©BRIGHSTARS 2024/2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Com 260 Exam 3 Questions With Correct
Answers 2025
Why do entertainment messages tend to follow particular formulas? - Answer✔They are guides
for producers. They help producers navigate the process of making decisions as they select story
elements and structure those selections in a meaningful sequence
How does the general story formula help the audience? - Answer✔To help the audience easily
recognize the good and bad characters, and to quickly find where we are in the story
What are the demographic patterns of media characters? - Answer✔o Gender: Men likely to be
shown as working in a wider variety of jobs than women, who were portrayed as stay at home
moms or working low-status jobs, men used to outnumber females 3 to 1 in the television world.
o Ethnicity: 80% of all characters were white Americans, African Americans only 2% which
rose after 1990's to 16%, only 2% Hispanic
o Age: ¾ of TV characters were between ages 20-50. Young children and elderly are
underrepresented in TV.
o Marital status: 50% women married, 30% men married
o Socioeconomic status: almost ½ characters on tv are wealthy or ultra wealthy and less than
10% were lower class
What are prevalent stereotypes in the media? - Answer✔1. The strong, self-reliant police
detective
2. The nurturing mother
3. The sexy young female actress/model/nurse/secretary
4. The dumb blonde
5. The young street punk
6. The nerdy male adolescent
According to prior studies, what are the characteristics of media portrayals of sex? - Answer✔o
References to safer sex issues have increased
o 2/3 of all shows contain sexual content
o Top teen shows 83% contained sexual portrayals
1|Page
, ©BRIGHSTARS 2024/2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
According to the author, what are the five indicators of deceptive health presented in the media?
- Answer✔1. Most characters are shown having bad eating habits, yet most characters are
healthy, fit, and thin.
2. There's high violence on TV shows, yet only 7% of characters are portrayed with having
injuries or illnesses that require treatment
3. Everyday normal health conditions are rarely shown. Most of the health problems portrayed
are serious and life threatening. Prime time characters arent shown with any kind of physical
impairments- like wearing glasses, or being handicapped. Almost none are in TV shows and the
ones that do appear older or victimized.
4. Mentally ill characters are 10x more likely to be violent criminals than non-mentally ill TV
characters in shows. In TV stories mentally ill characters are typically shown active, confused,
aggressive, dangerous, and unpredictable.
5. Doctors are greatly overrepresented on TV compared to their numbers in real life
According to Alexandra Kuczynski, how has Hollywood contribute to creating a standard of
beauty? - Answer✔Hollywood has created a standard of beauty that doesn't exist in nature. The
standard is pert, symmetrical gestures atop of a skinny body with large breasts. Hollywood
creates celebrities with perfect bodies and then floods he media with these images making the
standard that everyone tries to meet.
What may people do when they cannot meet this standard of beauty? - Answer✔May get surgery
or get depressed
In what ways are overweight characters typically portrayed in the media? - Answer✔o Fat
characters were typically stigmatized; non-overweight characters used humor to make fun of
over-weight characters to their face. Male characters 3x more likely to engage in fat
stigmatization commentary or fat humor
What are the common values underlying entertainment messages identified by Comstock and
Walsh? - Answer✔Happiness = wealth, always seek pleasure and avoid boredom, violence is
entertaining, win at all costs, males are more powerful than females, occupational status is highly
valued, law enforcers are overrepresented as being successful, strong, and justified.
What is the main goal of entertainment producers? What do they do to achieve it? - Answer✔To
build as large of an audience as possible. To do this they rely on all their creative power to
achieve a dramatic effect, so they deliberately distort the world to surprise and startle us. Some
creative people produce fantasy that is totally unlike real life. They do this to allow us to escape
our lives and to see imaginative occurrences.
How should viewers deal with the unrealistic picture presented by television entertainment? -
Answer✔To educate yourself about the content patterns in the media world and to become more
sensitive, recognizing where those patterns diverge from real world patterns.
