Midterm and Final Exam Study Guide
The midterm exam will cover all chapters from your textbook that have been completed before the review during the class period just prior to the exam, as well as all lecture materials up to that point. The final exam will be comprehensive, covering the entire semester. Below are the most important ideas from the chapters, and below that are the most important ideas from lectures. This is not an exhaustive list, and you are responsible for material from the textbooks and from lectures whether on this list or not.
MAJOR TERMS AND CONCEPTS FROM TEXTBOOK
Chapter 1
Communication
Culture
Mass media
Mass communication
3 stages of a medium: developmental, entrepreneurial, mass
Oral and written eras of communication
Electronic and digital eras of communication
The age of convergence; two meanings of "media convergence"
Linear model of communication
Cultural approach to communication
High vs. low/pop culture
Media literacy
Critical process: describe, analyze, interpret, evaluate, engage
Chapter 16
Media effects research
Propaganda analysis, public opinion research, social
psychology studies, marketing research
Experiments, surveys, content analysis
Direct effects model (hypodermic needle, magic bullet)
Minimal/limited effects model
Uses and gratifications model
Social learning theory
Agenda-setting
Cultivation effect
Spiral of silence theory
Cultural studies
Textual analysis, audience studies, political economy studies
Chapter 2
Papyrus (Egypt), parchment (Rome), vellum, paper (China)
Codex
Illuminated manuscripts
Block printing
Printing press
Johannes Gutenberg
Manuscript culture
Paperbacks, dime novels, pulp fiction
Trade books, professional books, textbooks, reference books
Offset lithography
Linotype
Book challenge
e-books, e-publishing
Chapter 3
Developmental stage:
Early precursors of newspapers: oral news and history,
Julius Caesar's "Acta Diurna", printing press
Entrepreneurial stage:
American newspapers in the Colonial era
John Peter Zenger case
Political vs. commercial newspapers; partisan press
Massification stage:
Penny press, "New York Sun" and "New York Morning Herald",
wire services (AP)
Newspaper content in 19th century:
Local news, human interest stories, business news, political
essays, gossip, fashion, letters, etc...
Yellow journalism:
Sensationalism, investigative journalism, "New York World"
and "New York Journal" (Pulitzer vs. Hearst)
Objectivity
Inverted pyramid reporting style
Interpretive journalism, literary journalism
Newspapers adapt to radio, television, Internet
National newspapers, Metropolitan dailies, weeklies
Newspapers aimed at racial, ethnic, and political minorities
Consensus vs. conflict journalism
Underground press
Blogs, citizen journalism
Chapter 4
French "magasin" (1600s), British political/elite magazines (1700s),
Colonial American magazines
19th Century local, political, specialty, literary and other special interest
magazines
General interest "Saturday Evening Post" (massification)
Growth of circulation in late 19th Century, and general interest magazines in
early to mid 20th
Muckrakers
Photojournalism
"TV Guide" and the resurgence of special interest magazines, decline of general
interest
"People" magazine---celebrity culture and the media
Audience fragmentation by sex, age, class, race/ethnicity (demographic editions)
Tabloid magazines
Online magazines
Chapter 5
Developmental stage/early sound recording technologies: phonograph/graphophone/gramophone/Victrola
Magnetic audiotape
Stereo
Analog recording, vinyl records
Digital recording, compact discs
MP3 file compressing format
Musical genres: folk, pop, rock, blues, R&B, soul, punk, grunge, hip-hop/rap
Major music labels and independent labels (indies)
Chapter 6
Development stage of radio: Morse, Hertz, Maxwell, Marconi, Tesla
Telegraph
Vacuum tube
Electromagnetic waves: radio waves, infrared/visible/ultraviolet light
Wireless telegraphy
Wireless telephony
Entrepreneurial stage of radio: Sarnoff, Paley
Radio Act of 1912
Radio Corporation of America (RCA)
KDKA and commercial broadcasting
Massification of Radio
Networks: CBS, NBC, ABC
Radio Act of 1927
Federal Radio Commission (FRC)
Communications Act of 1934
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Radio genres in Golden Age of Radio: live music, variety show, quiz show, radio
play, soap opera, situation comedy
Transistor and pocket radios
Format radio
Rotation
Top 40 (jukebox to radio)
News/talk
Day parts
Drive time
AM/FM/LPFM radio
Internet/satellite/podcasting/Hybrid digital radio
Telecommunications Act of 1996
Chapter 7
Developmental stage: photograph, thaumatrope, zoetrope, celluloid,
kinetograph, kinetoscope
Entrepreneurial stage: Edison's vitascope, Lumiere brothers' cinematograph,
arcades/carnivals/museums/vaudeville
Massification stage: narrative films, nickelodeons, movie palaces, Hollywood,
star system
Production, distribution, and exhibition of films
Hollywood style: feature length, editing, Melies, Porter, DW Griffith, silent
era, talkies
Narrative structure in Hollywood: multiple storylines, protagonist/antagonist,
sequencing (beginning/middle/end), plot conflict
Film genres
Oligopoly, vertical integration, Paramount decision
Movies adapt to radio, television, suburbanization (multiplexes)
Big 6 studios, indies
Movies adapt to digitization
Chapter 8
Developmental stage of TV: Nipkow, Zworkin, Farnsworth
Cathode ray tube, iconoscope
FCC licensing of stations, FCC licensing freeze (1948-1952)
Analog and digital TV standards
Entrepreneurial stage of TV: Sarnoff, Paley, Weaver
TV genres: variety, magazine, quiz, sketch comedy, situation comedy, episodic
(chapter and serial), news, reality
Network era, affiliate station, independent station, superstation
Cable, satellite (CATV and DBS)
VCR, DVR
Ratings, shares
CATV
transponder
geosynchronous orbit
coaxial, fiber optic cable
electronic publisher vs. common carrier
Telecommunications Act of 1996
broadcasting vs. narrowcasting
WiMax
oligopoly
Chapter 9
ARPAnet
Internet, World Wide Web
Microprocessors
Fiber-optic cable
HTML
Browsers
