Mediated America

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Dear Smarties:

The basic premise of this class is simple: That much (if not most) of what we “know” about the world—about people different from us, other nationalities, about gender roles, about traditions and beliefs and “normal” behavior—comes to us through the mass media. Sure, our parents and families teach us as children, and so do our schools and churches and friends, but most of what we learn about things distant and strange to our everyday lives come to us through the mass media, especially television and, increasingly, the Internet.

The writer E.B. White, whom you may know as the author of children’s books like Charlotte’s Web, was also a wonderful columnist and essayist for The New Yorker and Harper’s magazines throughout a long career. In 1938, he visited the World’s Fair in New York City and saw one of the first demonstrations of an amazing new invention—television. It was a tiny, grainy picture, but in the snowy screen one could make out human figures and heard them talk. White wasn’t so sure this was a step forward. He wrote this in a Harper’s essay in 1938:

“Television will enormously enlarge the eye’s range, and, like radio, will advertise the Elsewhere. Together with the tabs, the mags, and the movies, it will insist that we forget the primary and the near in favor of the distant and the remote. More hours in every 24 will be spent digesting ideas, sounds, images—distant and concocted. In sufficient accumulation, radio sounds and television sights may become more familiar to us than their originals.”

“When I was a child, people simply looked about them and were moderately happy; today they peer beyond the seven seas, bury themselves waist-deep in tidings, and by and large what they see and hear makes them unutterably sad.”

“...I believe television is going to be the test of the modern world, and that in this new opportunity to see beyond the range of our vision we shall discover either a new and unbearable disturbance of the general peace, or a saving radiance in the sky. We shall stand or fall by television—of that I am quite sure.” (E.B. White, “Removal,” One Man’s Meat, New York: Harper & Row, 1938)

That’s pretty prescient, I think, for someone in 1938 to worry about how television would change the world.

In Media Smarts we examine how media messages sometimes skew the way we “know” ourselves and our planet, and we’ll discuss whether television—and other mass media—have been, in White’s words, an “unbearable disturbance” or a “saving radiance.”

The following quiz explores some of what the media have taught us, and how they teach us things that may not be entirely accurate about the world around us. As we start trying to “make sense of the Information Age,” these items provide an illustration of just how screwy the world may sometimes look through the mass media’s lens.

This quiz is supposed to be fun—it doesn’t “count.” So enjoy picking the answers, and involve your friends and family if you like, because discussing these things is fun and maddening. I suggest you print this out and complete it by the end of the week (don’t send me your answers). I will provide the answers next week, and we can discuss some of these things, and where these “media myths” come from and what impact they might have—comment below in the “Comments” section if you like.

Ted Pease
Professor of Interesting Stuff

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I. MEDIA TRIVIA: Media & Society

1. In 2007, American adults and teens consumed an estimated ______ hours of media.
a. 1,500 hrs b. 2,500 hrs c. 3,500 hrs d. 4,500 hrs e. 5,500 hrs

2. American 1-year-olds watch an average of how much TV per week?
a. 0 hrs b. 2 hrs c. 4 hrs d. 6 hrs e. 8 hrs

3. The American Association of Pediatrics recommends children under 2 watch how much TV per week?
a. 0 hrs b. 2 hrs c. 4 hrs d. 6 hrs e. 8 hrs

4. T/F Kids who watch four hours or more of TV daily are more likely to be bullies than kids who watch less.

5. Who spends more time watching TV—women with young children or single men? (circle one)

6. T/F The average U.S. household has more TVs than people.

7. What percentage of U.S. households has an Internet connection?
a. 51% b. 61% c. 71% d. 81%

8. Americans buy almost _____ movie tickets per day.
a. 1 million b. 2 million c. 4 million d. 6 million e. 7 million

9. How many DVDs are rented from Netflix per day?
a. 1½ million b. 2½ million c. 3½ million d. 4½ million

10. Before Clairol introduced its 1950s ad campaign for home hair color with the slogan, “Does she or doesn’t she?” what percentage of American women colored their hair?
a. less than 5% b. 10% c. 15% d. 25% e. 50%

• Three years later, what percentage of American women colored their hair?
a. less than 5% b. 10% c. 15% d. 25% e. 50%

11. Which U.S. city is the nation’s “vainest,” based on amounts spent on plastic surgery and cosmetics?
a. Los Angeles b. Salt Lake c. San Diego d. Louisville e. New York

12. Ooo-lala! Which country is the world’s leading producer of pornography?
a. U.S. b. France c. Sweden d. Japan e. Italy f. India

13. T/F Teens surveyed in 12 countries believe the violence, crime and sex portrayed in U.S. media accurately depicts life in America.

