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Instructor’s Resource Manual

for

Media Now

Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology

Eighth Edition

Joseph Straubhaar

Robert LaRose

Lucinda Davenport

Prepared by

Caleb Carr

Michigan State University

With contributions from

Stuart H. Davis

University of Texas at Austin

and

Julia Crouse

Michigan State University

Table of Contents

Preface............................................................................................................................................ 1

Teaching a Course with Media Now............................................................................................ 2

Teaching an Introductory Communications Course Online...................................................... 6

Sample Syllabi................................................................................................................................ 8

Suggested Assignments................................................................................................................ 18

Chapter 1: The Changing Media............................................................................................... 31

Chapter Outline......................................................................................................................... 31

Active Learning Activities.......................................................................................................... 32

Video Resources........................................................................................................................ 34

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................... 34

Test Questions............................................................................................................................ 36

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers...................................................................... 42

Chapter 2: Media and Society.................................................................................................... 48

Chapter Outline......................................................................................................................... 48

Active Learning Activities.......................................................................................................... 49

Video Resources........................................................................................................................ 50

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................... 51

Test Questions............................................................................................................................ 53

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers...................................................................... 58

Chapter 3: Books and Magazines.............................................................................................. 64

Chapter Outline......................................................................................................................... 64

Active Learning Activities.......................................................................................................... 65

Video Resources........................................................................................................................ 66

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................... 67

Test Questions............................................................................................................................ 68

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers...................................................................... 73

Chapter 4: Print and Digital Newspapers................................................................................. 79

Chapter Outline......................................................................................................................... 79

Active Learning Activities.......................................................................................................... 80

Video Resources........................................................................................................................ 82

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................... 83

Test Questions............................................................................................................................ 85

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers...................................................................... 90

Chapter 5: Recorded Music........................................................................................................ 96

Chapter Outline......................................................................................................................... 96

Active Learning Activities.......................................................................................................... 97

Video Resources........................................................................................................................ 98

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................... 99

Test Questions.......................................................................................................................... 101

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers.................................................................... 106

Chapter 6: Radio....................................................................................................................... 112

Chapter Outline....................................................................................................................... 112

Active Learning Activities........................................................................................................ 113

Video Resources...................................................................................................................... 114

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................. 115

Test Questions.......................................................................................................................... 116

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers.................................................................... 121

Chapter 7: Film and Home Video............................................................................................ 127

Chapter Outline....................................................................................................................... 127

Active Learning Activities........................................................................................................ 127

Video Resources...................................................................................................................... 129

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................. 130

Test Questions.......................................................................................................................... 132

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers.................................................................... 137

Chapter 8: Television................................................................................................................ 143

Chapter Outline....................................................................................................................... 143

Active Learning Activities........................................................................................................ 144

Video Resources...................................................................................................................... 146

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................. 147

Test Questions.......................................................................................................................... 148

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers.................................................................... 153

Chapter 9: The Internet............................................................................................................ 159

Chapter Outline....................................................................................................................... 159

Active Learning Activities........................................................................................................ 160

Video Resources...................................................................................................................... 162

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................. 163

Test Questions.......................................................................................................................... 164

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers.................................................................... 169

Chapter 10: Public Relations.................................................................................................... 175

Chapter Outline....................................................................................................................... 175

Active Learning Activities........................................................................................................ 176

Video Resources...................................................................................................................... 178

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................. 178

Test Questions.......................................................................................................................... 180

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers.................................................................... 185

Chapter 11: Advertising............................................................................................................ 192

Chapter Outline....................................................................................................................... 192

Active Learning Activities........................................................................................................ 193

Video Resources...................................................................................................................... 195

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................. 196

Test Questions.......................................................................................................................... 197

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers.................................................................... 202

Chapter 12: The Third Screen: Smartphones and Tablets................................................... 208

Chapter Outline....................................................................................................................... 208

Active Learning Activities........................................................................................................ 209

Video Resources...................................................................................................................... 211

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................. 211

Test Questions.......................................................................................................................... 213

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers.................................................................... 218

Chapter 13: Video Games......................................................................................................... 225

Chapter Outline....................................................................................................................... 225

Active Learning Activities........................................................................................................ 225

Video Resources...................................................................................................................... 227

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................. 228

Test Questions.......................................................................................................................... 229

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers.................................................................... 234

Chapter 14: Media Uses and Effects....................................................................................... 240

Chapter Outline....................................................................................................................... 240

Active Learning Activities........................................................................................................ 241

Video Resources...................................................................................................................... 243

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................. 244

Test Questions.......................................................................................................................... 246

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers.................................................................... 251

Chapter 15: Media Policy and Law......................................................................................... 257

Chapter Outline....................................................................................................................... 257

Active Learning Activities........................................................................................................ 258

Video Resources...................................................................................................................... 259

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................. 260

Test Questions.......................................................................................................................... 262

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers.................................................................... 267

Chapter 16: Media Ethics......................................................................................................... 273

Chapter Outline....................................................................................................................... 273

Active Learning Activities........................................................................................................ 274

Video Resources...................................................................................................................... 276

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................. 277

Test Questions.......................................................................................................................... 278

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers.................................................................... 283

Chapter 17: Global Communications Media.......................................................................... 289

Chapter Outline....................................................................................................................... 289

Active Learning Activities........................................................................................................ 289

Video Resources...................................................................................................................... 292

Suggested Websites.................................................................................................................. 293

Test Questions.......................................................................................................................... 294

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers.................................................................... 299

Preface

Teaching a course in media is a double-edged sword: It requires a constant vigil of a dynamic landscape to keep course content timely and salient to students, which offers little down time yet constant intrigue. Particularly in an age of iProducts, ubiquitous social networking, and mobile telephony and Internet access, it has become difficult to distinguish the realms of media of which students need to be aware and those which will quickly fade. In the words of B.F. Skinner, “Technology was developed to prevent exhausting labor. It is now dedicated to trivial conveniences.”

The eighth edition of Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology is a timely update, emphasizing the way that many new media (even those intended solely for social or entertainment purposes) have converged with or augmented old or legacy media. This fresh look at emergent media nicely complements the historical perspective of traditional media (print, music/radio, and television/film), providing students an integrated look at the evolution of telecommunication in current and accessible terms. These discussions are framed to provide students with diverse career interests—from academic to videographer to audio engineer—with immediate takeaways. This Instructor’s Resource Manual is intended to give you ideas and inspirations for integrating Media Now into your course. As such, it includes suggested active learning activities, discussion questions, websites, and other activities that complement and reinforce the exciting content in Media Now.

The present edition of this IRM is strongly rooted in previous editions, and to its earlier authors I offer sincere appreciation for providing such a strong foundation on which to build. In addition, thanks to Joseph Straubhaar, Robert LaRose, and Lucinda Davenport for working tirelessly on keeping Media Now and its contents timely and relevant. Gratitude needs also to be extended to Wei Peng and Cliff Lampe, who have provided many inspirations for utilizing Media Now and its contents in a way to which students have been receptive. Thanks to my coauthors on other projects for their patience and understanding as this manual pulled me away from time to time. And finally, thanks to the staff of Wadsworth Cengage Learning, and particularly Jill D’Urso and Erin Bosco, for their timely feedback and direction in preparing the updated edition.

Caleb Carr

Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media

Michigan State University
Teaching a Course with Media Now

The communications media environment is changing rapidly with developments in technology, ownership patterns, consumer usage, and media research. The Internet and emergent media have redefined mass media; globalization and changes in regulations, lifestyles, and social issues have reshaped the communications landscape.

College students also have changed. It’s likely that your students have always lived in an age of personal computers and CNN. They have never bought a vinyl album (or even a compact disc); they might scratch their heads over the phrase, “You sound like a broken record.” Surveys show that young Americans generally spend more time with video games than with print media.

Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology addresses the challenge of teaching today’s students about the development, impact and future of communications media. It covers the spectrum of communications mediated by technology. The theme is that these technologies are converging to create a new communications environment: Mass communication continues, but it is frequently more focused, segmented and integrated with forms of communication that permit more interaction and personalization. The goal of this exciting text is to prepare students to compete and thrive in the world of new media that will await them in their careers.

Just as the communications environment continues to change, so has Media Now. The seventh edition of the textbook has updated content to include the latest developments, including the ever-growing popularity and influence of social network sites and Apple media on media production, distribution and consumption; the increasing globalization of media; online collaboration and crowdsourcing; and the enabling and impact of citizen journalism.. This new edition has added a chapter addressing video games—not only their history, but recent developments in interactivity and research of video games.

This edition of the Instructor’s Resource Manual reflects all of these changes in the Media Now textbook. The manual offers overarching ideas and specific tips to help you integrate the book into your lectures, class discussions, homework assignments, online activities, tests and other aspects of your course. For each chapter of the textbook, the Instructor’s Resource Manual provides:

§ An outline, so you can see at a glance how the chapter is organized.

