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Croteau, Media/Society, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
Chapter 9: Media Influence
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Which statement about media effects is true?
A. Research has proven that media once had a direct impact but has evolved to having
very limited effects.
B. Pinpointing exactly why, how, to what degree, and on whom media may be
influencing is a simple process.
C. Negative behaviors tend to get much more attention than the positive influences of
media.
D. Media effects are strong and immediate.
2. Who wrote about the importance of press freedom for democracy?
A. Charles Horton Cooley
B. Karl Marx
C. Max Weber
D. Ferdinand Tönnies
3. Which sociologist said that the newspaper was indispensable to the organization of
the public mind?
A. Ferdinand Tönnies
B. Max Weber
C. Karl Marx
D. Charles Horton Cooley
4. During World War I, journalist Walter Lippmann wrote ______ of the public’s reliance
on stereotypes, ______ of the role of media in the manufacture of consent when done in
the public interest.
A. critically; approvingly
B. critically; also
C. approvingly; critically
D. approvingly; also
5. What was NOT one of the conclusions of Herbert Blumer’s study on the influence of
movies on children and adolescents?
A. Movies should be seen as a genuine educational institution for children and
adolescents.
B. Children and adolescents were more likely to be influenced by movies than any other
age group.
C. One of the ways movies influence their viewers is by implanting attitudes.
D. In movies, extremes are often presented as the norm resulting in conflict with other
sources of education.
6. What was problematic about Blumer’s methodology?
A. It was not done on a large enough scale to be legitimate.
B. It suggested movies are the source of children’s behavioral problems.
C. It did not consider real-world media practices.
D. It asked leading questions about the influence of movies.
7. All of the following arguments about the characterization of then-contemporary
society made up the core of the mass society theory, EXCEPT ______.
A. there was a rise in diversity which encouraged ethnic group identity
B. there was a weakening of more traditional personal bonds
C. there was a growing homogenization of the population
D. there was a decline in interpersonal and group relations
8. How does Gustave Le Bon define emotional contagion?
A. When an individual is exposed to information that conflicts with their prior beliefs.
B. When the media manipulates its audience to feel a certain way about a subject.
C. When individuals get caught up in crowd behaviors and take part in actions they
otherwise would never consider.
D. When societal norms are challenged by a marginalized community and begin to shift.
9. What is the umbrella term that came to be used for various arguments suggesting the
media’s influence was lessened by intervening social and psychological factors?
A. exposure effects
B. limited effects
C. mitigation effects
D. influential effects
10. Sam does not pay attention to the news, therefore Sam is unlikely to be affected by
media content. This is an example of ______.
A. selective consumption
B. selecting remembering
C. selective understanding
D. selective exposure
11. Which of these situations best represents selective understanding?
A. Danny and Jo have strong political beliefs and interpret media content in ways that
support their already-existing perceptions.
B. Taylor is too busy to catch up on recent events therefore is not affected by media
content.
C. Bobbi and Jess only consume media content from a source that caters to their
political beliefs.
D. Ali has strong political beliefs but consumes media content from a variety of sources
to stay informed.
12. Which of these situations best represents selective remembering?
A. Jordan was raised in a religious household but chose to change beliefs as an adult.
B. Kris does not believe in climate change and can only recall information supporting
this belief.
C. Alex regularly checks up on local and national news but not world news.
D. Ash can only recall the names of popular political candidates.
13. Authors of The People’s Choice defined ______ as people who reported that they
had either tried to convince someone of a political idea or had been asked a political
question by someone else.
A. opinion leaders
B. influencers
C. thought provokers
D. campaigners
14. All of the following make up aspects of opinion leaders, EXCEPT ______.
A. overrepresented among men and the middle class
B. could influence those with whom they had personal contact
C. usually held positions of power within the community or workplace
D. paid closer attention than most to the news and discussed politics with others
Croteau, Media/Society, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
15. ______ suggests that how the media organizes and presents information influences
how people are likely to understand the story.
A. Focus theory
B. Agenda-setting theory
C. Construction theory
D. Framing theory
16. If ______ is about what news is covered, then ______ is about how that coverage is
constructed.
A. focus; framing
B. framing; agenda-setting
C. focus; construction
D. agenda-setting; framing
17. The biggest change in traditional agenda-setting comes from ______.
A. social media
B. television
C. smart phones
D. protests
18. Social media discusses ______ issues and ______ issues more than the news
media.
A. economic; governing
B. inequality; drug-related
C. social; public order
D. government; public policy
19. News media outlets focus more on ______ and the process of ______ than social
media discussions.
A. social justice; public policy
B. economics; governing
C. controversy; decision-making
D. government officials; public order
20. The idea that those who held minority views were likely to remain silent when they
believed that others disagreed is known as the ______ theory.
A. bandwagon
B. unpopular opinion
C. spiral of silence
D. assumption of agreement
21. The ______ effect occurs when people adopt positions or support candidates
because they are perceived to be popular.
A. conformity
B. spiral of silence
C. popularity contest
D. bandwagon
22. According to psychologist Albert Bandurant, observational learning occurs when
children learn behaviors from their ______.
A. social environment
B. main caretakers
C. exposure to media
D. punishments
23. Vicarious reinforcement occurs when a child learns by ______.
A. constant encouragement from caretakers
B. directly imitating the behavior of their peers
C. being rewarded for good behavior rather than punished for bad behavior
D. observing the consequences of another person’s behavior
24. Cultivation theory considers the ______ effects of television viewing on how people
see and understand the social world.
