Sports Sociology Chapter 12

The chapter on sports and the media is based on the assumption that Select one: a. human beings around the world are shaped by the media. b. the power of the media has no limits. c. media content informs people's lives and social worlds. d. most people define the media as unimportant in their lives.

When media are privately owned, their major interest is profit making; when media are controlled and operated by the state, their major interest is Select one: a. shaping values and providing a public service. b. generating revenues for the state. c. funding artists who work for the state. d. creating images that expand people's experiences.

The people who make media content decisions as they select the images and messages to be re-presented to us are best described as Select one: a. image and message "filters". b. propaganda artists. c. agents of corporate capitalism. d. political prophets.

In the case of sports, those who control the media influence sports because Select one: a. they only cover the sports that they and their associates play. b. media viewers mimic whatever they consume in the media. c. they decide which sports and events to cover and how they are covered. d. people in sports will do whatever they say in order to receive coverage.

The images and commentary in a televised representation of a sport event are Select one: a. accurate depictions of all of what occurs at the event. b. selected to distort what happens in the event for the sake of the sponsors. c. mostly fictional depictions of what the producers want us to see and hear. d. carefully edited and selected for many different reasons.

Nearly all television broadcasts of sport events are sponsored by Select one: a. environmental groups devoted to conservation. b. feminist groups and other women's organizations. c. large capitalist corporations and other for profit businesses. d. nonprofit groups dedicated to promoting socially progressive ideas.

At this point in time, people generally use online access to Select one: a. extend and complement what other media already provide. b. shift their attention to sports they've never played. c. calculate the statistics they need to play fantasy sports. d. interact directly with mainstream media announcers.

The major sociological question about the Internet is whether it will Select one: a. democratize social life or become an exclusive tool for capitalist expansion. b. replace all other forms of communications technology. c. undermine the productivity rates of workers worldwide. d. destroy the travel and tourism business worldwide.

Fantasy sport leagued give media sport consumers an opportunity to put themselves in the position of Select one: a. an owner of a sport team. b. a top media executive. c. a professional athlete. d. a professional sports agent.

Research on video games that simulate real time sports shows that Select one: a. people who play them withdraw from most social relationships. b. gamers often create their own narratives that fit their interests in sports. c. children outnumber adults who play these games. d. athletes have rejected these games because they are unrealistic.

The sport-media relationship in the U.S. is organized so that Select one: a. commercial sports no longer depend on the mainstream media. b. only noncommercial media depend on sports. c. commercial forms of media and sports depend on each other for profits. d. neither sports nor the media depend on each other in commercial terms.

The financial success of commercial sports today depend heavily on Select one: a. the rights fees paid by television companies to broadcast sport content. b. spectators who watch television broadcasts in sports bars. c. local businesses who seek the right to sell concessions at sport events. d. newspapers that publish the schedules of games and events.

Rights fees for certain sports have increased dramatically. This has Select one: a. created limits on athletes' salaries. b. increased the profitability of certain commercial sports. c. enabled public organizations to sponsor more sports. d. destroyed the profitability of commercial sports.

According to data in Figure 12.1, the rights fees for the Olympic Games have Select one: a. declined since 2001 and the associated threats of terrorism. b. always been higher for the winter games than the summer games. c. been high only when the games are hosted in North America. d. increased consistently and dramatically since the 1970s.

When people spend 200 minutes watching an NFL game, they Select one: a. see less than 15 minutes of football action. b. see more football action than commercials. c. listen to commercials for more minutes than they listen to commentators. d. see more video replays than actual play during the game.

The media most dependent on sports are Select one: a. books and magazines. b. the Internet and radio. c. newspapers and television. d. television and film.

Even though many sport events have low ratings, television companies want to broadcast them because they fill "dead time" on weekends and because they Select one: a. last longer than a normal half-hour or one-hour show. b. bring family members together around the television. c. appeal to children and other impressionable people. d. attract audiences that sponsors want to reach.

Women's sport events do not receive more coverage in the media partly because the viewers of women's sports Select one: a. have not been identified by advertisers as a unique target audience. b. come primarily from low-income households. c. are mostly stay-at-home moms who have little money to spend. d. are mostly young men who see women athletes as sex objects.

In recent years, 80-percent of the highest rated television programs in the United States have been Select one: a. Major League Baseball World Series games. b. professional wrestling matches. c. NFL games. d. men's track and field events in the Olympic Games.

When cable and satellite companies (like Comcast and Direct TV) bundle channels and sell those bundles to consumers, the people who are regular viewers of ESPN Select one: a. pay more than viewers who watch sports on other channels. b. subsidize television viewers who don't watch sports. c. pay more than their fair share for the television programming they consume. d. are subsidized by television viewers who do not watch sports on ESPN.

If channel bundling were declared illegal and the free market determined the money going to cable channels, Select one: a. the revenues going to college and professional sports would decline. b. the major television networks would go broke. c. more people would watch sports. d. sports would become less popular in the United States.

As opposed to coverage in many other countries, the images and messages in televised sports in the U.S. tend to highlight Select one: a. records, final scores, and competitive success. b. teamwork and coach-athlete relationships. c. the connection between fans in the stands and the athletes on the field. d. the friendships between those who compete against each other in sports.

A person in the U.S. who watches sports on network television Select one: a. sees sport-related action over 80-percent of their time. b. usually watches with the sound turned off. c. is more likely to be a baseball fan than a fan of any other sport. d. sees and hears commercials during 20-percent of their time.

Patterns associated with gender in the media coverage of sports have been slow to change because Select one: a. media organizations are gendered institutions. b. men in sports journalism refuse to cover women's events. c. women in sports journalism refuse to cover women's events. d. women athletes shy away from media coverage.

Compared to past coverage, current media representations of race and ethnicity Select one: a. present fewer narratives that reproduce racist stereotypes b. present fewer images of the lifestyles of successful black male athletes. c. avoid any images of black male athletes as angry and fearsome. d. ignore the records and achievements of black athletes.

When sport journalists ignore in their coverage the dynamics of living in a white-dominated, white-identified, and white-centered society, they Select one: a. reproduce dominant racial ideology as they claim to be color blind. b. allow all athletes to escape the influence of race in their sport. c. ultimately serve as positive role models in the society as a whole. d. help white athletes get along with teammates from diverse racial backgrounds.

The most effective way to reduce subtle forms of racial, ethnic, and national bias in the media coverage of sports is to hire at all levels of media production people who Select one: a. have degrees in communication studies. b. see the world in colorblind ways. c. come from diverse racial, ethnic, and national backgrounds. d. have had experiences in jobs that are unrelated to sport.

Research in the United States shows that when it comes to watching sports on television, the men and women in male-female married couples Select one: a. seldom want to watch the same events. b. seldom have similar viewing patterns but this does not affect their relationship. c. often watch together and see this as a positive thing in their relationship. d. often argue about watching patterns to the point that it leads to divorce.

Over the past few decades, independent investigative journalism has nearly disappeared. Emerging in its place has been Select one: a. corporate journalism. b. attack journalism. c. entertainment journalism. d. critical journalism.

Tensions between elite athletes and sportswriters has intensified as Select one: a. athletes have discovered that they can write their own stories online. b. salary differences between athletes and sportswriters have increased. c. journalists have ignored personal information in stories about athletes. d. more sportswriters have come from low-income and minority backgrounds.