Ch01
Student: ___________________________________________________________________________
1. Communication is best defined as:
A. the transmission of a message from a source to a receiver
B. conversation between two or a few people
C. the process of creating shared meaning
D. the product of large media industries
2. Feedback is:
A. the response to a given communication
B. distortion typically attributed to electronic equipment
C. sometimes present in communication
D. rarely present in communication
3. Communication between two or a few people is:
A. mass communication
B. feedback
C. interpersonal communication
D. reciprocal communication
4. When messages are translated into an understandable sign and symbol system by a participant in the
communication process, _____________ is said to have occurred.
A. noise
B. encoding
C. decoding
D. feedback
5. When signs and symbols are interpreted by a participant in the communication process, _____________
is said to have occurred.
A. noise
B. encoding
C. decoding
D. feedback
6. Anything that interferes with successful communication is said to be:
A. noise
B. encoding
C. decoding
D. feedback
7. In communication, the means by which messages are carried is:
A. the feedback loop
B. encoding
C. decoding
D. the medium
8. The process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences is:
A. mass communication
B. feedback
C. interpersonal communication
D. encoding
,9. In mass communication, feedback is typically:
A. instant and direct
B. quite powerful
C. absent
D. delayed and inferential
10. Large, hierarchically structured organizations are typical of:
A. mass communication
B. feedback
C. interpersonal communication
D. noise
11. Highly flexible and alterable messages are characteristic of:
A. mass communication
B. feedback
C. interpersonal communication
D. noise
12. "Communication is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and
transformed" is:
A. the cultural definition of communication
B. a sophisticated definition of feedback
C. interpersonal communication when it works well
D. the biological definition of communication
13. The communication scholar credited with developing the cultural definition of communication is:
A. James Carey
B. Marshall McLuhan
C. Wilbur Schramm
D. Harold Lasswell
14. Culture is:
A. opera, theater, and symphonic music
B. communication between two or a few people
C. the learned behavior of members of a given social group
D. the improvement of public tastes
15. The culture that seems to hold sway with the majority of a given people is the:
A. primary culture
B. bounded culture
C. dominant culture
D. transformed culture
16. Groups with specific but not dominant cultures that exist as part of those larger cultures are:
A. secondary cultures
B. bounded cultures
C. minority cultures
D. transformed cultures
17. Culture is constructed and maintained:
A. through the mass media
B. through interpersonal communication
C. through encoding and decoding
D. through communication
,18. The idea that history can be explained in terms of new and emerging technologies is:
A. technological determinism
B. manifest destiny
C. technological despotism
D. latent destiny
19. Lasswell's model of communication is expressed as "Who Says What in Which Channel _____________
with What Effect."
A. with How Much Noise
B. to Whom
C. Using Which Medium
D. to Which Interpreter
20. The Osgood and Schramm conception of the mass communication process replaces Source and Receiver
with:
A. Initiator and Destination
B. Interpreters
C. Decoders
D. Participant A and Participant B
21. Culture is the world made meaningful; it is socially constructed and maintained through communication.
It limits, as well as liberates us; it differentiates as well as unites us. It defines our realities and
thereby:
A. shapes the ways we think, feel, and act
B. tells us what is true and false
C. creates a national togetherness
D. offers us hope for a unified future
22. We can think of mass communication as a giant courtroom where, as a people, we discuss and debate our
culture—what it is and what we want it to be. This view sees mass communication as a:
A. cultural storyteller
B. repository of cultural understanding
C. cultural forum
D. unrelenting agent of change
23. If we apply the standard model of capitalism to prime-time television programming, the television
network is the producer, _____________ are the product, and advertisers are the consumers.
A. the programs
B. the commercials
C. we
D. the actors
24. In Schramm's model of mass communication, messages from the media organization to the mass
audience are characterized as: __________.
A. delayed and inferential
B. expertly decoded
C. many and identical
D. difficult to interpret
25. The differences between the individual elements of interpersonal and mass communication change the
_____________ the communication process.
A. purpose of
B. noise in
C. outcome of
D. nature of
, 26. The ability to comprehend and use a given form of communication effectively and efficiently is
__________.
A. ethics
B. conversationalist
C. literacy
D. comprehensibility
27. Which of the following is NOT an element of media literacy?
A. possessing an awareness of media's impact
B. possessing an understanding of the process of mass communication
C. possessing strategies for analyzing and discussing media messages
D. possessing the skill to discern between commercials and other content
28. When we read media content at a variety of different levels, we are said to be engaging the content:
A. intelligently
B. as the producers had intended
C. from multiple points of access
D. intuitively
29. Media literacy is:
A. hard to master
B. a skill that can be improved through practice
C. impossible for young people to master
D. more advanced in the U.S. than abroad
30. Cultures without a written language are called:
A. oral cultures
B. illiterate cultures
C. alliterate cultures
D. preindustrial cultures
31. Alphabets based on pictures—for example, Chinese—are said to be:
A. preliterate
B. ideogrammatic
C. phonetic
D. Sumerian
32. A "talking chief" in an African tribe who provides his people's oral history is called:
A. a master
B. a shaman
C. a griot
D. an algine
33. _____________ cultures are characterized by very specific and local languages, the importance of
memory, and an intertwining of myth and history.
