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Test Bank for Media of Mass Communication, 11/e
19) Profitable papers in the late 1800s saw objective news as key since it protected relationships
with audiences and advertisers.
20) In the Bennett model of news, it’s the reporters’ job to present the facts in a completely
objective way, and then it’s left to the readers to make sense of them.
21) Because the Bennett model of news puts so much emphasis on reporting events, media that
used it often failed to note and report on important social and political trends.
22) For better or worse, relying on the Bennett model of news tends to emphasize the official view
of most news stories and relies on governmental authorities as prime sources.
23) One of the biggest problems with Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade in the
1950s was that reporters accurately reported exactly what the Senator said.
24) Edward R. Murrow helped bring Senator Joseph McCarthy to the forefront in the fight against
communism in the 1950s.
25) In the 1890s newspaper rivals Hearst and Pulitzer tried to outdo one another with hyped
atrocity stories from Cuba.
26) Publick Occurrences was the first colonial newspaper published.
27) In the Colonial Period, newspapers could print whatever they wanted without repercussions.
28) Printers of most colonial newspapers relied on subscription sales to stay in business.
29) Although there were government-supported newspapers in the colonial and later eras of
journalism history, they were never as popular as reader-supported papers.
30) Publisher Herbert Gans launched the New York Sun as the first Penny Press and changed the
content and revenue stream of newspapers.
31) The penny papers shifted the primary revenue stream for newspapers from advertising to
subscriptions.
32) Benjamin Day is credited for inventing the telegraph.
33) Yellow journalism was so named because of the colored paper used to print cheap newspapers.
34) Joseph Pulitzer avoided stunt journalism because of his religious beliefs.
35) William Randolph Hearst built his reputation on hiring accountants to find minor bookkeeping
errors in government records.
36) After a multi-year study of the news media, the Hastings Committee issued a report demanding
that the news reports become more socially responsible.
37) In the eyes of the Hutchins Commission the biggest shortcoming of previous approaches to
news coverage was their lack of context.
38) According to the Hutchins model of news, accurate transmission of the facts isn’t enough. The
goal should be understanding.
39) According to the Hutchins Commission, facts don’t count for much unless they contribute to
understanding.
40) Many journalists, including some of the most powerful publishers in the country, criticized the
commission’s members as eggheads who were out of touch with the realities of journalism.
41) Newspaper stories written by unnamed reporters could be objective and impersonal, but
television and radio news stories reported by a live human being could not be impersonal.
42) Both the Bennett model of news and the Hutchins model have become obsolete due to
technology-driven change, the proliferation of news sources, and audience fragmentation.
43) Fear of declining newspaper competition was one of the motivating factors behind the Hutchins
Commission’s push for greater social responsibility in news reporting.
44) The Hutchins Commission’s concern about the declining number of news sources has become a
moot point due to the number and variety of Internet and cable television news sources.
45) Although the New York Times remains committed to its traditional emphasis on fact-centric
event coverage, it is also introducing new ways of providing meaningful context.
46) The New York Times has developed a new, hybrid approach to news by carefully labeling
stories that provide context or go beyond straight-forward, traditional news reporting.
47) With its new emphasis on news analysis and context, the New York Times has decided it is no
longer necessary to have a separate section for editorials and opinions.
48) Sociologist Herbert Gans found that U.S. journalists’ values are decidedly mainstream.
49) Journalists’ personal values have no impact on what they report and how.
50) An ethnocentric story will be free of cultural judgment and values.
51) U.S. journalists, like mainstream American society, tend to favor U.S. style democratic
governments and capitalist economies.
52) Although U.S. journalists like stories about rugged individualists, they also want them to be
individualists who act in moderation and don’t become extremists.
53) According to Herbert Gans, U.S. journalists’ commitment to social order is evident in how
frequently and how extensively they turn to and cite people in leadership roles as sources.
54) Most news reporters attempt to present detached, neutral reporting.
55) The watchdog function of news media is implied in the U.S. Constitution.
56) Right-wing commentator Rachel Maddow has proven the skeptics wrong by managing to
survive in what had been the “old boys’ club” of cable network political commentators.
57) Rachel Maddow beat Larry King of CNN in the ratings more than half of the time in her first two
months on the air with MSNBC.
58) The news hole in a newspaper is more consistent than a news hole in a television newscast.
59) The volume of news on a given day determines the length and size of a newspaper, with
leftover room devoted to advertising.
60) Whether they admit it or not, journalists make some story decisions on the basis of what their
competitors are covering.
61) To one extent or another, all news organizations choose and shape the news they report based
on their perceptions of their audience.
62) Traditional newsroom values and ethics play a lesser role in news on the Internet.
63) The Drudge Report, which initially reported the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, was created with
millions of dollars from its founder’s inheritance.
