Q&A Hero

Q: What are the various media-related reasons that modern presidents have trouble shaping public opinion with respect to their policy agendas?

Q: You could say that yesterdays political press release is todays politician tweet.

Q: What are various ways that presidential digital communication has evolved in recent years? What are some of the implications for citizenship and governance?

Q: The early phases of Obamas second term and Trumps first 100 days in office highlighted the adversarial nature of the relationship between the press and the president.

Q: The only time Supreme Court justices typically receive substantial media coverage is during ______. A. their first few days on the bench B. their election campaigns C. the hearings conducted before their appointment D. during their book tours

Q: The three major branches of government earn high volumes of coverage from the national press, in roughly equal proportions.

Q: Ones amount of policy work, or legislative effort, is a major determinant of Congress members national news coverage.

Q: When members of Congress earn a lot of coverage, it is because they have been working hard on important policy issues.

Q: Congress gets close to the same amount of coverage as the president, but only if you count coverage of individual legislators in addition to the institution.

Q: Social media networks are attractive communication venues for leaders because it allows direct transmission of their messages.

Q: That Congress is a body of lawmakers makes it less appealing for coverage.

Q: The American public is often inattentive during campaigns, tuning out major parts of the campaign, and the 2016 presidential election was no different.

Q: Presidential coverage in national news is partly driven by the fact that the executive office is supposed to represent the entire country, while legislators serve individual districts or states.

Q: How do the norms and routines of journalists shape the content of political news coverage? Give some examples and explain why these influences on news content are important to consider.

Q: What are frames? Why does it matter that journalist are chief framers?

Q: What are the news production constraints that shape the news? How do these influence news content in ways that are important in a democratic society?

Q: What is agenda building and why is it important?

Q: How do public relations efforts influence the news? Does PR influence on the news mean the news is a distortion of reality? Does it matter? Why or why not?

Q: What are major news values satisfied by investigative journalism stories?

Q: What are some of the characteristics of covering crises that make it challenging for journalists and unique relative to other types of coverage?

Q: What are the relative costs and benefits of melding political activism with journalism? When is it good? When could it be harmful? Should it be encouraged or discouraged?

Q: Describe the three major stages of crisis coverage.

Q: How does the collaboration between journalists and nonprofit groups help offset the declining resources facing most newsrooms? What are the other implications of such collaborations?

Q: What are some typical routines, behaviors, and/or values that journalists and news organizations follow? How might they shape or affect the news? How might they contribute to media bias or perceived media bias? What are the implications?

Q: Describe and explain the three models of muckraking. Outline the implications of each.

Q: What kinds of groups or organizations should have the easiest time getting media coverage? A. low-status organizations dealing with routine human concerns B. protest groups C. policy groups D. none of these

Q: How might journalists influence policy through the use of leaks? Discuss the SnowdenNSA example or another timely example to answer this question.

Q: Digital media outlets are proving to have significantly more diversity in their newsrooms relative to major legacy newspapers.

Q: The role of public opinion in muckraking efforts to change policy can be described as ______. A. significant B. minimal C. absent D. all of these

Q: Are journalists political actors? Should they be? Why or why not?

Q: What is gatekeeping? Who are the gatekeepers in news organizations?

Q: Journalists began to use ______ frames for immigration stories; it had a notable influence on public opinion. A. economic B. national security C. crime D. all of these

Q: Name five criteria journalists use for choosing news stories.

Q: Informative value is one of the major criteria for choosing news stories.

Q: What are pseudo-events?

Q: Watergate and Obamas NSA scandal are great examples of journalists in their watchdog role.

Q: What are some of the structural and organizational changes in the news business in the twenty-first century that are thought to have harmed the quality of news?

Q: Civic journalism bears that name because of its emphasis on civic facts.

Q: How does civic journalism differ from traditional journalism?

Q: Muckraking only works when public opinion is stirred up to exert pressure on public officials.

Q: How does the pressure to keep the news appealing to audiences influence its informative content?

Q: The reason fact-checking is so effective is that it is often successfully used to correct misinformation and change peoples minds.

Q: How does the aim of attracting young viewers in particular shape news content?

Q: The American public is well informed about the scientific communitys consensus on issues related to policy.