A. Literate
B. Information
C. Classic
D. Oral
34. An alphabet that employs sequences of vowels and consonants is:
A. a syllable alphabet
B. an ideogrammatic alphabet
C. cuneiform
D. papyrus based
Student: ___________________________________________________________________________
1. Communication is best defined as:
A. the transmission of a message from a source to a receiver
B. conversation between two or a few people
C. the process of creating shared meaning
D. the product of large media industries
2. Feedback is:
A. the response to a given communication
B. distortion typically attributed to electronic equipment
C. sometimes present in communication
D. rarely present in communication
3. Communication between two or a few people is:
A. mass communication
B. feedback
C. interpersonal communication
D. reciprocal communication
4. When messages are translated into an understandable sign and symbol system by a participant in the
communication process, _____________ is said to have occurred.
A. noise
B. encoding
C. decoding
D. feedback
5. When signs and symbols are interpreted by a participant in the communication process, _____________
is said to have occurred.
A. noise
B. encoding
C. decoding
D. feedback
6. Anything that interferes with successful communication is said to be:
A. noise
B. encoding
C. decoding
D. feedback
7. In communication, the means by which messages are carried is:
A. the feedback loop
B. encoding
C. decoding
D. the medium
8. The process of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences is:
A. mass communication
B. feedback
C. interpersonal communication
D. encoding
,9. In mass communication, feedback is typically:
A. instant and direct
B. quite powerful
C. absent
D. delayed and inferential
10. Large, hierarchically structured organizations are typical of:
A. mass communication
B. feedback
C. interpersonal communication
D. noise
11. Highly flexible and alterable messages are characteristic of:
A. mass communication
B. feedback
C. interpersonal communication
D. noise
12. "Communication is a symbolic process whereby reality is produced, maintained, repaired, and
transformed" is:
A. the cultural definition of communication
B. a sophisticated definition of feedback
C. interpersonal communication when it works well
D. the biological definition of communication
13. The communication scholar credited with developing the cultural definition of communication is:
A. James Carey
B. Marshall McLuhan
C. Wilbur Schramm
D. Harold Lasswell
14. Culture is:
A. opera, theater, and symphonic music
B. communication between two or a few people
C. the learned behavior of members of a given social group
D. the improvement of public tastes
15. The culture that seems to hold sway with the majority of a given people is the:
A. primary culture
B. bounded culture
C. dominant culture
D. transformed culture
16. Groups with specific but not dominant cultures that exist as part of those larger cultures are:
A. secondary cultures
B. bounded cultures
C. minority cultures
D. transformed cultures
17. Culture is constructed and maintained:
A. through the mass media
B. through interpersonal communication
C. through encoding and decoding
D. through communication
,18. The idea that history can be explained in terms of new and emerging technologies is:
A. technological determinism
B. manifest destiny
C. technological despotism
D. latent destiny
19. Lasswell's model of communication is expressed as "Who Says What in Which Channel _____________
with What Effect."
A. with How Much Noise
B. to Whom
C. Using Which Medium
D. to Which Interpreter
20. The Osgood and Schramm conception of the mass communication process replaces Source and Receiver
with:
A. Initiator and Destination
B. Interpreters
C. Decoders
D. Participant A and Participant B
21. Culture is the world made meaningful; it is socially constructed and maintained through communication.
It limits, as well as liberates us; it differentiates as well as unites us. It defines our realities and
thereby:
A. shapes the ways we think, feel, and act
B. tells us what is true and false
C. creates a national togetherness
D. offers us hope for a unified future
22. We can think of mass communication as a giant courtroom where, as a people, we discuss and debate our
culture—what it is and what we want it to be. This view sees mass communication as a:
A. cultural storyteller
B. repository of cultural understanding
C. cultural forum
D. unrelenting agent of change
23. If we apply the standard model of capitalism to prime-time television programming, the television
network is the producer, _____________ are the product, and advertisers are the consumers.
A. the programs
B. the commercials
C. we
D. the actors
24. In Schramm's model of mass communication, messages from the media organization to the mass
audience are characterized as: __________.
A. delayed and inferential
B. expertly decoded
C. many and identical
D. difficult to interpret
25. The differences between the individual elements of interpersonal and mass communication change the
_____________ the communication process.
A. purpose of
B. noise in
C. outcome of
D. nature of
, 26. The ability to comprehend and use a given form of communication effectively and efficiently is
__________.
A. ethics
B. conversationalist
C. literacy
D. comprehensibility
27. Which of the following is NOT an element of media literacy?
A. possessing an awareness of media's impact
B. possessing an understanding of the process of mass communication
C. possessing strategies for analyzing and discussing media messages
D. possessing the skill to discern between commercials and other content
28. When we read media content at a variety of different levels, we are said to be engaging the content:
A. intelligently
B. as the producers had intended
C. from multiple points of access
D. intuitively
29. Media literacy is:
A. hard to master
B. a skill that can be improved through practice
C. impossible for young people to master
D. more advanced in the U.S. than abroad
30. Cultures without a written language are called:
A. oral cultures
B. illiterate cultures
C. alliterate cultures
D. preindustrial cultures
31. Alphabets based on pictures—for example, Chinese—are said to be:
A. preliterate
B. ideogrammatic
C. phonetic
D. Sumerian
32. A "talking chief" in an African tribe who provides his people's oral history is called:
A. a master
B. a shaman
C. a griot
D. an algine
33. _____________ cultures are characterized by very specific and local languages, the importance of
memory, and an intertwining of myth and history.
A. Literate
B. Information
C. Classic
D. Oral
34. An alphabet that employs sequences of vowels and consonants is:
A. a syllable alphabet
B. an ideogrammatic alphabet
C. cuneiform
D. papyrus based
