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Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
Chapter 3: The Media Business: Consolidation, Globalization,
and the Long Tail
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following is a way that Facebook makes money from its
users/subscribers?
A. They charge a monthly subscription fee in many countries.
B. They sell their mobile app for smartphones for $2.99 through Apple and Google’s app
stores.
C. They collect information about users from games, quizzes and the like, then sell that
information to corporate partners.
D. You can’t fool me, Facebook doesn’t actually make money. It depends on money
from wealthy donors to keep running.
2. Radio stations started carrying national news beginning from which of the following
decades?
A. 1890s
B. 1910s
C. 1930s
D. 1950s
3. ______ is where a media company uses its combined properties to promote each
other and add value to the company.
A. Synergy
B. Broadband networks
C. E-commerce
D. Competition
4. According to media scholar and critic Ben Bagdikian, in 2004 approximately ______
corporations owned a majority of media outlets in the United States.
A. 5
B. 50
C. 500
D. 5,000
5. Vertical integration is which of the following?
A. controlling the distribution of media
B. controlling the media product from production to delivery
C. controlling the direction of media broadcast
D. controlling access to media
6. According to media scholar and critic Ben Bagdikian, in 1983 approximately ______
corporations owned a majority of media outlets in the United States.
A. 5
B. 50
C. 500
D. 5,000
7. The late cofounder and CEO of Apple was the largest single stockholder in which
major media company?
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
A. Time Warner
B. Disney
C. Comcast
D. Viacom/CBS
8. The majority of the cable television music video channels are owned by which of the
following?
A. Time Warner
B. Bertelsmann
C. News Corporation
D. Viacom
9. ______ has raised the question of whether bigger really is better by becoming
smaller and more profitable spinning off its major online service and its residential cable
television provider division.
A. Time Warner
B. Bertelsmann
C. News Corporation
D. Viacom
10. ______ is selling much of its entertainment properties to Disney.
A. 21st Century Fox
B. NBCUniversal
C. Bertelsmann
D. Viacom
11. ______ is the largest publisher in the English language.
A. Time Warner
B. Bertelsmann
C. News Corporation
D. Viacom
12. ______ is one of the leading online media companies in the world.
A. Gannett Corporation
B. Alphabet/Google
C. YouTube
D. iHeartMedia
13. Alphabet is the parent company of ______.
A. Google
B. Apple
C. Comcast
D. NBCUniversal
14. Time Warner no longer owns the Time family of magazines. Who does?
A. Gannett
B. Bertelsmann
C. Meredith Corp.
D. Viacom
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
15. What company owns NBCUniversal?
A. Time Warner
B. News Corporation
C. Comcast
D. Viacom
16. In 2014, the following company changed its name to iHeartMedia:
A. Gannett Corporation
B. Google
C. YouTube
D. Clear Channel Communications
17. Which media company publishes local newspapers in the United States with a daily
print circulation of 5 million and a monthly digital circulation of 43 million?
A. Gannett Corporation
B. Google
C. YouTube
D. Clear Channel Communications
18. The media in the United States are typically owned by which of the following?
A. private industry
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
B. the government
C. public cooperatives
D. charitable foundations
19. The biggest problem Disney Corporation faces in China is which of the following?
A. No one knows who Mickey Mouse is.
B. Donald Duck is perceived as being counterrevolutionary.
C. People in China don’t like cartoons.
D. Media content is frequently pirated.
20. 21st Century Fox generally provides which of the following?
A. conservative television programming
B. television programming that will attract the largest, most profitable audience
C. reruns of television programs produced by other major media companies
D. liberal television programming
21. Viacom and CBS split into two separate companies for which of the following
reasons?
A. The government forced them to.
B. They wanted to hide their overall levels of revenue.
C. They wanted to give investors two separate stocks to invest in.
D. They came under pressure from bloggers.
22. Short-head media excel at delivering which of the following?
A. a limited amount of content to a large audience
B. a wide range of content to a wide range of people
C. products from the small, independent media
D. books and songs that have been out of print for several years
23. Big box retailers such as Walmart and Target that sell CDs and movies would be
considered part of which of the following?
A. fat body
B. short head
C. mid-list
D. long tail
24. Online music sellers such as iTunes and Napster would be considered part of which
of the following?