64) The online version of the Washington Post is an example of an aggregation site.
65) The myriad online news sites have resulted in less accuracy and truthfulness in online news
accounts.
66) A gatekeeper is someone who determines what and how stories are covered.
67) News aggregation sites are less known for their own original news-gathering than for providing
access to information gathered from other sources.
68) According to Marshall McLuhan, a “hot medium” is one that is intensely involving and requires
you to focus and concentrate to get the message.
69)“One-foot media” such as iPods or smart phones are so engaging that Marshall McLuhan would
have called them “hot” if he had lived long enough to know about them.
70) Since the advent and popularity of Internet news, traditional newsrooms have been providing
their audiences with even more comprehensive coverage.
71) Because of the Internet, many newsrooms have opened new bureaus in outlying areas.
72 The penchant for nonstop coverage of news has eroded quality.
73) The decision to not report on the actions of drug cartels made by fearful news executives in
Mexico and other locations is a journalistic failure and amounts to self-censorship.
74) The public backlash from the Watergate scandal almost destroyed investigative journalism.
75) “Muckraking” is a term used by journalists to describe unethical behavior of public officials.
76) Soft news is designed to satisfy audience information wants, not needs.
77) Most news companies are cautious about reporting events or issues that might offend
advertisers and make them less likely to advertise.
78) The co-dependence of the news media and government officials is an enduring and important
element in the operation of U.S. democracy.
79) News media coverage of their misdeeds or ineptness has caused the resignation of state
governors, U.S. cabinet officials, and even one President of the United States.
80) In the heyday of the Penny Press newspaper content was reshaped to attract the maximum
number of readers because advertisers ran their ads in papers with the largest circulation.
Test Bank for Media of Mass Communication, 11/e
8.3 Short Answer Questions
1) At the most basic level, __________ can be defined is any report about change.
2) The nature of news always deals with some type of __________.
3) Factors that go into determining __________ include proximity, prominence, impact on society and
the so-called gee-whiz factor.
4) __________ is the somewhat subjective standard journalists use in deciding which among many
possible news stories to report.
5) Recognizing that being the first to report news gave him a competitive advantage, James Bennett
Gordon developed an approach to news that emphasized its __________.
6) Bennett was the first to assign reporters to news __________ such as the police, the courts, local
government, etc., and made them responsible for covering anything that developed there.
7) The Bennett model of news emphasized timeliness and reporting that focused on __________ rather
than on ideas or people.
8) After 1844, news reporting could be done even faster and from farther away by using the
__________ to relay news from where it happened back to the newspaper.
9) “Lightning news” was a term developed to emphasize how quickly the __________ could deliver
news to distant locations.
10) Starting in the 1920s the apex of timeliness was achieved when __________ reporters could
actually be at a news scene and report the news live as it happened.
11) Using the Bennett model of news, opinions were permitted in newspapers but they were kept
separate from the news and included in the __________ sections.
12) In the Bennett model of news, __________ which named the author of a news story were rarely
used. It was another way to keep the reporter’s personality and opinion out of the news.
13) In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy fueled fear and outrage about __________ and the threat
they posed to America.
14) Senator McCarthy’s lies and demagoguery persisted for four years until they were publicly
challenged by __________ in a daring broadcast on CBS television.
15) The first newspaper in the British North American colonies was __________, published in Boston
in 1690.
16) After Benjamin Day launched the era of the __________, almost anyone could afford to buy a
newspaper.
17) The Penny Press totally shifted the financial basis of newspapers and made them primarily
dependent on __________ rather than subscriptions.
18) The era of the __________ was characterized by sensationalism and journalistic excess that
triggered bitter newspaper circulation wars.
19) One of the great newspaper circulation battles occurred in the Yellow Period between Joseph
Pulitzer and __________.
20) Even today there are lingering remnants of the sensationalism of the __________ journalism era
evident in celebrity coverage.
21) The __________ Commission on the Freedom of the Press examined the way news was reported in
the United States and recommended a new and better approach.
22) The most basic recommendation of the Hutchins Commission was that news should be
presented in a meaningful __________ and not just as a set of isolated events.
23) Since neither the Bennett model of news nor the Hutchins model fully suit today’s conditions,
The New York Times has developed a new __________ model with elements of both in it.
24) To avoid confusion over its new approach to news, The New York Times is careful to put
__________ on any of its articles that go beyond straightforward news reporting into analysis.
25) Using the term __________ to describe what news is supposed to be is like asking for an
impossible-to-achieve values-free selection process to choose what will be reported.
26) _________ is seeing things on the basis of personal experience and values.
27) The __________ function of news organizations is to monitor the performance of government and
other institutions of society.
