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Dines, Gender, Race, and Class in Media, 5e
SAGE Publications, 2018
Part I: A Cultural Studies Approach to Media: Theory
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Cultural studies insist that culture must be studied within the social relations and
system through which culture is produced and consumed and that the study of culture is
thus intimately bound up with the study of ______.
A. people, society, and ideas
B. economics
C. society, politics, and economics
D. politics and communication
2. ______ analyzes how linguistic and nonlinguistic cultural “signs” form systems of
meanings, as when giving someone a rose is interpreted as a sign of love or getting an
A on a college paper is a sign of mastery of the rules of the specific assignment.
A. Semiotics
B. Cultural studies
C. Globalization
D. Ethnography
3. When audiences appropriate texts in line with the interests of the dominant culture
and the ideological intentions of a text, they are performing ______.
A. interpretive engagement
B. use of media culture
C. dominant readings
D. multicultural politics
4. In this article, the author mentions that ______ most important economic function
came from its role as an instrument of legitimation for transformations in values initiated
by the new economic imperatives of postwar America.
A. communication’s
B. radio’s
Dines, Gender, Race, and Class in Media, 5e
SAGE Publications, 2018
C. television’s
D. consumerism’s
5. Select the answer that best shows what the author was describing with the Mama’s
Birthday example, and what it represents: ______.
A. The episode confuses the roles of economics and consumerism and misrepresents
social norms to the audience
B. The conflict between social desires and government roles reflected the economy’s
role as mediator in American values
C. The conflict was a red herring and really represented the repressed and underlying
effect of domestic values in society
D. The conflict between consumer desires and family roles reflected television’s social
role as mediator between the family and the economy
6. According to George Lipsitz, advertisers incorporated their messages into urban
ethnic working-class comedies with which method?
A. indirect and direct means
B. only direct means
C. only indirect means
D. subliminal means
7. Which term best describes when media companies become part of much larger
corporations that own a collection of other companies that may operate in highly diverse
business areas?
A. collude
B. conglomeration
C. horizontally collide
D. composite
8. In the media industry, vertical integration refers to ______.
A. the process in which a company neither grows economically nor shrinks but over
time moves vertically above other companies through a process of buying and selling
Dines, Gender, Race, and Class in Media, 5e
SAGE Publications, 2018
B. the process by which one company buys different kinds of media, concentrating
ownership across differing types of media rather than up and down through one industry
C. the process by which one owner acquires all aspects of production and distribution of
a single type of media product
D. the idea that the media environment is quite different largely because of the vast size
of the U.S. media industry but that private media ownership can be a huge political
asset in the United States too if it is able to move in the right directions
9. The power or dominance that one social group holds over others is ______.
A. mass media manipulation
B. hegemony
C. Marxist theory
D. mass-mediated ideologies
10. The Italian intellectual Antonio Gramsci--to whom the term hegemony is attributed--
______.
A. was unable to comprehend the true nature of hegemony and its effects in the United
States
B. broadened hegemony into the realm of consumerism
C. thought that there was an “asymmetrical interdependence” of political–economic–
cultural forces at play
D. broadened materialist Marxist theory into the realm of ideology
11. “They are developed in a social, political, and economic context. And this has
strongly conditioned the course and shape of the communication revolution.” What is
the author referring to in this passage?
A. cultures
B. currencies
C. ideas
D. technologies
12. Unlike firms in many other nations, U.S. telephone and cable firms are not required
to allow competitor broadband ISPs access to their wires, so there is virtually no
Dines, Gender, Race, and Class in Media, 5e
SAGE Publications, 2018
meaningful competition in the now crucial broadband ISP industry. Why does the author
think this is such a bad thing?
A. Smaller companies then have to try a lot harder and install their own wires.
B. Because deregulation has led to fewer enormous firms with far less regulation.
C. Because without competition, companies have no reason to try hard to deliver a
good product.
D. Monopolies lead to corruption, which inevitably leads to harmful effects for society.
13. The author of the article talks about the rise of the Internet as a form of free
communication, seemingly without limits, thus raising the prospect of vast new realms of
human sociability and enhanced democratic possibilities. Yet, rather than a means of
expanding human sociability, the Internet is being turned into ______.
