Chapter 6
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Most of the initial news coverage of the Flint, Michigan, contaminated water crisis came
primarily from ______.
a. state and local news sources
b. national news sources
c. Occupy Flint activists
d. press releases from the Michigan governor’s office
2. The first English-language papers were published in Amsterdam starting in which of the
following years?
a. 1618
b. 1690
c. 1708
d. 1776
3. Which paper is regarded as the first newspaper in the North American colonies?
a. Publick Occurrences
b. the Pennsylvania Gazette
c. the Boston News-Letter
d. the New York Sun
4. Which paper was published by Benjamin Franklin?
a. Publick Occurrences
b. the Pennsylvania Gazette
c. the Boston News-Letter
d. the New York Sun
5. Which paper is regarded as the first of the penny papers?
a. Publick Occurrences
b. the Pennsylvania Gazette
c. the Boston News-Letter
d. the New York Sun
6. Journalistic objectivity began with which of the following?
a. jazz journalism
b. yellow journalism
c. tabloid papers
d. the penny press
7. What phrase was used for a lively, illustrated brand of news reporting of the 1920s?
a. yellow journalism
b. jazz journalism
c. photojournalism
d. tabloid journalism
8. Edward R. Murrow is best remembered for which of the following?
a. his reporting during the Vietnam War
b. being the first radio disc jockey
c. his accounts from London in World War II
d. reporting entertainment news from Hollywood
9. Which of the following events helped bring CNN to prominence?
a. the Watergate hearings
b. the Apollo moon landing
c. the funerals of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
d. the Persian Gulf War
10. Most American newspapers are owned by which of the following?
a. private individuals
b. small family-owned groups
c. large corporate chains
d. German publishing giant Bertelsmann
11. Which of the following was the newspaper responsible for breaking the Watergate story
in 1972?
a. the New York Times
b. USA Today
c. the Washington Post
d. the Los Angeles Times
12. The journalistic value of ______ represents the idea that your own country and culture
are better than all others.
a. ethnocentrism
b. altruistic democracy
c. responsible capitalism
d. small-town pastoralism
13. The journalistic value of ______ represents the idea politicians should serve the public
good and not their own interests.
a. ethnocentrism
b. altruistic democracy
c. responsible capitalism
d. moderatism
14. The journalistic value of ______ represents the idea open competition among businesses
will create a better and more prosperous world.
a. altruistic democracy
b. small-town pastoralism
c. responsible capitalism
d. social order
15. The journalistic value of ______ represents a nostalgia for the old-fashioned rural
community.
a. ethnocentrism
b. altruistic democracy
c. moderatism
d. small-town pastoralism
16. The journalistic value of ______ represents the fact that journalists love to use a single
person as a symbol of a larger issue.
a. ethnocentrism
b. small-town pastoralism
c. individualism
d. social order
17. The journalistic value of ______ represents the suspicion journalists often have of
extremists on either side of an issue.
a. individualism
b. moderatism
c. social order
d. leadership
18. When reporters focus on the return to normal in a story about a natural disaster, they are
talking about the journalistic value of ______.
a. social order
b. individualism
c. moderatism
d. leadership
19. When reporters focus on the importance of the president or prime minister, they are
representing the journalistic value of ______.
a. altruistic democracy
b. responsible capitalism
c. social order
d. leadership
20. In 2015 approximately ______ journalists died covering the news around the world.
a. 25
b. 48
c. 73
d. 127
21. Frederick Douglass was the editor of which of the following?
a. the German-language newspaper New York Staats-Zeitung
b. USA Today
c. the Los Angeles Tribune
d. the African American newspaper North Star
22. New York Times public editor Arthur Brisbane started a major controversy in 2012 when
he wrote a column asking ______.
a. whether newspapers were obligated to have an equal number of liberal and conservative
reporters
b. whether reporters should point out in stories when sources are saying things that are
demonstrably false
c. whether newspapers should have more “ordinary people” as sources
d. whether reporters should reveal when they have personal relationships with sources
23. As of 2015, which newspaper had the largest circulation in the United States?
a. the New York Times
b. USA Today
c. the Los Angeles Times
d. the Wall Street Journal
24. Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, has said which of the following?
a. The Times is in the business of selling news and advertising space.
b. The Times is in the business of selling newspapers.
c. The Times will be selling newspapers 100 years from now.
d. He always expects to be in the business of “putting black ink on white paper.”
25. Colonial newspapers could be characterized by which of the following?
a. objective reporting
b. sensationalistic crime news
c. intensely partisan opinion writing
d. in-depth investigative reporting
26. The change to objective reporting that took place in the 1800s was driven by which of the
following reasons?
a. a moral commitment to the truth
b. the rise of a literate working class
c. criticism by government officials
d. the growth of journalism schools
27. Reporter Nellie Bly’s style of reporting from the yellow journalism era would best fit in
today at which of the following newspapers?
a. the New York Times
b. the New York Daily News
c. the Chicago Tribune
d. the Wall Street Journal
28. Joseph Pulitzer wanted his paper, the New York World, to appeal to women for which of
the following reasons?
a. More women were literate than men.
b. Women had more time to read the paper than men.
c. Advertisers wanted to reach women.
d. You can’t fool me; Pulitzer didn’t care about women readers.
29. Which of the following is generally true about tabloid newspapers?
a. They are printed on a half-page format.
b. They are written in a livelier style than broadsheet newspapers.
c. They have covers rather than front pages.
d. all of the above
30. Which one of the following newspapers most clearly defines what will be news in the
United States?
a. the New York Times
b. USA Today
c. the Los Angeles Times
d. the Washington Post
31. The Lincoln, Nebraska, Lincoln Star Journal newspaper ran a large photo of a University
of Nebraska volleyball tournament in today’s paper. The Denver Post did not. This is an
example of the ______ news value.
a. timeliness
b. proximity
c. consequence
d. human interest
32. USA Today runs a photo and story about singer and celebrity Lady Gaga on the front
page of its Life section. This is an example of the ______ news value.
a. timeliness
b. proximity
c. consequence
d. human interest
33. The New York Times runs a photo and story about American and Russian pilots
conducting air raids in Syria. This is an example of the ______ news value.
a. prominence
b. proximity
c. consequence
d. human interest
34. The Washington Post runs a photo and story about a baby panda born at the National Zoo
in Washington, D.C., yesterday. This is an example of the ______ news value.
a. proximity
b. rarity
c. human interest
d. all of the above
35. Alternative weekly papers are having ______ circulation.
a. growing
b. steady
c. declining