Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
Chapter 6: Newspapers and the News: Reflection of a
Democratic Society
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Most of the initial news coverage of the Flint, Michigan, contaminated water crisis
came primarily from ______.
A. state and local news sources
B. national news sources
C. Occupy Flint activists
D. press releases from the Michigan governor’s office
2. The first English-language papers were published in Amsterdam starting in which of
the following years?
A. 1618
B. 1690
C. 1708
D. 1776
3. Which paper is regarded as the first newspaper in the North American colonies?
A. Publick Occurrences
B. the Pennsylvania Gazette
C. the Boston News-Letter
D. the New York Sun
4. Which paper was published by Benjamin Franklin?
A. Publick Occurrences
B. the Pennsylvania Gazette
C. the Boston News-Letter
D. the New York Sun
5. Which paper is regarded as the first of the penny papers?
A. Publick Occurrences
B. the Pennsylvania Gazette
C. the Boston News-Letter
D. the New York Sun
6. The goal of journalistic objectivity began with which of the following?
A. jazz journalism
B. yellow journalism
C. tabloid papers
D. the penny press
7. What phrase was used for a lively, illustrated brand of news reporting of the 1920s?
A. yellow journalism
B. jazz journalism
C. photojournalism
D. tabloid journalism
8. Edward R. Murrow is best remembered for which of the following?
A. his reporting during the Vietnam War
B. being the first radio disc jockey
C. his accounts from London in World War II
D. reporting entertainment news from Hollywood
9. Which of the following events helped bring CNN to prominence?
A. the Watergate hearings
B. the Apollo Moon landing
C. the funerals of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
D. the Persian Gulf War
10. Most American newspapers are owned by which of the following?
A. private individuals
B. small family-owned groups
C. large corporate chains
D. German publishing giant Bertelsmann
11. Which of the following was the newspaper responsible for breaking the Watergate
story in 1972?
A. the New York Times
B. USA Today
C. the Washington Post
D. the Los Angeles Times
12. The journalistic value of ______ represents the idea that your own country and
culture are better than all others.
A. ethnocentrism
B. altruistic democracy
C. responsible capitalism
D. small-town pastoralism
13. The journalistic value of ______ represents the idea politicians should serve the
public good and not their own interests.
A. ethnocentrism
B. altruistic democracy
C. responsible capitalism
D. moderatism
14. The journalistic value of ______ represents the idea open competition among
businesses will create a better and more prosperous world.
A. altruistic democracy
B. small-town pastoralism
C. responsible capitalism
D. social order
15. The journalistic value of ______ represents a nostalgia for the old-fashioned rural
community.
A. ethnocentrism
B. altruistic democracy
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
C. moderatism
D. small-town pastoralism
16. The journalistic value of ______ represents the fact that journalists love to use a
single person as a symbol of a larger issue.
A. ethnocentrism
B. small-town pastoralism
C. individualism
D. social order
17. The journalistic value of ______ represents the suspicion journalists often have of
extremists on either side of an issue.
A. individualism
B. moderatism
C. social order
D. leadership
18. When reporters focus on the return to normal in a story about a natural disaster,
they are talking about the journalistic value of ______.
A. social order
B. individualism
C. moderatism
D. leadership
19. When reporters focus on the importance of the president or prime minister, they are
representing the journalistic value of ______.
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
A. altruistic democracy
B. responsible capitalism
C. social order
D. leadership
20. In 2017, approximately ______ journalists died covering the news around the world.
A. 25
B. 46
C. 73
D. 127
21. Frederick Douglass was the editor of which of the following?
A. the German-language newspaper New Yorker Staats-Zeitung
B. USA Today
C. the Los Angeles Tribune
D. the African American newspaper North Star
22. According to Professor Jay Rosen, when journalists adopt a neutral style of
reporting that gives equal emphasis to two sides of an issue when one side is
objectively false, this is known as ______.
A. balanced reporting
B. fake news
C. the view from nowhere
D. mainstream reporting
23. As of 2017, which newspaper had the largest circulation in the United States?
A. the New York Times
B. USA Today
C. the Los Angeles Times
D. the Wall Street Journal
24. Arthur Sulzberger, former publisher of the New York Times, has said which of the
following?
A. The Times is in the business of selling news and advertising space.
B. The Times is in the business of selling newspapers.
C. The Times will be selling newspapers 100 years from now.
D. He always expects to be in the business of “putting black ink on white paper.”
25. Colonial newspapers could be characterized by which of the following?
A. objective reporting
B. sensationalistic crime news
C. intensely partisan opinion writing
D. in-depth investigative reporting
26. The change to objective reporting that took place in the 1800s was driven by which
of the following reasons?
A. a moral commitment to the truth
B. the rise of a literate working class
C. criticism by government officials
D. the growth of journalism schools
27. Reporter Nellie Bly’s style of reporting from the yellow journalism era would best fit
in today at which of the following newspapers?
A. the New York Times
B. the New York Post
C. the Chicago Tribune
D. the Wall Street Journal
28. Joseph Pulitzer wanted his paper, the New York World, to appeal to women for
which of the following reasons?
A. More women were literate than men.
B. Women had more time to read the paper than men.
C. Advertisers wanted to reach women.
D. You can’t fool me; Pulitzer didn’t care about women readers.
29. Which of the following is generally true about tabloid newspapers?
A. They are printed on a half-page format.
B. They are written in a livelier style than broadsheet newspapers.
C. They have covers rather than front pages.
D. all of these
30. Which one of the following newspapers most clearly defines what will be news in the
United States?