§ An extensive set of “Active Learning Activities.” These activities include survey questions that can serve as a springboard for discussions; class discussion questions and critical-thinking exercises; questions and exercises focused especially on media literacy; “opposing viewpoints” with a flipside perspective of issues; and a set of written discussion questions and online activities that you can assign students in class or as homework.

§ Video resources – a list of DVDs and online videos that can supplement the chapter. The manual also shows where you can find or order the videos. The updated manual has tried to include more online videos to accommodate the increased connectivity and integration of media in many college classrooms.

§ Suggested websites. The manual has expanded and updated all website references for each chapter.

§ 15 t rue/false test items that can be used as a written quiz or test.

§ 15 multiple-choice test items that can be used a written quiz or test.

§ 10 short-answer test items that can be used as a written quiz or test.

§ At least 15 multiple-choice items with rejoinders that also are included in the “Tutorial Quiz Questions and Answers” area of the CourseMate for the Media Now textbook.

§ At least 5 true/false items with rejoinders that also are included in the “Tutorial Quiz Questions and Answers” area of the CourseMate.

§ At least five online homework questions with answers that also are included on the Instructor’s Companion Website for Media Now.

All of these suggested exercises, questions and other activities and resources can help you engage students and prompt them to think critically about media issues – both in history and in the information age.

Media Now is aimed at a broad audience. Some users of the textbook will earn their living in the field of communications media. Others will inherently relate to the media as consumers of entertainment, news, advertising and other information. As technology blurs the line between media producers and consumers, many students will find themselves as at least occasional creators of media content – generating websites, commenting on existing online content, and communicating with groups of people in myriad ways for both personal and professional reasons. The Media Now text will be an indispensable tool for all of those students. The better they understand how media work, the better decisions they can make as students, citizens, consumers and future members of the work force. The book’s readers can begin to think about not only how the new communications environment affects them, but also how they might affect it.

This book is designed to give students a solid grounding in the knowledge, skills and perspectives that will generalize across careers and help them navigate the changing workplace. It also will inspire them to think about the implications of the changing communications environment on society at large. The book teaches students not only about traditional mass media but also about digital and interactive media. Importantly, it equips students to not take “wired” life for granted but instead to think analytically and critically about their own practices of media production and consumption in the context of everyday life.

In years past, many students diligently studied mass media in the traditional way – only to discover after graduation that the vast majority of today’s jobs required skills and a knowledge base that their textbooks had barely touched on. Students went on to find jobs in new places – at phone companies or in corporate communications divisions – but discovered that they didn’t always know enough to succeed in these environments. Other students were eager to take advantage of newly acquired skills in digital technology, but they did not have the background to understand the role of communications media in society. Although progress is being made, many introductory communications textbooks still fail to integrate the full impact of technological changes, giving only lip service to new media and relegating the subject to a single chapter.

As an instructor for a mass communications course, you are in a position with privileged access to topics that increasingly cause concern among young people today: Personal privacy in cyberspace, disparities in access to information, momentous changes in the workplace, the aftermath of the “dot com” boom, new careers in media that did not exist when students started their college studies, and the effects of social stratification. These are topics that most students have not explicitly addressed in other courses or life learning experiences – but topics to which most students will respond enthusiastically. As more students enter communications programs having grown up with high-speed Internet access and media saturation, more of them will have already encountered technologies and practices that you will want to highlight and emphasize. We have anticipated this need and addressed it in this Instructor’s Resource Manual. We hope that you will use these “hooks” to hang your own arguments, illustrations and probing questions, or that you will feel free to adopt some of ours.

Introductory books for broadcasting, cable and electronic media typically have an introduction; several historical chapters; and an overview of the technologies, economic bases, programming trends and strategies, ratings and research, effects, regulation and policy issues. Media Now integrates the ideas of technological and strategic convergence, and the underlying techniques of digitization, throughout the text, emphasizing the links among technologies, social organization and functions, and communication patterns throughout history. The text thus is the ideal book for an introductory course that covers social as well as mass media.

Some instructors may find it difficult to integrate an emphasis on technology and on unfamiliar media and industries like telephony, computers, and information services into an introductory communications course. Additionally, getting students to engage and involve themselves with the historical precedents of mass media such as newspapers and the printing press can be a challenge – how do you have students interact with the Gutenberg printing press? The Media Now textbook, this instructor’s manual, and the companion website and other resources are specifically designed to help instructors get up to speed on the new technologies, as well as afford novel ways to integrate and articulate traditional technologies, so as to feel comfortable teaching and engaging students with both types of materials.

The book is geared for both prospective media professionals and general students in introductory-level courses about mass media. This is the only mass media class many of them will ever take. That is precisely why it is so important to expose them to – and to demystify – communications technologies. No particular technical sophistication is needed to use this book. Although we recognize that many students may bring technological expertise or industry savvy to your class, we do not assume that readers will be familiar with specific technologies. We keep our explanations of technology simple, using broad analogies and illustrations to help students see how technologies function in their everyday lives. We focus on concepts that have substance and will endure – not “buttonology” and cool-website-of-the-day fads. We also include a great deal of anecdotal material to bring the subject to life. We begin the historical treatments with the earliest forms of each technology or medium, since these are the easiest starting points for non-technical readers. In every chapter, we have taken care to emphasize the social impacts and policy issues raised by the uses of communications media.

Media Now includes the Mass Communication CourseMate, a complement to your textbook. Mass Communication CourseMate includes:

§ An interactive eBook

§ Interactive teaching and learning tools including:

Quizzes
Flashcards
Interactive Timelines
Interactive Activities from the book, including Stop and Review.
and more

§ Engagement Tracker, a first-of-its-kind tool that monitors student engagement in the course

You can find additional resources at Cengagebrain.com.

You might also consider the Media Literacy Workbook by Kimb Massey. It takes students step by step through the main technologies reviewed in the Media Now textbook, reinforcing key concepts with additional exercises. Through processes such as journaling, doing fieldwork and writing short answers to thought-provoking questions, students evaluate their own media consumption, try new models of interpretation and investigate issues regarding the impact of the media on culture and society. The Media Literacy Workbook is an excellent tool for training your students to think critically about the media.

Teaching an Introductory Communications Course Online

A communications course is an opportunity to teach about media technology by using media technology – notably the Internet. The Media Now textbook helps you and your students seize that opportunity: The book, its companion website and the Instructor’s Resource Manual all contain ideas for online learning and teaching. This manual, for example, offers exercises in which students participate in blogs or wikis (collaborative web-based documents) – and then discuss the activity’s relationship to gatekeeping or other media concepts.

Perhaps the best way to promote online learning is for you to teach part of your communications course via the web. You can do that by setting up a stand-alone website or by using a course management system such as Blackboard or WebCT. Media Now and other Wadsworth Publishing/Cengage Learning products can help you take advantage of the Internet in teaching students. With Blackboard, WebCT, or your own website, you can draw from and go beyond Media Now’s companion website by customizing content for your students. For example, you can:

§ Post handouts and abbreviated lecture notes online. That way, students can print them out and bring them to class for discussion and easier note-taking. We don’t recommend that you post the full text of your exact notes; you don’t want to spoon-feed students or present a substitute for attending class. However, it can be helpful to post an outline of your notes, perhaps interspersed with questions or with key words deleted. Many instructors use PowerPoint in their lectures; that is especially easy with PowerLecture for Media Now, a CD of PowerPoint presentations and test banks available from Wadsworth Publishing. If you use PowerPoint, you can post the “handout” version of your presentation (with three or six slides to a page); you might include only the most important slides, and you might delete certain words, forcing students to fill in the blanks during the lecture. You might post your notes in several different ways: as a PowerPoint file, as an Adobe Acrobat document, as a Microsoft Word document and as a plain text file. That helps ensure that all students will be able to access the material. Posting material in various formats is a principle of “universal design,” a key tenet in serving students with disabilities. For example, students who are blind use special “text to voice” software that can “read” certain kinds of documents. The software typically cannot process PowerPoint or Adobe Acrobat files, but it can read Word and plain text files. All students, not just those with disabilities, can benefit from universal design: Not every student has the Adobe Acrobat Reader, for instance – and so it is a good idea to post documents in standard formats. Posting your notes and handouts online has another big advantage: You will not have to photocopy materials for students!

§ Use the web to ask students survey questions before class to set up your lectures and discussions. Before Chapter 4: Print to Digital Newspapers, it would be important to know how many students read a daily newspaper, and which one. Before Chapter 5: Recorded Music, you can ask how many students have downloaded music with a file-sharing service. Before Chapter 12: The Third Screen: Smart Phones and Tablets, you can ask how many students have smart phones or how frequently they use text-messaging.

§ Continue the discussions after class, using online forums and discussion boards. This can be especially effective with large classes. You might consider setting up online groups of about a dozen students each and posing three or four questions for them to discuss. The online discussions can pick up where your lectures leave off. You can set deadlines for students to answer the questions; require answers to be a minimum length; and require students to reply to a certain number of postings by their group-mates.

