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Contemporary Media Review Questions

Contemporary Media

Review the lecture outline.

  1. What are some of the forces driving narrowcasting?
  2. How are barriers to entry related to media monopolies?
  3. What do feminist scholars and ethnic studies scholars have in common in their criticism of the media?
  4. How does the television show American Idol depart from the SMCR model of mass communication?
  5. How is the information society different from previous eras?
  6. Explain the main ideas behind the political-economic approach to media studies.
  7. How has technology affected the number of people required to produce a media product?
  8. What do Facebook, wikis and YouTube have in common?
  9. How do economies of scale in communications media work?
  10. How does the Internet challenge the basic assumptions of media economics?
  11. Who are gatekeepers, and who are agenda setters?
  12. What is media convergence?

Testable Terms: Contemporary Media

Books and Magazines

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  1. What were some factors for the growth of literacy in America in the nineteenth century?
  2. What kinds of magazines emerged in the twentieth century?
  3. Name two muckrakers and describe what they did.
  4. How did magazines adapt to competition from radio, film, and television?
  5. How does the emergence of conglomerates affect books and magazines?
  6. What are some ways to consume books other than print?
  7. How do consumer magazines earn revenue?
  8. How has the Internet given new life to older books?
  9. Where are books sold today?

Testable Terms: Books and Magazines

Newspapers

Review the lecture outline.

  1. What role did newspapers play in the American Revolution in the eighteenth century?
  2. How did newspapers evolve as government watchdogs?
  3. What is computer-assisted reporting? What kinds of stories have journalists done with C.A.R.?
  4. How does concentration of newspaper ownership relate to diversity of voices?
  5. How does the circulation trend for daily newspapers compare with the circulation trend for alternative weeklies?
  6. What is citizen journalism, and where is it being practiced?
  7. How do blogs differ from newspapers in terms of partisanship and opinion?
  8. What is the Daily Me and what makes it possible?
  9. How do newspapers function as gatekeepers?

Testable Terms: Newspapers

Recorded Music and Radio

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  1. What were the main reasons for the decline of network radio?
  2. How did technology impact the music recording industry during the 1940s?
  3. What is podcasting, and how has it affected radio?
  4. What are the major organizations involved in the copyright of recorded music?
  5. How have aspiring recording artists used social media to launch their careers?
  6. What musical forms constitute the origins of rock music.
  7. What does the Arbitron Company do, and how does this impact radio?
  8. Why are fewer radio stations programmed locally?
  9. Who developed wireless telephony, and how did this invention shape the radio industry?

Testable Terms: Recorded Music and Radio

Film and Home Video

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  1. How many movie screens are there in the United States? How has the number grown over the years?
  2. What are two of the main film genres developed by Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s?
  3. How did the film industry react to television?
  4. What is vertical integration in the film industry?
  5. How has the digital distribution of videos (both legal and illegal) affected home video sales and rentals?
  6. What is the most important audience demographic for film producers?
  7. What led to the end of the studio era in the 1940s and 1950s?
  8. Why did Hollywood implement a ratings system in the 1960s and how is it used today?
  9. Explain the difference between linear and nonlinear editing.

Testable Terms: Film and Home Video

Television

Review the lecture outline.

  1. In what ways has social media made popular TV shows interactive?
  2. What is the current status of digital television and HDTV?
  3. What prompted the FCC to put a freeze on awarding new stations in 1948?
  4. What technology and government ruling enabled HBO to become a national cable channel?
  5. Name the Big Five television companies. Give an example of what each company owns.
  6. Explain hammocking and one other strategy that networks use to attract and hold their audience.
  7. How do vertical integration and horizontal integration in the television industry threaten diversity?

Testable Terms: Television

Internet

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  1. How do U.S. laws governing Internet content differ the laws in other countries (e.g., France)?
  2. What is freeware?
  3. What are examples of top-level Internet domains?
  4. How do cookies work?
  5. What are the costs and benefits associated with privacy online?
  6. What is Creative Commons?
  7. How does Web 2.0 differ from earlier concepts of the Internet? What are some examples of Web 2.0?

Testable Terms: Internet

Persuasion Industries

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  1. How is public relations practiced differently online than when using traditional media?
  2. Describe an effective use of PR by a historical figure or group?
  3. Describe two specialties or functions of public relations.
  4. What is the tension between corporate interests and the public interest in public relations?
  5. Why are video news releases flourishing?
  6. What does CPM stand for, and why is it important in advertising?
  7. What is integrated marketing communications?
  8. Which advertising strategy – hard sell or soft sell – is most prevalent today? Why?
  9. How is consumers’ personal information used to increase the effectiveness of advertising?
  10. Why is media literacy important regarding advertising?

Testable Terms: Persuasion Industries

Public Relations

Advertising

Video Games and the Third Screen

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  1. How were video games considered a factor in the 1999 Columbine High murders?
  2. Identify one system used to classify genres of video games.
  3. How are console games different from computer games?
  4. What challenges did the video game industry face in the 1980s that caused it to crash?
  5. Why has the military been interested in serious games?
  6. How are media companies attempting to capitalize on the “third screen”?
  7. How do subsidies relate to universal service?
  8. How was the development of the phone system connected to telegraphy?
  9. What government agency awards communications frequencies, and how?
  10. Cell phones and service developed differently in the United States than in Europe and Asia. How?

Testable Terms: Video Games and the Third Screen

Media Effects, Impacts, and Uses

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  1. Why has the Internet replaced television as the prime media villain for concerned parents?
  2. What is social marketing, and how does it fit into information campaigns?
  3. How is media stereotyping related to racism and other social ills?
  4. Describe two theories that predict indirect media effects on individuals.
  5. What are some of the caveats about experimental research?

Testable Terms: Media Effects, Impacts, and Uses

Media Policy and Regulation

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  1. Why are industry lobbyists and public interest lobbyists frequently at odds?
  2. How long is a copyright currently enforced?
  3. What did the U.S. Supreme Court establish in the case of Miller v. California?
  4. What is the history and current status of the Fairness Doctrine?
  5. What are two limitations to free speech in the U.S.?
  6. How are radio frequencies awarded?
  7. What conditions does the Federal Trade Commission consider in determining a case of deceptive advertising?

Testable Terms: Media Policy and Regulation

Media and Globalization

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  1. Which national telecommunications companies are “going international,” and how?
  2. Why has wireless telephone service grown faster in the industrialized nations of Europe and the Far East than in the United States?
  3. What are recent trends in tariffs on media imposed by the United States?
  4. What is the difference between glocalized media and regionalization?
  5. How has cultural imperialism been affected by the Internet?
  6. Why is there tension between the policies of national sovereignty and free flow of information?
  7. How has satellite television affected broadcast television in terms of media flows?

Testable Terms: Media and Globalization