Exam 1

Question 1

What makes media mass?

Answer 1

o Large, anonymous, heterogeneous audience
o Large audiences are pursued using a linear process
o Institutional and organizational communication sources
o Economic focus on delivering largest possible audience to advertisers

Question 2

Concern for profit means that media content can be and has been influenced by:

Answer 2

• interests of their corporate parent
• interests of their advertisers
• concerns over public reactions

Question 3

Cognitive approach to mass communication

Answer 3

Our experience with media is a major way that we acquire knowledge about the world and form our “reality”
How we act on this knowledge then has consequences in terms of attitudes and behavior.
The emphasis is on the way that our minds create knowledge, a mental reality, about the world constructed from our experience with the media.
What do we learn from the media?
Beauty ideals, norms, stereotypes, news - how to behave within the world
How we act on this “reality”:
Develop our attitudes
Motivates our behaviors

Question 4

What makes mass communication count as communication?

Answer 4

o We are not passive receptacles
 Meaning constructed by viewer; not solely in content
 Meaning different depending on situation, knowledge, experience of user
o Context of communication
 Reading vs. listening/viewing
 Social situation

Question 5

Characteristics of newspapers

Answer 5

o Decline in circulation
 Circulation has decreased on average 2-3% per year
 Growth in online readership, particularly with mobile devices
 Decreased ad revenue, decreased employees
o Sports most-read section
o Concentration of news sources, especially wire services like AP and Reuters
o Higher income/SES, whites, older, more educated, read more
 More likely to get news from other sources as well

Question 6

Characteristics of magazines

Answer 6

o Fewer national interest, more specialty magazines
o Importance to socialization

Question 7

Characteristics of radio

Answer 7

o Radically changed after introduction of television
o Usually accompanied by other activities
o Highly age and interest segmented (rock, easy listening, country, alternative, etc.)
o Radio is the most available mass communication medium worldwide
 Does not depend on literacy, electricity, nor purchase of relatively expensive equipment
 Programming is very inexpensive to produce, especially talk and music formats

Question 8

Characteristics of television

Answer 8

o Average of 2.3 TV sets in each American home
 Declined slightly in recent years, most likely due to other devices being used for TV consumption
o 1980s and 1990s – growth of cable and satellite
 Network primetime share fell and still falling
o New technologies
 Streaming services and video on demand have led to:
* time shifting
* binge watching
o Average TV on 7-8 hours/day
 Average adult watches 5 hours/day
 Kids 8-18 watch more than 2.5 hours/day
* During childhood, most kids see much sex and violence (very little regarding responsible sex)

Question 9

TV use

Answer 9

 Rises sharply between ages 2 and 4
 Levels off until about age 8, rising again by age 12
 Falls during high school, college, and young adulthood
* Busy with romance, studying, working, listening to music, and parenting young children
 Late middle-age and beyond goes up
 Elderly is highest-viewing group
 Tends to be viewed more by minorities, low-SES, women
* Some of the most underrepresented groups

Question 10

Characteristics of computer-mediated communication (CMC)

Answer 10

o 90% in U.S. use the Internet
 67% of those 65 and older
* Common uses: information seeking on topics of interest to them, as well as frequent use for shopping and auctions
 99% of those 18-29
* Common uses: texting, social networking, and gaming
o Social media use is popular across age groups
 76% of Americans (65% of those over 18) report using at least one social networking website
 By 2010, Americans spent more time on social networking sites than on any other online activity

Question 11

Walther et al.’s qualities of the internet

Answer 11

 Multimedia
 Interactivity
 Hypertextuality
 Packet switching
 Synchronicity (One-to-one asynchronous, many-to-many asynchronous, asynchronous access, synchronous communication)

Question 12

Hypertextuality

Answer 12

Non-linear process of navigation
Most distinctive aspect of internet, different from all other media

Question 13

Multimedia

Answer 13

Written words, spoken words, pictures, sounds, video, and social interaction of the user with other users

