CMN 102 Exam 2 Completed Study Guide

Unit Two Study Guide Note: We will post the complete study guide once we have completed all the lectures for Unit Two. Completing this study guide should help you review the material from lectures, discussion, and rea ...

Unit Two Study Guide Note: We will post the complete study guide once we have completed all the lectures for Unit Two. Completing this study guide should help you review the material from lectures, discussion, and readings. Information Dissemination What is the sportsframe? -frame our discussion of political campaigns like sports talk -news organizations use the way we talk about sports as a metaphor for political campaigns -one player competes against another -conflict and competition -sports are dramatic -resolution (winners and losers) -events leading to resolution (storyline) When the sportsframe is applied to political campaigns, what are the central questions asked about the campaign? -Who is winning? -like a horserace -always a race -How are they winning? -focus on STRATEGY -example: McCain’s campaign: angry tone and personal attacks on Obama appear to have backfired and tarnished McCain more than their intended target What is the “problem, proposal, performance” scheme, and how does it differ from the sportsframe? -problem -what are the problems that Illinois faces? -proposals -what is Quinn saying we should do? -what candidates do to win -strategy happens 4x more often than policy -Performance -what has this person done in the past with this issue, have they succeeded? *not a sports commentary anymore, more like a job search In what ways are journalists constrained, and how are these constraints related to the sportsframe? -A. Objectivity -mass media sustain objectivity -expect coverage to be independent (press not owned by government), balance (all share coverage), non evaluation (this is what they want to see, here’s what they 1 have done) -B. Entertainment -something that people are willing to watch or click on -dramatic, comebacks -C. Informativeness -something new -switch things up -more old things seem new worthy -D. Brevity -length of a news story is one page -brief **sportsframe and constraints -can talk about score without taking sides -in balance, people get confused -giving equal time -constraints can be good or bad -constraints come in different situations not just in political debates, constraints impact other stuff too How do journalists establish that their news coverage is objective? -expect coverage to be independent (press not owned by government), balance (all share coverage), non evaluation (this is what they want to see, here’s what they have done) What are the main effects of the sportsframe? -voters do not learn much about the candidate’s positions and programs from the news -the news media’s sportsframe invites public cynicism -news on TV: primary source to get info about candidates What is face ratio? Describe the findings from the content analysis and experimental portions of the study covered in discussion section. -face ratio -amount of face that you see in any magazine layout -in increased amount of face ratio= a lot of upper body and face -Study 1: -men had higher face ratios than women -white males had higher face ratios than minorities -Study 2: -took all images and showed them to groups of people and asked participants to rate the images (low and high ratios) and rank of criteria (attractiveness, power, sociability) -high face ratio: more powerful, better looking, ambitious, intelligent How can face ratio be used by the media? -white males have a higher face ratio in the media, therefore they are displayed as more intelligent and more powerful 2 “Fragmentation in the News Media” Describe the differences between print and online versions of newspapers. -print newspapers -every page is constructed and approved by the newspaper staff -navigate through this order to reach the stories they find most interesting -presentational cues that make stories more or less salient to readers -person is more likely to read an article is it is long, repetitive and printed toward the front of the newspaper -online versions of newspapers -replicate the info presented in the paper editions, but the presentation differs in several important ways -online news sits are less restricted by space -larger number of stories are given prominence on the front (home) page and stories link readers to related articles -consumers are given more freedom to determine how they access information -online readers can use menus and tabs to navigate directly to their desired content -easily access information that would normally be less noticeable or hidden within the later pages of a print newspaper Briefly describe the two research studies described in the article. What were the findings? -Study 1 -sought to understand how the presentation of info influences readership -assumption that online readers ignore the homepage’s presentational cues and instead navigate to more personally interesting content -predicted that, compared to print readers, online readers would demonstrate lower recognition and lower recall of international, national, and political topics -day 1: each participant completed a questionnaire that assessed how much they had been exposed to TV and radio news within the last week -group 1: control, group 2: online version of New York Times, group 3: browsed print versions of NYT -findings: -compared to participants in the print condition, online readers read fewer international, national, and political articles -smaller portion of their time reading these articles and were less likely to begin their sessions by reading one -online readers were more likely than print readers to recall business and other news topics -online readers were less likely to read traditionally front-page stories -online readers were less successful in recognizing descriptions of the events, and remembered fewer details about the event -online readers read fewer front-page stories and processed those they did read less efficiently than did print readers