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Dines, Gender, Race, and Class in Media, 5e
SAGE Publications, 2018
Part VII: Still Watching Television in the Digital Age
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Reaching the vast majority of the population for well over half a century and seeping
into everyday conversation, ______ has/have made a significant contribution to our
culture’s attitude toward the man who makes his living with his hands.
A. sports
B. reality TV
C. sitcoms
D. documentaries
2. Another factor affecting network decisions on content is the need to produce
programming suited to ______ not only in decisions on new series but also in day-to-
day decisions producing each episode.
A. audience’s interest
B. advertising
C. production cost
D. distribution
3. Under post-Fordism, capitalism responds to the global flow of labor and consumption
markets within and between nation-states by transforming local and regional ______
into market segments and mobilizing citizens as consumers.
A. practices
B. cultures
C. products
D. economics
4. Television producers, advertisers, and networks know that programs that are too
long, too difficult to comprehend, or simply too boring will lead to ______.
A. producers dropping out
B. viewers switching channels
C. writers stopping creating
D. actors performing poorly
Dines, Gender, Race, and Class in Media, 5e
SAGE Publications, 2018
5. As the author describes, rather than represent a wide range of “real people” who
reflect the diversity of the nation, reality TV repackages ______ into comfortingly
familiar stock characters and stereotypes.
A. difference
B. culture
C. people
D. social class
6. Hung’s narrative on Top Chef revealed not only how the trope of being technical but
lacking “heart” and “soul” is placed on ______ but also the conflicts that racialized
minorities encounter competing in fields of culture that continue to be governed by
White privilege.
A. African Americans
B. Hispanic Americans
C. Asian Americans
D. European Americans
7. Rhimes’s blind-casting works to acknowledge difference in ways that will cause the
least amount of discomfort to White audiences while providing an illusion that under
liberal individualism, the marketplace will do right by historically ______.
A. marginalized individuals
B. inaccurate figures
C. complex characters
D. significant people
8. When television programs make race an explicit theme, it is usually an appeal to
some universal, effectively White, human experience that operates to ultimately
reinforce the goals of ______.
A. authoritarianism
B. liberal individualism
C. social objectivism
D. Hollywood executives
9. Neoliberalism, characterized broadly as the “______” for global capitalism, expounds
the alleged death of class; according to this mode of social organization, professional
success and material security are the responsibility of private individuals.
A. secret key
B. ideological software
C. doomsday device
D. philosophical hardware
10. At best, Gilmore Girls points to a lack of political commitment on the part of its
producers, and at worst, it perpetuates a neoliberal fantasy that glosses over the harsh
realities of working-class life in ways that distract from the value of class consciousness.
This seemingly class-based show exploits economic disparities in the articulation of
______.
A. socioeconomic fantasies
B. a classless neoliberal middle class
C. false representations of working-class families
D. a conservative idea of middle class
11. Orange Is the New Black’s ambition to present a different perspective on prison life
appeared to be validated by ______.
A. real-life prisoners
B. television audiences
C. the production cast and crew
D. a chorus of television critics
12. At first glance, representations of female prisoners on contemporary U.S. television
may indeed appear as more ______ than those of their male counterparts.
A. violent
B. sympathetic
C. helpless
D. pathetic
13. Donald Trump is mastering new media as well as dominating television and old
media through his orchestration of media events as ______ and his daily Twitter feed.
A. PR disasters
B. false advertising
C. spectacles
D. historical significance
14. ______ are presented as media spectacles and dominate certain news cycles.
A. Dramatic news and events
B. Pop culture updates
C. Entertainment news
D. Sports and political rallies
15. Netflix has moved into territory that sets it apart from familiar structures of
production, broadcasting, or branding of television. Netflix does signal a change within
______.
A. the digital creator field
B. the online streaming market
C. the digital television landscape
D. the live entertainment framework
16. While Netflix is accountable to shareholders and its partners in revenue sharing, it
tends to be the company that advertises itself to ______ rather than ______.
A. younger audiences; older viewers
B. subscribers; advertisers
C. millennials; baby boomers
D. online viewers; network audiences
True/False
1. If one accepts that television narratives articulate normative truths that enter into
public discourse and reinforce or resist dominant ideologies, then Gilmore Girls is a
Dines, Gender, Race, and Class in Media, 5e
SAGE Publications, 2018
poor indicator of and contributor to neoliberal notions of an autonomous individual made
in the image of a classless middle-class American.
2. According to the author, the networks had the money and the audience to dominate
the market as the only buyers of series programming from Hollywood producers and
studios.
3. The global success of reality television is attributable to the practice of licensing the
format of a show to overseas broadcasters for adaptation to specific markets.
4. While virtues such as discipline and diligence are considered undesirable in the U.S.
context, these purportedly “negative” traits can become positive when pushed to
excess.
5. Rhimes’s approach, balking at any utterance of race talk with regard to dialogue, plot
points, or character development, works to make the discussion of racialization seem
unnecessary and inauthentic.
6. Orange is the New Black’s portrayal of women’s attempts at beautification under the
most dire circumstances takes a much darker approach, but it challenges stereotypes
about female prisoners’ priorities.
7. Without a media-saturated “fast capitalism” and media-centric politics, new
technologies like Twitter and social networking, and a celebrity culture that has morphed
into politics, there could never be a Donald Trump.
8. The shift signaled by Netflix concerns issues of technology but maybe more
importantly, branding and programming strategies, viewing practices independent from
scheduling that lead to a complication in how audience behavior needs to be
understood and “success” of a program measured, and how familiar associations with
the concept of television are not “merely” subverted but changed completely.
Essay
1. What are some of the media that television uses to justify social class framing?
2. What factors go into developing programing and what is a consequence of those
choices?
3. What is populism?
