Chapter 18 Self-Check Quiz
Twelve multiple-choice questions and four short-answer questions. Answer all of them before checking the key in the appendices. The chapter's core empirical claims should be reproducible from memory; the contested questions should be answerable on the strongest version of each side.
Multiple Choice
1. The Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to provide balanced coverage of controversial issues, was:
a) An act of Congress passed in 1949 and repealed by Congress in 1987 b) An FCC regulation adopted in 1949 and repealed by the FCC in 1987 c) A Supreme Court doctrine established in Red Lion v. FCC (1969) and overturned in Citizens United (2010) d) A constitutional doctrine derived from the First Amendment
2. Approximately how many American newspapers have closed since 2005?
a) About 500 b) About 1,500 c) About 3,000 d) About 6,000
3. Walter Cronkite, the CBS Evening News anchor from 1962 to 1981, is most often cited as a symbol of:
a) The rise of television news as a partisan force b) The shared-facts baseline of the broadcast era c) The professionalization of investigative journalism d) The first generation of cable-news anchors
4. Cable news in its current three-channel configuration (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC) emerged in:
a) The early 1980s b) The mid-1990s, with Fox News and MSNBC both launching in 1996 c) The early 2000s d) After the 2008 financial crisis
5. Hunt Allcott and Matthew Gentzkow's 2017 study of 2016-election misinformation found that:
a) Pro-Trump and pro-Clinton false stories circulated in roughly equal volumes b) Pro-Trump false stories circulated substantially more than pro-Clinton false stories, and the persuasive effect on voting was likely small in aggregate c) The persuasive effect on voting was larger than mainstream press accounts suggested d) Most American adults encountered no false news stories during the campaign
6. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996:
a) Holds platforms strictly liable for user-generated content b) Treats platforms as common carriers like phone companies c) Shields platforms from liability for user-generated content while preserving good-faith moderation rights d) Was struck down as unconstitutional in NetChoice v. Paxton (2024)
7. New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) established that public-official defamation plaintiffs must show:
a) That the defendant published a false statement b) That the defendant acted negligently c) That the defendant either knew the statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for truth (the "actual malice" standard) d) That the defendant intended to harm the plaintiff
8. The empirical research on filter bubbles and echo chambers since Eli Pariser's 2011 Filter Bubble has generally found:
a) That algorithmic filter bubbles are even more severe than Pariser argued b) That algorithmic filter bubbles do not exist at all c) That algorithmic effects are real but weaker than the original thesis suggested, with selective exposure (user choice) being a larger driver of partisan information sorting d) That partisan information sorting is primarily driven by mainstream-press editorial choices
9. Survey data on the political views of working national journalists has consistently shown:
a) Roughly equal Democratic and Republican identification b) A modest Democratic lean of perhaps 5 to 10 percentage points c) A substantial Democratic lean — typically with party-affiliated journalists identifying Democrat over Republican by roughly 4 to 1 d) A modest Republican lean among national-press journalists
10. Approximately what share of U.S. counties had no full-time local newspaper as of 2024?
a) About 5% b) About 15% c) About 30% d) About half
11. The U.S. ranking on the Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index has, between 2002 and 2024:
a) Improved substantially b) Remained stable c) Slipped substantially, falling from 17th in 2002 to 55th in 2024 d) Reached the top five for the first time
12. The Dominion v. Fox News defamation suit (settled 2023):
a) Was dismissed on First Amendment grounds before reaching the merits b) Settled for $787 million after discovery produced internal communications showing Fox executives and on-air talent simultaneously aware that election-fraud claims they were broadcasting were false c) Resulted in a jury verdict for Fox News d) Concerned coverage of the 2016 election
Short Answer
13. In approximately 200 words, characterize the empirical partisan lean of the American media landscape. Include in your answer: the direction of the mainstream press, the direction of the conservative-media ecosystem, and at least one source of evidence for each.
14. In approximately 200 words, explain the Section 230 reform debate, presenting both the conservative critique and the progressive critique on their strongest versions. Note where the two critiques converge and where they diverge.
15. In approximately 200 words, summarize the empirical research on social-media misinformation, including the asymmetries that exist and the asymmetries that do not exist. Cite at least two specific empirical findings.
16. In approximately 200 words, explain the civic consequences of the collapse of local journalism since 2005. Include at least three measured effects from the empirical literature, and identify what rebuilding efforts now exist.
Notes on the Quiz
Some of the multiple-choice questions test memorization of empirical claims (numbers, dates, the direction of a finding). These are the easier questions. Others test the ability to distinguish among competing characterizations. The short-answer questions test whether you can present contested questions in a way that does justice to the strongest version of each side. Steel-manning is a graded skill; learn to do it.
The numbers in this chapter are stable as of early 2026. Your instructor may update specific figures (Pew releases new media-consumption data each year; Reporters Without Borders updates its press-freedom rankings annually; new Section 230 cases continue to develop). The structural patterns the chapter describes have been stable for several years and are likely to remain so.