Test Bank For Government in America People Politics and Policy 17th Edition

Test Bank for Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy, 17th Edition
Test Bank for Government in America: People,

Politics, and Policy, 17th Edition
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7
The Mass Media and the
Political Agenda
 Multiple-Choice Questions
Questions 1 and 2 refer to the following graph.

How the audiences of cable news channels are polarized by political ideology.
Source: 2014 Pew Research Center Survey data.
1. Based on the graph, which cable news channel has the clearest ideological appeal?
a. Fox
b. CNN
c. MSNBC —Consider This: MSNBC ranked third with every group on the scale.
d. CNBC
Answer: a
Topic: The Mass Media Today
Copyright © 2018, 2016, 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Learning Objective: LO 7.1: Describe the structure and functions of the media,
past and present.
Page Reference: 201
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Difficulty Level: Moderate
2. Which of the following is a consequence of the trend evident in this graph?
a. Young adults are more likely than other age groups to use newspapers and
broadcast media as news and information sources. —Consider This: Younger
citizens are more likely to rely on infotainment than other age groups for their news
coverage.
b. Young adults are less likely than other age groups to use newspapers and
broadcast media as news and information sources.
c. Most Americans follow politics more frequently and with greater intensity than
they follow popular culture.
d. Narrowcasting has encouraged less repetition of stories on cable news programs.
Answer: b
past and present.
Page Reference: 200
Skill Level: Analyze It
Difficulty Level: Difficult

The length of candidate sound bites in four countries (in seconds).
Source: Frank Esser, “Dimensions of Political News Cultures: Sound Bite and Image Bite
News in France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States,” The International Journal of
Press/Politics (2008): 401–428.
3. Based on the graph, how do candidate sound bites in the USA compare to other
nations?
a. Sound bites are longer in the USA than in other nations.

b. Only non-English speaking nations have longer sound bites than the USA.
c. Candidate sound bites are shorter in the USA than other nations.
d. People in Europe have less patience for politics than people in the USA.—
Consider This: Sound bites in European nations are longer than in the USA.
Answer: c
Topic: Reporting the News
Learning Objective: LO 7.2: List the major criteria that determine which news
stories receive the most media attention.
Page Reference: 208
4. How do the differences in press coverage between the initial speeches given to
Congress by President Reagan in 1981 and by President Obama in 2009 support the
information in this graph?
a. It shows a diminishing audience for national news and presidential messages.

b. It indicates that presidential addresses receive higher Nielsen ratings today than
they did several decades ago.
c. It proves more Americans read presidential addresses in newspapers, while fewer
view coverage on TV —Consider This: American’s consumption of the news seems
to be in decline.
d. It suggests that more than 50 percent of Americans can be expected to tune in to
watch presidential addresses to Congress.
Answer: a
Topic: Introduction
Learning Objective: Introduction
Page Reference: 193
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Questions 5 and 6 refer to the following image.
Credit: © Tribune Content Agency, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission.
5. Which of the following accurately describes the cartoonist’s message?
a. Only a superhero can save the newspaper industry.

b. Unemployment in the newspaper industry is skyrocketing. —Consider This:
Unemployment has decreased as more newspapers shut down, but that is not the
focus on this cartoon.
c. The rise of the Internet led to the decline of the newspaper industry.
d. Newspaper owners are evil.
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 7.1: Describe the structure and the functions of the media,
past and present.
Page Reference: 197
6. Which of the following facts proves the cartoonist’s point?
a. In the past fifty years, newspaper sales have doubled. —Consider This: American
newspaper subscription rates have been in serious decline.
b. In the 1960s more people watched the news than read newspapers.
c. Since 1960, newspaper sales have gone from one for every two adults to one for
every six adults.
d. Only one in ten adults read a newspaper on a regular basis in the 1960s and today.
Answer: c
past and present.
Page Reference: 197
Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images News/Getty Images
7. Which of the following trends is illustrated by media coverage of the political scandal
involving Dennis Hastert?
a. the public’s need for objective information about politicians —Consider This:
Many Americans form their opinions about politicians by consulting media sources
with similar political leanings.
b. the media’s focus on sensational stories
c. the growing importance of political news
d. the power of press conferences to show the truth
Answer: c
stories receive the most media coverage.
Page Reference: 209
8. Which of the following does research suggest is the overriding bias in the news?
a. Many network stories favor liberals. —Consider This: There is little evidence that
suggests a consistent liberal bias in the media.
b. Newspaper articles tend to favor conservative causes.
c. Coverage is determined by what draws the largest audience.
d. The president is consistently shown in a good light to boost morale.
Answer: c
Page Reference: 210

