JCOM 1500 Quizzes

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JCOM 1500 Quiz Archive • (online)

WEEK1Intro2MassCommQuiz • FIXT
Quiz1—The Syllabus
Here are my responses to these items. It wasn’t a real quiz, of course—just a way for me to see if you found and read all that opening stuff. Here are my thoughts on these issues, subject to your responses, too, if you feel so moved.

1. There are quotes from real people throughout the Smarts syllabus, including the four that lead it. Pick one of the quotes from anywhere in the syllabus that you particularly like, and that you can relate to your idea of why being “media smart” is important. (two pithy sentences +/-).
Pease writes: I like so many quotes from Stoppard’s “nudging the world a little” to Ginzberg controlling the culture, to the thousands of others I’ve collected over 14 years of Today’s WORD on Journalism. I also like Sir William Berkleley, because he ridiculously condemns both education and free thinking in one swoop. But E.B. White is one of my particular heroes. His quote about television, from the first time he saw it demonstrated in New York in 1938, was prescient, I think. Can you imagine worrying in such circumstances about how “messages, distant and concocted” would affect how people interacted with each other, and wondering if TV would be a “saving radiance” or a “disturbance of the general peace.” Smart man. And that’s exactly the kind of issue we examine in this class—how technological changes in media changed and affected the larger society. And how about Pease’s horoscope in the Wednesday (1/20) WORD?

2. What is a pictograph? And why might we think of Dr. Ted’s “Ooog the caveman” as the first journalist? What did he do that was revolutionary and different from other cavepeople sitting around the mastodon BBQ, grunting?
Pease writes: Some of you didn’t really think through this little fiction about Ooog and Furd and the pictographs. (These images are actually petroglyphs. There’s a difference, but both are rock drawings.) The invention of cave drawings was a major deal, because instead of grunting to other cavemen face to face, stories now could be told to multiple people over long periods of time—the first form of “mass communication,” maybe. That’s why I say that Ooog and other cavemen who recorded their stories on cave walls were different from other oral storytellers. Their stories lived on and many more people read them. In fact, down south of Moab there’s a wall of pictographs about 50 feet square called “Newspaper Rock,” so-called because it records the stories of Anasazi life and death.


More specifically, here’s Ooogs’s first critic....


3. Before we even start, how do you think of your own mass media use? Do you use mass media a lot? What kind? What do you use it for, mostly?
Pease writes: There’s obviously no “correct” answer to this question. But here’s something to think about: The “Information Age” is a time when there is more knowledge available to us than has ever been true. But are we (are you?) better informed than our parents were? The question of how we use mass media is important, because are we using the information available to us for something useful‹to be better informed about our participatory democracy, for example—or are we “amusing ourselves to death” (the title of a book about media by Neil Postman)? A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that young people (through high school) use electronic gadgets—cell phones, computers, TV, video games—7-1/2 hours a day!!!? So are those kids getting information? news you can use?

4. Some of you already have commented on the opening column (Under “Dear Students—Listen Up!” in the blog index), “Advice for a New Semester.” What’s your response to this advice? Be specific.
Pease writes: A number of you wrote that you wished you’d had this advice when you started college, which is a good reaction, I think.

5. While we’re at it, what do you think of Dr. Ted’s column about students, “The Dumbing of America”? Were you insulted? If students are “disengaged,” how can we professors re-engage them?
Pease writes: I really do want to know how to engage you better. It’s harder (for me, anyway) to do online than in person, but this is a continuing question for me, so don’t be shy.

6. Have you ordered the Folkerts/Lacy/Larabee text online? Every have either a hard copy book or the online one? What do you think about it so far?

7. This week you were plunged into Today’s WORD on Journalism, and received five of the daily emails. You can see them all here. Do you like any of these? Which and why?

