TEST
GUIDE
Core 164
NB: This information is intended only as a guide to what students should be prepared to address on their tests. The actual test questions may vary from the questions as formulated below. Students should also note that tests are often comprised of a single question. Therefore, adequate test preparation entails being able to fully and effectively answer each and every one of the listed questions.
Test # 1
1. From an economic perspective, what are media products? Explain.
2. Discuss the nature and extent of the increasing concentration of ownership of media companies. Discuss some of the major results of this concentration.
3. What is cultural imperialism? While in the article "The New Global Media" McChesney recognizes that with the development of the global media system the specter of U.S. cultural imperialism remains a concern, he largely dismisses it as a problem. Why? Is he correct?
4. Discuss the "ordinary" and "unique" powers of the media industry to influence politics, the electorate, and legislation. (re: Lewis, McCain, etc.)
5. Discuss television's impact upon the political process. (re: Cronkite, lecture, etc.)
6. With respect to the media's influence on politics, discuss the parallels between Howard Dean's candidacy for President and the 2002 coup in Venezuela as shown in "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised".
7. How do the recent WikiLeak disclosures demonstrate the potential for the media to influence government and the political process? NB: There is not a "correct" answer to this question and the range of possible answers will not be covered in class.
8. What is a fallacy? Describe the major categories of fallacies (relevance, vacuity, and clarity) and give an example of each.
Test # 2
1. Discuss the government's censorship and control of information as it is used for strictly political purposes.
2. Discuss Orwell's belief that a major threat to free speech comes from the voluntary censorship associated with the prevailing orthodoxy.
3. How is copyright a governmental grant to private individuals and entities of the power to censor? According to Loren, what was the original purpose of copyright law as set forth in the U.S. Constitution and how has that purpose been subverted?
4. Discuss alternatives to the maximalist "Hollywood model" of copyright. Discuss the impacts of copyright on the creation of culture.
5. How are property rights a governmental grant to private individuals and entities of the power to censor? Discuss the impacts of corporate censorship on the creation of culture. Discuss the corporate political influence stemming from the private power to censor.
6. What is propaganda? In what ways might covert propaganda be far more insidious than overt propaganda?
7. As presented in the assigned readings, what are some basic points of agreement between Bernays and Lippmann? What does each see as the role of propaganda?
8. In what ways does the Webb article instantiate the ideas and themes developed in the Orwell and Bernstein readings?
Test #3
1. Discuss the "free trade of ideas" rationale for protecting free speech (re: Abrams & Whitney). What are the limitations of this rationale when only a few corporations monopolize the media?
2. Discuss the censorship that is permitted by the 1st Amendment.
3. Discuss the types of media effects on individuals as developed in the lecture "Analysis of Media Effects." How might these result in impacts on institutions?
4. Discuss the various techniques that news media employ to foster fear in their audiences. Discuss the symbiotic relationship between the news media's use of fear and the political uses of fear.
5. Discuss the effects of media violence as developed in the video The Mean World Syndrome.
6. As developed in lecture and in the video The Price of Pleasure, discuss the effects of pornography on the development of our own sexuality. What role do mainstream media play in this process?
7. Discuss the general relationship of media to the construction of gender. What are the prevalent gender messages found in commercial advertising (re: The Codes of Gender & Killing Us Softly 4)? What gender messages are embedded in entertainment media (re: Wrestling with Manhood & Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes)?
8. Discuss the actual and intended impacts of commercial advertising on our self-image (re: Killing Us Softly 4, The Beauty Backlash & America the Beautiful).
9. Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes ties violence, misogyny and homophobia to mainstream (i.e., non-hip hop) culture. At the same time, it argues that these same features of male gender identification are manipulated and perpetuated by media corporations in their pursuit of profit. Discuss.