What should be done about the digital divide?
Source: Andrew Perrin and Maeve Duggan, “Americans’ Internet Access: 2000–2015,” Pew Research Center,
June 26, 2015.
9. Based on the graph, which group of people demonstrates the highest level of
Internet usage?
a. college graduates
b. high school graduates
c. high school drop outs —Consider This: People who did not finish high school
show the lowest levels of Internet usage.
d. doctoral candidates
Answer: a
past and present.
Page Reference: 202
Difficulty Level: Easy
10. Why might some people believe that this “digital divide” must be remedied?
a. social media is a major news source

b. all people should have the same access to information
c. owning a computer is a basic right —Consider This: Many people consider
Internet access a basic right, but not owning a computer.
d. the income gap continues to grow in America
Answer: b
past and present.
Page Reference: 202
Questions 11 and 12 refer to the following cartoon.
Credit: Aaron Bacall/CartoonStock Ltd.
11. Based on the cartoon, which of the following is to blame for the superficiality in
media reporting?
a. cable news
b. social media —Consider This: Many citizens prefer their news to be more
entertaining than informational.
c. the Internet
d. the public
Answer: d
Topic: Understanding the Mass Media
Learning Objective: LO 7.5: Assess the impact of the mass media on the scope of
government and democracy in America.
Page Reference: 215
12. Which of the following is a consequence of the rise of television broadcasting?
a. The news consumed by the American public is more entertaining than educational.
b. Individuals have a greater need for political parties to help them make decisions.
c. Groups have greater access to spread their issues and messages to the public. —
Consider This: Individual interest groups have little control over what is aired on
corporate television networks.
d. The American public is better informed about politics and Congress is basing its
opinions more on public opinion.
Answer: a
Page Reference: 215
Credit: Brett Carlsen/Getty Images News/Getty Images
13. How did local activists bring attention to the Flint water crisis in 2016?
a. They appeared in front of Congress to ask for help. —Consider This: Though the
city and activists appealed to local and national governments for help, the activists
themselves devoted time to helping people rather than lobbying in Washington.
b. Widespread images of their work drew attention to their cause.
c. They engaged in civil disobedience to spread their message.
d. They took out newspaper ads to plead for help.
Answer: b
Page Reference: 214
14. What do issues like the Flint water crisis, which attract serious attention from public
officials and other people actively involved in politics at the time, collectively make?
a. news agenda
b. policy agenda
c. media agenda —Consider This: Political actors are seeking to have their priorities
take precedence over other groups in society in terms of outcomes.
d. entrepreneurial agenda
Answer: b
Topic: Policy Entrepreneurs and Agenda Setting
Learning Objective: LO 7.4: Explain how policy entrepreneurs employ media
strategies to influence the public agenda.
Page Reference: 212
15. Which term collectively refers to television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the
Internet, and other forms of communication?
a. mass media
b. media conglomeration —Consider This: In the United States it is the private
ownership of media that leads to this outcome.
c. partisan press
d. fifth estate
Answer: a
Topic: Introduction
Learning Objective: Introduction
Page Reference: 193
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
16. Which body did Congress create in 1934 to regulate the use of the airwaves?
a. Federal Trade Commission —Consider This: The airwaves are owned by the
public.
b. Equal Opportunity Commission
c. Federal Communications Commission
d. Department of Media Communications
Answer: c
past and present.
Page Reference: 198
17. Which of the following massive media conglomerates publishes over 80 percent of
the nation’s daily newspapers?
a. narrowcasters
b. chains
c. broadcasters
d. associated press outlets —Consider This: Journalism has long been big business in
the United States.
Answer: b
past and present.
Page Reference: 205
18. What is the primary interest of publicly owned media in democracies?
a. reducing recidivism
b. serving the public interest
c. promoting the government —Consider This: In countries like China, the
government controls the media and often promotes the government.
d. entertaining viewers
Answer: b
past and present.
Page Reference: 204
19. What is the primary interest of privately owned media?
a. making a profit
b. serving the public interest —Consider This: Private media outlets must attract an
audience for paid advertising.
c. spreading propaganda
d. informing the public
Answer: a
past and present.
Page Reference: 204
20. How does the increasing focus of media conglomerates on making a profit affect
television news?
a. The quality of news reporting has increased considerably in an attempt to sway