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
A. the New York Times
B. USA Today
C. the Los Angeles Times
D. the Washington Post
31. In Lincoln, Nebraska, Lincoln Star Journal newspaper ran a large photo of a
University of Nebraska volleyball tournament in today’s paper. The Denver Post did not.
This is an example of the ______ news value.
A. timeliness
B. proximity
C. consequence
D. human interest
32. USA Today runs a photo and story about singer and celebrity Lady Gaga on the
front page of its Life section. This is an example of the ______ news value.
A. timeliness
B. proximity
C. consequence
D. human interest
33. The New York Times runs a photo and story about American and Russian pilots
conducting air raids in Syria. This is an example of the ______ news value.
A. prominence
B. proximity
C. consequence
D. human interest
34. The Washington Post runs a photo and story about a baby panda born at the
National Zoo in Washington, D.C. yesterday. This is an example of the ______ news
value.
A. proximity
B. rarity
C. human interest
D. all of these
35. Alternative weekly papers are having ______ circulation.
A. growing
B. steady
C. declining
36. The biggest number of newspapers in the United States would be considered
______.
A. national newspapers
B. metropolitan newspapers
C. state newspapers
D. local newspapers
37. In recent years, war photographers have been killed ____.
A. by terrorists who beheaded them
B. by accidents while covering live fire exercises
C. while covering combat
D. all of these
38. The only comic strip to be published in the New York Times in 2017 was ______.
A. the long-running political comic strip Doonesbury
B. an original series telling the story of a Syrian refugee family arriving in New York in
2016
C. a satirical strip talking about hipsters who live in Brooklyn and eat avocado toast
D. you can’t fool me. The New York Times hasn’t run a comic strip since the Yellow Kid
in the late 1800s
39. The stories about contaminated water in Flint, Michigan included reports of ______.
A. lead contamination in the water
B. E. coli bacterial contamination in the water
C. high levels of chlorides in the water
D. all of these
40. The New York Times gets most of its readership from ______.
A. print subscribers in the New York City area
B. online readers, many of whom are using mobile devices
C. online readers, primarily using desktop computers
D. print subscribers outside of the New York City area
Hanson, Mass Communication, 7e
SAGE Publishing, 2019
True/False
1. According to the Pew Research Center, less than 50% of American adults get news
regularly from television.
2. In 2016, overall daily newspaper circulation dropped by 8%.
3. The penny papers were successful because of their coverage of foreign affairs,
national politics, and the economy.
4. New York newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer
competed for readers using sensational stunts.
5. Until the 1960s, newscasts offered by the networks were only 15 min long.
6. Gannet runs the largest newspaper chain in the United States.
7. In 2016, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post all suffered
a 20% decline in digital/print circulation.
8. People who value and use local news media are more likely to vote in local elections.
9. Community newspapers remain important today because they provide information
that people can’t get anywhere else.
10. Community papers are failing at a record pace.
11. Herbert Gans, in his study “Deciding What’s News,” found that the media was
profoundly biased in favor of big business and the evidence of this could be found in
most news stories.
12. Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC cable news channels are all generally on the list of
Top 10 most viewed cable channels.
13. The 2017 Pulitzer Prize for best editorial writing went to the rural Iowa Storm Lake
Times for a series of editorials about fertilizer runoff water pollution.
14. The Chicago Defender has always tried to be both an activist paper and a profitable
paper.
15. Spanish-language papers such as El Nuevo Herald typically just translate stories
from English into Spanish.
16. Community newspapers are dying while large metropolitan newspapers are thriving.
17. Journalists working in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan have a significant risk of being
murdered for trying to report on what is happening in these war zones.
18. Gay newspapers suffered circulation and advertising losses in the late 2000s
because gay culture was becoming more mainstream.
19. Politically liberal and conservative people in the United States tend to get their news
from the same sources.
20. Because of their strong online presence, both the New York Times and the
Washington Post can be considered national newspapers.
21. Most of the audience for online news is made up of young people who don’t read
newspapers or watch television news programs.
22. Newspapers are in the process of moving from being products to being brands.
Essay
1. Who was the Yellow Kid?
2. What newspaper has the United States’ leading conservative editorial page?
3. What national newspaper suspended its paper edition and became a Web-only
publication?
4. What newspaper was known as the “gray lady?”
5. What kind of newspaper publishes on paper sized 17 22 inches?
6. When and why did ABC start their late-night news program Nightline?
7. Name three of the major six news values.
8. What does the “separation of church and state” mean in the journalism business?
9. Other than language, how do the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald differ from each
other?
10. Why is it difficult to compare the circulation of USA Today to other major
newspapers?
11. Describe the significance of the New York Sun and the penny press and how they
changed newspapers.
12. In a brief essay, discuss what motivates journalists to risk their lives reporting from
dangerous areas such as Syria and Afghanistan.
13. In a brief essay, discuss how “Secret 3—Everything from the margin moves to the
center” partially explains the decline of gay media.
14. In a brief essay, explain why the New York Times coverage (or lack of coverage) of
the Flint, Michigan, water crisis was controversial.
15. In a brief essay, explain what Jay Rosen’s concept of “the view from nowhere” is
and why reporters oftentimes use it to report the news.
16. In 2017, the Disney Corporation entered into a battle with the Los Angeles Times
over the Times’ coverage of the company’s business relationships with the city of
Anaheim, California. In a brief essay, explain how Disney attempted to retaliate against
the LA Times and how the conflict was eventually resolved.
