Media Theory: Not What to Think, but What About
The big ideas about how media shape us, from agenda setting and cultivation to McLuhan, the culture industry and the spiral of silence.
Media Theory · 50 questions
Try 3 questions
1. How do historians of communication research now view the 'magic bullet' or 'hypodermic needle' theory?
- Largely a later straw man few really held
- The consensus view of today's researchers
- A theory proven by wartime experiments
Show the answer
Answer: Largely a later straw man few really held
Later scholars built up this simple model mainly to contrast it with their own findings; early researchers held more nuanced views.
2. In Albert Bandura's Bobo doll experiments, what did children who had watched an adult hit the doll tend to do?
- Refuse to play with the doll at all
- Imitate the aggression themselves
- Become calmer than the other children
Show the answer
Answer: Imitate the aggression themselves
The studies supported social learning theory: children copied specific aggressive acts they had observed.
3. The 'third-person effect' describes people's tendency to believe what?
- Media affect nobody in any real way
- Media affect others more than themselves
- Media affect themselves more than others
Show the answer
Answer: Media affect others more than themselves
People see themselves as savvy and others as gullible, which can fuel support for censoring content 'for others'.
The whole quiz comes before your apps
BrainTok asks a few questions like these before the apps you choose open, so your screen time turns into learning. For iPhone.
Join the beta