Chapter 3: Newspapers to Digital Frontiers: Journalism’s
Journey
True/False
1. For most journalists, the bottom line is to “get the story.”
2. Yellow journalism in the 1890s was the forerunner of today’s tabloid newspapers.
3. Newspaper editors believe that the public’s right to know always outweighs other issues,
including national security.
4. Most mainstream news organizations do not have ethical expectations for journalists when they
are off work.
5. The inverted-pyramid style is associated with literary journalism.
6. Online journalism has had little impact on the news process.
7. History suggests that objective reporting grew out of an opportunity to provide news that would
not offend particular groups to mass audiences.
8. Literary journalism uses the devices of fiction to construct a portrait of the real world using
nonfictional experiences.
9. Many editors discourage e-mail interviews because they think that it gives sources too much
control over shaping their answers.
10. The trend today in the newspaper business is toward independent local ownership of
11. Print newspapers increase the size of their staffs as they shift to online operations.
12. Newspapers do most of the nation’s primary journalistic work.
Multiple Choice
Note: The correct answer is asterisked.
13. Which of the following is a characteristic of public journalism?
14. Which of the following eras of journalism best represents the historical arrival of newspapers as
a mass medium?
15. Penny press newspapers
16. Which of the following is not one of the basic criteria of newsworthiness?
17. Yellow journalism is
18. Name the publication most closely associated with the rise of modern journalism.
19. Modern journalism started to develop in the nineteenth century mainly because newspapers
20. What development spawned the rise of interpretive journalism in the 1930s and 1940s?
21. Herbert Gans studied the newsroom cultures of CBS, NBC, Newsweek, and Time during the
1970s. Which of the following is not one of the enduring values he identified within these
newsroom cultures?
23. A newshole is
24. The majority of revenue for most newspapers comes from what source?
25. Which of the following developments accounts for declining newspaper readership?
Fill in the Blank
26. Ethical decisions that are made on a case-by-case basis are called __________________ ethics.
27. The inverted-pyramid style is associated with ________________ journalism.
28. News accounts that focus on the trials and tribulations of the human condition are called
______________________, which often feature ordinary individuals facing extraordinary
29. The space left over in a newspaper for news content after all the ads are placed is called the
_________________.
30. The ______________ press, an early dominant style of American journalism distinguished by
opinion newspapers, generally argued one political point of view.
31. An underlying value held by most U.S. journalists and citizens, __________________ favors
individual rights and responsibilities over group needs or institutional mandates.
32. Aristotle’s ethical principle was to find the _____________ between two extreme positions.
(golden mean)
Matching
Select from the following list of names to match the question with the best answer.
A. Nellie Bly
B. Adolph Ochs
C. William Randolph Hearst
D. Print news
E. TV news
F. Edward R. Murrow
33. New York Times
34. Detective or stunt journlism
35. Yellow journalism publisher
36. Joseph McCarthy expose
37. Sound bites
38. Inverted pyramid
Essay
39. Name and explain at least three elements that contribute to the newsworthiness of an event.
40. In what ways do fake news shows such as The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight appeal to
young people disenchanted with our political system?
41. Explain different models of the newspaper in American society.
42. Explain the main challenges that threaten American newspapers. How might these challenges
affect American democracy?