Croteau, Media/Society, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
Chapter 2: The Evolution of Media Technology
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Communication was a face-to-face ritual until people started creating one of a kind
communication like cave wall art and stone carvings. In China, ______ happened which
allowed communication to become easily reproducible.
A. invention of paper
B. discovery of ink
C. wood carvings
D. stone etching
2. Technology industrialization increased very dramatically during ______, bringing forth
the telegraph, camera, telephone, phonograph, and many other communication
technologies.
A. World War 1
B. the 19th century
C. the technological revolution
D. the 20th century
3. One approach to technology’s role in society is referred to as technological
determinism. This idea suggests that technology ______.
A. evolves as humans advance
B. causes change itself
C. has no effect on society
D. is chosen to be used by people
4. One approach to technology’s role in society is referred to as social constructivism.
This idea suggests that ______.
A. technology is made up of objects and people choose how they use it
B. society is based entirely upon technology at this point in time
C. people’s social lives would be nonexistent without the different technologies available
to us
D. humans have no choice how they use technology in today’s society
5. Technological determinism and social constructivism are ______.
A. two mutually exclusive approaches
B. the opposite poles of a continuum
C. unrelated entirely
D. essentially the same idea
6. Each media platform has its own material elements that decide how that platform can
be utilized. Radio can be used to ______.
A. see the content
B. hear the content
C. interact with the content
D. read the content
7. Each media platform has its own material elements that decide how that platform can
be utilized. Television can be used to ______.
A. read the content
B. interact with the content
C. see the content
D. none of these
8. Each media platform has its own material elements that decide how that platform can
be utilized. The Internet can be used to ______.
A. read the content
B. see the content
C. interact with the content
D. all of these
9. Langdon Winner argues that political, economic, social, and cultural conditions shape
the creation of technology—which adds ______ to the technological determinism
approach.
A. human agency
B. societal pushback
C. worldwide constructivism
D. media materiality
10. The idea that media is more than a way to transmit messages but in fact is the key
to its own social impact is called ______.
A. medium theory
B. technological impact theory
C. media autonomy
D. transmission management
11. Marshall McLuhan strongly believed that the content of the messages that we are
transmitting is less influencing than ______.
A. the medium itself and the experience from using it
B. the face–to-face conversations that we have
C. the impact of social forces
D. none of these, the content is the most influential
12. McLuhan focused on the shift from oral traditions to print societies and later from
print societies to electronic media and argued that new technologies ______.
A. make it harder for us to communicate
B. do not influence us as a society
C. rework the balance of our senses as we consume content
D. make us as consumers less attuned to what we are consuming
13. McLuhan felt that it was essentially impossible for us as media consumers to be
aware of ______.
A. how technology influences us
B. how often new technologies emerge
C. when we consume media
D. what media platforms are superior
14. In contrast to McLuhan’s views on technology, ______ argued that television was
the reason that there was a decline in the seriousness of public life by encouraging
particular ways of thinking and speaking—undermining democracy.
A. Seth Whiteland
B. Benjamin Siegel
C. Tony Hunt
D. Neil Postman
15. Postman’s analysis of serious content in the media throughout changes in mediums
came to show correlation between the use of the telegraph and the photograph that
______.
A. an increase in serious and relevant content being consumed
B. a decline in serious and relevant content was being consumed
C. these mediums had no effect on the amount of serious and relevant content being
consumed
D. these mediums made it more difficult to consume content
16. Which of the following is not a step in creating social reality?
A. People internalizing the norms of their culture being influenced by their own creation.
B. Creations seeming objectively real and separate from human activity.
C. People creating society through ongoing processes of physical and mental activity.
D. These are all steps in creating social reality.
E. Neither of these are steps in creating social reality.
17. Due to the idea that we create social reality, we can ______.
A. always change it
B. never change it
C. we do not create social reality
D. only slightly alter it
18. The technological advancement of print media lead to a major change in the direction of
media development as well as ______.
A. improvement of the economy
B. a shift in the governments influence
C. an unanticipated social change
D. an increase in tree farming
19. Western Union controlled the telegraph industry, and the Bell Telephone Company
which later became ______, controlled the telephone industry.