more viewers and more advertisers.
b. A study of a set of major newspapers found that the total number of foreign news
stories in U.S. newspapers doubled between 1985 and 2014. —Consider This: Many
foreign news bureaus are costly to staff and run.
c. Media organizations have cut back on their foreign bureaus and on international
news.
d. Television news is increasingly viewed as a public service that benefits the media
conglomerate by generating goodwill with viewers.
Answer: c
past and present.
Page Reference: 205
21. What is the tendency for viewers to seek news that aligns with their existing ideas?
a. Narrowcasting
b. Investigative journalism
c. Selective exposure
d. Logrolling —Consider This: Liberals prefer to watch MSNBC while conservatives
prefer to get their news from FOX.
Answer: c
past and present.
Page Reference: 200
22. What are the specific locations from which news frequently emanates called?
a. trial balloons —Consider This: Most reporters become specialists in specific areas
of news coverage.
b. news houses
c. reporters’ clubs
d. beats
Answer: d
Page Reference: 206
23. Of which of the following powers is increasing public attention to specific problems
is a core feature?
a. watchdog —Consider This: The media can be useful in shaping what government
discusses.
b. investigative
c. agenda-setting
d. score-keeping
Answer: c
Page Reference: 212
24. What are people who invest their political capital in an issue called?
a. agenda setters
b. policy entrepreneurs
c. lobbyists —Consider This: Lobbyists seek to directly influence a political outcome.
d. gatekeepers
Answer: b
Page Reference: 212
25. What is an event called that is purposely staged for the media and that is significant
just because the media are there?
a. a think tank
b. a pork-barrel project —Consider This: In the last four weeks of a presidential
campaign 80 percent of the stories involve tightly scripted appearances by
candidates.
c. a media event
d. a round-robin event
Answer: c
past and present.
Page Reference: 194
26. When did the cozy relationship between politicians and the press in the twentieth
century last until?
a. the Iran Hostage Crisis

b. World War II
c. the beginning of Franklin Roosevelt’s presidency —Consider This: The media
treated Roosevelt with a great deal of deference.
d. the Vietnam War and Watergate
Answer: d
Page Reference: 195
27. Which type of journalism uses in-depth reporting to unearth scandals, scams, and
schemes, at times putting reporters in adversarial relationships with political leaders?
a. beat
b. gatekeeping —Consider This: The story about the Watergate break in is a prime
example of this type of journalism.
c. investigative
d. law-and-order
Answer: c
Learning Objective: LO 7.1: Describe how American politicians choreograph their
messages through the mass media.
Page Reference: 195
28. Which of the following is a result of the increased number of news and infotainment
options in which media outlets focus on a particular interest and aim at a particular
audience?
a. investigative journalism —Consider This: In the early days of media news story
were transmitted to a wide audience.
b. watchdog journalism
c. narrowcasting
d. selective exposure
Answer: c
past and present.
Page Reference: 199-200
29. Thomas Patterson’s careful analysis of campaign reporting has shown that since
1960, its emphasis has changed dramatically from __________.
a. negative information about the candidates to negative assessments about the