Question 14

Interactivity

Answer 14

Can consume, produce, and share media, interact with others

Question 15

Packet - switching

Answer 15

Internet sends digital bits and content, encoded with identity and routing information, over multiple paths, such that it can be retrieved in multiple ways through multiple links

Question 16

Synchronicity

Answer 16

One - to - one asynchronous: e-mail
Many - to - many asynchronous: forums
Asynchronous access: websites
May evolve one-to-one, many-to-one, or one-to-many source-receiver relationships
Synchronous communication: chat rooms, role-playing games, DMs, video chats

Question 17

Types of media literacy

Answer 17

 Media content literacy
 Media grammar literacy
 Medium literacy

Question 18

Media literacy

Answer 18

a set of critical thinking skills involving the “ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and process media”

Question 19

Media content literacy

Answer 19

focuses on characters, themes, information, behaviors, and so on

Question 20

Media grammar literacy

Answer 20

learning the features of each particular medium
For example, as children mature and experience more TV, they acquire the knowledge of how to interpret the cuts, fades, dissolves, and general montage techniques used in the editing of film or TV.

Question 21

Medium literacy

Answer 21

involves learning the specific conventions, modalities, and processing requirements for using each particular medium

Question 22

Categories of media literacy intervention outcomes

Answer 22

 Media-relevant outcomes
 Behavior-relevant outcomes

Question 23

Media-relevant outcomes

Answer 23

focus on knowledge, particularly on understanding that there are often motives behind media.
One example of a media-relevant outcome is knowing the persuasive intent of ads and the techniques that advertising uses to persuade

Question 24

Behavior relevant outcomes

Answer 24

understanding the consequences of engaging in a behavior or holding particular attitudes about that behavior; for example, knowing that accepting the assumptions of a certain type of political ad could lead to voting against one’s own interest

Question 25

The media

Answer 25

a collective term that generally refers to content which is produced for many people to consume (i.e., to see, read, and/or listen to), such as news

Question 26

Medium

Answer 26

one form of the media For example, The Washington Post is one newspaper medium

Question 27

Media

Answer 27

the plural noun meaning more than one medium Twitter is a social medium, but when we talk about social media, we are also including other platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.

Question 28

Blacklisting

Answer 28

companies can buy advertising on news sites but dictate key words in stories or headlines that must be avoided near their ads

Question 29

Internet

Answer 29

the infrastructure (the computers and communication lines) that facilitate online communication

Question 30

Social media

Answer 30

completely dependent on Internet technology Social media are also different from older media in that the content is largely (although not exclusively) user-generated and shared

Question 31

Deepfake

Answer 31

artificial intelligence technology has emerged, which allows videos to be created or altered in ways that can be difficult to detect

Question 32

Multimedia aspect

Answer 32

(of the Internet) is not unique to CMC but is a central part of it CMC stimuli may contain any or all of the following: written words, spoken words, pictures, sounds, video, and social interaction of the user with other users

Question 33

Administrative research

Answer 33

Done by or for TV networks, publishers, corporations, or ad agencies for commercial purposes

Question 34

Critical research

Answer 34

Usually performed by independent scientists with the goal of understanding and explaining the effects of media and studying their role in society and in people’s lives

Question 35

Content research

Answer 35

 Often an important precursor to research on exposure or effects  Involves counting items of interest (content analysis) * Examples: instances of sexism, number of violent acts, representation of race  Must create operational definition first * Verbal and nonverbal components * Must have intercoder (interrater) reliability

Question 36

Exposure research

Answer 36

 Examine * What media people consume * How much they consume that media * Who is consuming that media  Amount of exposure only a gross indicator * Mere exposure doesn’t ensure effect * Must account for the amount and nature of attention devoted to the medium

Question 37

Direct-effects model

Answer 37

media have quick, strong, similar effects across all audience members * Not held by researchers, but still popular in public, especially media-bashers * May be most true with some unconscious responses (orienting response, arousal from certain content)

Question 38

Conditional-effects model

Answer 38

effects are powerful, but not in every context * Search for limiting conditions o Demographic variables o Properties of the message o Context of its reception * Due to mass audience, important even if very small percentage affected * Major effect to reinforce existing values/attitudes

