Comm 160 Midterm 2
1. What does Jim Newton say is the purpose of journalism and what causes most
ethical disagreements? - ANS-Purpose of journalism is to uncover and report the truth
Conflicts of interest cause the most ethical disagreements
2. Jeffrey Cohen (2010) labels three time periods that have affected presidential
leadership. What are the three periods and how have the shifts from each period to the
next affected how presidents lead? - ANS-Institutional pluralism: bargaining leadership
style → presidents need only to bargain with a relatively small number of committee
chairs and party leaders to forge a coalition large enough to win acceptance of his
policy initiative
Individual pluralism/Broadcasting era: going public → placed great stock in moving
national opinion and rising above partisan politics
Polarized Parties/Post-broadcasting: adapted their going public style by targeting select
audiences, such as their party base, interest groups, and localities because party
polarization was rising and the media was fragmenting
3. What is the difference between bias as an attitude and bias as an outcome? (1 point)
Class 15, slide 15 - ANS-Bias as an attitude = a person or organizations inclination to
favor one side versus the other in a dispute (prejudice in the sense of pre-judging); or
cognitive bias
Bias as an outcome = news that shows an unfair picture of reality.
4. According to Silver, what are the 4 conditions in which crowds would make good
decisions? ( 3 points) Class 15, slide 28 - ANS-1. Diversity of opinion - 'each person
should have private information, even if it's just an eccentric interpretation of the known
facts'
2. Independence - 'peoples opinions are not determined by the opinions of those around
them'
3. Decentralisation - 'people are able to specialize and draw on local knowledge
4. Aggregation - 'some mechanisms exist for turning private judgements into a collective
decision'
5. Define cognitive bias and give one example.
Hint: (Class 15 Lecture Slides) 1 point - ANS-cognitive biases are distortions in the way
humans perceive reality. In news, it is a person or organization's inclination to favor one
side versus the other in a dispute (prejudice in the sense of pre-judging).
,An example is the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or
meaningless data (ink blot tests).
What is the difference between journalistic norms vs. ethics? - ANS-Norms are less
formal than ethics: Tell journalists what is and is not an acceptable news subject, style,
or story
Why do news organizations want journalists to refrain from sharing their own point of
views online? According to Nick Johnson, what does Axios request/ require of their
journalists when pertaining to social media?- 3 point question (answer can be found in
Nick Johnson's guest lecture AND also in lecture 13, slide 8) - ANS--Since news is a
credence good, credibility is very difficult for new organizations to maintain. The ultimate
goal is to protect news organizations' credibility, regardless of the underlying truth of the
reporter's coverage.
-Journalists have an obligation to present both sides in their articles. They may think a
story they submit isn't biased, but it's the editor's job to read through and let them know
if it is. When it comes to social media, especially Twitter, there is no filter. People can
post and say whatever they please, without someone like an editor sifting through it.
-Nick Johnson believes it's a huge problem among journalists to mouth off or to be
obnoxious. He believes journalists should follow social media policies and to not post
anything they wouldn't have in their byline of an article.
In Silver's article, "There Really Was a Liberal Media Bubble," Silver talks about a book
he read by Surowiecki. Surowiecki argued that groups of people will make good
predictions when they satisfy four conditions. Name the three conditions that political
journalism "fails miserably" at doing. -1 point question (answer found in the article!) -
ANS-Diversity of opinion, Independence, Decentralization
What are the three main dimensions for the rules of coverage? (3 pts) Hint: Class 13,
Slide 4 - ANS-- Peer Pressure/Professional: Journalists want to be respected by their
professional peers, so do good journalism.
- Cognitive: Preconceptions influence the way everyone views the world (attitude bias)
- Organizational: Organizations must follow certain routines or procedures to collect
news efficiently.
, Give an example of a journalistic norm. (1 pt) Hint: Class 13, Slide18 - ANS-American
news outlets aren't allowed to show photos of dead bodies of Americans. However, it is
okay to show photos of dead people from other countries.
Explain how the Dilbert cartoon relates to the concept of "norms". (3 points) Hint:
Lecture 13 - ANS--norms: (less formal than ethics). It tells journalists what is and not
acceptable news/style/themes.
-There is an unwritten rule that you can't show a gun being fired in a newspaper
cartoon. Scott Adams' Dilbert Cartoon got rejected because of a gun firing illustration.
The second time, he insinuated the existence of a gun as a police officer gunning down
someone is ok but not showing an actual gun (rejected). Then, he replaced the gun with
a firing doughnut (accepted).
What is the difference between presentation bias and selection bias. Give an example
of both. (1 points) Hint: Lecture 15 - ANS--presentation bias: bias in the
construction/format/content of news (ie. a reporter explicitly "taking sides" in a story by
editing the story to make one party look really bad/giving more spotlight for a story)
-selection bias: bias in the selection in which stories appear in the news in the first place
(ie. Relates to credence goods. Viewers have a hard time knowing if what they are
being fed in media is good or not because they haven't seen the selection process in
the news room. ie. A reporter choosing not to exhibit a new story about a politician
scandal)
What are the 3 models of broadcast ownership? Under which model do the American
and European system operate, and what are the key differences between the two? How
does this effect the type of news programming they produce? - Iyengar - ANS-- 3
models:
1. Purely public
2 Mixed (European)
3. Purely commercial (basically what American has become)
- European has a mixed model and balanced broadcast as government financing
incentivizes channels to provide sustained levels of public programming. Even the
commercial channels have more public affairs programming
- American's nearly purely commercial model is dominated by commercial broadcasters
and lead to an increase in local/niche programming and a decrease in international
news
How do the press determine the trajectory of presidential elections? - Rosenstiel -
ANS-- The press essentially decides on who to report and makes them candidates
1. What does Jim Newton say is the purpose of journalism and what causes most
ethical disagreements? - ANS-Purpose of journalism is to uncover and report the truth
Conflicts of interest cause the most ethical disagreements
2. Jeffrey Cohen (2010) labels three time periods that have affected presidential
leadership. What are the three periods and how have the shifts from each period to the
next affected how presidents lead? - ANS-Institutional pluralism: bargaining leadership
style → presidents need only to bargain with a relatively small number of committee
chairs and party leaders to forge a coalition large enough to win acceptance of his
policy initiative
Individual pluralism/Broadcasting era: going public → placed great stock in moving
national opinion and rising above partisan politics
Polarized Parties/Post-broadcasting: adapted their going public style by targeting select
audiences, such as their party base, interest groups, and localities because party
polarization was rising and the media was fragmenting
3. What is the difference between bias as an attitude and bias as an outcome? (1 point)
Class 15, slide 15 - ANS-Bias as an attitude = a person or organizations inclination to
favor one side versus the other in a dispute (prejudice in the sense of pre-judging); or
cognitive bias
Bias as an outcome = news that shows an unfair picture of reality.