§ Have online groups collaborate on research projects. Students can work together over the Internet (using e-mail and/or online discussion boards) and in person. You can have each group research a particular topic and make a presentation to the full class.

§ Link to online readings, both on the “free” part of the Internet and in full-text databases. This allows you to supplement Media Now with even more dynamic content and up-to-the-minute news about media issues.

§ Customize online exercises and activities for your students. For instance, you could have them evaluate the reliability of certain websites – some real, some hoaxes. Or you could have them use the Internet to compare news stories from publications in the United States with similar stories from news outlets in another country.

§ Have students post research papers online and do a peer review. We recommend in this Instructor’s Resource Manual that you require students to write papers about media issues, media technology and other topics. You could have your students share their papers over a discussion board – and read and critique each other’s papers.

§ Put quizzes, practice tests and perhaps even real tests online. Course management systems (CMSs) like Blackboard and WebCT make it easy to create assessments; you can use the questions in the Instructor’s Resource Manual or on the Media Now companion website. You also can use ExamView, a rich test bank of questions drawn from the textbook, available on PowerLecture. With ExamView, you can customize a quiz or test and save it in a format that can be imported directly into the CMS. Your online CMS can grade the test for you and, if you want, show students the correct answers or where to find the correct answers. These systems also automatically record grades in an online gradebook. You can use online assessments to test comprehension before students come to class or after they have attended class. You also can post mock tests to help students study for an exam. (CMSs often allow a test randomly draw a certain number of questions from a large test bank. That way, it behooves students to take such a practice test several times – so that they will encounter different questions each time.)

There are many other advantages to having a course website or using an online course management system. One involves simply communicating with students: You can create a web-based course calendar and go online to broadcast announcements about assignments, school news, developments in the media, upcoming tests and other matters.

Sample Syllabi

Semester-Length Sample Syllabus

This course is designed to acquaint you with the field of communications – both the mass media of newspapers, magazines, books, radio, television, films and cable, and the new interactive media of the Internet, wireless telephony, computers and information services. We will introduce these as increasingly integrated and converging elements of a global information society.

This course will help students to:

§ learn about the concept of information society and its economic, political and social implications.

§ understand the essentials of communications media and information technologies and industries.

§ understand the process and effects of media convergence and be a critical consumer of media.

§ understand and be critically aware of the effects of communications media on yourself, other individuals, social institutions and societies.

§ anticipate how communications media will affect your career in media or in other fields.

§ learn about possible careers in communications.

Readings Required:

Straubhaar and LaRose, Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture and Technology (eighth edition), Wadsworth Publishing, 2014.

Media Now CourseMate

Selected readings on reserve at the university library

In addition, students must read an article in a major online news source such as Wired News [www.wired.com], The New York Times [www.nytime.com], CNET [www.cnet.com] or CNN [www.cnn.com] daily.

How final grades will be calculated:

First exam	20%
Second exam	20%
Book and film reports, media diary, research papers and lab work	20%
Discussion and participation (including online activities)	15%
Final exam	25%

The exams will draw from lectures, readings, in-class discussions, online discussions and all other material and activities used in the course. The exams and the course will be graded on a curve. The final exam will be cumulative: It will cover some material from the first two-thirds of the course but focus on the final third. Make-up exams will be given only for documented emergencies with the approval of the instructor.

Various written work will supplement the exams. You will be required to write:

§ A two-page report about a book involving the media. See instructions below.

§ Short analyses of five films (three American and two foreign). See instructions below.

§ A diary or journal for one week, in which you record and reflect upon your media usage. Instructions will be provided in class.

§ A three-page paper discussing whether traditional mass communications theories (such as the SMCR model and gatekeeping) apply to the Internet and other new media. See instructions below.

§ A three-page paper about a media policy issue. See instructions below.

§ A three-page paper about a media technology. See instructions below.

In addition, there will be two activities in the computer lab: You must take your media usage diary and your media technology paper and turn them into web pages, with hyperlinks to your online sources. More specific instructions will be provided in class and by the lab monitors.

You also will be graded on informed participation in class discussion and online. You will be expected to contribute to class discussions based on based on the text, assigned readings, newspapers and other information sources, as well as your own thoughts. We will regularly discuss issues in an online forum, and you will be graded on your postings. You also will be graded on attendance, which we will take periodically.

The topic and reading schedule follows. We will spend roughly one week per topic/chapter. We will assign supplemental readings in class as the semester progresses. Read the material before coming to class; the grade on your informed participation will depend considerably on that.

Course Outline: Topics and Readings:

Week 1 – The Changing Media (Media Now, Chapter 1)

Suggested assignment: Have students take a media/technology inventory. Have them assess their ownership and use of communications devices. How does their experience compare to that of their parents and grandparents, or to that of students living in other countries?

Week 2 – Media and Society (Media Now, Chapter 2)

Suggested assignment: For one week, have students keep a diary of their communications activities and their use of communications media use. They must record every time they watch television, read a book, surf the Internet, listen to music, play a video game or consume other media. The diary must show the type of media the student used, for how long and why. Students also might record unintended or unwanted media exposure. Have students analyze the results: How many hours do they spend consuming media? How do different media rank on the consumption meter? Have students turn their diaries into web pages, post them on the class website and discuss them.

Week 3 – Books and Magazines (Media Now, Chapter 3)

Print to Digital Newspapers (Media Now, Chapter 4)

[Note to instructors: Because the Media Now textbook includes 17 chapters, there will be two weeks during a 15-week semester when you must cover two chapters. You might consider pairing chapters 3 and 4 as well as 5 and 6, as recommended here. Alternately, you may cover Chapter 10: Public Relations and Chapter 11: Advertising during a single week.]

Suggested assignment: Have students work in groups or individually to analyze a variety of print media in both paper and electronic form. Ask them to report on the differences in content and their experiences in reading “texts” or listening to audio stream. They may compare magazines aimed at different audiences – male/female, black/white – to determine if content and ads are presented differently; look at how the content of an online news article differs from its print equivalent; or contrast a book from the library to its online edition or hoe it is displayed on Google Books.

Week 4 – Recorded Music (Media Now, Chapter 5)

and Radio (Media Now, Chapter 6)

[Note to instructors: Because the Media Now textbook includes 17 chapters, there will be two weeks during a 15-week semester when you must cover two chapters. You might consider pairing chapters 5 and 6, as recommended above; or you might cover Chapter 10: Public Relations and Chapter 11: Advertising during a single week.]

Suggested assignment: Have students analyze the FM and AM stations available in their market. Who owns the stations? (Students may be surprised that ownership is concentrated in the hands of just a few companies, such as Clear Channel Communications.) What formats have the stations adopted, and what musical genres do they primarily play? Which stations are broadcasting over the Internet?

Week 5 – Film and Home Video (Media Now, Chapter 7)

Suggested assignment: Have students view several classic American and foreign films (utilizing videos or campus film series) and write short reviews focusing on what genre the film represented, what the director’s intentions were and how well it succeeded as a film. Have students compare older films (film noir works well) with recent films for pacing, effects and story lines.

Week 6 – Television (Media Now, Chapter 8)

First exam

Suggested assignment: Have students characterize the various broadcast and cable channels according to their target audiences. Who is CBS or WB aiming for, as opposed to ESPN, BET or the Discovery Channel? How does audience segmentation affect both programming and advertising?

Week 7 – The Internet (Media Now, Chapter 9)

Suggested assignment: Have students go to Wikipedia, the free “open-content” online encyclopedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia]. Students must find an entry about a subject they know. They must read the entry, then edit it – adding a fact or new section. Then students must reflect on Wikipedia’s approach to gatekeeping: How reliable is Wikipedia?

Week 8 – Public Relations (Media Now, Chapter 10)

Suggested assignment: Have students do a brief analysis of local media (newspapers and television) to see what kinds of materials are supplied by public relations efforts. Approximately what percentage of news comes from press releases, press conferences and other PR operations? Have a public relations professional visit the class to explain how PR works to get a particular story or viewpoint into the media.

Week 9 – Advertising (Media Now, Chapter 11)

Suggested assignment: Hold a “logo day.” Have students wear or bring to class as many items bearing advertising logos as possible. Have students record and reflect upon how often they are exposed to advertising and other commercial messages. What areas of our lives, if any, are off limits to advertising? Discuss the ubiquity of ads. Are advertisements intrusive? Are they effective?

Week 10 – The Third Screen: Smart Phones and Tablets (Media Now, Chapter 12)

Suggested assignment: Have students keep a journal on how they use their cellular phones. How many students have smart phones? How many watch videos on their phones? How many take photos with their phones? Have students record their text-message and voice-conversation usage. What are the main ways they use their cell phones?

Week 11 – Video Games (Media Now, Chapter 13)

Second exam

Suggested assignment: Have students find an example of a serious game, and spend some time playing the game. After playing the game, students should classify the game and its content according to ESRB [www.esrb.org] rating system. Additionally, they should reflect on their gaming experience, and how playing a serious game is different from playing a game for entertainment.

