Shared Flashcard Set

Details

AP Gov't Test 5
Chapter 7 - The Mass Media
40
History
12th Grade
12/21/2010

Additional History Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
What is high-tech politics?
Definition
A politics in which the behavior of citizens and policymakers and the political agenda itself are increasingly shaped by technology.
Term
What is mass media?
Definition
Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and other means of popular communication.
Term
What is a media event?
Definition
Events purposely staged for the media that nonetheless look spontaneous. In keeping with politics as theater, media events can be staged by individuals, groups, and government officials, especially presidents.
Term
What were the seven principles that the Reagan house operated on concerning the media?
Definition

1. Plan ahead

2. Stay on the offensive

3. Control the flower of information

4. Limit reporters' access to the president

5. Talk about the issues you want to talk about

6. Speak in one voice

7. Repeat the same message many times

Term
What are press conferences?
Definition
Meetings of public officials with reporters
Term
What is investigative journalism?
Definition
The use of in-depth reporting to unearth scandals, scams, and schemes, at times putting reporters in adversarial relationships with political leaders
Term
What is print media?
Definition
Newspapers and magazines, as compared with broadcast media.
Term
What is broadcast media?
Definition
Public television, radio, and the internet, as compared with print media.
Term
What does FCC stand for?
Definition
Federal Communications Commission
Term
What is narrowcasting?
Definition
Media programming on cable TV or the Internet that is focused on one topic and aimed at a particular audience. Examples include MTV, ESPN, and C-SPAN.
Term
What are chains?
Definition
Newspapers published by massive media conglomerates that account for over four-fifths of the nation's daily newspaper circulation. Often these chains control broadcast medias as well.
Term
Who are the five major media conglomerates?
Definition
Disney, Viacom, Bertlenhetters (sp?), News Corporation, and Time Warner
Term
What are beats?
Definition
Specific locations from which news frequently emanates, such as Congress or the White House. Most top reporters work a particular beat, thereby becoming specialists in what goes on at that location.
Term
What are trial balloons?
Definition
An intentional news leak for the purpose of assessing the political reaction
Term
What are sound bites?
Definition
Short video clips of approximately 10 seconds. Typically, they are all that is shown from a politician's speech on the nightly television news.
Term
According to social science studies, is the media biased?
Definition
No. Most stories are presented in a "point/counterpoint" format in which two opposing points of view are presented, and the audience is left to draw its own conclusions.
Term
What is a talking head?
Definition
A shot of a person's face talking directly to the camera. Because this is visually unappealing, the major commercial networks rarely show a politician talking one-on-one for very long.
Term
What is the policy agenda?
Definition
The issues that attract the serious attention of public officials and other people actively involved in politics at the time.
Term
What are policy entreprenuers?
Definition
People who invest their political "capital" in an issue. According to John Kingdon, a policy entrepreneur "could be in or out of government, in elected or appointed positions, in interest groups or research organizations".
Term
What does purposive mean?
Definition
It means that what people see is the product of their own intentional choices.
Term
In Herbert Hoover's presidency and before, how did reporters ask the president questions?
Definition
They submitted it in writing, if at all.
Term
What president saw the media as an "ally", and practically invented media politics?
Definition
Roosevelt
Term
What is "yellow journalism"?
Definition
A sensational style of reporting focused on violence, corruption, wars, and gossip with an often less-than-scrupulous regard for the truth.
Term
Wheres one newspaper sold for every 1 adult in 1960, by 2008 one paper was sold for every ____ adults.
Definition
Five.
Term
What event signified that television had taken over newspaper as the most important form of communication in American politics?
Definition
The Nixon-Kennedy debate in 1960, when Nixon's visual appearaance caused people to think he didn't come out on top in the debate.
Term
What three ways does the FCC regulate the airways?
Definition

1. To prevent near monopolies of control over a broadcast market, it instituted rules to limit the number of stations owned or controlled by one company.

2. Conducts periodic examinations of the goals and performance of stations as part of its licensing authority.

3. Issued a number of fair treatment rules concerning access to the airwaves for political candidates and office holders.

Term
What four things did the study by Columbia University's Project for Excellence in Journalism show about cable news?
Definition

1. Only 11 % of the time was taken up with written and edited stories

2. The role of the reporter was primarily to talk extemporaneously

3. Stories were repeated frequently, usually with any impotant new information

4. Coverage of the news was spotty, ignoring many important topics

Term
How do reporters and their official sources have a symbiotic relationship?
Definition
News makers rely on journalists to get their message out at the same time that reporters rely on public officials to keep them in the know.
Term
During the 1991 Gulf War, 15 influential news organiations sent a letter to the secretary of defense complaining that the rules for reporting war were:
Definition
Designed more to control the news to faciliate it, as the freedom of movement and observation were severely restricted during the war.
Term
What does it mean when the Pentagon "embedded" reporters during the 2003 military campaign for Saddam Hussein?
Definition
They put them in the same unit as the military, enabling them to report on combat activity has it happens and thus have an increased ability to transmit combat footage.
Term
A content analysis by Farnsworth and Lichter found that 35 percent of major TV network stories contained combat scenes compared to just __ percent in 1991.
Definition
20.
Term
What has happened concerning reporting since the Watergate scandal?
Definition
News organizations have regularly sent reporters on beats to expose the uglier side of government corruption and inefficiency.
Term
What single word describes news coverage by the print and broadcast media?
Definition
Superficial
Term
Analysis of news events rarely lasts more than a _____.
Definition
Minute.
Term
What is the overriding bias in journalism?
Definition
Toward stories that will draw the largest audience.
Term
What is the minimal effects hypothesis?
Definition
Doubt that the media had more than a marginal effect on public opinion, because it didn't effect how people voted.
Term
What major impact does television media on Americans?
Definition
It alters the priorities that American attach to a circumscribed set of problems, all of which are plausible contenders for public concern.
Term
By increasing public attention to specific problems, the media influence what?
Definition
The criteria by which the public evaluates political leaders.
Term
The media acts as what between the people and the policy makers and have a profund impact on what?
Definition

Key linkage institutions.

Political policy agenda.

Term
Television finds it easier to focus on who?
Definition
Individuals as opposed to groups.
Supporting users have an ad free experience!