125
Chapter 10: Mass Audiences
Chapter 10: Mass Audiences
Multiple Choice Single Select
1) Using his new approach to analyzing and predicting results, Nate Silver accomplished all of
the following EXCEPT
a) accurately forecasting which stock prices would drop the most during the recession.
b) correctly predicting the outcomes of U.S. Senate elections in 49 of the 50 states in 2008.
c) developing an amazing system for tracking and projecting the performance of baseball
players.
d) inspiring the blockbuster film Moneyball.
2) Until the 2008 elections, it was almost universally believed that no one could accurately
predict election outcomes, but now that view is being challenged by amazingly accurate
predictions from
a) George Gallup.
b) Leslie Nielsen.
c) Nate Silver.
d) Fred Silverman.
3) What intellectual interests did George Gallup bring together in his mother-in–law’s run for
secretary of state in Iowa?
a) feminism, history, and agriculture
b) survey research, public opinion, and politics
c) mathematics, sociology, and communication
d) organizational management, human resources, and accounting
4) Which of the following used quota sampling techniques to predict presidential election
outcomes in the 1930s?
a) Andy Kohut
b) Arbitron
c) A.C. Nielsen
d) George Gallup
5) Why did George Gallup abandon quota sampling?
a) too time-consuming
b) pressure from the political correctness movement
c) difficulty in pinpointing public opinion closer than 4 percentage points
d) too expensive
6) Which is an example of the bandwagon effect?
a) Decided voters change their minds and begin to support the front-runner.
b) Pollsters phrase questions that lead people to answer them in predetermined ways.
c) Poorly phrased questions encourage respondents to give the same answers others do.
d) Poll results drive undecided voters toward the current front-runner.
7) What organization is best known for its television ratings evaluations?
a) Nielsen
b) Gallup
c) Harris
d) Arbitron
8) Arbitron is known for
a) tracking television network audiences.
b) measuring radio audiences in local broadcast markets.
c) using people meters.
d) tracking audience members who cross over from one medium to another.
9) What does the Gallup Organization usually measure?
a) human nature and behavior
b) television audience size
c) magazine circulation
d) radio audience size
10) The Pew Research Center studies which topic?
a) television and radio audiences
b) attitudes toward politics and public policy issues
c) attitudes toward advertising
d) local television audiences
128
11) Probability sampling requires
a) questioning as many people as possible.
b) mostly guesswork.
c) a precise cross-section of the population.
d) that every member of the population has an equal chance to be interviewed.
12) In polling for a population of 500,000 or greater, how many people are needed for 95%
confidence with less than 5% error margin?
a) 384
b) 3,840
c) 18,340
d) 1,483
13) A good probability sample selection for polling
a) requires polling one in every six people.
b) gives every member of the population being sampled an equal chance.
c) includes an equal number of males and females.
d) varies depending on the topic.
14) The margin of error for a survey is
a) insignificant if enough people are surveyed.
b) critical to determine accuracy.
c) good enough as long as it’s near 5%.
d) needs to be 2% or lower for any level of confidence.
15) What kind of sampling matches the demographics of the people polled?
a) probability sampling
b) geodemographic sampling
c) quota sampling
d) measured-interval sampling
16) Why is it important to know when a poll was taken?
a) Opinions shift over time.
b) Weather impacts people’s emotions
c) People are more alert in the morning, less so in the evening.
d) Most people aren’t home during the day, thus skewing the sample.
17) It is important to know who paid for a poll because the people who pay
a) may determine what a pollster will understand.
b) will be more open-minded about the results.
c) have a vested interest in the outcome.
d) restrict what other work a pollster may be able to do.
130
18) Which of the following is NOT true regarding how a poll is conducted?
a) Polls conducted on street corners are not worth much statistically.
b) Mail surveys are flawed unless pollsters follow up on those who didn’t answer.
c) Surveys taken in shopping malls are statistically flawed.
d) It makes no difference whether the poll is done on the telephone or face to face.
19) When developing a survey instrument, it is important to pay attention to the wording of
survey questions because
a) people remember polysyllabic words best.
b) people remember the words they heard first.
c) wording can skew responses.
d) people will reject a pollster who uses slang.
20) Who selects the participants in a straw poll?
a) pollster
b) respondents themselves
c) pollster’s client
d) interviewer
21) 900 telephone number surveys are an example of
a) straw polling.
b) low-budget polling.
c) electronic sampling.
d) random sampling.
22) Newspapers conduct people-on-the-street interviews because
a) they are efficient and accurate.
b) studies have shown them to be accurate.
c) they represent the average person in their communities.
d) they are circulation builders.