28) Rachel Maddow has successfully challenged the dominance of the “old boys’ club” of political
commentators since she went on the air for __________ during the 2008 presidential election.
29) The space left after the advertising department has placed all of the ads it has sold in the papers
is called the __________.
30) __________ is the term used to describe the fact that the amount and importance of the news
that’s available to report varies from day to day.
31) The media staff who exercise their news judgment to determine what stories will be reported
and how they will be presented are called __________.
32) The Huffington Post is an example of a news _________ site.
33) If television is considered a “ten-foot medium,” a handheld mobile device such as a smart phone
would be considered a __________ medium.
34) Canadian media scholar Marshall __________ used a continuum of hot and cool media to explain
many of the characteristic ways in which people engaged with different media.
35) An editor who decides what stories to cover and how and when to present them to the public is
called a(n) ___________.
36) CNN exemplifies the recent trend of __________ coverage, which replaces the tradition of one daily
deadline with a series of constantly recurring deadlines 24-hours per day, around the clock.
37) Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncovered the __________ scandal.
38) __________ is an early-19th century term for investigative journalism.
39) A journalistic trend toward less important and sometimes frivolous coverage is called __________.
40) Because news companies cannot survive without audiences, the quest to deliver __________ that
attracts audiences is never-ending and highly competitive.
41) Reporters used to have time to think about and assess their reportage. Today, they’ve lost the
benefit of this time for self-reflection because so much more coverage is now presented __________.
Test Bank for Media of Mass Communication, 11/e
8.4 Matching Questions
Match each concept in the left column with its definition or an example from the right column.
1) Balanced reporting
A) Keeping news as values-free as possible
2) News
B) Reporters and editors
3) Objectivity
C) Reflects the consensible nature of news
4) Timeliness
D) Watergate break-in scandal
5) Yellow journalism
E) Reports analysis and commentary along with facts
6) News beat
F) Drudge Report
7) Editorializing
G) Belies the notion of values-free reporting
8) Investigative reporting
H) Opinionated commentary within news coverage
9) Aggregation site
I) Assigned area/topic for ongoing news coverage
10) Gatekeepers
J) Being first to report fresh information
11) Ethnocentrism
K) Normally good but can be bad in scientific news stories
12) Hybrid news model
L) Reports of change
13) Herd journalism
M) Sensational, sometimes untrue news reporting
Match each person in the left column with the appropriate accomplishment in the right column.
1) James Gordon Bennett
A) Offered content for all readers, not just the elite
2) William Randolph Hearst
B) Categorized media as being hot or cool
3) Benjamin Day
C) Left-leaning political commentator
4) Joseph McCarthy
D) Investigated the Watergate cover-up
5) Rachel Maddow
E) Sensational, sometimes untrue journalism
6) Herbert Gans
F) Blogger and news aggregator
7)Robert Hutchins
G) Defined a long-standing approach to news
8) Bob Woodward
H) Advocate of social responsibility and context
9) Matt Drudge
I) Sociologist who studied news reporting
10) Marshall McLuhan
J) Anti-communist demagogue
8.5 Essay Questions
1) Summarize the findings obtained by Jules and Maxwell Boykoff when they studied news reports
on global warming and discuss their rather unsettling conclusions about the possible negative
effects of trying to report such topics in a fair and balanced way. Explain why you agree or disagree
2) Considering the differences between the Bennett model of news and the Hutchins model of news,
speculate on ways the Boykoff study of news reports on global warming might have been different
if more news media today were using the Hutchins model rather than the Bennett model. Do you
think the whole issue of global warming might have been perceived and presented differently?
Explain why.
3) Start by highlighting the differences between the Bennett model of news and the Hutchins model
of news, and assess the New York Times’ new, hybrid model of news as a middle-ground between
these two earlier models. Discuss how effective this new model is in addressing the shortcomings of
the earlier models and the changing conditions that confront the news media today.
4) Discuss three traditions of journalism that were first established in the colonial period or the era
of the Penny Press that remain strong influences today.
5) Explain how two apparently unrelated factors, the development of the Associated Press and the
drive for maximum profits, both fostered the development of objectivity as a prime characteristic of
6) Describe three of the ethnocentric values that Sociologist Herbert Gans found among U.S.
journalists and discuss some of the ways these values affect and manifest themselves in the news
that’s reported. To what extent, if any, do you think this ethnocentrism affects the news media’s
7) The Internet has dramatically changed the tone, shape and texture of news. In theory, it should
have been an information resource that enhanced traditional news-gathering and reporting, but
most scholars now believe the Internet has had more harmful effects on news than positive ones.
Discuss the relative benefits and disadvantages the Internet has brought to the news media and
explain why you think you now receive better or worse news coverage than your parents did when
they were your age.