Week 12 – Media Uses and Impacts (Media Now, Chapter 14)

Suggested assignment: Building on the chapter’s discussion of weak and strong media effects, have students find and present on an article that discusses the impact different types of media might have on audiences. Some examples could include the relationship between playing violent video games and aggressive behavior in children, the way crime dramas affect perceptions of public safety, or how sports programs reinforce gender stereotypes. Each student should identify which media effects theory is present in his or her example and offer a brief critique of the theory through the example.

Week 13 – Media Policy and Law (Media Now, Chapter 15)

Suggested assignment: Have students surf the Internet using an “anonymizer” service such as Megaproxy [www.megaproxy.com] or Anonymouse [http://anonymouse.ws/anonwww.html]. Some U.S. government officials would like to set up such proxy servers to help people in China, Saudi Arabia and other repressive countries circumvent government control of the Internet. Have students discuss the pros and cons of such proposals. Is that a legitimate role for the U.S. government? Hold a class debate on the issue.

Week 14 – Media Ethics (Media Now, Chapter 16)

Suggested assignment: Have students work in groups to determine a new universal service policy, including who should get access to broadband and other new technologies and who must pay for any programs to guarantee access. Should every U.S. resident have a right to high-speed Internet access? Should the government require cell phone companies to offer a basic plan that almost anybody can afford?

Week 15 – Global Communications Media (Media Now, Chapter 17)

Suggested assignment: Have students imagine that they lived in a country where their only impression of life in the United States was from reruns of Baywatch [www.baywatch.com]. What would they expect to find when you visited America for the first time? What would they expect the people in the United States to be like?

Final exam

Quarter-Length Sample Syllabus

This course will help students to:

§ learn about the concept of information society and its economic, political and social implications.

§ understand the essentials of communications media and information technologies and industries.

§ understand the process and effects of media convergence and be a critical consumer of media.

§ understand and be critically aware of the effects of communications media on yourself, other individuals, social institutions and societies.

§ anticipate how communications media will affect your career in media or in other fields.

§ learn about possible careers in communications.

Readings Required:

Straubhaar and LaRose, Media Now: Understanding Media, Culture and Technology (eighth edition), Wadsworth Publishing, 2014.

Media Now CourseMate

Selected readings on reserve at the university library

In addition, students must read an article in a major online news source such as Wired News [www.wired.com], The New York Times [www.nytime.com], CNET [www.cnet.com] or CNN [www.cnn.com] daily.

How final grades will be calculated:

First exam	20%
Second exam	20%
Book and film reports, media diary, research papers and lab work	20%
Discussion and participation (including online activities)	15%
Final exam	25%

Various written work will supplement exams. You will be required to write:

§ A two-page report about a book involving the media. See instructions below.

§ Short analyses of five films (three American and two foreign). See instructions below.

§ A diary or journal for one week, in which you record and reflect upon your media usage. Instructions will be provided in class.

§ A three-page paper discussing whether traditional mass communications theories (such as the SMCR model and gatekeeping) apply to the Internet and other new media. See instructions below.

§ A three-page paper about a media policy issue. See instructions below.

§ A three-page paper about a media technology. See instructions below.

Course Outline: Topics and Readings:

Week 1

The Changing Media (Media Now, Chapter 1)

Media and Society (Media Now, Chapter 2)

Week 2

Books and Magazines (Media Now, Chapter 3)

Suggested assignment: Have students work in groups or individually to analyze a variety of books and magazines in both paper and electronic form. Ask them to report on the differences in content and their experiences in reading “texts” or listening to audio books. (See the suggested “Online magazine and newspaper assignment” below.) They may compare magazines aimed at different audiences – male/female, black/white – to determine if content and ads are presented differently.

Print to Digital Newspapers (Media Now, Chapter 4)

Suggested assignment: Have student analyze the front pages of various U.S. and international newspapers, as posted daily on the Newseum website [www.newseum.org]. Each student should choose five papers to analyze; at least one must be a tabloid, and at least two must be from outside the United States. Students must analyze the number of stories, the story selection, the story placement, the size of headlines, the use of color and other aspects of the front pages. What makes a tabloid different from a broadsheet? A national newspaper different from a local paper? A paper in another country different from a U.S. newspaper? Why are the newspapers different or similar? How do front-page decisions reflect news values?

Week 3

First exam

Recorded Music (Media Now, Chapter 5) and Radio (Media Now, Chapter 6)

Week 4

Film and Home Video (Media Now, Chapter 7)

Suggested assignment: Have students view several classic Hollywood films (utilizing videos or campus film series) and write short reviews focusing on what genre the film represented, what the director’s intentions were and how well it succeeded as a film. Have students compare older films (film noir works well) with recent films for pacing, effects and story lines.

Television (Media Now, Chapter 8)

Week 5

The Internet (Media Now, Chapter 9)

Week 6

Second exam

Public Relations (Media Now, Chapter 10)

Advertising (Media Now, Chapter 11)

Week 7

The Third Screen: Smart Phones and Tablets (Media Now, Chapter 12)

Video Games (Media Now, Chapter 13)

Week 8

Media Uses and Effects (Media Now, Chapter 14)

Week 9

Media Policy and Law (Media Now, Chapter 15)

Media Ethics (Media Now, Chapter 16)

Week 10

Global Communications Media (Media Now, Chapter 17)

Final exam

Suggested Assignments

Book Report Assignment

Choose one of the following books. Or you can propose an alternative to the instructor, but you must get approval for it in advance. The books are available in bookstores, and the library has most of them. (If you are counting on getting a book from the university library, start early. Check local public libraries, as well.)

Anderson, Chris. Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. 2008.

Bagdikian, Ben. The New Media Monopoly. 2004.

Battelle, John. The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture. 2006.

Berners-Lee, Tim. Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web. 2000.

Berners-Lee, Tim; Fensel, Dieter; Hendler, James; and Lieberman, Henry. Spinning the Semantic Web: Bringing the World Wide Web to Its Full Potential. 2005.

Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Culture. 1994.

Carr, Nicholas. The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google. 2008.

Castells, Manuel. The Internet Galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, Business, and Society. 2003.

Castells, Manuel. The Power of Identity (The Information Age). 2003.

Friedman, Thomas. The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. 2007.

Hiltzik, Michael. Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age. 2000.

Hafner, Katie. Where Wizards Stay Up Late. 1998.

Howe, Jeff. Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business. 2009.

Kidder, Tracy. Soul of a New Machine. 2000.

Lessig, Lawrence. Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. 2008.

Lessig, Lawrence. Code: Version 2.0. 2006.

Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. 2004.

Levy, Steven. Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution. 2001.

McChesney, Robert. The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century. 2004.

McChesney, Robert. Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times. 2000.

McLuhan, Marshall; and Gordon, W. Terrence. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (critical edition). 2003.

McLuhan, Marshall. The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. 1962.

Negroponte, Nicholas. Being Digital. 1996.

Nunberg, Geoffrey. The Future of the Book. 1996.

Postman, Neil. Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. 1993.

Postman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. 1986.

Rheingold, Howard. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. 2002.

Rheingold, Howard. The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. 2000.

Rushkoff, Douglas. Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace. 2002.

Rushkoff, Douglas. Media Virus! 1996.

Siegel, Lee. Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob. 2008.

Shenk, David. Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut. 1998.

Shirky, Clay. Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. 2009.

Starr, Paul. The Creation of the Media. 2004.

Stross, Randall. The Microsoft Way: The Real Story of How the Company Outsmarts Its Competition. 1997.

Surowiecki, James. The Wisdom of Crowds. 2005.

Tapscott, Don, and Williams, Anthony. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything. 2008.

Zittrain, Jonathan. The Future of the Internet – And How to Stop It. 2008.

The following options are science fiction novels – dystopias, which show negative futures stemming from current trends. These novels raise relevant questions about where information and media technologies may take us. However, several of them contain sex and violence, so we want you to consider whether that will bother you before you decide to read them.

Adams, Douglas. Mostly Harmless. 1992.

Bachman, Richard. (aka King, Stephen). The Running Man. 1982

Brunner, John. Shockwave Rider. 1995.

Gibson, William. Pattern Recognition. 2003.

Gibson, William. Neuromancer (Remembering Tomorrow). 1995.

Gibson, William; and Sterling, Bruce. The Difference Engine. 1992.

Kunzru, Hari. Transmission. 2004.

Orwell, George. 1984. 1948.

Stephenson, Neal. Snow Crash. 2000.

Sterling, Bruce. Visionary in Residence. 2006.

Stephenson, Neal. Cryptonomicon. 2002.

Sterling, Bruce. The Zenith Angle. 2004.

Sterling, Bruce. Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology. 1988.

Sterling, Bruce. The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier. 1993.

Vinge, Vernor; and Frenkel, James. True Names: And the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier. 2001.