A. Graham Bell Industries
B. AT&T
C. Its name did not change
D. Edison Electric
20. Sound recording primarily was used to document and listen to ______.
A. interviews
B. news stories
C. music
D. all of these
21. Sound recording of music created significant social change as ______.
A. users could now listen to music by themselves
B. music didn’t just have to be heard live
C. music became a much more intimate form of media
D. all of these
22. Film or moving pictures had been around for many decades but the technological
advancement and invention of the ______ dramatically changed how and where users
interacted with film.
A. the cinematograph
B. Lumière graph
C. VCR
D. televisions
23. There was conflict when radio broadcasting became more popular because ______.
A. there was limited space on the airwaves
B. the government didn’t want people to have access to free media
C. too many people felt that what they had to share was more important
D. the navy needed complete access to radio transmissions
24. Advertisement over radio broadcasting ______.
A. was discouraged by many
B. was limitless once it began
C. became the heart of the broadcasting industry
D. all of these
25. Radio broadcasting getting more popular and becoming more of a household norm
caused ______.
A. companies to advertise to a larger audience
B. users to consume content for “free”
Croteau, Media/Society, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
C. radio to evolve from a localized medium to a nationwide medium
D. all of these
26. One reason that television had a huge impact on social construct at first was
______.
A. it caused users to be lazy
B. daytime television was primarily targeted toward women
C. people bought more televisions which boosted the economy
D. all of these
27. Cable television was a result of ______.
A. excessive production of cables with no use for them
B. local broadcasters not having adequate equipment to get their content to paying
customers
C. television broadcasters trying to overtake radio waves
D. demand from consumers for more television programs
28. The early research that lead to the creation of the Internet ______.
A. began in the 1980s
B. was a result of J. Edgar Hoover’s demand for new technologies
C. happened over a span of 20 years
D. started during the Cold War
29. Investment into ______ in the 1990s pushed the stock market to incredibly high
levels, but lack of interest into invested companies led to a stock market crash in the
2000s.
A. television
B. dot-com companies
C. cellular phone companies
D. all of these
30. ______ is one of the names given to the revamp of the idea of the Internet giving
more emphasis to users creating, customizing, and sharing rather than just shopping.
A. It was just referred to as the Internet
B. Webscape
C. Dot-coming
Croteau, Media/Society, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
D. Web 2.0
31. The Internet’s infrastructure was designed with what feature in mind?
A. being an open platform that was accessible to anyone
B. giving users control over how they experience it
C. being a global system of communication
D. all of these
1. The first messages sent over radio were transmitted in 1895.
2. Network television began being broadcasted in the United States at the beginning of
the 1900s.
3. Television killed Radio.
4. Scholars either extremely believe in the technological determinism approach or the
social constructivism approach and very rarely fall somewhere in the middle of the two
ideas.
5. Data are the form of materiality, similar to keyboards and paper.
6. Due to how vast and complex and uncontrollable technology has become, it can often
be viewed as a Frankenstein-like creation.
7. By improving the technologies of machines equipped with artificial intelligence, we
are feeding more into a potentially autonomous technology.
8. Throughout history, media has been effectively used to sway people’s thoughts
through propaganda. This has continuously lead to hesitation and concern about what
impacts newer technologies such as television would have.
9. McLuhan’s outlook on the effect of new technologies in media on our senses was a
negative one.
10. Postman’s research lead him to connect an increase in serious substance being
consumed with the invention of the telegraph and the photograph.
11. With the invention of the telegraph, people had more access to content that was
irrelevant to them.
12. According to social constructivists, humans create technology but it has a life of its
own and we have no power to alter how it is used.
13. Though not technically considered mass mediums, the telegraph and the telephone
dramatically influenced the way we communicated with each other and gathered
information.
14. Western Union wanted to utilize the telephone as an easier way to reach the
telegraph office.
15. AT&T was allowed to be a monopoly for many years.
16. The telephone had extreme influence on the United States after it was accessible to
most.
17. The ability to record music and listen to it repeatedly had no effect on social
environments.
18. Radio changed the way we consumed media as information could be consumed for
free.
19. Soap operas were named after the soap manufacturers that sponsored them.
20. In its early years, the Internet was as easy for everyone to use as it is today.
21. The Internet is the first medium that embodies digitization.
22. The technologies redefined during the 20th century transformed communication
worldwide.