8. Speaking of fascinating humans, anything interesting in Dr. Ted’s bio?

9. Where did Dr. Ted earn his bachelor’s degree? In what?
Pease writes: I’m a recovering English major from UNew Hampshire (1978)

10. You should have watched (and maybe shared with your friends and other lumps of clay) the Stephen Colbert video on the Week1 list. So who is funnier—Professor Pease or Stephen Colbert? Why?
Pease writes: You’re right—a trick question. Clearly, me, because I hold your academic fate in my cyberhands. And if you believe that we need to talk...
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WEEK2Intro2MassCommQuiz • FIXT

Select the one BEST answer in multiple-choice questions; for the short-answer questions, write BRIEF, FOCUSED responses using key terms that demonstrate you know what you’re talking about.

1. From Folkert/Lacy Ch 1: The first printing was done by Egyptians and others at least 2000 BC by pressing images soaked in dye onto papyrus. But the first movable type was used by whom to create books in AD 1041?

d. Pi Sheng. (Text pp. 4-5)

2. Why was telegraph a breakthrough for communication?

Dr. Ted sez: Information could travel from the event to the newsroom instantaneously (well, a lot faster than by boat or horseback), which meant a more promptly informed citizenry. Because telegraph is sent over wires, “wire news services” like United Press and others (Associated Press today) developed. Telegraph also affected how news reporters wrote their stories: Because early telegraph service was notoriously undependable—wires were cut by enemies in wartime or by storms, ending messages in mid-transmission—reporters started writing in what eventually became the “inverted pyramid” structure, placing the most important new bulletins at the top, so that they would get through fastest before the wire could go down. News writers use the same structure for “hard news” stories today, to get the most important news out fast before the reader can lose interest. Question: So is Twitter this approach taken to a ridiculous extreme? (Text pp. 6-7)

3. The advent of printing resulted in what major social upheaval?
a. Wide increase in literacy.
b. Spread of new ideas.
c. An end of church and royal control.
d. Rise of individual freedom
--> e. All of the above. (Text pp. 5-6)

4. Even after the advent of printing, it took centuries until truly mass-audience publications were available. What was the major factor in increasing the spread of information to people?

--> b. Improved transports networks and printing technology. (Text pp. 5-6)

5. Define media convergence. Why is it important?

Dr. Ted sez: Media convergence refers to the merging of a variety of communication devices or hardware, linking (for example) video to phone to text to voice to Internet, etc. The advent of digital technologies made this possible, permitting text/photo/audio/video/graphics and MORE! to “converge” into a single message. Thus, computers (and devices that are like computers, including cell phones) are now becoming more popular with young people than television, so “couch potatoes” now can be found everywhere. (Text pp. 8-10)

6. Media consolidation refers to large corporations owning vast arrays of different kinds of media—from book publishers to movie companies to Internet delivery systems. This is more than efficiency and business, the authors suggest: What is the threat of corporate consolidation of media?

-->b. Less diversity in the media marketplace. (Text p. 9)

Dr. Ted sez: NOTE: The problem with concentration of ownership of mass media is that huge multinational companies—Disney, ComCast (which just bought NBC from General Electric), Viacom, etc.—own huge segments of what most media users consume in a given day. Ownership of all kinds of stuff—from the creators of content (newspapers/TV news stations, book publishers, magazines, etc.) to the producers of content (movie studios, TV networks, etc.) to the syndicators of content (ESPN, NBC, CNN, etc.) to the delivery systems for that content means that a single corporate entity can control everything in the pipeline from the first line of a writer’s novel to its syndication as a TV movie with international distribution rights to subscriptions for online viewers (or NetFlix, for example). The concern is over what voices are not heard when such huge corporations own the entire system. What happens to the “marketplace of ideas”—less product to choose from? And are we less fully informed—how would we even know?....

7. The key concept embedded in the term “the marketplace of ideas” is:

-->d. Ideas can freely compete for public acceptance. (Text pp. 11-16)

8. There are multiple factors affecting what kind of content fills the media system. What do you think is the most important factor? Why?