4. According to Silver, what are the 4 conditions in which crowds would make good
decisions? ( 3 points) Class 15, slide 28 - ANS-1. Diversity of opinion - 'each person
should have private information, even if it's just an eccentric interpretation of the known
facts'
2. Independence - 'peoples opinions are not determined by the opinions of those around
them'
3. Decentralisation - 'people are able to specialize and draw on local knowledge
4. Aggregation - 'some mechanisms exist for turning private judgements into a collective
decision'
5. Define cognitive bias and give one example.
Hint: (Class 15 Lecture Slides) 1 point - ANS-cognitive biases are distortions in the way
humans perceive reality. In news, it is a person or organization's inclination to favor one
side versus the other in a dispute (prejudice in the sense of pre-judging).
,An example is the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or
meaningless data (ink blot tests).
What is the difference between journalistic norms vs. ethics? - ANS-Norms are less
formal than ethics: Tell journalists what is and is not an acceptable news subject, style,
or story
Why do news organizations want journalists to refrain from sharing their own point of
views online? According to Nick Johnson, what does Axios request/ require of their
journalists when pertaining to social media?- 3 point question (answer can be found in
Nick Johnson's guest lecture AND also in lecture 13, slide 8) - ANS--Since news is a
credence good, credibility is very difficult for new organizations to maintain. The ultimate
goal is to protect news organizations' credibility, regardless of the underlying truth of the
reporter's coverage.
-Journalists have an obligation to present both sides in their articles. They may think a
story they submit isn't biased, but it's the editor's job to read through and let them know
if it is. When it comes to social media, especially Twitter, there is no filter. People can
post and say whatever they please, without someone like an editor sifting through it.
-Nick Johnson believes it's a huge problem among journalists to mouth off or to be
obnoxious. He believes journalists should follow social media policies and to not post
anything they wouldn't have in their byline of an article.
In Silver's article, "There Really Was a Liberal Media Bubble," Silver talks about a book
he read by Surowiecki. Surowiecki argued that groups of people will make good
predictions when they satisfy four conditions. Name the three conditions that political
journalism "fails miserably" at doing. -1 point question (answer found in the article!) -
ANS-Diversity of opinion, Independence, Decentralization
What are the three main dimensions for the rules of coverage? (3 pts) Hint: Class 13,
Slide 4 - ANS-- Peer Pressure/Professional: Journalists want to be respected by their
professional peers, so do good journalism.
- Cognitive: Preconceptions influence the way everyone views the world (attitude bias)
- Organizational: Organizations must follow certain routines or procedures to collect
news efficiently.
, Give an example of a journalistic norm. (1 pt) Hint: Class 13, Slide18 - ANS-American
news outlets aren't allowed to show photos of dead bodies of Americans. However, it is
okay to show photos of dead people from other countries.
Explain how the Dilbert cartoon relates to the concept of "norms". (3 points) Hint:
Lecture 13 - ANS--norms: (less formal than ethics). It tells journalists what is and not
acceptable news/style/themes.
-There is an unwritten rule that you can't show a gun being fired in a newspaper
cartoon. Scott Adams' Dilbert Cartoon got rejected because of a gun firing illustration.
The second time, he insinuated the existence of a gun as a police officer gunning down
someone is ok but not showing an actual gun (rejected). Then, he replaced the gun with
a firing doughnut (accepted).
What is the difference between presentation bias and selection bias. Give an example
of both. (1 points) Hint: Lecture 15 - ANS--presentation bias: bias in the
construction/format/content of news (ie. a reporter explicitly "taking sides" in a story by
editing the story to make one party look really bad/giving more spotlight for a story)
-selection bias: bias in the selection in which stories appear in the news in the first place
(ie. Relates to credence goods. Viewers have a hard time knowing if what they are
being fed in media is good or not because they haven't seen the selection process in
the news room. ie. A reporter choosing not to exhibit a new story about a politician
scandal)
What are the 3 models of broadcast ownership? Under which model do the American
and European system operate, and what are the key differences between the two? How
does this effect the type of news programming they produce? - Iyengar - ANS-- 3
models:
1. Purely public
2 Mixed (European)
3. Purely commercial (basically what American has become)
- European has a mixed model and balanced broadcast as government financing
incentivizes channels to provide sustained levels of public programming. Even the
commercial channels have more public affairs programming
- American's nearly purely commercial model is dominated by commercial broadcasters
and lead to an increase in local/niche programming and a decrease in international
news
How do the press determine the trajectory of presidential elections? - Rosenstiel -
ANS-- The press essentially decides on who to report and makes them candidates