14. It takes how many trees to publish Cosmopolitan magazine each year?
a. 28,000 b. 128,000 c. 228,000 d. 328,000 e. 428,000

15. _____ % of Cache Valley residents responding to a Logan Herald Journal survey believe that the assassination of John F. Kennedy was an internal U.S. government plot.
a. 1% b. 9% c. 22% d. 52% e. 82% f. 92%

II. MEDIA TRIVIA: Politics
Clearly, there is a strong and growing connection between American politics and the mass media. Given the assumption that the mass media are more powerful than most or many other information sources in our lives, spending on political advertising takes on some ominous implications.

16. The top-three Democratic presidential candidates in Iowa’s 2008 caucuses spent $____ per voter just on TV ads.
a. $178/voter b. $140/voter c. $100/voter d. $87/voter e. $47/voter

17. TOTAL TV political ad spending in Iowa’s 2008 caucuses was . . .
a. $63 million b. $50 million c. $13 million d. $9 million e. $7.5 million

18. Four years earlier, TOTAL TV political ad spending in Iowa’s 2004 caucuses was . . .
a. $63 million b. $50 million c. $13 million d. $9 million e. $7.5 million

19. Mix ’n Match: Which presidential campaign spent how much on TV ads ALONE in Iowa?
Clinton..............$1.4 million
Edwards............$4 million
Huckabee..........$7.1 million
Obama..............$7.5 million
Romney............$9.5 million

20. In July 2008 alone, how much did McCain and Obama spend on media advertising?
a. $73 million b. $54 million c. $24 million d. $9 million e. $7.5 million

21. Percentage of people ages 19 to 29 who cited The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live as regular sources of their election news.
a. 21% b. 31% c. 41% d. 51% e. 61%

22. During the 2008 primary season, which presidential candidates received the most negative coverage?
a. Obama b. Giuliani c. Edwards d. Clinton e. Romney

23. During the 2008 primary season, which presidential candidates received the most positive coverage?
a. Obama b. Giuliani c. Edwards d. Clinton e. Romney

24. Percentage of Americans who believed in 2008-09 that Barack Obama is not only unpatriotic, but also a secret practicing Muslim.
a. 2% b. 5% c. 10% d. 12% e. 15%

25. U.S. rank among 100 nations in terms of women holding national political office:
a. 32nd b. 52nd c. 72nd d. 82nd e. 92nd

26. Of 172 nations that held elections in 2006, U.S. rank in voter turnout:
a. 13th b. 39th c. 79th d. 119th e. 139th

27. Whose press coverage in the 2000 presidential election was more negative?
Democratic nominee Al Gore or Republican nominee George W. Bush

28. Percentage of people age 19 to 29 who cited The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live as regular sources of their election news.
a. 21% b. 31% c. 41% d. 51%

29. Was President Barack Obama born in the United States?
• 30% of ______ are not sure.
• 93% of ______ and 83% of _______ do believe he was born in the U.S.
• 28% of _____ do not believe he was not born in U.S.
a. Democrats b. Republicans c. Independents

III. MEDIA TRIVIA: News

30. Which of these news magazines are in the top 10 best-selling mags in the U.S.?
a. Time b. Newsweek c. U.S. News & World Report d. The Nation e. none

31. The average American newspaper subscriber spends ____ reading the daily paper.
a. None (don’t read at all) b. 20 minutes c. 45 minutes d. 60 minutes

32. How many Americans 18 to 24 years old do not read, watch or listen to any news on a daily basis?
a. 10% b. 15% c. 25% d. 30% e. 40%

33. The average American 18 to 24 years old spends less than ____ a day reading newspapers.
a. 5 minutes b. 10 minutes c. 25 minutes d. 30 minutes e. 40 minutes

34. Approximately ___ % of all Americans watches TV network news every night.
a. 10% b. 30% c. 50% d. 75% e. 89%

35. How many Americans under 30 say they get their news primarily from late-night comedians?
a. 13% b. 23% c. 33% d. 43% e. 51%

36. T/F Regular viewers of comedy shows (e.g., The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, etc.) are just as well-informed about news as consumers of more elite news (e.g., PBS’s Lehrer News Hour, newspapers, etc.).