Write a two-page report that addresses:

The main issues raised by the book that are relevant to the class
Examples of the those issues (but don’t recapitulate the book’s plot)
How the book applies to what you see in media and society.
Your personal reaction to the book, including whether you agree with the author’s predictions or analysis and why.

Film Viewing Assignment

Choose five of the following films (or you can propose others to the instructor for approval). You must select three U.S. and two foreign films. The films should be available at video rental stores; some may be shown as part of a campus film series. You also might try the university library or local public libraries, which often have classic and foreign films.

U.S. films (pick three)

The Great Train Robbery

The Birth of a Nation

The Keystone Cops

Singing in the Rain

Little Caesar

Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Stagecoach, The Searchers

It Happened One Night, Bringing Up Baby, The Philadelphia Story

Citizen Kane, The Third Man

The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo

Vertigo, Rear Window, North by Northwest

King Kong (original version), Dracula

Hackers

Johnny Mnemonic

The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolution

Time Code

Cellular

The Thirteenth Floor

Titanic, Independence Day, Battlestar Galactica

Gattaca

The Minority Report

Gamer

Wall*E

Avatar

Foreign films (pick two)

Anything by the following directors, including the following suggestions:

Almodovar: All About My Mother, Kika

Bergman: Wild Strawberries, Smiles of a Summer Night, Fanny and Alexander, The Seventh Seal

Branaugh: Henry the Fifth, Much Ado About Nothing

Bunuel: The Young and the Damned, Tristana

del Toro: Pan’s Labyrinth

Costa-Gavras: Z, Missing

Fellini: 8½, Amarcord, Juliet of the Spirits

Herzog: Aguirre, Heart of Glass

Kurosawa: Yojimbo, Ran, The Samurai Trilogy, Rashomon

Lang: Metropolis, M

Ritchie: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Renoir: Rules of the Game, Grand Illusion

Truffaut: Jules and Jim, The 400 Blows, Fahrenheit 451, Small Change

Visconti: Death in Venice, Ludwig II

Weir: The Last Wave, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Gallipoli

For each film, write a report of two-three paragraphs, approximately one double-spaced page. Answer the following questions:

What was the film trying to say or portray? What was the director’s intention?
How well did the film succeed as a film? (Evaluate the story line, the acting, the photography, the special effects, etc.)
What sort of technology was involved in the film? The technology may have either been shown in the movie (i.e., mobile phones used by characters, how technology is portrayed/perceived within the story) or used in the production of the movie (i.e., novel cinematic elements, 3D imagery)
What was your personal reaction to the film? Why did you like or dislike it? How did it affect you?

In your brief report, use examples to support your position, but do not reiterate the plot.

Print out each report on a separate sheet of paper. Staple all five reports together, and hand them in together. Give yourself at least a few days between films, spreading them over the semester.

Research Paper on Media Theories

Chapters 1 and 2 of the Media Now textbook introduce several media theories – ideas that help explain the way the media work. Chapter 1, for example, talks about the SMCR Model; and Chapter 2 discusses such concepts as mass markets, gatekeeping and economies of scale.

These theories were largely based on traditional media such as newspapers and television networks. They don’t apply in quite the same way to new media such as social network sites and online TV.

In this research paper, you must discuss at least two theories that apply well to traditional media but not so well to new media. Explain why these concepts don’t apply so neatly to new media. Give some examples (websites, cable TV shows or new-media products) that support your explanations.

Your paper should be at least three pages, double spaced. Divide your paper into three sections, each with a section heading:

§ Introduction – In one paragraph, briefly explain what your paper is about.

§ Media theories – This section is the “guts” of your report. State one theory or concept from Chapters 1-2; explain how it applies to traditional media; then discuss why it doesn’t apply so well to new media, with an example or two. Then do this for at least one other theory or concept.

§ Summary – What can you conclude from your analysis? Is there something about new media, or about the way people use media today, that helps explain why “traditional media” theories don’t apply so well to new media?

In your paper, you must cite at least three different sources. The Media Now textbook can be one source. Your other sources may include articles from newspapers, magazines, academic journals and reliable websites.

Paper about a Media Policy Issue

Choose one of the following policy issues:

Control of pornography and other controversial content on the Internet

Legal action against Napster, Grokster, Pirate Bay and other file-sharing services

Protection of privacy on the Internet

Ownership of [personal] information on the Internet

Security for economic transactions on the Internet

Effects of the Telecommunication Act of 1996 on a Free Market economy

Universal service and whether it should apply to new communication technologies

The digital divide, both within the United States and internationally

Regulation of and competition between telephony and cable TV

Content and ratings of video games, and the effects of game content or time spend playing video games

Concentration of ownership in communications media (national or global)

Hate speech and First Amendment issues online (and the differences between the United States and other countries)

Monopoly and abuse of economic power (including the charges against Microsoft)

Concerns about violence and sexual content in movies, music, video games, television programming and other media

Whether certain kinds of advertising (tobacco, alcohol, political commercials or ads aimed at children) should be regulated

Control over media debates and agenda setting in presidential campaigns

Write a paper of at least three pages, double spaced. Address these questions:

§ What are the main aspects or points of view regarding the issue?

§ Who are the interested parties or stakeholders?

§ Who might gain or lose from which outcome, and why?

§ How could the issue be resolved?

§ Which governmental unit, court, company or other party will or might take action to resolve the issue?

In your paper, you must use at least five sources reflecting different points of view and interests. You must use at least two newspaper articles, two online sources (other than newspaper websites) and one alternative (not mainstream) source. Cite the sources in your paper, and attach a bibliography. For each article used, provide the title, author, date, publication and page number; for online information, provide the website address and the date you accessed it. Be sure to follow the stylistic requirements (e.g., APA or MLA style) for the course.

You can find material for your research paper from full-text database available through the college library system. You also can use Internet search tools such as Google Scholar [scholar.google.com] or Yahoo! [www.yahoo.com], but make sure you carefully evaluate the search results.

Here are some other online sources to help you with your research:

General-interest news websites

The New York Times: www.nytimes.com

The Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com

The Los Angeles Times: www.latimes.com

The Christian Science Monitor: www.csmonitor.com

USA Today: www.usatoday.com

CNN: www.cnn.com

Fox News: www.foxnews.com

Bloomberg News: www.bloomberg.com

Al Jazeera: www.aljazeera.com

Technology news and information websites

Wired News: www.wired.com

CNET: www.cnet.com

TechWeb: www.techweb.com

TechCrunch: www.techcrunch.com

ZDnet: www.zdnet.com

InfoWorld: www.infoworld.com

How Stuff Works: www.howstuffworks.com

Webopedia: www.webopedia.com

Slashdot: slashdot.org

Government Computer News: www.gcn.com

Government websites

U.S. Government’s Official Web Portal: www.firstgov.gov

U.S. Congress on the Internet: http://thomas.loc.gov

Congressional Internet Caucus: www.netcaucus.org/advisory

The Library of Congress: www.loc.gov

Federal Communications Commission: www.fcc.gov

United States Frequency Allocations: www.ntia.doc.gov/osmhome/allochrt.pdf

Law and policy sources

BitLaw: A resource on technology law: www.bitlaw.com/internet

FindLaw: www.findlaw.com

Telecommunications and Information Policy Institute: www.utexas.edu/research/tipi

The Internet Society’s Online Guide to Internet Law: www.isoc.org/internet/law

Lexis Nexis: www.lexisnexis.com

Interest groups

American Civil Liberties Union: www.aclu.org

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility: www.cpsr.org

Electronic Frontier Foundation: www.eff.org

Electronic Privacy Information Center: www.epic.org

Essential Information Encouraging Activism: www.essential.org

Internet Law and Policy Forum: www.ilpf.org

Markle Foundation: www.markle.org

Progress and Freedom Foundation: www.pff.org

United States Telecom Association: www.usta.org

Parents Television Council: www.parentstv.org

Journalism and television news

American Journalism Review: www.ajr.org

Columbia Journalism Review: www.cjr.org

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting: www.fair.org

Media Research Center: www.mrc.org

Media Channel: www.mediachannel.org

Vanderbilt Television News Archive: tvnews.vanderbilt.edu

Information Society issues

Information Society Journal: www.indiana.edu/~tisj

Benton Foundation: www.benton.org

Pew: Internet and American Life Project: www.pewinternet.org

Digital divide issues

National Telecommunications and Information Administration: www.ntia.doc.gov

Digital Divide Network: www.digitaldivide.net

The International Development Resource Center’s Telecenter Database: www.telecentre.org

DigitalDivide.org: www.digital divide.org

International issues

World Summit on the Information Society: www.itu.int/wsis

International Telecommunications Union: www.itu.int

Bridges: www.bridges.org

The V-Chip, children and TV violence

Common Sense Media: www.commonsensemedia.org

FCC V-Chip Homepage: www.fcc.gov/vchip

Family Safe Media: www.familysafemedia.com

Media Visions: www.media-visions.com/itv-vchip.html

National Association of Broadcasting: www.nab.org

TV Violence – Kaiser Family Foundation: www.kff.org/entmedia/3335-index.cfm

American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: www.aacap.org

Internet filtering

American Library Association: www.ala.org

American Family Association: www.afa.net

Article 19, Global Campaign for Free Expression: www.article19.org

Berkman Center for Internet & Society: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu

Peacefire: www.peacefire.org

Online Magazine and Newspaper Assignment

Choose a newspaper or magazine from the list below.