parties —Consider This: Much of the news coverage during a campaign is dedicated
to questions about who is ahead and who is behind.
b. the candidates’ policy statements to the campaign as a horse race
c. covering events to covering ideas
d. sensational information about the candidates to substantive information about the
issues
Answer: b
past and present.
Page Reference: 195
30. How has news coverage changed as technology has enabled the media to pass along
information with greater speed?
a. It is more homogenous
b. Coverage is less thorough
c. Reporters are more objective
d. The news is less biased —Consider This: While there has been a proliferation of
news sources since the rise of the Internet there has been little appreciable increase
in the quality of the news consumed by citizens.
Answer: b
31. What do public officials often leak to reporters to see what the political reaction will
be?
a. trial balloons
b. sound bites —Consider This: A sound bite, averaging about 10 seconds, is all that
is usually seen of a politician’s speech on the nightly television news.
c. beats
d. oiled news
Answer: a
Page Reference: 230
32. Which of the following does Epstein’s News From Nowhere suggest about
newsworthiness?
a. TV networks define news as what is entertaining to average viewers.

b. The media strive for quality of story rather than ratings. —Consider This: The
corporate structure of the American media demands that news programming attract
an audience for advertising.
c. The media tend to report only the most important stories.
d. The media tend to pitch stories to a relatively high level of viewer sophistication.
Answer: a
Page Reference: 206
33. Research by Miller and Krosnick demonstrates that the effects of agenda-setting by
media are particularly strong among which group?
a. politically knowledgeable citizens who trust the media

b. politically knowledgeable citizens who distrust the media —Consider This:
Agenda setting reflects a deliberate process on the part of knowledgeable citizens.
c. younger citizens who trust the media
d. older citizens who distrust the media
Answer: a
Topic: The News and Public Opinion
Learning Objective: LO 7.3: Analyze the impact of the media on public opinion
and political behavior.
Page Reference: 211
34. Iyengar and Kinder’s research found that TV news __________.
a. can alter the priorities Americans attach to problems depending on which stories
are covered
b. has minimal effects on the public opinion of viewers —Consider This:
Conservatives are more likely to watch a news story if they believe it came from
FOX.
c. discourages citizens from voting by focusing on the imperfections of the
democratic system
d. selects stories that are especially important to business interests
Answer: a
Page Reference: 200
35. What did the “minimal effects hypothesis” suggest that the media has a minimal
effect on?
a. public opinion
b. policymakers’ issue positions —Consider This: Most of the early scholarship on
media affects focused on how the media affected what people think and not what
they think about.
c. Americans’ consumption of newspapers
d. Americans who do not watch TV
Answer: a
behavior.
Page Reference: 210
36. What do policy entrepreneurs invest in an issue?
a. their life savings —Consider This: Policy entrepreneurs often trade on personal
contacts to achieve their policy goals.
b. financial expertise
c. political capital
d. scant attention
Answer: c
Page Reference: 212
37. What is the media’s role between the people and policymakers?
a. key linkage institution

b. general adversary
c. stakeholder —Consider This: Citizens can use the media to remain connected to
and vigilant over government.
d. dividing institution
Answer: a
Page Reference: 213
38. Which of these is an example of a major television network?
a. ABC
b. Knight-Ridder
c. Associated Press —Consider This: The major networks send their signals out to a
very wide audience.
d. Gannett
Answer: a
Learning Objective: LO 7.1: Describe how American politicians choreograph their
messages through the mass media.
Page Reference: 199
39. Which president practically invented media politics?
a. Franklin D. Roosevelt
b. Herbert Hoover —Consider This: Hoover’s successor is credited with inventing
media politics.
c. Ronald Reagan
d. John F. Kennedy
Answer: a
past and present.
40. Top aides to President Clinton leaked his admission of an “inappropriate