23) What organization checks circulation claims?
a) Arbitron Circulation Bureau
b) American Research Bureau
c) A.C. Nielsen Co.
d) Audit Bureau of Circulations
24) Who was the first pollster to measure how many people listened to network radio programs?
a) George Gallup
b) A.C. Nielsen
c) Archibald Crossley
d) Rupert Murdoch
132
25) Congressional investigations into false and inflated claims about broadcast ratings prompted
networks to create the
a) Audit Bureau of Ratings.
b) Pew Research Center.
c) Broadcast Ratings Council.
d) Institute of American Public Opinion.
26) The Broadcast Ratings Council
a) surveys broadcasters.
b) accredits ratings companies.
c) rates television networks.
d) confirms audience size.
27) When events such as giveaways coincide with sweeps weeks, it is an example of
a) slanted results.
b) a black week.
c) flushing.
d) hyping.
28) Which month is a television ratings sweeps month?
a) January
b) March
c) June
d) February
29) A black week in television is
a) a week of programming by African Americans.
b) when no ratings are conducted.
c) when a station goes off the air.
d) a week without network programming.
30) When polled with handwritten diaries, many people overstate the time they spend watching
a) steamy programs.
b) sophisticated programs.
c) prime-time cartoons.
d) sitcoms.
31) The flush factor is a term to describe
a) the elimination of television shows with low ratings.
b) firing a television personality after sweeps week.
c) viewers leaving their television sets during commercials to go the bathroom.
d) discarding embarrassing results from a flawed poll.
134
32) When viewers avoid commercials by changing from channel to channel, it is called
a) zapping.
b) flipping.
c) flushing.
d) zipping.
33) A polling technique to gauge how attentive people are to certain programs and ads is called
_________ ratings.
a) engagement
b) intensity
c) attachment
d) longevity
34) All of the following are statistics that have been used to try to measure audience size and
engagement for Internet sites EXCEPT
a) browser downloads.
b) click-ons and click-throughs.
c) page views.
d) time spent at a site.
35) Which of the following is NOT a tool used to measure broadcast audiences?
a) interviews by phone or in person
b) viewing and listening diaries
c) mass mailings
d) people meters
36) Media Metrix is a leading audience measuring company for
a) television.
b) satellite radio.
c) terrestrial radio.
d) the Internet.
37) A2/M2 is a ratings measurement system created by
a) Arbitron.
b) Nielsen.
c) Gallup.
d) Pew.
38) In trying to convince her company to do consumer research with social media, Joan Lewis,
Procter & Gamble’s market knowledge officer, has asserted all of the following EXCEPT
social media
a) are quicker than other methods for tracking fast-changing consumer behavior.
b) permit better two-way communication between the company and consumers.
c) research needs more sophistication and better standards of measurement.
d) research will soon replace outdated and expensive traditional research methods.
136
39) Which of the following is an interview-based research method?
a) overnights
b) demographic breakdowns
c) sweeps
d) focus groups
40) Which research method might also be called the “heartthrob approach”?
a) galvanic skin checks
b) heart monitors
c) heatmapping
d) viewer letters and phone calls
41) Galvanic skin checks favor
a) ugly news anchors.
b) adrenaline-activating news stories.
c) dull news scripting.
d) routine video of public meetings.
42) Which of the following is an example of prototype research?
a) screening a television pilot
b) conducting a focus group on a long-running show
c) Nielsen overnights
d) a portable people meter
43) What is a sample of a possible new sitcom called?
a) galvanic check
b) focus group
c) focus cluster
d) pilot episode
44) Cohort analysis has studied and classified the demographic characteristics of people so they
can be targeted for marketing and other communication efforts based on the
a) company they work for or organization they belong to.
b) industry in which they or their family members work.
c) generation to which they belong based on when they were born.
d) region and type of housing in which they live.
45) One finding of cohort analysis is that
a) as people get older, they adopt their parents’ values.
b) people who grew up on Coke switch to coffee.
c) many people, as they get older, stick to the habits of their youth.
d) baby boomers prefer Cadillacs as much as their parents did.
46) Who created PRIZM?
a) George Gallup
b) Lou Harris
c) Al Neuharth
d) Jonathan Robbin
47) What does geodemography do?
a) It describes why people live in different topographies.
b) It describes the influence of weather on buying habits.
c) It describes the effect of global warming on people’s interest in media.
d) It describes lifestyle breakdowns based on demographic characteristics and regions.
48) Which of the following is a psychographic analysis by values, lifestyle, and life stage?
a) VIRIS
b) PALZ
c) PRISM
d) VALS
49) Which VALS category represents the largest percentage of the U.S. population?
a) achievers
b) belongers
c) emulators
d) integrated
50) The prosperous people comprising about 20% of the U.S. population, according to VALS,
are the
a) achievers.
b) emulators.
c) experientials.
d) integrated.