Digital storage and transmission; digitization and media convergence
Telecommunications Act of 1996
Open-source software
Internet security, appropriateness, and access
Digital divide
Mass customization
Chapter 10
Penny arcade, pinball (mechanical technologies)
CRT, Video games
Avatars
Social gaming, role-playing
Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB)
Midterm Exam covers up to here
Chapter 11
Consumer culture
Space brokers, ad agents
Federal Trade Commission
Market research
Demographics
Psychographics
Focus groups
VALS (Values and Lifestyles)
Viral marketing
Media planners, media buyers
Saturation advertising
Online ad impressions, online ad click-throughs
Advertising strategies: Famous person testimonial, plain folks pitch, snob
appeal approach, bandwagon effect, hidden fear appeal, irritation advertising
Commercial speech
Association principle
Puffery
Political advertising
Chapter 12
Public relations, publicity
Press agent
Publicity, propaganda
Ivy Lee
Edward Bernays
Walter Lippmann
Press release/news release, video news release (VNR)
Public Service Announcement (PSA)
Pseudo-events
Lobbying
Chapter 13
News
Newsworthiness: timely, proximate, conflict, human interest, consequence,
usefulness, novelty
News bias/media bias
Conflict of interest
Privacy
Conflict of interest
SPJ Code of Ethics
Approaches to ethics: Aristotle's "Golden Mean," Kant's "Categorical
Imperative," Bentham and Mills' "greatest good for the greatest number"
Herd journalism/pack journalism
Balance
Sound bite
Print vs. visual news
Sound bite
Public journalism
Social responsibility
Deliberative democracy
Chapter 14
Free speech/free expression
John Milton's "Areopagitica"
Models of expression: State, authoritarian, social responsibility, libertarian
First Amendment
Sedition Act
Censorship, prior restraint
Unprotected forms of expression---sedition, copyright infringement,
libel/slander, obscenity, invasion of (protected) privacy
Pentagon papers case
"Progressive" magazine "H Bomb" case
Espionage Acts of 1917, 1918
Clear and present danger exception to freedom of expression
Red Lion v. FCC, Miami Herald v. Tornillo
Differences in regulation between print and non-print media
Self-regulation, ratings systems
Chapter 15
Monopoly, oligopoly, limited competition
Direct payment, indirect payment
Sherman Antitrust Act, Clayton Antitrust Act
Concentration of wnership, conglomeration
Deregulation
Hegemony, common sense
Specialized vs. mass audiences
Synergy
Economies of scale
Consumer choice, consumer control
Cultural imperialism
MAJOR TERMS AND CONCEPTS FROM LECTURE
Communication---biological definition (from faculty web page)
Medium of communication (definition from faculty web page)
Walter Lippmann's "The pictures on our heads" and James Carey's "A cultural
approach to communication" (see "Defining Communication and Medium" at faculty
web page)
Mass communication; mass communication in the ancient world
Difference between society and culture
Mass society, mass culture, mass communication, mass media
History of media of communication
Spoken language, written language, printing press,
lithography, telegraphy, photography, motion pictures/cinema, sound recording (graphophone,
phonograph), telephony, radio, television, satellite, Internet, cell phone
Oral, literate, electronic communication
Mechanical vs. electrical vs. electronic technologies
Analog vs. digital technologies
Roles of electrification and digitization in mass communication
4 ways to divide media studies:
Quantitative vs. qualitative research
Administrative vs. critical research
Media effects approach vs. cultural approach to research
Analysis vs. interpretation (note parallels between these
four distinctions involving research)
Social settings of media consumption
Effects of one medium on a pre-existing medium; for example, effects of
electronic and digital media on the newspaper and magazine
Magazine audience fragmentation by lifestyle, interests, high vs. low culture
(psychographic characteristics, as opposed to demographic characteristics)
Effects of broadcasting and Internet on news values, ethics
Effects of digitization on a medium
Social and cultural advances necessary for the massification of print media:
Industrialization, literacy, public education,
democratization, growth of middle class, commercialism, urbanization,
advertising, postal delivery
Media formats in sound recording: hog's hair, tin foil, beeswax, zinc, shellac,
vinyl
Development of photography
Persistence of vision
Media persona vs. media product/artifact
Midterm exam covers up to here
Passive vs. active receiver; intended vs. received meaning
Intertextuality
Differences between advertising and public relations
Difference between public relations and propaganda
Proactive vs. reactive public relations
Difference between "the media" and "the press"
Fiduciary duty
McDonaldization of American culture
Tension between freedom and order
Ownership and regulation in state, authoritarian, social responsibility, and
libertarian models of expression
Tensions in American journalism:
between freedom and order
between the public's right to know and the individual's right
to privacy
between giving the public what it needs and what it wants
between objectivity/detachment and subjectivity/engagement
between free market/First Amendment and social
responsibility/fiduciary duty
between substance/depth and style/superficiality
Major trends in media history:
Authoritarian/hierarchy to democratic/network
Ignorance to knowledge
Sectarian to secular
Clan to tribe to city state to nation to civilization to
globalism
Oral to literate to electronic to digital
Within literate era: from hand writing to printing
Within electronic era: from mechanical/analog to digital
Pre-modern to modern to post modern
Parallel between progression from writing to printing press, and progression
from telegraph to Internet
Media effects: from 1. an artifact/product, 2. a genre or cultural form,
3. a medium, 4. the mix of media in a culture
Media effects: on 1. individuals, 2. groups/subcultures, 3. society and
culture, 4. global