Chapter 6 Flashcards
Narrowcasting
The emergence of news outlets on cable television and the Internet that offer specialty content for small, niche audiences.
Mass media
All means of communication with the general public, including television, newspapers, magazines, radio, books, recordings, motion pictures, and the Internet.
Fourth estate
The free news press and the people and institutions of the free press.
News making
Deciding what events, topics, presentations, and issues will be given coverage in the news.
Agenda setting
Deciding what will be decided, defining the problems and issues to be addressed by decision makers.
Socialization
The learning of a culture and its values.
Soft news
News features in talk shows, late-night comedy, and TV news magazines- reaches more people than regular news broadcasts.
Muckraking
Journalistic exposes of corruption, wrongdoing, or mismanagement in government, business, and institutions of society.
Feeding frenzy
Intense media coverage of a scandal or event that blocks out most other news.
Pundits
An individual who offers expert opinion to the mass media.
Name recognition
Public awareness of a candidate- whether people even know his or her name.
Media events
Staged activities designed to attract media attention.
Horse-race coverage
Media coverage of electoral campaigns that concentrates on who is ahead and who is behind, and neglects the issues at stake.
Sound bite
Concise and catchy phrase that attracts media coverage.
Prior restraint
Government actions to restrict publication of a magazine, newspaper, or books on the grounds of libel, obscenity, or other legal violations prior to actual publication of the work.
Equal-time rule
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirement that broadcasters who sell time to any political candidate must make equal time available to opposing candidates at the same price.
Libel
Writings that are false and malicious and intended to damage an individual.
Slander
Oral statements that are false and malicious and intended to damage an individual.
Sullivan rule
Court guideline that false and malicious statements regarding public officials are protected by the first amendment unless it can be proven they were known to be false at the time they were made or made with “reckless disregard” for their truth or falsehood
New media
Content and technology that result in the ability of individuals to actively and immediately share content generated in traditional media forms (text, image, sound, and video).
Cyber culture
The emergent culture that results from computerization, networking, and use of new media.
Cyber politics
The application of new media to campaign politics.
Social media applications
Internet and new media applications that facilitate social coordination and interaction.
Money bombs
Large amounts of money raised in a brief period of time using only online resources.
Information overload
Situation in which individuals are subjected to so many communications that they cannot make sense of them.
Selective perception
Mentally screening out information or opinions with which one disagrees.
Television malaise
Generalized feelings of distrust, cynicism, and powerlessness stemming from television’s emphasis on the negative aspects of American life.
What has been referred to as the fourth branch of government?
The media
What is the most powerful media of communication?
Television
What medium is the second-most used source for politics?
The Internet.
According to the Pew Research Center survey taken December 1-5, 2010, what percentage of Americans says that the news organizations generally “get their facts straight”?
29 percent
What was Thomas Jefferson’s view on newspapers and how did it change?
He once wrote that he would prefer newspapers without government to a government without newspapers. But after serving as president, he wrote that people who never read newspapers are better informed than those who do, because ignorance is closer to the truth than the falsehoods spread by the newspapers.