2|Page
Com 260 Exam 3 Questions With Correct
Answers 2025
Why do entertainment messages tend to follow particular formulas? - Answer✔They are guides
for producers. They help producers navigate the process of making decisions as they select story
elements and structure those selections in a meaningful sequence
How does the general story formula help the audience? - Answer✔To help the audience easily
recognize the good and bad characters, and to quickly find where we are in the story
What are the demographic patterns of media characters? - Answer✔o Gender: Men likely to be
shown as working in a wider variety of jobs than women, who were portrayed as stay at home
moms or working low-status jobs, men used to outnumber females 3 to 1 in the television world.
o Ethnicity: 80% of all characters were white Americans, African Americans only 2% which
rose after 1990's to 16%, only 2% Hispanic
o Age: ¾ of TV characters were between ages 20-50. Young children and elderly are
underrepresented in TV.
o Marital status: 50% women married, 30% men married
o Socioeconomic status: almost ½ characters on tv are wealthy or ultra wealthy and less than
10% were lower class
What are prevalent stereotypes in the media? - Answer✔1. The strong, self-reliant police
detective
2. The nurturing mother
3. The sexy young female actress/model/nurse/secretary
4. The dumb blonde
5. The young street punk
6. The nerdy male adolescent
According to prior studies, what are the characteristics of media portrayals of sex? - Answer✔o
References to safer sex issues have increased
o 2/3 of all shows contain sexual content
o Top teen shows 83% contained sexual portrayals
1|Page
, ©BRIGHSTARS 2024/2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
According to the author, what are the five indicators of deceptive health presented in the media?
- Answer✔1. Most characters are shown having bad eating habits, yet most characters are
healthy, fit, and thin.
2. There's high violence on TV shows, yet only 7% of characters are portrayed with having
injuries or illnesses that require treatment
3. Everyday normal health conditions are rarely shown. Most of the health problems portrayed
are serious and life threatening. Prime time characters arent shown with any kind of physical
impairments- like wearing glasses, or being handicapped. Almost none are in TV shows and the
ones that do appear older or victimized.
4. Mentally ill characters are 10x more likely to be violent criminals than non-mentally ill TV
characters in shows. In TV stories mentally ill characters are typically shown active, confused,
aggressive, dangerous, and unpredictable.
5. Doctors are greatly overrepresented on TV compared to their numbers in real life
According to Alexandra Kuczynski, how has Hollywood contribute to creating a standard of
beauty? - Answer✔Hollywood has created a standard of beauty that doesn't exist in nature. The
standard is pert, symmetrical gestures atop of a skinny body with large breasts. Hollywood
creates celebrities with perfect bodies and then floods he media with these images making the
standard that everyone tries to meet.
What may people do when they cannot meet this standard of beauty? - Answer✔May get surgery
or get depressed
In what ways are overweight characters typically portrayed in the media? - Answer✔o Fat
characters were typically stigmatized; non-overweight characters used humor to make fun of
over-weight characters to their face. Male characters 3x more likely to engage in fat
stigmatization commentary or fat humor
What are the common values underlying entertainment messages identified by Comstock and
Walsh? - Answer✔Happiness = wealth, always seek pleasure and avoid boredom, violence is
entertaining, win at all costs, males are more powerful than females, occupational status is highly
valued, law enforcers are overrepresented as being successful, strong, and justified.
What is the main goal of entertainment producers? What do they do to achieve it? - Answer✔To
build as large of an audience as possible. To do this they rely on all their creative power to
achieve a dramatic effect, so they deliberately distort the world to surprise and startle us. Some
creative people produce fantasy that is totally unlike real life. They do this to allow us to escape
our lives and to see imaginative occurrences.
How should viewers deal with the unrealistic picture presented by television entertainment? -
Answer✔To educate yourself about the content patterns in the media world and to become more
sensitive, recognizing where those patterns diverge from real world patterns.
2|Page
