Chapter 9
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Jorge Ramos is the host of the show ______.
a. Noticiero Univision on Univision
b. The Situation Room with Jorge Ramos on CNN
c. The Ramos Report on Fox News
d. El Informe de Fútbol on ESPN Deportes
2. Philo T. Farnsworth invented which of the following?
a. the phonograph
b. the basic technology for television
c. the FM radio transmitter
d. digital cable service
3. When you watch a modern situation comedy on television that is filmed or taped before a live
studio audience using multiple cameras, you are seeing the influence of which of the following?
a. I Love Lucy
b. The Ernie Kovacs Show
c. the Fox Network
d. technology developed for the moon landing
4. All U.S. television broadcasting became digital in which year?
a. 2007
b. 2009
c. 2010
d. 1999
5. Network affiliates are which of the following?
a. promotional partners who do product placement on network shows
b. partner cable networks that carry reruns of network programming
c. local broadcast stations that carry network programming
d. the people who work at broadcast networks
6. Which of the following created the Public Broadcasting System?
a. Telecommunications Act of 1996
b. Television Act of 1939
c. Public Access Act of 1955
d. Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
7. PBS attracted its first significant audiences with which of the following programs?
a. Sesame Street
b. Barney
c. Masterpiece Theatre
d. Arthur
8. The major company doing television ratings in the United States is which of the following?
a. Time Warner
b. Nielsen Media Research
c. SRI Consulting
d. DBS, Inc.
9. Over the past thirty years, the Big Three television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) have done
which of the following?
a. They have dramatically increased their share of the viewing audience because of innovative hit
shows.
b. They have kept a steady audience.
c. They have lost one-third of all their viewers to cable, syndicated programming, and
independent stations.
d. They have shared the same owner at least once.
10. The show Scandal is notable for which of the following?
a. It’s the first prime-time network series in four decades to be led by an African American
woman.
b. It’s the first prime-time network show to have a character who is openly gay.
c. It’s the first network show to feature product placement during the opening credits.
d. It has twenty minutes of commercials per hour of programming.
11. The popular children’s educational program Sesame Street made the switch from public
television to HBO in 2015 for first-run episodes because they would ______.
a. be able to produce approximately twice as many episodes per year
b. be paid more to produce the episodes for HBO
c. be better able to distribute their programs to mobile devices
d. all of the above
12. What is the fifth-highest-rated television network in the United States?
a. the CW
b. Telemundo
c. Univision
d. Pax
13. What are telenovelas?
a. Spanish-language action-adventure shows
b. short course auto races
c. children’s stories on Spanish-language television
d. Spanish-language television soap operas
14. In the 1960s, television programs were not allowed to show which of the following?
a. men and women kissing
b. characters drinking alcohol
c. characters smoking cigarettes
d. a married couple sharing a bed
15. Nielsen Media Research measures television audiences in terms of ______.
a. Live only
b. Live + SD
c. Live + 3
d. all of the above
16. The so-called V-chip is designed to do which of the following?
a. tell parents what Web sites their children have visited on the Internet
b. mute the sound of a television set during commercials
c. allow car radios to receive Direct Broadcast Satellite signals
d. stop children from seeing offensive programs on V-chip equipped TVs
17. As of 2015, approximately ______ of U.S. homes had at least one HDTV set.
a. 33 percent
b. 50 percent
c. 64 percent
d. 81 percent
18. The show I Love Lucy was controversial when it first came out for which of the following
reasons?
a. It showed Ricky and Lucy sharing a bed.
b. It showed Lucy pregnant.
c. It had the white Lucille Ball married to the Cuban American Desi Arnaz.
d. It showed Desi Arnaz shaking his hips during dance numbers.
19. Cable television was initially developed as a way of doing which of the following?
a. providing uncensored movies in the home
b. delivering broadcast television signals to communities with poor reception
c. increasing revenue for the NCAA basketball tournament
d. delivering networks like TNT, CNN, and MTV
20. When HBO first went on the air in 1975, the broadcast networks made which of the
following responses?
a. They largely ignored it.
b. They saw it as a threat and worked to get it banned.
c. They saw it as a great opportunity and partnered with it to produce programming.
d. They used its creation as an excuse to invest in new, innovative programming.
21. Which of the following statements about premium cable channels is true?
a. They are the channels that get the highest commercial rates.
b. They are those channels that cable systems consider “must have,” such as ESPN and MTV.
c. They are the channels that you pay extra for and that do not carry commercials, such as HBO
and Showtime.
d. They are the channels with “elitist” content, such as BBC America or Bravo.
22. The conversion from analog to digital television broadcasting was delayed by several months
in 2009 because ______.
a. some critics claimed that violence on HDTV was too explicit
b. stores could not keep up with the demand for HDTV sets
c. many feared that some poorer consumers were not ready for the conversion
d. networks were not ready to provide all-digital programming
23. Why are cable networks such as MTV and CNN more profitable than the Big Four broadcast
networks?
a. Cable networks receive revenue from advertising and subscription revenue. Broadcast
networks only receive advertising revenue.
b. Cable networks have larger numbers of viewers than the broadcast networks.
c. Cable networks can charge more for advertising than the broadcast networks.
d. You can’t fool me; the major broadcast networks make much more money than cable networks
do.
24. Broadcast networks are more successful than ever these days for which of the following
reasons?
a. They are attracting the crucial younger audience.
b. They are able to sell more advertising time than ever before.
c. Their audience share is growing.
d. You can’t fool me; broadcast networks are losing audience share and advertisers.
25. Television networks are now showing more diverse programming for which of the following
reasons?
a. It is “politically correct” to do so.
b. They want to attract a larger audience.
c. Because minority actors tend to be less expensive to hire.
d. The FCC has required them to do so.
26. Critics worry that television has a strong influence on young people because ______.
a. unlike reading a book, watching television takes relatively few skills
b. television can replace the roles that grandparents, parents, and teachers played in the lives of
children
c. television has become the most commonly shared source of meaning in young people’s lives
d. all of the above
27. One outcome of Janet Jackson’s 2004 Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction” was which of the
following?
a. Fifty local stations cancelled their affiliation with CBS.
b. Jackson was offered a celebrity spot on Survivor.
c. Individual stations became cautious about broadcasting serious programs that contained
nudity, violence, or harsh language.
d. The 2005 Super Bowl halftime show got a TV-M rating.
28. Audience members can now interact with cable and broadcast television by doing which of
the following?
a. skipping commercials using a DVR
b. calling up movies on demand
c. vote for the outcome of reality programs
d. all of the above
29. Our definition of what is broadcasting is being changed by the fact that you can now do
which of the following?
a. buy television programs as digital downloads through the iTunes store
b. view television programs after they air as streaming content on the Web
c. buy television programs on DVD
d. all of the above
30. How many people watch a popular show like Orange is the New Black on Netflix?