A. fat body
B. short head
C. mid-list
D. long tail
25. Long-tail media are characterized by which of the following?
A. a high number of goods
B. a low cost of reaching markets
C. ease of finding obscure products
D. all of these
26. Why was YouTube developed?
A. to make it easier to share videos
B. to give movie and television studios a site to promote their products
C. as a file-sharing service for pirated videos
D. as a distribution system for pornography
27. The information that Facebook collects on individual people in North America is
worth about _____ a year.
A. $27
B. $84
C. $129
D. $155
28. Facebook shows us that a media company’s influence can be measured by ______.
A. its profits
B. the number of users
C. its audience’s level of engagement
D. all of these
29. The biggest problem facing ESPN economically is ______.
A. that cable/satellite TV is losing subscribers
B. advertisers no longer want to reach men aged 18–34
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
C. viewers are boycotting the sports network
D. They are all major problems.
30. Google doodles are ______.
A. artwork, often animated, on the Google homepage honoring a particular date
B. paid content that appears on the Google homepage
C. whimsical sketches of long-time Google employees
D. a new breed of dog created by Google founder Sergey Brin
1. Apple makes more money from selling media content, media consumption devices,
and phones than it does from selling computers.
2. The electronic media in the United States are primarily owned and operated by the
federal government.
3. While the number of independent news companies has declined, the availability of
news media has increased.
4. Owning multiple channels allows a media company to repackage media content for
different audiences.
5. The Disney Corporation believes that every division of the corporation should work
together with every other division to promote and profit from a common set of media
content.
6. Disney Corporation sells merchandise at every level from watches for children to a
$380 Beauty and the Beast–themed soup pot.
7. ESPN makes revenue both from people who do watch the sports channel and people
who do not.
8. Fox Broadcasting carries raunchy programs because these shows deliver large
audiences.
9. The world’s largest book publisher has its headquarters in France.
10. Bertelsmann is the only one of the major legacy media companies to be privately
owned.
11. Gannett is the United States’ largest Internet provider.
12. The short head is the portion of a distribution curve where a large number of people
are interested in buying a limited number of products.
13. The long tail is the portion of a distribution curve where a large number of people
are interested in buying a limited number of products.
14. A CD has to sell at least four copies a year in order to justify the shelf space it takes
up in a local big box store.
15. Multitrack music recording can now be done at home on a laptop computer.
16. Transmitting home-produced video to a national audience is almost impossible
because the so-called Big Media won’t carry it on their channels.
17. In his book The Long Tail, Chris Anderson writes that we are leaving an era of mass
culture and moving to one that is more individualistic.
18. At Walmart, the top 200 CDs account for more than 90% of the music sold.
19. Napster and iTunes can afford to carry so many different songs because they don’t
pay the artists for their music.
20. YouTube attempts to deliver a limited number of programs to a large audience.
21. Major media companies are currently going through a period where a large number
of properties are in the process of changing owners.
1. Name two of the top five legacy media companies in the United States and one of the
major new media companies.
2. Name two of the media properties owned by Time Warner.
Ans: Varies.
Learning Objective: 3-2: Summarize how control of the media industry has changed
from the 1950s to the present day.
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Time Warner: Starting the Trend That “Smaller Is Better”
3. Define media synergy and provide an example of it.
4. Why did the Walt Disney Company have trouble with China in 1996?
5. Which of the so-called Big Media companies owns both the Wall Street Journal and
London’s Sun newspaper?
6. Which of the so-called Big Media companies dominates the music video industry?
7. Which of the so-called Big Media companies is the world’s largest publisher?
8. Who purchased NBCUniversal from General Electric in 2011?
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
9. Who decides what content will appear on YouTube?
10. What type of media is the U.S. government most likely to regulate?
11. In addition to selling phones, tablets and computers, name two other sources of
revenue for Apple.
12. In a brief essay, explain how Apple has become a major player in the media
business.
13. In a brief essay, define the concept of media synergy and then explain how it works
using examples from the Disney Corporation.
14. In a brief essay, explain what Cambridge Analytica did and why that was
controversial.
15. In a brief essay, explain why you can’t simply say American media are run by six
major conglomerates today.
Ans: Varies.
Learning Objective: 3-2: Summarize how control of the media industry has changed
from the 1950s to the present day.
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Big Media: The Legacy Conglomerates | Big Media: The New Players
Difficulty Level: Medium
16. In a brief essay, explain the differences between the long-tail and the short-head
media markets.
Ans: Varies.
Learning Objective: 3-5: Describe the concept of long-tail media and its implications for
the future of the media industry with the concept of how big they should be.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Media Economics and the Long Tail
Difficulty Level: Hard