Question 39

Cumulative effects

Answer 39

due to repeated exposure over time

Question 40

Behavioral effects

Answer 40

what we do - Difficult to measure or prove cause

Question 41

Attitudinal effects

Answer 41

what we feel  Emotions  Positive or negative evaluation  Sometimes connected to behaviors

Question 42

Cognitive effects

Answer 42

what we know  Information is not necessarily true

Question 43

Physiological effects

Answer 43

how we react physically

Question 44

Duration of effects

Answer 44

 Much research on very short-term effects  Short-term effects usually stronger

Question 45

Third-person effect

Answer 45

 People tend to believe that: * persuasive messages and other media influences can affect behavior * other people are more vulnerable than we are to such media influence

Question 46

Strength of effects

Answer 46

o Very difficult to calculate exact strength of effects because there are so many other factors o Some estimates (violence and sex-role attitudes) are significant but small-to-modest  Other factors naturally stronger (parents, peers)  Hard to measure effects because media so pervasive, no control group o Effects always larger in laboratory than field studies o Effects may be underestimated  Unethical to use strongest stimuli, especially on kids  Frequently assume linear effects, but may be curvilinear  Difficult to demonstrate causality  Effects may be much larger on some than others

Question 47

Social cognitive theory

Answer 47

(social learning, observational learning, modeling)  Watch mediated others perform behavior –> then imitate  1) Attention, 2) retention, 3) reproduction, 4) motivation  First applied to violence but has other relevance (sex, purchasing, prosocial media)

Question 48

Cultivation

Answer 48

 The more we are exposed to media, the more our worldview reflects the media world  Depends on repeated exposure to messages with similar themes  First-order effects * Heavy media users tend to overestimate prevalence in society  Second-order effects (“mean world syndrome”) * Heavy media users evaluate society based on media perception  Resonance when media world more or less consistent with real world (e.g., high-crime areas)  Mainstreaming

Question 49

Uses and gratifications approach

Answer 49

 Stresses reasons for using media and what is gained  Hedonic v. eudaimonic motivations

Question 50

Agenda setting

Answer 50

creation of public awareness and concern for salient issues  Media (especially news) do not tell us what to think, but what to think about * Particularly true for news and politics * Applies to other topics, such as the role of religion and safe sex in entertainment  Framing

Question 51

Framing

Answer 51

the way a problem is described selects or highlights certain aspects of its reality and neglects or downplays others

Question 52

Schema (script) theory

Answer 52

 Knowledge structures that organize memory of objects  Activated by media and used to help comprehend  Schemas and scripts learned from media

Question 53

Script

Answer 53

schema about an activity

Question 54

Limited capacity model

Answer 54

 Also called the Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing (LC4MP)  Ability to process information is limited  Three major subprocesses: encoding, storage, retrieval  Automatic processes take fewer resources than controlled processes (e.g., orienting response)  Importance of cognitive load

Question 55

Administrative research

Answer 55

done by or for TV networks, social media companies, publishers, corporations, or ad agencies for commercial purposes

Question 56

Critical research

Answer 56

performed by independent scientists, most often professors at colleges and universities, with the goal of understanding and explaining the effects of media and studying their role in society and in people’s lives

Question 57

Theory of uniform effects

Answer 57

argues that most individuals in a mass society perceive messages from media in the same fashion and react to them strongly and in a very similar way

Question 58

Attitudes

Answer 58

our impressions and evaluations of people and things

Question 59

Cognitive dissonance

Answer 59

Holding such inconsistent attitudes simultaneously

Question 60

Classical conditioning

Answer 60

whereby a conditioned stimulus (e.g., an advertised product) is associated with an unconditioned stimulus that naturally elicits some positive response

Question 61

Mainstreaming

Answer 61

gradual homogenization of viewpoints from exposure

Question 62

Construction

Answer 62

viewers learn about the real world from observing the world of media

Question 63

Resonance

Answer 63

When this constructed world and the real world of one’s experience have a high degree of consistency, and the cultivation effect is even stronger.