relationship” to the New York Times in order to gauge the public response to the
revelation, leading Clinton to admit the “inappropriate relationship” to the grand
jury. Which of the following tactics does this exemplify?
a. beat
b. trial balloon
c. talking head
d. sound bite —Consider This: A sound bite is short snippet of a politician’s speech
that is shown on the television news.
Answer: b
stories receive the most attention.
Page Reference: 206
41. From which of the following, including the White House, the Pentagon, and the
State Department, do correspondents originate TV news stories covering military
conflicts?
a. associated presses —Consider This: Most top reporters are specialists because of
the locations at which they work.
b. networks
c. trial balloons
d. beats
Answer: d
Page Reference: 206
42. Politicians rely on journalists to get out their message, and journalists rely on
politicians to keep them in the know. Which of the following relationships do
politicians and journalists have?
a. parasitic
b. symbiotic
c. cooperative
d. antagonistic —Consider This: While the press and political actors are often at
odds with one another they both need each other as well.
Answer: b
Page Reference: 206
43. Which of these would a major TV network be least likely to show for very long?
a. ambassadors fighting at the United Nations

b. talking heads discussing a major news event
c. the aftermath of a major natural disaster
d. footage of a domestic terrorist attack —Consider This: T.V. news is little more
than a headline service with news compressed into thirty second segments.
Answer: b
44. During a 1976 presidential debate, President Ford made a mistake by saying that the
Soviet Union was not the dominant force in Eastern Europe. The statement was
given much press coverage, and polls indicated that most viewers did not recognize
the error until they learned of it on the news. What effect did this reporting have on
public opinion?
a. It made Ford more personally likable.—Consider This: Most people did not realize
that Ford had made an error until the press told them so.
b. It made Ford seem less vulnerable.
c. It made Ford seem more qualified.
d. It made Ford seem less qualified.
Test Bank for Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy, 17th Edition
Answer: d
Page Reference: 212
45. Civil rights activists in the 1960s used the media to show Americans the injustice of
the treatment of minorities, successfully placing the civil rights issue onto the
__________.
a. policy entrepreneur
b. policy agenda
c. press conference
d. news beat —Consider This: Protesters have learned that they can capture the
media’s attention by staging an interesting or controversial event.
Answer: b
Learning Objective: LO 7.4: Describe how politicians use the media to
communicate with the electorate.
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Test Bank for Government in America: People,

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Questions 1 and 2 refer to the following graph.

Source: 2014 Pew Research Center Survey data.

2. Which of the following is a consequence of the trend evident in this graph?

Questions 3 and 4 refer to the following graph.

a. Sound bites are longer in the USA than in other nations.

a. It shows a diminishing audience for national news and presidential messages.

Questions 5 and 6 refer to the following image.

5. Which of the following accurately describes the cartoonist’s message?

a. Only a superhero can save the newspaper industry.

6. Which of the following facts proves the cartoonist’s point?

Questions 7 and 8 refer to the following image.

Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Questions 9 and 10 refer to the following graph.

a. social media is a major news source

Questions 11 and 12 refer to the following cartoon.

12. Which of the following is a consequence of the rise of television broadcasting?

Questions 13 and 14 refer to the following image.

Credit: Brett Carlsen/Getty Images News/Getty Images

18. What is the primary interest of publicly owned media in democracies?

19. What is the primary interest of privately owned media?

a. The quality of news reporting has increased considerably in an attempt to sway

a. the Iran Hostage Crisis

a. negative information about the candidates to negative assessments about the

a. TV networks define news as what is entertaining to average viewers.

a. politically knowledgeable citizens who trust the media

34. Iyengar and Kinder’s research found that TV news __________.

36. What do policy entrepreneurs invest in an issue?

a. key linkage institution

38. Which of these is an example of a major television network?

39. Which president practically invented media politics?

40. Top aides to President Clinton leaked his admission of an “inappropriate

a. ambassadors fighting at the United Nations

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