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- Contemporary Media Review Questions
Review the lecture outline.
- What are some of the forces driving narrowcasting?
- How are barriers to entry related to media monopolies?
- What do feminist scholars and ethnic studies scholars have in common in their criticism of the media?
- How does the television show American Idol depart from the SMCR model of mass communication?
- How is the information society different from previous eras?
- Explain the main ideas behind the political-economic approach to media studies.
- How has technology affected the number of people required to produce a media product?
- What do Facebook, wikis and YouTube have in common?
- How do economies of scale in communications media work?
- How does the Internet challenge the basic assumptions of media economics?
- Who are gatekeepers, and who are agenda setters?
- What is media convergence?
Testable Terms: Contemporary Media
- asynchronous media
- broadcasting vs. narrowcasting
- cable TV
- convergence
- digitalization
- direct payments vs. indirect payments
- economies of scale
- ethnic media studies
- feminist studies
- filter bubble
- gatekeeper
- industrial society
- information society
- intrapersonal / interpersonal / group / small group / large group / mass communication
- mass media
- monopoly / oligopoly / duopoly
- peer-to-peer
- political economic studies
- sender-message-channel-receiver model
- social media
- technological determinism
Books and Magazines
Review the lecture outline.
- What were some factors for the growth of literacy in America in the nineteenth century?
- What kinds of magazines emerged in the twentieth century?
- Name two muckrakers and describe what they did.
- How did magazines adapt to competition from radio, film, and television?
- How does the emergence of conglomerates affect books and magazines?
- What are some ways to consume books other than print?
- How do consumer magazines earn revenue?
- How has the Internet given new life to older books?
- Where are books sold today?
Testable Terms: Books and Magazines
- audiobooks
- backlist
- circulation / pass-along rate
- conglomerate
- desktop publishing
- dime novels
- ebook
- mass-market paperbacks
- miscellanies
- movable type
- muckraking
- newsmagazine
- novels
- on-demand publishers
- paperback books
- professional books
- religious books
- scholarly books
- shot-gun approach
- textbooks
- trade books
- trade magazines
Newspapers
Review the lecture outline.
- What role did newspapers play in the American Revolution in the eighteenth century?
- How did newspapers evolve as government watchdogs?
- What is computer-assisted reporting? What kinds of stories have journalists done with C.A.R.?
- How does concentration of newspaper ownership relate to diversity of voices?
- How does the circulation trend for daily newspapers compare with the circulation trend for alternative weeklies?
- What is citizen journalism, and where is it being practiced?
- How do blogs differ from newspapers in terms of partisanship and opinion?
- What is the Daily Me and what makes it possible?
- How do newspapers function as gatekeepers?
Testable Terms: Newspapers
- backpack journalism
- blog
- citizen journalism
- conglomerate
- dailies
- fabrication
- joint operating agreement
- libel
- local market monopoly
- objectivity
- online paywall
- partisan press
- penny press
- plagiarism
- social responsibility model
- weeklies
- wire service
- Yellow Journalism
Recorded Music and Radio
Review the lecture outline.
- What were the main reasons for the decline of network radio?
- How did technology impact the music recording industry during the 1940s?
- What is podcasting, and how has it affected radio?
- What are the major organizations involved in the copyright of recorded music?
- How have aspiring recording artists used social media to launch their careers?
- What musical forms constitute the origins of rock music.
- What does the Arbitron Company do, and how does this impact radio?
- Why are fewer radio stations programmed locally?
- Who developed wireless telephony, and how did this invention shape the radio industry?
Testable Terms: Recorded Music and Radio
- amplitude modulation
- bluegrass
- chain broadcasting
- copyright
- cross-ownership
- disc jockey
- format
- frequency modulation
- group owners
- high fidelity
- indecent speech
- MP3
- payola
- podcast
- public broadcaster
- ratings
- Telecommunications Act of 1996
- vertical integration
Film and Home Video
Review the lecture outline.
- How many movie screens are there in the United States? How has the number grown over the years?
- What are two of the main film genres developed by Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s?
- How did the film industry react to television?
- What is vertical integration in the film industry?
- How has the digital distribution of videos (both legal and illegal) affected home video sales and rentals?
- What is the most important audience demographic for film producers?
- What led to the end of the studio era in the 1940s and 1950s?
- Why did Hollywood implement a ratings system in the 1960s and how is it used today?
- Explain the difference between linear and nonlinear editing.
Testable Terms: Film and Home Video
- 3D
- artist guilds
- Big Six conglomerates
- copy protections
- digital projection
- distribution
- exhibition
- film noir
- film piracy
- first-run distribution
- IMAX
- Motion Picture Association of America
- Motion Picture Code
- Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America
- Netflix effect
- production
- MPAA rating system
- star system
- studio system
- talkies
- vertical integration
- windows
Television
Review the lecture outline.
- In what ways has social media made popular TV shows interactive?
- What is the current status of digital television and HDTV?
- What prompted the FCC to put a freeze on awarding new stations in 1948?
- What technology and government ruling enabled HBO to become a national cable channel?
- Name the Big Five television companies. Give an example of what each company owns.
- Explain hammocking and one other strategy that networks use to attract and hold their audience.
- How do vertical integration and horizontal integration in the television industry threaten diversity?
Testable Terms: Television
- 3D TV
- affiliate compensation
- affiliate fee
- Big Five TV conglomerates
- Big Four TV networks
- Big Three TV networks
- cable TV
- digital video recorder
- direct broadcast satellite
- electronic news gathering
- first-run syndication
- high-definition television
- independent stations
- least objectionable program
- multiple systems operator
- network affiliate
- network O&O
- off-network syndication
- Prime Time Access Rule
- programming strategies: hammocking, challenge programming, counter programming, stunting, stripping, tent-poling.
