Exam 1: Understanding and Evaluating Mass Communication Theory

Which was the first dominant perspective on mass media?

Most, if not all, who call themselves social scientists adhere to the same standards for conducting research and accepting evidence.

At the heart of the meaning-making trend in theory is a focus on a more-or-less active audience that uses media content to _________.

Like legacy media, large-scale social media are largely unregulated and are bound by few social or professional norms.

British cultural studies, which focuses on media and their role in promoting the interests of dominant elites at the expense of less powerful groups, is based on __________ notions of mass communication.

Contemporary mass communication theories must be reconsidered inasmuch as large-scale social media, unlike more traditional forms of media, do not rely on advertising for their revenues.

One of the difficulties in applying notions of causality to human behaviour is that people have goals and are self-reflexive.

Humans think about their behavior, values, beliefs, and attitudes. In other words, they are ___________

Interpretive theorists who set aside their values when investigating a text are said to be ___________.

One of the driving forces behind the development of new mass communication theories is changes in media technology.

Normative theory's axiology is, by definition, value-laden.

Because one essential argument of mass society theory was that media subvert and disrupt the existing social order, fierce debate broke out over who should be trusted control media.

_______ are older forms of mass media such as newspapers, magazines, radio, movies, and most importantly television.

______________ theories are based on empirical research and adherence to the scientific method.

The type of mass communication theory that might be involved when studying how well the mainstream American press serve democratic principles is ______________ theory.

More so than other mass communication theorists, critical cultural theorists rely heavily on the scientific method when conducting research.

Questions of the place of values in theory and research are issues of_______.

________ occurs when a given factor influences another, even by way of an intervening variable.

"I'm not affected by media," Sally often claims, "But those other people? They're easily influenced by slick media messages." Sally suffers from _________.

Mass communication researchers sometimes differ in their view of the nature of reality, that is, in their epistemology.