Q: What are the major consequences of the heavy news emphasis on conflict, violence, and bad news? Essay

Q: What is muckraking?

Q: The use of mobile devices for news consumption has grown considerably since 2013.

Q: Research suggests that most news caters to ______. A. minorities and poor people B. young people C. older people D. the tastes of audiences that advertisers find most attractive

Q: Advertising spending for online news revenue has held steady over the last few years but ad revenue for mobile is increasing drastically.

Q: Who are the chief sources in news? A. ordinary citizens B. celebrities C. government officials D. scientists and other experts

Q: Though early projections suggested the Internet would positively affect overall levels of political knowledge, we have seen a different and more nuanced effect. Explain.

Q: Who appears most in news stories? A. ordinary citizens B. familiar people such as entertainers, athletes, and prominent politicians C. criminals D. scientists and other experts

Q: What is like-minded information? What is counter-attitudinal information? Why are they relevant to consider in the current media environment?

Q: What topics appear most in news stories? A. disagreements among government officials B. impending or actual disasters C. crime, scandals, and investigations D. all of these

Q: What is partisan perceptual bias?

Q: Which of the following groups is most likely to prefer entertainment news? A. 1834 B. 3549 C. 50+ D. all of these

Q: How has the current media landscape facilitated the emergence of citizen journalism?

Q: Which of the following are effects of gatekeeping? A. novelty and excitement B. familiarity and similarity C. conflict and violence D. all of these

Q: Briefly, describe some of the various ways that campaign websites have developed over time?

Q: Gatekeeping is ______. A. the practice of barring news organizations from White House press briefings B. when reporters are partitioned away from main speakers at public events C. the process of selecting, editing, or rejecting stories D. all of these

Q: What is astroturfing?

Q: List the distinctive patterns of emergent campaign practices that have been facilitated by digital and social media.

Q: What is (are) major concerns from the expansion of media choice? A. news avoidance B. selective exposure C. knowledge gaps D. all of these

Q: The expansion of media choice has produced the ability for citizens to engage in partisan selective exposure. What is this behavior and why are some worried that it may contribute to societal levels of political polarization? Are there any reasons to think partisan selective exposure may not polarize?

Q: Mobile news consumption has which of the following limitations? A. People pay attention to news stories for shorter periods of time. B. People recall fewer facts from news stories. C. There is not as much choice available. D. both a and b

Q: The expansion of media choice has produced the ability for citizens to engage in the selection of news and political content that is in line with their partisanship. What else has the expansion of choice meant for citizens content selection? What are the implications for citizen learning?

Q: ______ is the term that describes a behavior that leads to opinion echo chambers. A. Information silos B. Agenda setting C. Framing D. Partisan selective exposure

Q: Discuss the various ways that changes to the modern media landscape have also dramatically altered the practice and profession of journalism.

Q: Studies show there is no ideological diversity in peoples Facebook networks.

Q: How are blogs different from news? How do these differences influence the relative credibility and perceived credibility of information encountered in blogs and online news? Is this important? Why?

Q: Most people pay at least some attention to politicians communications on social media.

Q: Has the modern media environment lived up to expectations for a digital democracy? Why or why not?

Q: Media hybridity refers to the fact that in the contemporary media environment, you can use dual screen.

Q: Is there a relationship between todays fragmented media environment and political polarization? Explain the argument about why fragmented media could promote polarization. Assess the state of the empirical evidence on this subject.

Q: Mobile app users stay on news sites for long periods of time, but many more people reach news sites via mobile browsers.

Q: Newspeoples demographic profiles resemble ______. A. the diversity reflected in the U.S. population B. liberal democrats C. white male college graduates D. political extremists

Q: The Supreme Court case of Miami Herald Publishing Company v. Tornillo (1974) dealt with which of the following? A. print press rights B. the constitutionality of a Florida statue C. the right to immediate reply when attacked by a newspaper D. all of these

Q: How to curb online hate speech is an emerging and complex challenge facing governments, nonprofits and corporations around the world.

Q: The doctrine of executive privilege refers to ______. A. chief executives ability to make and enforce restrictions on press access B. chief executives right to conceal information they consider sensitive C. chief executives power to take action against staff members who leak information D. all of these

Q: What are the three environments that are critical to press freedom?