- rating vs. share
- retransmission fee
- satellite cable
- superstation
- synergy
- Vast Wasteland
Internet
Review the lecture outline.
- How do U.S. laws governing Internet content differ the laws in other countries (e.g., France)?
- What is freeware?
- What are examples of top-level Internet domains?
- How do cookies work?
- What are the costs and benefits associated with privacy online?
- What is Creative Commons?
- How does Web 2.0 differ from earlier concepts of the Internet? What are some examples of Web 2.0?
Testable Terms: Internet
- Altair
- ARPANET
- digital divide
- Dot-Com Boom
- encryption
- hypertext markup language
- Internet
- local-area network
- net neutrality
- peer-to-peer file sharing
- Social Media
- Walled Garden
- wide-area network
- World Wide Web
Persuasion Industries
Review the lecture outline.
- How is public relations practiced differently online than when using traditional media?
- Describe an effective use of PR by a historical figure or group?
- Describe two specialties or functions of public relations.
- What is the tension between corporate interests and the public interest in public relations?
- Why are video news releases flourishing?
- What does CPM stand for, and why is it important in advertising?
- What is integrated marketing communications?
- Which advertising strategy – hard sell or soft sell – is most prevalent today? Why?
- How is consumers’ personal information used to increase the effectiveness of advertising?
- Why is media literacy important regarding advertising?
Testable Terms: Persuasion Industries
Public Relations
- community relations
- crisis management
- government relations
- in-house public firms
- James Gruning’s Models of Public Relations
- media relations
- press releases
- propaganda
- public opinion
- public service announcements (PSA)
- special events & pseudo-events
- stand-alone firms
- video news releases (VNR)
Advertising
- advertising agency
- association / disassociation
- bandwagon effect
- click-through rate
- database marketing
- deception
- first-person testimonial
- hard sell / soft sell
- hidden fear approach
- infomercial
- integrated marketing communications
- irritation advertising
- plain folks pitch
- product placements
- puffery
- search engine optimization
- snob-appeal approach
- stories and myths in advertising
- viral marketing
Video Games and the Third Screen
Review the lecture outline.
- How were video games considered a factor in the 1999 Columbine High murders?
- Identify one system used to classify genres of video games.
- How are console games different from computer games?
- What challenges did the video game industry face in the 1980s that caused it to crash?
- Why has the military been interested in serious games?
- How are media companies attempting to capitalize on the “third screen”?
- How do subsidies relate to universal service?
- How was the development of the phone system connected to telegraphy?
- What government agency awards communications frequencies, and how?
- Cell phones and service developed differently in the United States than in Europe and Asia. How?
Testable Terms: Video Games and the Third Screen
- artificial intelligence
- augmented reality games
- Bluetooth
- broadband
- common carrier
- Entertainment Software Rating Board
- fiber optic
- game developers
- game distributors
- game makers
- generations of video game consoles
- generations of wireless telephone
- geostationary satellite
- Global System for Mobile communications
- Long-Term Evolution (LTE) standard
- modulator-demodulator
- Plain Old Telephone Service
- Regional Bell Operating Companies
- Telecommunications Act
- trap-and-trace information
- virtual reality games
- Wi-Fi
Review the lecture outline.
- Why has the Internet replaced television as the prime media villain for concerned parents?
- What is social marketing, and how does it fit into information campaigns?
- How is media stereotyping related to racism and other social ills?
- Describe two theories that predict indirect media effects on individuals.
- What are some of the caveats about experimental research?
Testable Terms: Media Effects, Impacts, and Uses
- bullet model
- content analysis
- cultivation theory
- dependent/independent variable
- ethnography
- experimental research
- generalizability/validity
- learning theory
- multistep flow
- persuasion
- priming theory
- antisocial/prosocial behavior
- stereotyping
- survey studies
- uses and gratification
Media Policy and Regulation
Review the lecture outline.
- Why are industry lobbyists and public interest lobbyists frequently at odds?
- How long is a copyright currently enforced?
- What did the U.S. Supreme Court establish in the case of Miller v. California?
- What is the history and current status of the Fairness Doctrine?
- What are two limitations to free speech in the U.S.?
- How are radio frequencies awarded?
- What conditions does the Federal Trade Commission consider in determining a case of deceptive advertising?
Testable Terms: Media Policy and Regulation
- censorship
- copyright
- cross-ownership
- fair use
- First Amendment
- horizontal integration
- indecency
- libel
- monopoly
- obscenity
- oligopoly
- patent
- restraints of trade
- scarcity argument
- self-regulation
- standards
- universal service
- vertical integration
Media and Globalization
Review the lecture outline.
- Which national telecommunications companies are “going international,” and how?
- Why has wireless telephone service grown faster in the industrialized nations of Europe and the Far East than in the United States?
- What are recent trends in tariffs on media imposed by the United States?
- What is the difference between glocalized media and regionalization?
- How has cultural imperialism been affected by the Internet?
- Why is there tension between the policies of national sovereignty and free flow of information?
- How has satellite television affected broadcast television in terms of media flows?
Testable Terms: Media and Globalization
- cultural imperialism
- cultural proximity
- direct broadcast satellite
- globalization
- glocal
- International Telecommunications Union
- national sovereignty
- privatization
- regionalization
- tariff
- World Intellectual Property Organization