Newspapers

The local daily newspaper

The university daily or weekly newspaper

The New York Times: www.nytimes.com

The Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com

USA Today: www.usatoday.com

Magazines

Time Magazine: www.time.com

Newsweek Magazine: www.newsweek.com

The Atlantic Monthly: www.theatlantic.com

Sports Illustrated: www.si.com

Rolling Stone: www.rollingstone.com

Write a two-page paper that compares the publication’s print edition with its online version. Address these points:

§ Whether or how the print content is enhanced online (with multimedia, hyperlinks and the like)

§ Ease of use

§ Visual appeal and interest value

§ Advantages and disadvantages of each format

§ Interactivity or lack of interactivity

Research Paper about a Media Technology

For this paper, you must choose a digital communications technology. Possibilities include
e-books, satellite radio, satellite television, broadband, high-definition television, music CDs, personal digital assistants, MP3 players, digital video recorders (like TiVo) – any digital technology mentioned in the Media Now textbook or during our class discussions. Do not choose an overly broad topic, such as the Internet. However, you could select a specific way people use the Internet – such as blogging or file-sharing.

Write a paper of at least four pages, double spaced, that addresses the following questions:

§ What is the history of the technology? (Perhaps explain who invented the technology, how it evolved and how its use spread. Apply the Diffusion of Innovations theory to the technology.)

§ What preceded this digital technology? What was its analog predecessor?

§ How does the technology work? What does it allow you to do? Is it better than its analog predecessor? How? Does the technology have flaws or drawbacks? Are there legal and/or ethical problems associated with the technology?

§ Who is using the technology? What do people use it for? How is it being used in other countries around the world?

§ What is the future outlook for the technology? Do you expect use to grow? Or will another technology overtake this one?

In your paper, you must cite at least four different sources. The Media Now textbook can be one source. Your other sources may include articles from newspapers, magazines, academic journals and reliable websites.

Write your paper in Microsoft Word, turn in a printout and save the electronic copy (the computer file) on a flash drive or as an e-mail to yourself. Later in the semester, as part of a computer lab assignment, you must turn your research paper into a web page and post it in your online discussion group.

Contact Information for Video Resources

For each chapter of Media Now, we have suggested videos that could complement your lectures and discussions. Check with your school’s library to see whether it already has some of these videos or suitable alternatives. Excellent videos also may be available at local video rental stores. PBS and cable channels often air programs relevant to the Media Now content, so monitor the TV program listings – or better yet, use online services like Hulu or YouTube (Don’t forget to use keyword searches.) to show videos.

Here is the contact information for the companies that distribute most of the videos mentioned in the Instructor’s Resource Manual. Some organizations – such as PBS, the Media Education Foundation, and Films for the Humanities and Sciences – have put video clips online. PBS also often provides extensive supplementary resources on its website.

Filmakers Library

124 East 40th St.

New York, NY 10016

Phone: (212) 808-4980

Fax: (212) 808-4983

http://www.filmakers.com

E-mail: info@filmakers.com

Films for the Humanities and Sciences

P.O. Box 2053

Princeton, NJ 08453-2053

Phone: (800) 257-5126

Fax: (609) 671-0266

http://ffh.films.com/

E-mail: custserv@filmsmediagroup.com

First Run / Icarus Films

32 Court St., 21st Floor

Brooklyn, NY 11201

Phone: (718) 488-8900

Fax: (718) 488-8642

http://icarusfilms.com

E-mail: mail@IcarusFilms.com

Insight Media Inc.

2162 Broadway

New York, NY 10024-0621

Phone: (800) 233-9910 or (212) 721-6316

Fax: (212) 799-5309

http://www.insight-media.com

E-mail: custserv@insight-media.com

Media Education Foundation

60 Masonic St.

Northampton, MA 01060

Phone: (800) 897-0089 or (413) 584-8500

Fax: (800) 659-6882 or (413) 586-8398

http://www.mediaed.org

E-mail: info@mediaed.org

New Day Films

190 Route 17M

P.O. Box 1084

Harriman, NY 10926

Phone: (888) 367-9154

Fax: (845) 774-2945

http://www.newday.com

E-mail: curator@newday.com

PBS Video

1320 Braddock Place

Alexandria, VA 22314-1698

Phone: (800) 424-7963

http://teacher.shop.pbs.org

Chapter 1: The Changing Media

Chapter Outline

I. The media in our lives

II. Media in a changing world

A. Changes in media technology with each generation

B. Merging of traditional mass media and new forms of media

C. Challenges in Big Media

D. Globalization of information

E. Merging technologies

F. Convergent industries

G. Changing lifestyles

H. Challenging careers

I. Shifting regulations

J. Rising social issues

III. Changing media throughout history

A. Pre-agricultural society

B. Agricultural society

C. Industrial society

D. Information society

1. Telephone

2. Print media

3. Film

4. Computer and video games

5. Recordings

6. Cable and satellite television

7. Broadcasting

IV. Changing conceptions of the media

A. Source-Message-Channel-Receiver (SMCR) model

B. Types of communication

V. What are the media now?

A. Old media or mass media – radio, television, newspapers and film

B. New media

1. Digital – Advantages of digital vs. analog communications

2. Interactive

3. Social media

4. Asynchronous – time-shifting devices have made simultaneity obsolete.

5. Narrowcasting – channels dedicated to audience subgroups

6. Multimedia

C. Evolution of old media as they take on new media forms

Active Learning Activities

Survey Questions

Survey students using an online course management system such as Blackboard or an audience-response system such as the Classroom Performance System Online. Alternately, new online tools [e.g., www.Polleverywhere.com] allow individuals to text responses to an online survey from their mobile telephones, with texted responses immediately displayed on-screen, and may allow for more detailed real-time student feedback. As a low-tech alternative, you could use a written survey before class or have students raise their hands in class. Ask students the following questions, and use their responses as a springboard for discussion:

§ How many hours a week do students spend watching television, watching movies, going online, playing video games, listening to music, reading books, reading newspapers and using other media? What are the media consumption habits for the typical (median) student? How do students compare with the general population? What do the numbers say about students’ lifestyle? How have the numbers changed over the years?

Beloit University issues an annual “Mindset List” [www.beloit.edu/mindset/] describing that year’s freshman class of college students. Many of the items on these lists deal with communications technology. For example, members of the Class of 2012 (born in 1990) have “grown up in an era where computers and rapid communication are the norm, and colleges no longer trumpet the fact that residence halls are ‘wired’ and equipped with the latest hardware. These students will hardly recognize the availability of telephones in their rooms since they have seldom utilized landlines during their adolescence. They will continue to live on their cell phones and communicate via texting. Roommates, few of whom have ever shared a bedroom, have already checked out each other on Facebook where they have shared their most personal thoughts with the whole world.” You can fashion survey questions from the Mindset Lists to illustrate how current students differ from their predecessors. How many students have ever seen a black-and-white TV set? How many have ever played a vinyl album – or understand the expression, “You sound like a broken record”? How many students remember tuning an aerial television antenna to improve reception of locally-broadcast analog stations?

Class Discussion Questions and Critical-Thinking Exercises

§ Divide the class up into groups of six and have students identify the most important change that convergence has brought to their life, and why. Then each group elects a group leader who presents to the class.

§ Stage a “jargon bee” – like a spelling bee, but using only obscure “techie” acronyms (e.g., T1) and terms (e.g., packet switching) from the Media Now textbook, and have students define terms.

§ Discuss the various meanings of convergence. Ask students what devices are converging (such as cell phones and cameras, or computers and televisions). Ask them what media companies are converging. Ask them what media functions are converging (such as content and advertising in some video games, or plot and product placement in movies and television shows).

§ Do a show-and-tell with a range of communications media and devices, and have students identify whether the products are analog or digital. Bring to class, or show pictures of, such devices as: vinyl records (including a 45-rpm record), a cassette tape, an eight-track tape, a CD, a minidisk, a DVD, an e-book reader, the Media Now textbook and so forth.

§ Divide the class up into groups of six and have groups articulate the components of the SMCR model for different types of telecommunication tools, such as pen-and-paper notes, text messaging, electronic mail, electronic mails sent and received from mobile devices, status updates on a social network site, etc. Then each group elects a group leader who presents the process, labeling the components of the SCMR, to the class.

Media Literacy

From the standpoint of media literacy, why is it important to know about merging industries and “who owns whom” in the media? To television viewers and the general public, what difference does it make that Disney owns ABC or that General Electric owns NBC?