Question 64

Drench hypothesis

Answer 64

a highly respected and popular TV character can have far more impact than a dozen other characters seen and identified with by far fewer viewers

Question 65

Hedonic

Answer 65

assumption of the wish to be entertained, or pleasure-seeking

Question 66

Eudaimonic

Answer 66

May be seen as non-hedonic, involving personal expressiveness, competence, autonomy, self-development, and deep meaning

Question 67

Information processing involves three major subprocesses:

Answer 67

encoding (understanding and putting information in), storage (hanging onto information for possible later use), and retrieval (being able to recall information later)

Question 68

Online processing

Answer 68

moment-by-moment workings of attention, perception, comprehension, interpretation, and memory o Assumes we actively process, not passively receive media o Important issue, because processing varies so much o Difficult to study, so less research

Question 69

Attention

Answer 69

We select some information to attend to and process further; this necessarily means neglecting other info

Question 70

Multitasking

Answer 70

* Typical adult or child over age 5 attends to the TV between 55% and 70% of the time it is on o Depends on time of day/type of program being watched o Morning and afternoon: receive less attention (and more multitasking) than evening o Comedies: more attention than dramas, news, or commercials o While multitasking with TV, we cognitively process information at a lower, more concrete and superficial level

Question 71

How to measure attention

Answer 71

 Looks  Visual fixation  Reaction time (RT) to secondary task – longer time means more attention to primary task  Physiological measures

Question 72

Principles guiding visual attention

Answer 72

 Attention guided by comprehension * Attention less if material incomprehensible or overly comprehensible (too predictable) * Children don’t attend to what they can’t understand

Question 73

Change blindness

Answer 73

We do not notice changes in a continuous visual scene as we watch it

Question 74

Inattentional blindness

Answer 74

The inability to see something because our focus is drawn elsewhere

Question 75

Movie mistakes (continuity errors)

Answer 75

 Present in virtually all movies (www.moviemistakes.com)  Not noticed due to change/inattentional blindness

Question 76

Attentional inertia

Answer 76

 If currently paying attention, more likely to continue  If currently inattentive, more likely to continue  Attentive viewers tend to look away during segment boundaries, inattentive viewers look at TV

Question 77

Comprehension

Answer 77

o Knowledge necessary to comprehend media stories  Knowledge of story forms – narrative script (exposition, complication, resolution)  Knowledge of the world * Scripts about particular activities * Specific knowledge of that content area  Knowledge of medium conventions * Formal features

Question 78

Willing suspension of disbelief necessary to appreciate media:

Answer 78

We accept the characters portrayed on screen as real human beings so that we can identify with them to experience their joys and sorrows

Question 79

Transportation

Answer 79

 Absorption into a narrative  Involves narrative understanding, attentional focus, emotional engagement, and narrative presence  Both cognitive and emotional activation

Question 80

Identification

Answer 80

 We mentally compare ourselves to and imagine ourselves like a media character  Easier to identify with characters with whom we have more experiences in common or like (but not necessary)

Question 81

Parasocial interaction

Answer 81

the perception of conversational give-and-take between a media user and a character

Question 82

Parasocial relationship

Answer 82

a seeming face-to-face relationship between media user and character

Question 83

Parasocial breakup

Answer 83

the loss of a media character with whom one has a parasocial relationship  Shares many characteristics with a real-life breakup

Question 84

The reflection myth

Answer 84

Media as vehicles for reflecting world

Question 85

Media not merely reflecting world – rather construct a world which then becomes reality...