37. One-in-eight American families lives in poverty. One-in-nine American households goes from day to day without being sure they’ll have enough to eat. How much time do nightly network newscasts spend covering poverty in the United States, on average?
a. 2½ seconds b. 4 seconds c. 2½ minutes d. 4 minutes

38. America viewers who rely on (which TV network?) for their news are most likely to believe that the U.S. found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and that Saddam Hussein was directly involved in 9/11.
a. ABC b. CBS c. CNN d. Fox e. NBC f. MSNBC

39. T/F A recent research study found that conservatives believe Steven Colbert shares their conservative values, and uses his program to make fun of liberals.

40. T/F Most news reporters consider themselves to be political liberals.

41. In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations that the U.S. had evidence of weapons of Iraqi mass destruction (WMD). In the two weeks before Powell’s speech, CBS, NBC, ABC & PBS ran 392 stories about Iraq, Saddam, WMD and war. How many of these stories questioned the evidence that Iraq had WMD?
a. 1 b. 3 c. 5 d. 10 e. 20 f. 50

42. During 2007, how much of U.S. news coverage was devoted to reporting on the Iraq war?
a. 3% b. 13% c. 23% d. 33%

43. In 2008, through the end of June, how much U.S. news coverage focused on Pakistan?
a. 1% b. 2% c. 3% d. 4% e. 5% f. 8%

44. Buxom celeb Anna Nicole Smith died of drug overdose in June 2007; how much of total news coverage focused on her during the two days after her death?
• On cable news
a. 10% b. 25% c. 30% d. 40% e. 50% f. none of the above
• In all news sources
a. 10% b. 25% c. 30% d. 40% e. 50% f. none of the above
• In newspapers
a. 10% b. 25% c. 30% d. 40% e. 50% f. none of the above

45. In the first 28 hours after Michael Jackson’s death, U.S. news outlets devoted _____ of their coverage to the story.
a. 10% b. 20% c. 40% d. 60% e. 80%

46. Which U.S. newspaper did billionaire Rupert Murdoch recently purchase?
a. The Wall Street Journal b. LATimes c. New York Daily News d. USA Today

• Can you name another major news outlets owned by Murdoch?

47. How many newspapers have failed since January 2009?
a. 25 b. 50 c. 75 d. 100 e. 125

48. Over the past two years, how many major U.S. metropolitan daily newspapers have closed or adopted hybrid online/print versions or online-only models?
a. 10 b. 20 c. 30 d. 40 e. 50

49. Veteran CBS newsman and anchor Walter Cronkite died this summer. During his career, he was considered “the most trusted man in America.” Since his death, a Time “Click” poll reports that Americans voted who the new most trusted newsman in the U.S.?
a. Brian Williams, NBC c. Jim Lehrer, PBS e. Jon Stewart, The Daily Show
b. Katie Couric, CBS d. Charlie Gibson, ABC f. Steven Colbert, The Colbert Report

50. Which story generated the biggest worldwide Internet coverage since Jan. 1, 2000?
a. Obama’s Election (2008) d. Iraq invasion (2003)
b. Michael Jackson’s death(2009) e. Hurricane Katrina (2005)
c. 9/11 terrorist attacks (2001) f. Beijing Olympics (2008)

51. Which story has generated the most U.S. news coverage since Jan. 1, 2000?
a. Obama’s Election (2008) d. Iraq invasion (2003)
b. Michael Jackson’s death(2009) e. Hurricane Katrina (2005)
c. 9/11 terrorist attacks (2001) f. Beijing Olympics (2008)

IV. MEDIA TRIVIA: Race, Ethnicity & Gender
52. T/F Fox News pundit Glenn Beck recently told viewers that President Obama is a racist who hates white people.