Written Discussion Questions and Online Activities

§ Browse the Columbia Journalism Review’s website about media-ownership [“Who owns what?” at www.cjr.org/resources/]. Who are the major media corporations in our contemporary moment? Out of which preexisting companies were they consolidated? What are the pros and cons of media consolidation?

§ Chapter 1 discusses the influences and effects of interactivity on media and its content. Give an example of a website you consider interactive. Provide the site’s name and web address (the URL – Uniform Resource Locator – such as “www.helpself.com/freud.htm”), and explain what makes the site interactive. Then, describe what the website would be like were it not interactive—how would it function how would it be used similarly and differently than an interactive site?

§ Read the epilogue of Nicholas Negroponte’s book Being Digital [http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/english/books/nn/ch19epi.htm]. What advantages and disadvantages does Negroponte see in the digitization of media content? Do you feel that the good outweighs the bad or that the bad outweighs the good?

§ Visit Wikipedia, the free “open-content” online encyclopedia at http://en.wikipedia.org.

Find an entry in Wikipedia about a topic in which you have expertise. Then edit the entry, amending or adding facts. What is Wikipedia’s approach to gatekeeping? How does this affect the reliability and accuracy of the information in Wikipedia?

§ Because of digital technology, devices are converging: You can buy sunglasses with a built-in MP3 player or a refrigerator with an Internet connection. Detail a novel product – an item that has not been invented or marketed yet – that would involve convergence with digital technology. This exercise is like a joke children tell: What would you get if you crossed a ---------- with a ----------?

Video Resources

Media Convergence, 2009, CBS News. [http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4766978n] As Sunday Morning celebrates its 30th anniversary, Jeff Greenfield contemplates media convergence -- how in this day and age, news and video can be streamed anyplace, anywhere, and anytime.”

The End: Media at the Tipping Point, 2006, Films for the Humanities and Sciences. “Every year, pundits and innovators prematurely predict the triumph of New Media. But as consumer demand for anytime/anywhere news and entertainment reaches critical mass, the end might finally be drawing near. This fast-paced three-part series seeks to understand the seismic changes going on in the media industry by analyzing the current state of Old Media and its fleet-footed competition. Have TV, radio, and print finally outlived their relevance?”

Communication, 2001, Insight Media. “Highlighting the basics of communication, this program considers how rapidly communication has changed – and continues to change – the world, allowing individuals to send messages to friends across the globe and access news from other countries.”

Digital Divide: Technology and Our Future, 2001, Films for the Humanities and Sciences. Narrated by Queen Latifah. The first part of this video examines whether computers detract from other important school programs. “The second part studies how much computer technology will benefit America’s youth in the coming digital age.”

Suggested Websites

Wired News [www.wired.com] is a daily e-mail that “covers the latest developments in technology, how the forces of politics and business react to those developments, and how mass culture and various subcultures respond.”

HowStuffWorks [www.howstuffworks.com] is a searchable encyclopedia that explains the inner workings of HDTV, MP3 players and other technologies.

Hobbes’ Internet Timeline [www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/] traces the development of the Internet from the 1950s to 2003.

The Digital Divide Network [www.digitaldivide.net], created by the Benton Foundation and the National Urban League, is a clearinghouse for information and strategies about expanding access to the Internet and information technology in underserved communities.

Social network sites Facebook [facebook.com] and MySpace [myspace.com], as well as the video-sharing site YouTube [youtube.com] and the micro-blogging site Twitter [twitter.com], illustrate the trend toward user-generated content.

Slashdot [www.slashdot.org] is a user-based, moderated news gathering service that provides, “News for nerds. Stuff that matters.” Collaborative posting and collaboration make this a repository of emergent technology-related trends and news.

Rich Gordon, who chairs the New Media Department at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, wrote a chapter titled “The Meanings and Implications of Convergence” for the book Digital Journalism: Emerging Media and the Changing Horizons of Journalism. You can read the chapter in Google Books [http://books.google.com].

Wikipedia [www.wikipedia.org] is an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. It is available in numerous languages and has inspired such sister projects as Wikinews and Wookiepedia.

Test Questions

True/False

1. T F Feedback plays a bigger role in interactive systems than it does in the conventional SMCR model of mass communication.

Answer: True

2. T F Blogs are an example of the reduced-gatekeeper nature of new media.

Answer: True

3. T F In an industrial society, the primary mode of employment is manufacturing.

Answer: True

4. T F Over the next decade, information-sector jobs are expected to continue to grow by about 50 percent – faster than the overall economy.

Answer: False

5. T F Digital communication uses continuously varying signals corresponding to the light or sounds originated by the source.

Answer: False

6. T F On average, people spend nine and a quarter hours a day with the media.

Answer: True

7. T F The digital divide describes the gap between electronic impulses in computer media.

Answer: False

8. T F When communication is said to be mediated, it relies on one-to-one or face-to-face communication.

Answer: False

9. T F It would be correct to say that there is less gatekeeping in new media than old media.

Answer: True

10. T F Radio talk shows and televised news reports are considered forms of mass communication.

Answer: True

11. T F In today’s world of digital communications, media messages must be converted to analog form for transmission and then back to digital form for reception.

Answer: False

12. T F Gutenberg’s press was the first printing press ever developed.

Answer: False

13. T F A 1998 law broadened the copyright protection enjoyed by writers, performers, artists, and songwriters.

Answer: True

14. T F After cable television started going digital, direct broadcast satellite operations scrambled to do the same.

Answer: False

15. T F Net neutrality refers to the Internet’s ability to provide information of all natures, including that which may be considered obscene or inappropriate.

Answer: False

16. T F Social media has started to erode the ability of conventional mass media to define culture.

Answer: True

17. T F The supercomputer Watson would be able to pass the Turing Test for questions unrelated to the contents of the TV game show Jeopardy.

Answer: False

18. T F All digital transmissions are composed of only the digits 1 and 0.

Answer: True

Multiple Choice

19. Which of the following is an example of “time shifting”?

a) Participating in a talk-radio show

b) Watching a program recorded on a DVR

c) Conversing with friends in an Internet chat room

d) Engaging in an interpersonal conversation

Answer: B

20. Writing an email to a friend is an example of which type of communication?

a) Interpersonal communication

b) Small-group communication

c) Intrapersonal communication

d) None of the choices

Answer: A

21. In which historical period did written communications emerge as a specialized function controlled by the ruling classes?

a) Pre-agricultural society

b) Industrial society

c) Agricultural society

d) Information society

Answer: C

22. Posting a message to a friend’s Facebook wall is an example of _______________.

a) asynchronous interpersonal communication

b) asynchronous intrapersonal communication

c) synchronous interpersonal communication

d) synchronous intrapersonal communication

Answer: A

23. The “digital divide” refers to _______________.

a) the way digital technologies process information in terms of 1’s and 0’s

b) the gap between people who have access to digital technology and those who don’t

c) the use of digital technology in a variety of media such as digital TV and DVD

d) the difference in quality between analog and digital technology

Answer: B

24. You send an email to a friend. According to the SMCR model, what role does your computer fulfill?

a) Sender

b) Encoder

c) Decoder

d) Receiver

Answer: B

25. All of the following are characteristics that distinguish new media from traditional mass media except _______________.

a) real-time interactions

b) capacities for desktop publishing

c) simultaneous communication

d) many-to-many communication

Answer: C

26. What proportion of Internet users visited the Internet for political purposes during the 2010 elections?

a) One-fourth

b) One-half

c) Three-fourths

d) Two-fifths

Answer: C

27. As media becomes more interactive, it has enabled users to _______________ the messages and content of the media.

a) understand

b) enjoy

c) customize

d) disagree with

Answer: C

28. The proportion of information workers has reached a plateau of about _______________ of the U.S. workforce.

a) a quarter

b) a third

c) half

d) three-fifths

Answer: D

29. Narrowcasting means _______________.

a) transmitting signals in the upper reaches of the broadcast spectrum

b) targeting content toward smaller and smaller audiences

c) merging a variety of media into one distribution channel

d) utilizing feedback and time-shifting devices together

Answer: B

30. The beginning of the Industrial Society is associated with _______________.

a) the television

b) the telephone

c) the printing press

d) the computer

Answer: C

31. Which of the following is characteristic of analog signals?

a) Computer-readable

b) Continuous signal

c) Already compressed

d) Less noise than digital

Answer: B

32. The primary mass medium that evolved in early agricultural societies was the _______________.

a) hand-copied book

b) ritual chant

c) radio

d) None of the choices

Answer: A

33. The process of converting an analog to a digital signal is called _______________.

a) digitizing

b) sampling

c) coding

d) binaring

Answer: B

34. We currently live in an information society because:

a) Our economy primarily depends on the production and consumption of information.

b) This is the first type of society to employ information workers.

c) Our society developed computers, the primary driver of the production and consumption of information.

d) This is the first type of society to create information technology that allowed the development of the mass media.