Dr. Ted sez: I would like to think that media producers, starting with news organizations, create content to help people live their lives better, to create a more informed citizenry that is better equipped to participate and contribute on issues of public concern and importance (like elections). But is that really what drives media content in a capitalism system? Of course not. Content producers create content that sells—“It’s what people want,” is how they justify it, although media content producers also invent markets and create demand for their products (stuff that we didn’t even know we wanted!) through advertising (ex: women are beautiful if they look like this, and they need to buy this to get there… Or what about Hummers? Does any normal human really need a car that big to go to the grocery?), through attitudes/values/items showcased in entertainment programming, through every media image we see that frames women/men/Arabs/minorities/whatever in particular ways that we come to accept as “normal” or desirable or ideologically correct. For example: A survey released this month (1/23) finds that a majority of Americans actually support health care reforms when they are told what reforms are actually being considered!!! So who is (mis)telling us the story on that, or any other controversial issue? (Sorry. That was starting to be a rant.) (Text pp. 12-17)

9. Social scientist Harold Lasswell described three fundamental functions of mass communication in society. What are they, and (briefly) explain what each means.

Dr. Ted sez: Actually, there are five, but the central three are: 1) Surveillance of the environment: We use mass communication to help us know what’s going on in the world. This is why free and open reporting (unlike in Logan!) is important, so that journalists can be there to ask the questions and record the answers when citizens can’t be themselves. 2) Correlation of elements of the society: To assist citizens in gathering enough information to make decisions about events, about trends in society, about different segments of society. And 3) Transmission of culture: Information that reveals and defines and explains cultural and social norms and standards, group identity, traditions and social/cultural history/identity. To these, scholars add functions of 4) Diversion, meaning entertainment and leisure activity; and 5) Self-understanding: Use of media content to gain understanding of themselves or others, to keep you company (coach potatoes!), to learn about one’s own behavior/attitudes. (Text pp. 18-21)

10. Not to belabor the points made in Professor Pease’s pair of columns on Martin Luther King Jr., now 11 years old, but his decision to publish the full text of the racist critic’s letter drew some complaints for repeating such unsavory sentiments. But Professor Pease would argue that putting the letter out there for everyone to see and decide about reflects on the key concepts discussed in the text’s Chapter 1 about what critical function of a free communication system?

Dr. Ted sez: There are many ways to answer that. I would (and did) argue that the racist rant elicited by the first column deserved to be expressed openly and fully so that “consumers” in the marketplace of ideas could make decisions for themselves and for the larger community as to whether these attitudes were worth “buying” or not. Another basic of free and open journalism is that you can kill a lot of malfeasance and mildew by shining a bright, hot light on it!

BONUS: What major international mass media event takes place in Utah this week? The SundanceTWENTYTEN Film Festival! See this link and this link, for example, or Google Sundance.

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WEEK3Intro2MassCommQuiz • FIXT

Select the one BEST answer in multiple-choice questions; for the short-answer questions, write BRIEF, FOCUSED responses using key terms that demonstrate you know what you’re talking about.

This week’s reading in Folkert/Lacy Ch 10 provides a very important (and condensed) overview of the philosophical and structural evolution of journalism in America over three centuries. We will return to many of the topics outlined in this chapter, so remember where you first heard about these issues for future conversation.

1. What is the major difference between journalism as practiced in the American colonies, and “public journalism” as described in the text?
Dr. Ted sez: There are many ways to discuss this. Colonial “journalists” were printers who made their living printing books and pamphlets and tax stamps for the British government. Many of these printers were not political and did not report “news” or challenge English authority (do you remember the quote on the syllabus by Sir William Berkeley, the royal governor of the Virginia colony? What’s his attitude toward printers—or education, for that matter?). Those colonial printers who did dabble in politics often got into trouble, so most basically did what they were told and otherwise kept their heads down. (pp. 253-255) “Public journalism” (pp. 270-271) is quite different, in that it values two-way (or more directions!) engagement among journalists and citizens. In this model, readers/viewers work with news organizations to make news decisions, journalists can become more active participants in events, instead of mere observers and recorders, and many more voices and perspectives are including in the news. That’s pretty different from the hierarchal, top-down flow of information in the much more authoritarian colonial system.

