported in the news on a
particular day EXCEPT
A) the circulation of the newspaper or ratings of the newscast.
B) the size of the medium’s news hole for that day.
C) the volume and importance of the events that have occurred since the last news report.
D) which reporters are available or on-call that day.
47) Web sites that regurgitate news compiled from other sources or that offer pass-through links to
other sources are called
A) passed-links sites.
B) conglomerate sites.
C) demassification sites.
D) aggregation sites.
48) News can simultaneously be gathered from a variety of different online sites by using any of the
following EXCEPT
A) custom news portals.
B) distributive journals.
C) emailed news alerts from search engines.
D) news aggregation sites.
49) The difference between traditional news organizations and the plethora of blogs and other web
sites that provide news and information is
A) traditional news organizations have built-in safeguards to check accuracy.
B) web sites don’t have trained journalists.
C) news is reported more quickly in non-traditional news providers.
D) there is little follow-up reporting on non-traditional news providers.
50) What was the reaction to the 1835 publication in the New York Sun carrying a story about bird-
like creatures spotted on the moon through a telescope?
A) The scientific community was ecstatic.
B) Other newspapers carried the same story.
C) A chorus erupted for accuracy and truthfulness in news.
D) The hoax was never disproven.
51) The first code of ethics for journalism was created by the American Society of Newspaper
Editors in the
A) 1830s.
B) 1850s.
C) 1890s.
D) 1920s.
52) Those who decide what news to carry, when to carry it and how to present it are called
A) publishers.
B) news hounds.
C) gatekeepers.
D) reporters.
53) As a spin-off based on Marshall McLuhan’s distinction between hot and cool media and the
array of media in between, the Vivian textbook proposes an alternate continuum of media from
A) big-screen to small-screen media.
B) personal media to mass media.
C) ten-foot media to one-foot media.
D) stand-alone media to web-connected media.
54) The 24/7 nature of news and the need to put news on the Internet has resulted in
A) more comprehensive coverage of events.
B) more enterprise-type stories.
C) less independent reporting by traditional news organizations.
D) more news beats.
55) Many news organizations have eliminated or reduced staffing at bureaus in outlying areas
because
A) other news organizations can collect and distribute news in those areas.
B) blogs meet the public’s right to know.
C) finances have forced drastic budget cutbacks.
D) there is little news produced from them.
56) Which news organization was the first to provide nonstop coverage?
A) New York Times
B) CNN
C) Associated Press
D) Fox News
57) The ability to provide up-to the minute news updates has resulted in
A) more accurate and reliable information being reported.
B) authoritative sources speak for themselves instead of being quoted by reporters.
C) more mistakes.
D) less emphasis on trivial items.
58) Which of the following is NOT a disadvantage of live news coverage?
A) Nobody is exercising judgment in deciding how to present material.
B) There is no gatekeeper.
C) It is raw.
D) It takes less time for viewers to absorb information.
59) Enterprise reporting that reveals new, often startling, information that official sources would
often rather not have revealed is called
A) investigative journalism.
B) blogging.
C) independent reporting.
D) beat reporting.
60) Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are best known for their reporting on a presidential scandal
that became known as
A) the Pentagon Papers.
B) Watergate.
C) Whitewater.
D) the Iran-Contra Affair.
61) Investigative reporting during the early 1900s was called
A) investigative reporting.
B) bulldogging.
C) muckraking
D) in-depth journalism.
62) Which of the following is an example of soft news?
A) a television reporter appears live from the White House as the president signs a bill into law
B) a radio reporter interviews an agricultural lobbyist about a new farm subsidy bill in Congress
C) a newspaper publishes a list of tips on how to save on wintertime heating costs
D) a television story covers a plane crash
63) Soft news includes all the following EXCEPT
A) consumer self-help stories.
B) entertainment and celebrity news.
C) local traffic reports and accident coverage.
D) stories on lifestyle trends and tips.
8.2 True/False Questions
1) A study of reporting on global warming by Jules and Maxwell Boykoff found that balanced
reporting resulted in a small group of skeptics receiving little attention.
2) The best definition of news is anything that the media report.
3) A broad but very appropriate definition of news is any report about change.
4) By its nature, news is always concerned with change.
5) Since there is no room to report all change in a newspaper or a newscast, decisions about what
to report are made and based on “newsworthiness,” a rather subject concept.
6) A lot of different factors go into determining newsworthiness, and not even experienced
journalists are in full agreement about rankings of newsworthiness.
7) Benjamin Day was the first to organize methodical news coverage with a newsroom and
reporting staff.
8) James Gordon Bennett recognized that being first with news gave him an advantage over
competitors.
9) Bennett would often use fast boats or charter railroad locomotives to ensure that his reporters
and his newspaper beat competing media in reporting the latest news.
10) Bennett was the first editor to assign reporters to “news beats” such as the courts, Wall Street,
shipping, or specific neighborhoods so they could cover and report what happened there.
11) In the 1920s when radio first tried to emerge as a news medium, the public was content with
newspaper news and didn’t feel a need for anything faster or more up to date.
12) As a journalistic stunt, Nellie Bly circled the world in 72 days.
13) The concept in journalism that news should be gathered and told without bias is called
objectivity.
14) The Associated Press, or AP, provided partisan news during its infancy.
15) Using the telegraph to ensure timeliness in its news reports also let the Associated Press create
a “star system” of individual reporters who could inject their personalities into their stories.
16) The Associated Press emphasized objective reporting so all of its news reports would be
considered acceptable for use by all its subscribing papers regardless of their political leaning.
17) By the 1880s most newspapers included opinion pieces in their editorial sections, but were
careful to keep opinions out of their news coverage of events.
18) “Byline” is the term used by early newspaper editors for the time a story had to be submitted to
the printer; it’s been replaced by “deadline.”