Answer 85

 Accepted by viewers, who are often unaware such a process happening  Especially important in cases of less life experience

Question 86

Second screening

Answer 86

our attention while watching TV is drawn to our phones, tablets, or computers

Question 87

Factuality

Answer 87

(magic window, literal reality)  Did events actually happen, or is it fiction? * By age 4, kids differentiate real and televised images o Improve up to age 10 (when comparable to adults) o Unreality mostly cued by physically impossible events (e.g., people flying) * Important whether perceived as real or fiction

Question 88

Social realism

Answer 88

 Events similar to real life, believable, useful  Depends more on content than age  Personal vs. social level

Question 89

Typicality

Answer 89

to judge the social reality of television; the more typical a situation seems, the more real it is judged to be

Question 90

Parasocial grief

Answer 90

When decades-old soap operas have been canceled, faithful viewers feel a genuine sense of loss at the demise of beloved characters

Question 91

Parasocial romance

Answer 91

Those who are single are more likely than those in an ongoing romantic relationship to develop romantic parasocial connections, although parasocial romance is equally common among men and women

Question 92

Emotion

Answer 92

affective state  Unobservable directly, must be inferred  Two components * Physiological * Cognitive (thought) o Person searches for reason for physical change  Theoretical issue whether physiological or cognitive comes first o Emotions experienced vicariously by consumers during viewing, listening, reading

Question 93

Emotional expression

Answer 93

o More acceptable in some mediated contexts o May be greatly affected by presence of others  Depending who they are and how they’re reacting o Children learn to deal with and express emotions through media

Question 94

Empathy

Answer 94

the ability to understand and feel what someone else is feeling  Emotional identification  Trait and state  Cognitive empathy  Emotional empathy  Limited by omniscient nature of audience * Sometimes less enjoyable if we know outcome and thus can’t experience same emotion  Empathy is dispositional, excitatory, and experiential * One may override the others, particularly negative disposition

Question 95

Cognitive empathy

Answer 95

ability to take the perspective of another

Question 96

Emotional empathy

Answer 96

responding at a purely emotional level

Question 97

Suspense

Answer 97

 The blend of positive and negative emotion that is experienced when we encounter narrative situations with unknown outcomes that threaten liked protagonists * Outcome uncertain, but neg. outcome strongly suggested * Omniscient knowledge may increase suspense

Question 98

Text-orient approach to suspense

Answer 98

Outcome uncertainty, delay factors, threats to the character

Question 99

Reception approach to suspense

Answer 99

Identify with characters, expectations and curiosity, emotions (such as empathy), and concurrent activities/social situation

Question 100

Incongruity plus resolution in humor

Answer 100

Show contradiction, resolve it in punch line

Question 101

Challenge enhances humor if not too much...

Answer 101

 Some “dumb” jokes appeal to kids but not adults  Esoteric in-jokes taking much thought are appealing if understood

Question 102

Catharsis

Answer 102

 Emotional release through expression of repressed impulses * Humor as healthy outlet; comedian can say things we can’t * Same principle involved with sex and violence  NOTE: There is a little research support for media catharsis

Question 103

Social factors of humor

Answer 103

 Presence of group – comedy funnier in group? * Laugh track to encourage humorous response  Person telling joke may be important * e.g., person of color can tell ethnic joke, white can’t

Question 104

Individual / cultural differences of humor

Answer 104

 Individual differences in verbal humor, ethnic jokes, practical jokes  Changes within culture over time * Accept some sexual innuendo, but not jokes concerning violence toward women

Question 105

Moral assessment

Answer 105

recipient of the humor is a “moral monitor” who either applauds or condemns the intentions of the other character(s)  Audience response depends on whether character’s response is positive or negative

Question 106

Humor in context of serious information

Answer 106

 May increase motivation and interest  Comic relief  Issue of possibly trivializing serious topics  Risk of distraction * Ads: people may remember joke but forget message

Question 107

Mood management

Answer 107

Use media to improve/maintain mood

Question 108

Media judged on:

Answer 108

 absorption potential  excitatory potential  hedonic valence (positivity or negativity of content)  semantic affinity (similarity to events that caused current mood)

Question 109

Emotional contagion

Answer 109

we unconsciously mimic and synchronize our language and behavior to those around us

Question 110

Omniscient

Answer 110

we generally know more of what is going on than a character does, as when we know that the bad guy is just around the bend waiting to ambush our unsuspecting hero

Question 111

Excitatory potential

Answer 111

a reflexive response to a stimulus (a factor of empathy)

Question 112

Hedonic valence

Answer 112

positivity or negativity of content

Question 113

Semantic affinity

Answer 113

similarity to events that caused current mood

Question 114

To maintain good mood, choose media content that has:

Answer 114

low absorption potential, positive valence, high semantic affinity (excitatory potential depends)

Question 115

To improve bad mood, choose media content that has:

Answer 115

high absorption potential, positive valence, low semantic affinity (excitatory potential depends)

Question 116

Listening to popular music is...