2. Define “credibility” as it refers to journalism, and explain why it is important in a free, participatory and self-governing society.
Dr. Ted sez: Credibility is perhaps the most essential element of any kind of communication. If we don’t believe the sender of the information—whether a politician or a newspaper or your little brother—we will filter it out, discount it, reject it. Remember Chicken Little, who ran around yelling that the sky was falling until she became a joke, so when the sky really did fall, no one believed her. For news organization, credibility—trust—is essential; without it, newspapers are good only for making fires and wrapping fish, and TV news is just noise. If we agree that citizens need to be well-informed in order to made decisions (like voting) in a participatory society, then they need credible sources of information. Without credible news and information, citizens can’t make good decisions (and might be misled, as in the period of press history when the partisan press—newspapers allied with particular political parties—simply told readers what they wanted them to think and how they wanted them to act/vote, etc.). Today we would call such “journalism” biased. How credible are news organizations today? And how well informed about important information do you think citizens are, so they can made informed and intelligent judgments?

3. There are five BIG rights granted in the First Amendment. What are they? And which do you think is most important?
Dr. Ted sez: I like to say that the First Amendment (p. 255) is the most powerful sentence since “Let there be light.” In just 43 words, the First Amendment lays out five HUGE and interrelated ideas:
1) that a free people have the RIGHT to believe what they want to believe—the freedom not just of religion, but of conscience (“Congress shall make no law representing an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”);
2) and that a free people has an absolute right to say what they believe (“…or abridging the freedom of speech,…”), and to
3) write down and publish and disseminate what they believe (“…or of the press;…”); and
4) that a free people can gather together with others to talk about those beliefs (“…or the right of the public peaceably to assemble, …”); and, finally,
5) the right to complain to their elected representatives in the government if they don’t like the way things are going (“…and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”).
Whew.
These rights won’t feed you, but they will guarantee you the freedom to live. Which one is most important? Trick question—they are all part of a whole, the freedom to think what you want to think (beliefs), to talk freely about them, to express them in writing, to meet with others to discuss them, and to tell the government what’s right, not the other way around.

4. What was the significance of the John Peter Zenger trial?
Dr. Ted sez: During colonial times (and before), criticism of the government or people in power (like good old Sir William Berkeley of the Virginia colony, a real sweetheart) was punishable by all manner of awful penalties. This had been a long tradition, ever since the European kings and church leaders were considered to be the representatives of God, and so criticism of authority was equal to criticizing God. Off with his head!!! In fact, it was this kind of heavy-handed rule that led to the First Amendment: A writer in England in the 1600s, John Milton, got thrown in a deep, dark prison with rats for complaining about unfair laws, which was criticism of the people in power. When he got out, he wrote a long treatise called Areopagitica, complaining that truth should not be punished, because truth comes from God and free expression of truth will always beat the evil lies of Falsehood. He wrote, “Let Her (Truth) and Falsehood Grapple; Who Ever Heard of Truth Put to the Worse in a Free and Open Encounter?” (They were big on Capital Letters back then.) This argument eventually drove the resolution of the John Peter Zenger trial, which was a hugely significant decision that created a legal precedent of truth as an absolute defense. At the time, “seditious libel” (that is, criticism of people in power) was a criminal offense, as in England where criticism of the king or the Pope or the nobility could land people like John Milton in a deep, dark hole. Zenger was not thrown into a deep, dark hole or beheaded, because he and his lawyer (Andrew Hamilton) successfully made the argument that truth is a defense. Can you see how that connects to the First Amendment, and to the marketplace of ideas, and to John Milton’s Areopagitica? (pp. 253-254)

5. The Hutchins Commission of 1947 established five guidelines for the press that form the basis for what theory of the press?
a. the partisan press system
b. the “enlightenment” press
c. the authoritarian press system
d. the social responsibility press (pp. 256-258)
e. the “new journalism”

6. Why was the “penny press” a significant development?
a. It meant that literacy was widespread in society
b. Editors stopped writing political news and reporters covered more day-to-day stuff
c. “Journalism of exposure” created hoaxes
d. Reporting was more entertainment than true
e. Newspapers stopped supporting political parties.