A. a replacement to education
B. a new means of alienation
C. a communication hub but only for the privileged few
D. a limiting space for free thought
14. The author talks about how the role of media is often ______.
A. totally ignored when it comes to choosing a new leader
B. seen as a means to an end by those in power
C. providing accurate and reliable information about current leaders
D. creating fervent support for one perceived as a strong leader
15. The idea is that ______ is one who is subservient to power above him or her and
abusive of power to those below.
A. an authoritarian “personality”
B. an idealist “personality”
C. a transformationalist leader
D. a democratic “personality”
16. As discussed in the article, from a cultivation theory standpoint, ______.
Dines, Gender, Race, and Class in Media, 5e
SAGE Publications, 2018
A. the results are not consistent with the idea that viewing films in the U.S. context
provides a supportive environment for democratic values
B. the results are consistent with the idea that listening to the radio in the U.S. context
provides cross-cultural values
C. the results are consistent with the idea that television viewing in the U.S. context
provides a supportive environment for authoritarian values
D. the results had no conclusive link between authoritarian values and entertainment
17. Consider this excerpt from the article: “On the one hand, they value their romances
highly because the act of reading them literally draws (them) away from their present
surroundings. Because they must produce the meaning of the story by attending closely
to the words on the page, they find that their attention is withdrawn from concerns that
plague them in reality.” Who is Janice Radway referring to when she uses “they” and
“them”?
A. all Americans
B. women
C. children
D. the elderly
18. An escape that is both literal and figurative implies flight from some situation in the
real world which is either stifling or overwhelming, as well as a metaphoric transfer to
another, more desirable universe where events are happily resolved. What kind of
experience does the author claim makes these escapes a reality?
A. romance reading
B. virtual reality headsets
C. interpersonal communication
D. watching television
19. As the author explains, we must begin to recognize that romance reading is fueled
by ______ and ______ not by perfect contentment with woman’s lot.
A. desire; boredom,
B. remorse; loneliness,
C. lust; power,
D. dissatisfaction; disaffection,
20. An alternative approach to fan experience is one that perceives “Trekkers” (as they
prefer to be called) not as cultural dupes, social misfits, or mindless consumers but
rather as ______.
A. “poachers” of textual meanings
B. social pariahs
C. consumers of television philosophy
D. cultural observers with a science fiction lens
21. Although fanzines may take a variety of forms, fans generally divide them into two
major categories: ______ that publish short articles and letters from fans on issues
surrounding their favorite shows and ______ that publish short stories, poems, and
novels concerning the program characters and concepts.
A. authoritative engagers; persuasive contenders
B. “daily” fans; “lifelong” fans
C. letterzines; fictionzines
D. super fans; fanfiction authors
22. Trading in ______ crosses a moral threshold and transforms social relations
traditionally regulated by values that transcend money into exchange relations regulated
by money.
A. cultural heritages, practices, or ideologies
B. radio, television, and film
C. identity, bodies, and personal or public services
D. ideas, ethics, and philosophy
23. Cultural studies offered a more optimistic model in which people were not suffering
from false consciousness but rather ______.
A. engaged in social change through charity
B. sought to find meaning in false consciousness
C. were left to endure their reality
D. contended against cultural institutions and elites
24. Another new approach the author mentions examined ______.
A. political discourses about governments that reveal institutional goals in relation to the
social control of those civilizations
B. hegemonic discourses about audiences that reveal institutional goals in relation to
the social control of populations
C. interpersonal relationships about couples that reveal romantic goals in relation to the
cultural norms of the area
D. none of these
True/False
1. Concentration of media ownership means that fewer corporations own the media.
2. Mass-mediated ideologies are corroborated and strengthened by an interlocking
system of efficacious information-distributing agencies and taken-for-granted social
practices that permeate every aspect of social and cultural reality.
3. Female fans are rare, and seldom transform Star Trek into women’s culture, and
always keep it as a “space opera.” This is possibly because there is not really any
unwritten feminine countertext that hides in the margins of the written masculine text.
Essay
1. Compare and contrast vertical and horizontal integration.
Dines, Gender, Race, and Class in Media, 5e
SAGE Publications, 2018
2. What are the political consequences of conglomeration?
3. Explain commodification.
