Study Guides

Mass Media Study Guides

Chapter 1 Study Guide

Purpose

• recognize the elements of the communication process
• understand the different types of communication settings
• identify the function of gatekeepers
• describe how the Internet has changed mass communication
• explain the various types of mass media convergence
• understand the technological, economic, and social forces that transform mass media

Main Points

• The elements in the communication process are a source, encoding process, message, channel, decoding process, receiver, feedback, and noise.
• The three types of noise are semantic, environmental, and mechanical.
• The three main settings for communication are interpersonal, machine-assisted interpersonal, and mass communication.
• Each element in the communication process may vary according to setting.
• Mass communication refers to the process by which a complex organization, with the aid of one or more machines, produces public messages that are aimed at large, heterogeneous, and scattered audiences.
• Traditionally, a mass communicator was identified by its formal organization, gatekeepers, expensive operating costs, profit motive, and competitiveness. The Internet has created exceptions to these characteristics.
• New models have been developed to represent Internet mass communication.
• Communication content has become more specialized in the past 40 years, but the channels of mass communication still have the potential to reach vast audiences.
• Seven trends that characterize modern mass communication are audience segmentation, convergence, increased audience control, multiple platforms, user-generated content, more mobility, and social media.

Questions

1. Who initiates the communication process?
2. What is the term for interpreting meaning from a message?
3. What is meant by the term receiver?
4. What is meant by the term noise?
5. What happens to the fidelity of a message as the amount of noise increases?
6. What are three characteristics of machine-assisted communication that are NOT found in person-to-person communication?
7. What is meant by the term heterogeneous audience?
8. What are the defining characteristics of mass communication organizations?
9. What is meant by the term media vehicle?
10. Define these terms
    1. Audience segmentation
    2. Convergence
    3. Disintermediation
    4. Increasing audience control
    5. Multiple platforms

Essay Answer one, use separate paper. 300 words, handwritten. Answer all parts of the question.

1. What's the most embarrassing communication breakdown that's happened to you? Analyze why it happened. Was it due to semantic noise? Environmental noise? Mechanical noise?
2. Tabulate how much of your time is spent in interpersonal, machine-assisted interpersonal, or mass communication. What conclusions can you draw?
3. What are some of the shortcomings of the communication model in Figure 1-2? Are there some elements that are missing?
4. Find additional examples of the seven trends that characterize modern mass media. Are there some media that will be less affected by these trends? Do you think these trends are positive or negative developments?

Chapter 2: Perspectives on Mass Communication

Purpose

• understand the differences between the functional approach and the critical/cultural approach to studying mass communications
• explain the value of each approach in the analysis of the mass communication process
• describe the functions mass media perform for society
• explain uses-and-gratifications analysis
• recognize the dysfunctions of mass communication
• understand the concepts of meaning, hegemony, and ideology

Main Points

• Functional analysis holds that something is best understood by examining how it is used.
• At the macro level of analysis, mass media perform five functions for society: surveillance, interpretation, linkage, transmission of values, and diversion. Dysfunctions are harmful or negative consequences of these functions.
• At the micro level of analysis, the functional approach is called uses-and-gratifications analysis.
• The media perform the following functions for the individual: cognition, diversion, social utility, affiliation, expression, and withdrawal.
• The critical/cultural method emphasized class differences as a cause of societal conflict.
• The critical/cultural approach suggests that media content helps perpetuate a system that keeps the dominant class in power. It also notes that people can find different meanings in the same message.
• The key concepts in the critical approach are text, meaning, ideology, and hegemony.
• Although they are different approaches, both functional and critical/cultural studies can be valuable tools for the analysis of the mass communication process.