Dr. Ted sez: NOTE: “B” is the best answer here, but you could also argue that all five answers were true. The “penny press” was so-called because newspapers lowered their prices to reach more people in growing mass (urban) societies, which meant that the press published less opinion and argument based on political parties (the partisan press), and offered more popular fare—cops and courts, scientific information, hoaxes and entertainment, etc. This content for the first time was produced by hired reporters, not by the newspaper’s editor/publisher/printer/political party, which had previously been the case. More people were gathered in one place, more people had learned how to read and had the time to read, and more people started being interested in what was going on in their communities. (pp. 260-261)

7. Is objectivity possible? Why?/Why not?
Dr. Ted sez: You can argue this in whatever way works for you. Here’s my take: “Objective fact” is an artifact of the hard sciences: we know that water boils at 212 degrees F, for example, and a rock contains these minerals, etc. Objectivity in journalism refers to the goal of presenting only confirmed facts without opinion, shading, etc. Thus, an “objective” report should be “truth.” But as we’ll discuss elsewhere, no one can report only truth (whatever that is), because each of us approaches events and issues with our own preconceptions, our own perceptions, our own biases that are formed by who we are as individuals and how we each see the world. Beyond that, how can any report include everything there is to say about a subject? Reporters have to select certain facts and exclude others, if only because there’s not enough space for everything. Who decides what to include and exclude? The reporter. The source who is interviewed. The editor who decides how long the story is and where it appears in the newspaper. All these things change the “objective truth” to something that is variable, depending on who is doing the reporting, and who is doing the reading. There’s much more to say on this, but try this experiment: Watch both Fox News and the BBC or CNN or Al Jazeera, or listen to National Public Radio on any given day. Focus on one breaking news story. Who’s telling the truth? How do you know? What and who is “objective”? Tricky, hunh? (pp. 266-267).

8. News Values: Explain each of the following and give your own example to demonstrate your understanding of what they mean and why each is newsworthy. (1 pt each)(pp. 267-268)
a. Timeliness: News is NEW.
b. Impact: What is the consequence of the event, who is affected and how?
c. Proximity: How close is the news event? A tanker truck crash in Toledo isn’t news in Logan, Utah.
d. Prominence: Important people/groups make news if they just sneeze. If Bill Clinton came to your town and had a Big Mac and left, that’d still make news (well, in Logan, but maybe not LA).
e. Conflict: Disagreement, tensions, he said/she said often makes news, whether it’s the Tea Party protesters or a couple of neighbors fighting over potholes.
f. Human interest: feature stories about the strange, the news of the weird, the unusual, cute puppies, a guy who has a 12-foot moustache… these are news because they are unusual or heartwarming.

Dr. Ted sez: These are some standard elements of what makes news, plus relevance to people and some other stuff. There are a number of useful definitions of what makes news. For example, NY editor John Bogart once said, “When a dog bites a man, that’s not news. But when a man bites a dog, that’s news.” Another editor defined news as anything that makes you say, “Gee whiz, Martha!”

9. Why is the concept of a “marketplace of ideas” important for a free society?
a. All information and ideas are available for public scrutiny.
b. Citizens can select the ideas they like the best, like at the grocery store.
c. Truth and falsehood compete freely.
d. There is no limit on individual opinions
e. All of the above.

