Free Culture and Society MCQs with Answers

• A. media saturation
• B. media globalization
• C. media penetration
• D. media imperialism

Explanation: Media imperialism describes the unequal global flow in which powerful countries, especially Western ones, spread their cultural products…

• A. rational though
• B. social capital
• C. cultural capital
• D. political awareness

Explanation: Robert Putnam links extensive television viewing with declining social capital, including weaker community participation and civic…

• A. mediatization
• B. globalization
• C. convergence
• D. cloud computing

Explanation: Media convergence is the merging of previously separate media technologies and platforms, such as reading newspapers online or accessing…

• A. Manuel Castells
• B. Karl Marx
• C. Howard Rheingold
• D. Marshall McLuhan

Explanation: Marshall McLuhan used the phrase “the medium is the message” to show that the form of communication itself can reshape social…

• A. rise of digital media
• B. cultural imperialism
• C. virtual communities
• D. the US is not the largest global exporter of films

Explanation: The worldwide dominance of American films raises the issue of cultural imperialism because one country’s cultural products may displace or…

• A. cyberspace
• B. the worldwide web
• C. virtual communities
• D. chatrooms

Explanation: Howard Rheingold defined virtual communities as relationships formed through sustained online discussion, where participants develop…

• A. functionalist perspective
• B. conflict perspective
• C. labeling theory
• D. interactionist perspective

Explanation: The interactionist perspective examines face-to-face and mediated communication, meaning-making, and the development of relationships in…

• A. argot
• B. charisma
• C. equilibrium
• D. virtual reality

Explanation: Argot is the specialised vocabulary used by a particular group or subculture, so terms such as “flaming” and “chat rooms” represent…

• A. repress it by promoting only the interests of elite groups
• B. reproduce it by emphasizing face-to-face contact with peer groups
• C. revive it by reaffirming a commitment of freedom of speech
• D. replace it with a superior form of communication

Explanation: The Internet has been seen as reviving the public sphere by creating wider opportunities for discussion, participation and expression.

• A. audiences selectively interpret what they want to hear
• B. content analysis is the best way to identify the themes covered by the media
• C. audiences passively absorb whatever messages they are given
• D. social interaction reinforces the ideas and images that audiences select

Explanation: The media-themes model recognises that audiences select and interpret media themes, while social interaction reinforces the ideas and…

• A. the media manipulate the masses as vulnerable passive consumers
• B. the subordinate classes are dominated by the ideology of the ruling class
• C. the content of the media is determined market forces
• D. audiences make selective interpretations of media messages

Explanation: Mass-society theory portrays ordinary people as isolated and vulnerable masses who can be manipulated by powerful mass media.

• A. functionalist perspective
• B. interactionist perspective
• C. conflict perspective
• D. ethnocentric perspective

Explanation: The interactionist perspective studies how people create and use shared meanings in everyday interaction, including the meanings attached…

• A. a comic book
• B. patriotic attachment to the flag of the United States
• C. burial of a family pet in a cemetery plot
• D. all of the above

Explanation: Culture includes material objects such as comic books, nonmaterial beliefs such as patriotic attachment, and shared practices such as…

• A. the contact hypothesis
• B. a self-fulfilling prophecy
• C. amalgamation
• D. reverse discrimination

Explanation: The contact hypothesis holds that meaningful cooperation between members of different social groups can reduce prejudice and encourage…

• A. folkways
• B. laws
• C. values
• D. mores

Explanation: Norms become laws when they are formally written, publicly enforced and backed by the authority of the state.

• A. Max Weber
• B. Margaret Mead
• C. George Murdock
• D. William F. Ogburn

Explanation: Anthropologist George Murdock compiled a comparative list of cultural universals, such as family, language, religious practices and…

• A. they have a deep-rooted sense of ineffectiveness and are striving for control
• B. they are in pursuit of the perfect body fueled by images of beauty
• C. their male partners pressurize them to look like supermodels
• D. they perceive a part of their body as stigmatizing in relation to a cultural ideal

Explanation: Davis links cosmetic surgery to a perceived bodily stigma, where a feature is judged negatively against a culturally defined ideal of…

• A. non-verbal communication
• B. folkways
• C. cultural integration
• D. values
• E. material culture

Explanation: Personal distance and gestures convey meaning without spoken or written words, so they are forms of non-verbal communication.

• A. too many rules and regulations that weigh progress down
• B. few boundaries
• C. a positive influence on multicultural development
• D. too much concern for non-material culture
• E. a disregard for cultural assimilation

Explanation: Globalisation is often criticised for weakening national and cultural boundaries through the movement of goods, capital, information and…

• A. infanticide
• B. homicide
• C. ethnocide
• D. cultural extinction
• E. pesticide

Explanation: Ethnocide means the deliberate destruction or suppression of a people’s culture, often through conquest, while the people may physically…