Answer 116

one of most preferred leisure activities worldwide by young adults

Question 117

Uses and gratifications of music

Answer 117

Physiologically arousing – get “pumped up”

Question 118

Mood management with music

Answer 118

* Induce pleasant mood states (of different sorts) * Reduce feelings of anxiety, lift the spirits  Fill silence, background noise, company

Question 119

Social function of music

Answer 119

* Background or a part of talking with friends, partying, etc. * May listen alone but for reasons that serve social relationships

Question 120

Group identity (music)

Answer 120

music choice as mark of group Serves to separate adolescents from adults

Question 121

Agent of socialization

Answer 121

brings one into that subculture Learn how to dress, act, etc.

Question 122

Music content trends

Answer 122

 Most common theme over last 70 years is being in love * Lyrics more sexually explicit than they used to be  Increase of violent and misogynistic themes in 1990s (especially rap, punk, and heavy metal) * Increasingly these themes became more mainstream  Promotion of drug use * Many references to drug use, little mention of negative consequences  Interpretation of content * Teens may see less sex and more love than adults do in same lyrics * Girls see sexy woman as powerful figure, men as plaything * Often teens do not fully understand the lyrics

Question 123

Music has clear research support for

Answer 123

* arousal * desensitization * eliciting behaviors (e.g., aggression, prosocial behaviors) * powerful memory cues o Involuntary Musical Imagery (IAMs), also called “earworms”  May be effect of genre perception * People over 40/parents liked lyrics less if told they were rap than if told they were country

Question 124

Why do we watch sports?

Answer 124

Most likely media to be viewed in groups- fanship learning release companionship pass the time or because one is bored

Question 125

Fanship

Answer 125

focus on thrill of victory and identification with the players

Question 126

Learning

Answer 126

acquiring information about the game and the players

Question 127

Release

Answer 127

“letting off steam,” relaxing, and eating and drinking

Question 128

Companionship

Answer 128

watching in order to be in the company of others who are watching

Question 129

Psychological issues of sports violence:

Answer 129

* Media tend to focus on brawls/fights on the field o Sets the agenda * Sports violence is enjoyed more if: o viewer is inherently violent o victim of violence is disliked o violence is morally sanctioned * Overall, more violence is more enjoyable (particularly for men)

Question 130

Emotional benefits of sports media

Answer 130

* Catharsis – NO support * Disposition theory of sportsfanship o Enjoyment greater when you like winning team/dislike losing team * Basking in reflected glory (BIRG) * Cutting off reflected failure (CORF)

Question 131

Sports and hero worship:

Answer 131

 Sports stars as heroes * Fans develop significant parasocial relationships * Imitation of heroes o Drug use of particular concern  Should there be harder penalties for sports star drug use? * Advertising contracts lucrative for stars o Must uphold certain image

Question 132

Male sports coverage:

Answer 132

 Male sports get media coverage and money * Up to 95% sports media coverage overall of men's sports * In Sports Illustrated: 95% of covers feature male athletes * Do media create or reflect reality?

Question 133

Female sports in the media:

Answer 133

more likely to be: * described in less powerful and success-oriented language * called by their first names * described in ambivalent language * described in terms of their attractiveness and sexuality (males in strength and athleticism)

Question 134

Boys in sports:

Answer 134

pressured into playing and watching sports more than girls hard to be a boy not interested in watching sports

Question 135

Sports is one of few areas when men can...

Answer 135

express emotion even social pressure to do so while watching

Question 136

Black athletes in sports:

Answer 136

 Many black athletes, but few head coaches or front office personnel in NFL/NBA * Black athletes described more in terms of physical size and ability o Focus on “natural” athleticism and physicality