A. long-term
B. direct
C. indirect
D. short-term
25. In the Cultural Indictors Project, George Gerbner and his associates argued that
television’s effects ______.
A. tend to occur only to those who are most vulnerable to the influence of media
B. are due to prolonged exposure to a specific genre of programming
C. come from extensive exposure to its contents in general, rather than from any
particular program or genre
D. have both short-term and long-term consequences depending on variables such as
genre of programming and a person’s vulnerability to influence
26. Heavy viewers of television being more likely than moderate or light viewers to
believe that most people cannot be trusted and are selfishly looking out for themselves
is an example of ______.
A. negative thinking
B. mean world syndrome
C. social defensiveness
D. cultivation of distrust
27. Immersion in television culture produces a ______ effect, whereby heavy viewing
mutes differences based on cultural, social, and political characteristics.
A. uniformity
B. mainstreaming
C. hypnotism
D. homogenous
28. Which of the following statements about mediatization is not true?
A. It stays within the limits of what most media studies have addressed.
B. It is an ongoing social process.
C. It is an attempt to build a theoretical framework that allows discussion of the
influences of media in other social and cultural domains.
D. It claims media has been deeply integrated into different spheres of society.
29. Media logic refers to ______.
A. the infiltration and coexistence of media with everyday communication
B. the process of adapting to the virtualization of social institutions
C. the various needs associated with the production processes for a particular medium
D. the overall organization and presentation of media content
30. Media logic is a feature of mediatization that connects media ______ to media
______.
A. creators; viewers
B. content; distributors
C. organization; presentation
D. production; effects
31. Which of these statements about the mediatization of politics is not true?
A. Some of the influence is indirect.
B. It influences all aspects of political life.
C. It usually occurs as a single development.
D. The key feature is the increasing influence of media.
32. Which of the following is not one of the three dimensions of news media logic?
A. commercialism
B. media intelligence
C. professionalism
D. media technology
33. The consultants who coach political candidates on improving their appearance in
the media and handle media inquiries are called ______.
A. media handlers
B. political planners
C. campaign logisticians
D. image managers
34. In the 1940s, a study showed that the most important determinant of a person’s vote
was ______.
A. party affiliation
B. economic status
C. propaganda
D. stance on issues
35. Nowadays in presidential campaigns, the candidate’s ______ is of greatest
importance to voters.
Croteau, Media/Society, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
A. stance on issues
B. personality
C. party affiliation
D. qualifications
36. Spin is a form of propaganda that involves the creation and diffusion of a specific
interpretation of an event, campaign, or policy with the aim of inciting ______.
A. division
B. controversy
C. public support
D. patriotism
37. Social movements are best defined as ______.
A. a sudden and drastic shift in mainstream beliefs
B. the effects caused by media influence in the absence of responsive political parties
C. the mass media coverage of current social or political issues
D. groups of citizens who have banded together to promote a social or political cause
38. The software on which most Internet traffic operates is the ______.
A. World Wide Web
B. ISP
C. browser
D. hyperlink
39. The Triple Revolution was the expansion of all of the following, EXCEPT ______.
A. social networks
B. Internet
C. mobile communications
D. portable media
40. Which of the following is not considered a social media platform?
A. Instagram
B. Wikipedia
C. Twitter
D. Facebook
41. Social media logic is made up of four key elements: programmability, popularity,
connectivity, and ______.
A. accessibility
B. datafication
C. mediatization
D. addictiveness
42. A ______ effect is said to exist when the value of a product or service increases the
more people use it.
A. social
B. platform
C. network
D. connectivity
43. For users, the benefits of a particular platform ______ when other people they know
also use it.
A. increase
B. decrease
C. disappear
D. appear
44. Facebook users who are ______ offline tend to have more online friends than
______.
A. introverted; most users
B. extraverted; most users
C. extraverted; introverts
D. introverted; extraverts
45. Which of the following is the best example of Internet addiction?
A. Jackie spends an excessive amount of money shopping online.
B. Toni gets into arguments online with people who have opposing political views.
C. Adrian uses someone else’s photos on a social media website and interacts with
others pretending to be that person.
D. Mel regularly stays up all night and skips classes to play online video games.
1. Paul Lazarsfeld’s study on how information influenced Erie County voters during the
1940 presidential election found that media messages rarely changed voters’ minds
about candidates.
2. Limited effects theory argued that the influence of media messages were limited to
certain demographics.
3. Positive behaviors tend to get much more attention than the negative influences of
media.
4. Researchers found that people’s class, race, gender, and other social characteristics
were associated with how they tended to interpret, understand, and react to media
content.
5. The media’s organization of a story only involves the order in which journalists tell the
story.
6. A frame refers to the context into which the media places facts.
7. Social media users have replaced professional media in controlling the largest
platform for public discourse.
8. People seek to conform to what they as prevailing views because they want to be
perceived as intelligent.
9. The spiral of silence can keep in check views that are widely seen as dangerous or
abhorrent.
Croteau, Media/Society, 6e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
10. In both personal and online settings, people were more willing to share their views if
they thought their audience agreed with them.
11. One of the many long-term negative effects that can come from marketing to
children is the development of unhealthy eating habits.
12. Media content tends to affect all children in the same way.
13. Media logic has an effect on political communication before it even happens.
14. In the relationship between the media and social movements, the latter tends to hold
the upper hand.
15. In the absence of effective political parties, social movements offer an avenue for
citizen participation in politics.