Answer: A

32. ______ is the term describing the integration of mass media, computers and telecommunications.

a) Horizontal Integration

b) Convergence

c) Vertical Integration

d) Disintermediation

Answer: B

Short Answer

33. Describe media convergence.

34. How does the television show American Idol depart from the SMCR model of mass communication?

35. What are some of the forces driving narrowcasting?

36. What do Facebook, wikis and YouTube have in common?

37. How is the information society different from previous eras?

38. What are the affordances of time-shifting?

39. How has technology affected the number of people required to produce a media product?

40. What are some of the social issues associated with both old and new media?

41. What is the Turing Test?

CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers

Multiple Choice

1. The typical American consumer spends more than _____ hours a day with the media.

a. 3

b. 6

c. 9

d. 12

Analysis:

c. Correct. This is almost five months each year. See “The Media in Our Lives” in Chapter 1.

2. Which of the following represent competition for big media corporations?

a. Citizen journalists

b. Facebook networks

c. Amateur video producers on the Internet

d. All of the choices

Analysis:

d. Correct. Big media corporations now contend with all these groups. See “Media in a Changing World” in Chapter 1.

3. _______________ is an example of a purely analog medium.

a. Local talk radio

b. Network news

c. The music industry

d. Filmmaking

Analysis:

a. Correct. The digital domain now encompasses nearly all radio, television, film, newspapers, magazines, and books with an ever-narrowing list of exceptions. See “Media in a Changing World” in Chapter 1.

4. All digital transmissions are composed of _______________.

a. alpha and beta waves

b. 1s and 0s

c. brightness and color

d. Xs and Ys

Analysis:

b. Correct. All digital transmissions are composed of only two digits: 1 and 0. See “A Digital Media Primer” in Chapter 1.

5. Why have critics like Carey criticized Schramm’s SMCR model of mass communication?

a. They say it’s too linear.

b. They say the media process isn’t just a one-way flow from creators to audiences.

c. They say communication is more circular and interactive than Schramm indicated.

d. All of the choices

Analysis:

d. Correct. Critics say audiences not only choose from, but also interact with, media content. See “Changing Conceptions of the Media” in Chapter 1.

6. According to the Smith (2011), of American cell phone users, how many used their phones for political purposes during the 2010 elections?

a. Three-fourths

b. Half

c. One-quarter

d. Ninety percent

Analysis:

c. Correct. One-quarter of cell phone users used their phones for political purposes during the 2010 elections. See “Media in a Changing World” in Chapter 1.

7. What did the Telecommunications Act of 1996 do?

a. It increased the regulations on media companies.

b. It reduced the regulations on media companies.

c. It protected media companies from competing with one another.

d. None of the choices

Analysis:

b. Correct. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 stripped away regulations that protected publishing, broadcasting, cable and satellite television, telephone, and other media companies from competing with one another. See “Media in a Changing World” in Chapter 1.

8. You would apply the Turing Test to determine whether a particular device is truly _______________.

a. digital

b. asynchronous

c. interactive

d. multimedia

Analysis:

c. Correct. The ultimate form of interactivity would pass the so-called Turing test for artificial intelligence, named after the British computer pioneer Alan Turing. See “Changing Conceptions of the Media” in Chapter 1.

9. Which society depended on the spoken word to transmit ideas among themselves and between generations?

a. Preagricultural society

b. Agricultural society

c. Industrial society

d. Information society

Analysis:

a. Correct. Preagricultural cultures depended on the spoken word to transmit ideas among themselves and between generations. See “Changing Media Throughout History” in Chapter 1.

10. What point marks the transition to an information society?

a. When a country has more information than it needs to support itself.

b. When a country has identified information as a valuable commodity for processing.

c. When information work starts to dominate the workforce.

d. None of the choices.

Analysis:

c. Correct. The point at which information work starts to dominate the workforce marks the transition to an information society. See “Changing Media Throughout History” in Chapter 1.

11. What term describes a situation in which three or more people communicate with one another?

a. Intrapersonal communication

b. Group communication

c. Interpersonal communication

d. Intercultural communication

Analysis:

b. Correct. Group communication is a situation in which three or more people communicate with one another. See “Changing Conceptions of the Media” in Chapter 1.

12. On average, how many hours a week do children age 2-5 spend watching television?

a. 12 hours

b. 20 hours

c. 26 hours

d. 32 hours

Analysis:

d. Correct. Children ages 2-5 average 32 hours a week in front of the television screen, including the time they spend watching programs recorded on digital video recorders and DVDs. See “Media in a Changing World” in Chapter 1.

13. What is the key to multimedia – combining text, image, and sound in two-way communication channels?

a. digitization

b. narrowcasting

c. synchronicity

d. interactivity

Analysis:

a. Correct. Digitization is the key to multimedia – combining text, image, and sound in two-way communication channels. See “Changing Conceptions of the Media” in Chapter 1.

14. What did the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 do?

a. It extended the copyright principle to term papers.

b. It broadened the copyright protection enjoyed by writers, performers, songwriters and media corporations.

c. It reduced the copyright protection enjoyed by writers, performers, songwriters and media corporations.

d. It extended copyright protection to Web page creators.

Analysis:

b. Correct. This legislation broadened the copyright protection enjoyed by writers, performers, songwriters and media corporations. See “Media in a Changing World” in Chapter 1.

15. Social media include _______________.

a. Facebook

b. MySpace

c. Twitter

d. All of the choices

Analysis:

d. Correct. Social media, such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, might be termed many-to-many communication, since audience members are also the sources of the content. See “Changing Conceptions of the Media” in Chapter 1.

True/False

16. Net neutrality means users are not discriminated against based on the amount or nature of the data they transfer on the Internet. True or false?

a. True.

b. False.

Analysis:

a. Correct. That is the definition of net neutrality. See “Media in a Changing World” in Chapter 1.

17. “Digital robber barons” hope to increase the diversity of content and lower the cost of information. True or false?

a. True.

b. False.

Analysis:

b. Correct. The dominance of “digital robber barons” reduces the diversity of content and raises the cost of information. See “A New Balance of Power?” in Chapter 1.

18. In Wilbur Schramm’s SMCR model of mass communication, the “channel” refers to the frequency or a television signal. True or false?

a. True.

b. False.

Analysis:

b. Correct. The channel is not literally the number on the television dial to which you are tuned, but rather the entire chain of transmitters, satellite links, and cable television equipment required to convey the message to your home. See “Changing Conceptions of the Media” in Chapter 1.

19. “Smart Phones” are quickly becoming the next phase of media convergence. True or false?

a. True.

b. False.

Analysis:

a. Correct. “Smart Phones” are cell phones that provide wireless Internet access and video. See “Changing Media Throughout History” in Chapter 1.

20. The first consumer communications medium to be digitized was the computer. True or false?

a. True.

b. False.

Analysis:

b. Correct. The first consumer communications medium to be digitized was the telephone. See “Changing Media Throughout History” in Chapter 1.

Online Homework Questions and Answers

1. What does the term “information society” mean?

ANS: It’s a society in which the production, processing, distribution and consumption of information are the primary economic and social activities. In such a society, information work dominates the workforce. The dominant medium in an information society is the computer and conventional mass media forms transform to digital media.

2. Use the SMCR model to describe what happens when you watch TV.

ANS: The source is the network or show producer. The message is the content of the show, which is encoded by the microphones and television cameras in the television studio. The channel is the chain of transmitters, satellite links and other equipment that convey the message to your home. Your television set is the decoder, and you – the viewer – are the receiver. If a TV ratings service is tracking your viewing habits, that’s feedback. And noise could be bad weather that causes electronic interference or a neighbor’s barking dog.

3. What’s the difference between broadcasting and narrowcasting?

ANS: Broadcasting tries to reach the largest possible audience. Narrowcasting means targeting content toward smaller and smaller audiences. It involves dedicating communication channels to specific audience subgroups, or market segments. Advanced audience research methods have helped the media cater to these smaller audiences by enhancing the richness and speed of audience feedback.

4. Imagine you’re the editor of the online edition of your campus newspaper, and your school has just won the national championship in women’s soccer. Assuming you have adequate staffing and technical support, what would you put on your newspaper’s website to take advantage of the Internet?

ANS: You could post not only one or more text stories, but also a gallery of still photos, video from the game and background about the players and their championship season. You could host an interactive chat with the coach and the players and have a discussion board where fans can post comments. You also could send breaking news about the event to your readers via e-mail and cell-phone text-messaging.

5. What type of communication would describe Facebook and Twitter?

ANS: Social networking websites might be termed many-to-many communication, because audience members are also the sources of the content.” Social media” is a new term that has been invented to describe social networking sites and other online media such as Twitter and YouTube where the users provide the content.

6. What are the prospects for media careers?

ANS: Despite a continuing slowdown in the economy, there are still abundant entry level opportunities in media industries. However, media careers are intensely competitive at all levels so students need to prepare for the possibility that they will have several different careers throughout their lives.

Chapter 2: Media and Society

nursingtestbank

Thursday, 3 November 2016

Test Bank for Media Now Understanding Media Culture and Technology 8th Edition by Straubhaar

Online Homework Questions and Answers

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