10. There’s a chart on p. 253 that asks you about your perspectives on different kinds of media. I reproduce it here. Check the chart for instructions and rate each of these information sources for Trustworthiness (rate 1(low)-5(high)), How often you use them (Daily, Several times/wk, Weekly) and what kind of information they are best at providing (B=breaking news; A=analysis or opinion; E=entertainment).

BONUS: What did you think of the Billy Joel video? How many of the images meant something to you, gave you associations with things you know about historical or cultural events?

15 pts possible

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WEEK4Intro2MassCommQuiz • FIXT

Name: Dr. Ted

Write BRIEF, FOCUSED responses using key terms that demonstrate you know what you’re talking about.

This week’s reading in Folkert/Lacy and the blog-post on mass communication theories provide an important overview of some key theories that help us understand the interaction of individuals and mass communication content, news and the building of society. We will remember these concepts as we consider different slices of the mass media and society, so remember where you first heard about these issues for future conversation.

1. At the beginning of Ch. 15 in Folkerts et al. (p. 395), you are asked to think about how you think you make decisions about how the mass media affect you. Please fill out for yourself the “Research in Your Life” table. For this quiz, answer this: Can you think of something you saw/heard in the media that affected your opinion about a product, a pair of jeans, a political candidate, or a public issue (like global warming or gays in the military)? Briefly, what was it, and describe the media message that influenced you, and how?

Dr. Ted sez: There are no wrong answers to this—the mass media affect (not “affects”! “Media” is a plural noun.) everyone differently (selective perception?), and it’s a rare individual (or media-smart fish) who is impervious to the constant bombardment of images and arguments and “truth” in news, advertising, billboards, TV sitcoms, etc. This week, we’ve been watching some of the coverage of the Vancouver Olympics. As usual, I find myself annoyed by NBC’s preoccupation with U.S. athletes and the constant “U-S-A! U-S-A!!” focus. Not that I don’t wish the American athletes well, but there are 80 nations competing, and it’s sometimes hard during the nationalistic Olympic coverage of these and other Games to see anything but our peeps (Gatekeeping? Agenda-setting? Framing?). In 2002, I had the HUGE honor of running the Olympic Torch before the Salt Lake Games. During that experience, I met a guy from LA who was born in Korea. He was so proud to have been picked to run the torch for America, and he was so excited about the Korean figure skating team (I forget). Never did hear/see any coverage of his heroes during those games.

2. One of the ways to understand the role of the mass media in society is to employ a social science approach to research media issues. Describe key elements of social science research.

Dr. Ted sez: The key differences between the “social science” and “critical-cultural” start with the use of “hard-science” quantitative techniques of empiricism used in the social science approach, and qualitative approaches in critical-cultural studies. Empirical methods involve numbers—surveys of large numbers of individuals, or counting news stories in content-analysis studies, for example—in an effort to arrive at conclusions that can be generalized across populations. Critical-cultural methods are more interpretive, seeking to make connections between mass communication systems and culture, society and political behavior. Critical scholars look at cases, at examples of connections, at textual meanings (in news or entertainment content, for example), using techniques such as textual analysis, participant observation/ethnography, and interviews. Social science approaches are quantitative, using statistical analyses of large groups of items (people in polls or news content, for example) to arrive at generalizable conclusions. Critical studies are typically qualitative, looking at individual meanings and perceptions to evaluate how messages are interpreted by individual audience members.

3. Same question for the critical-cultural approach to social science.

Dr. Ted sez: See No. 2 above.

4. From the reading on mass communication theories, explain how issues of selective perception influence how news consumers interpret information. Provide a specific example.

Dr. Ted sez: Depending on the forces that have shaped our individual backgrounds and lives and worldviews, we each interpret—perceive—issues and people and topics differently. It appears that exposure to mass media messages can be at least as influential in shaping our perceptions of the world as other formative influences, including family and training and socio-economic status. One obvious way that mass media shape all our perceptions is in issues of gender and sex. Women are typically portrayed in mass media messages as objects, as victims, as things with unattainable standards of “beauty” that includes breasts, butts and legs (but rarely brains!). These kinds of images, constantly repeated and reinforced in mass media messages from advertisements to movies to TV shows, may gradually shape our view of what women are “supposed” to be like, for both women and men (and kids!)