53. People of color make up about 38% of the U.S. population. With the exception of sports and coverage of Barack Obama, what percentage of the news appearing in newspapers is about people of color in America?
a. 5% b. 10% c. 20% d. 30% e. 35%

54. Between 1995-1998, TV network evening news ran 48,000 stories; how many were about Hispanics?
a. 1% b. 2% c. 5% d. 10% e. 15%

55. In 2003, Hispanics were the focus of _________ stories airing on ABC, NBC, CBS & CNN newscasts.
a. 1% b. 2% c. 5% d. 10% e. 15%

56. What percentage of nightly network-news stories was reported by whites in 2000?
a. 49% b. 59% c. 69% d. 79% e. 89% f. 99%

57. What are the chances that a U.S. film with male Arab or Muslim characters made before Sept. 11, 2001 (9/11), depicts them as greedy, violent or dishonest?
a. 1 in 20 b. 5 in 20 c. 8 in 20 d. 15 in 20 e. 19 in 20

58. ______ % of children say criminals on TV shows are usually played by a African-Americans.
a. 19% b. 29% c. 39% d. 49% e. 59%

59. ______ % of children say bosses on TV shows are usually played by a white actors.
a. 21% b. 41% c. 51% d. 71% e. 91%

60. Percentage of entertainment and news media decision-makers who are white men.
a. 20-25% b. 45-50% c. 70-75% d. 90-95%

61. Who is most likely to be pictured in TV news stories about youth crime?
a. African-Americans
b. Latinos
c. Asian-Americans
d. Native Americans
e. Caucasians
f. Mexicans

62. How many black men have appeared on the cover of Men’s Vogue since it launched in 2005? a. 0 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 e. 5 f. 10

63. How many black women have appeared on Vogue’s cover since it was founded in 1892?
a. 0 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 e. 5 f. 10

64. Percentage of ads in bride magazines that featured African-American women (2000-04).
a. 0 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 e. 5 f. 10

65. Number of covers of bride magazines that featured African-American women (2000-2004).
a. 0 b. 2 c. 3 d. 4 e. 5 f. 10

66. About 52% of Americans are women. Excluding Hillary Clinton coverage, how much of the news in U.S. newspapers is about women?
a. 10% b. 20% c. 40% d. 50%

67. Men reported what percentage of nightly network news stories in 2000?
a. 46% b. 56% c. 66% d. 76% e. 86% f. 96%

68. How many U.S. newsmagazine covers (Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report) in 1996 featured women who were not princesses, murderers, or models?
a. 0% b. 5% c. 10% d. 15% e. 22%

69. Between 1987 and 1997, Time magazine published 574 issues. How many Time covers featured women who were not entertainers, wives of politicians or Princess Diana?
a. 29 b. 59 c. 79 d. 99 e. 159

70. Total number of news stories during three months in 2006 that mentioned ex-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was a grandfather:
a. 6 b. 60 c. 160 d. 260 e. 306

71. Total number of news stories during the same three months that mentioned new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is a grandmother:
a. 6 b. 60 c. 160 d. 260 e. 306

72. Which of the following terms has been used by print & broadcast journalists to describe House Speaker Nancy Pelosi?
a. “Wicked Witch of the West” b. “Shrew” c. “castrater” d. “Squeaker of the House ” e. all

73. Which media talk show host referred to Hillary Clinton as a “She-Devil”?
a. Rush Limbaugh b. Chris Matthews c. Bill O’Reilly d. both a & c

V. Miscellaneous
74. T/F The majority of people worldwide are followers of Christian religions.

75. One-fourth of the world’s population lives in the United States. How much of the world’s natural resources are consumed by Americans?
a. 25% b. 33% c. 50% d. 67% e. 75%

76. Number of plastic grocery bags used in a year by the average U.S. family of four.
a. 500 b. 1,000 c. 1,500 d. 2,000

77. Americans recycle what percentage of plastic bags?
a. 1% b. 5% c. 10% d. 15% e. 20%

78. How long does it take for a plastic bag to decompose in a landfill?
a. 10 yrs b. 100 yrs c. 500 yrs d. 1,000 yrs e. 1,500 yrs

79. Debate over health care reform has dominated the news and talk shows in recent weeks. According to the World Health Organization, which country(s) ranks in the top 10 nations that provide the best health care to citizens?
a. U.S. b. France c. Japan d. Costa Rica e. Slovenia