5. Thinking back to the table in the Folkerts text (p. 395) referred to in Q1 above, please discuss how selective perception may influence individual answers to any of the questions posed in the table.

Dr. Ted sez: See No. 4 above. Also: Item 1 (advertising/products): Which cell company is better? “Can you hear me now???” Item 2 (politics): Sarah Palin. Item 3 (issues): A recent survey (social science approach) found that people were more supportive of health care reforms when they knew what actually is proposed. Item 4 (TV behavior modeling): Kids & Harry Potter.

6. What is the difference between qualitative research and quantitative research? What are the strengths/weaknesses of each?

Dr. Ted sez: See No. 2 above. Quantitative research is number-based. Qualitative research is case-based and interpretive. Numbers yield information that is generalizable to a large population (i.e., People who voted for Obama like Dove soap). Qualitative research can interpret information and provide insight into the Why? question of human behavior.

7. The Folkerts text discusses issues of race and TV (p. 401). Discuss this topic (briefly) in the context of at least one of the mass communication theories—which theory/theories help explain the kinds of issues about coverage of race discussed in this short article?

Dr. Ted sez: A variety of studies have found that TV viewers (for example) begin to cultivate certain attitudes—assumptions—about people based on their race (and gender…see No. 4). One study, for example, asked kids—like 4th graders—what roles in TV shows certain people in photos would play. Black men would be the bad guy, they said. White men would be the Boss or the businessman. White women would be mommies, teachers or nurses. Etc. Both quantitative (surveys) and qualitative (focus groups) studies find that Blacks are typically framed and perceived as violent and criminals; content studies of news find that Blacks (and to a slightly lesser degree Latinos) are pictured in the news more often than Whites as crime suspects in mugshots, being handcuffed, in connection with gang and drug stories…

8. Early mass communication research assumed a “magic bullet” effect of mass media messages. What is that? What are the problems with this concept?

Dr. Ted sez: Early social scientists thought that mass media messages acted as a “magic bullet,” shooting concepts and political positions and ideas/ideals into the brains of passive audience members. This is the basis for propaganda during wartime. Also known as the “hypodermic needle” theory, this assumes that message receivers are uniform, brainless, insentient, that our own circumstances and personal experiences and knowledge would play now role in how we individually interpret such messages.

9. Explain gatekeeping theory, and why it has important implications for a free society.

Dr. Ted sez: Gatekeeping describes the selective process of what kinds of messages/ideas/foci are included in mass media content. What gets through the “gate” between events and audiences depends on decisionmakers along the line as media messages (stories/news/sitcoms/movies/ads) are constructed. This makes a difference in a participatory society because what we “know” from media messages is controlled by gatekeepers. So how informed are we (see the comment above about public perceptions of health care reform, No. 5)? NOTE: Gatekeeping is not generally governed by editor “bias” except in the most neutral form—that is, what the gatekeeper lets through the news “gate” tends to be based on what s/he thinks is most important, not necessarily out of ideological motives of what s/he personally believes.

10. What is agenda-setting? Give a current example in your life.

Dr. Ted sez: Agenda-setting is a theory describing the role of the mass media in the public conversation about issues and policies. The mass media can’t tell us what to think, according to this theory, but they can be stunningly effective in telling us what items to think about—setting an “agenda” for our daily awareness of what’s happening in the world. A lot of stories run about “ObamaCare,” so people tend to talk about health care more. NOTE that agenda-setting also describes what’s not in the news and so what doesn’t get covered. In other words, if a tree falls in the desert in, say, Darfur, but no reporters are there to hear it and tell it, did those 600,000 people really die?

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