Essay: Answer one, 300 words written by hand

1. Compare and contrast the functional and the critical/cultural approaches. How does each view the audience? How does each view the media?
2. Compare your own reasons for using Facebook with those that appear at the beginning of the chapter. Are there any similarities?
3. Can you find more current examples of status conferral? Linkage? Media dysfunctions?
4. As mentioned in the text, one of the assumptions of the uses-and-gratifications approach is that people can verbalize their needs. Suppose this assumption is false. Is the uses-and-gratifications approach still useful?
1. Review the boxed insert "PE Teachers in the Movies," an example of the critical/cultural approach. Are movie portrayals of teachers in general more positive than the portrayal of PE teachers? Why does Hollywood continue to perpetuate these stereotypes? Is it related to profits? Glee is a hit TV show. How does it portray PE teachers?

Chapter 3: Historical and Cultural Context

Purpose

• describe the major events and general trends in media history
• recognize the milestones in the development of human communication
• understand the role that these advances played in prompting significant changes in our culture and society
• learn that the emergence of new communication technologies changes but does not make extinct those communications that came before
• understand that each advance in communication increases our power to convey and record information

Main Points

• Printing made information available to a larger audience. It helped the development of vernacular languages, aided the Protestant Reformation, and contributed to the spread and accumulation of knowledge.
• The telegraph and telephone were the first media to use electricity to communicate. They marked the first time the message could be separated from the messenger. The telegraph helped the railroads move west and permitted the newspapers to publish more timely news. The telephone linked people together in the first instance of a communication network.
• Photography provided a way to preserve history, had an impact on art, and brought better visuals to newspapers and magazines. Motion pictures helped socialize a generation of immigrants and became an important part of American culture.
• Radio and TV broadcasting brought news and entertainment into the home, transformed leisure time, and pioneered a new, immediate kind of reporting. Television has an impact on free time, politics, socialization, culture, and many other areas as well.
• The digital revolution changed the way information was stored and transmitted and made e-commerce possible.
• Mobile media have changed our culture and taken over some functions of mass media.
• The next communication milestone is the expanding use of social media.
• In general, it is difficult to predict the ultimate shape of a new medium. New media change but do not replace older media. The pace of media inventions has accelerated in recent years.

Essay Answer one with 300 handwritten words--NOT 299 words.

1. Suppose Henry David Thoreau were alive today. What do you think he would say about the Internet?
2. Many people would argue that, of all the communication media discussed in this chapter, television has had the greatest impact on society. Do you agree?
3. When the Internet was first developing, the term information superhighway appeared frequently in news stories about it. Now that the Internet has been around for a while, news stories rarely contain that term. Why is this so?
4. How does social media affect your life? What would life be like without it?
5. Consider the boxed insert "Cell Phones, Religion, and Culture." Can you think of other technological devices that have been subjected to a "culturing" process? How does the "kosher phone" relate to the concept of a community? Who should decide what features of a new technology are introduced to a particular culture?

Questions

1. What were the general features of newspapers in early America?
2. What is the relationship between the Constitution and the Press?
3. What is a “mass press”?
4. What is required for a civilization to have a mass press?
5. What was Jazz Journalism?
6. What was Yellow Journalism?
7. What was the Penny Press?
8. What is a newspaper chain?
9. What is “circulation” in the world of newspapers?
10. What advantages do online newspapers have?
11. What are the defining features of today’s newspapers?
12. What are special service newspapers?
13. Compared to spending one dollar on a print newspaper to reach a potential customer, how much does it cost advertisers to reach that customer online?
14. Which agency tracks newspaper circulation data?
15. What does the term “political press” refer to?
16. What is the inverted-pyramid style of reporting?
17. What is the newshole?
18. What is the definition of a daily newspaper?
19. What are the major departments of a newspaper?
20. What is each newspaper department responsible for?

Chapter 6: Magazines

Purpose

• discuss the characteristics of magazines
• understand how the magazine industry is divided
• understand the function of Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI)
• appreciate the efforts of magazine publishers to incorporate the Internet and tablet computers into their business model
• understand the current financial situation of the magazine industry
• identify the five main magazine content categories
• describe the departments that produce magazines

Main Points

• The first American magazines appeared during the middle of the 18th century and were aimed at an educated, urban, and literate audience.
• The audience for magazines increased during the penny-press era as mass-appeal publications became prominent.
• Better printing techniques and a healthy economy helped launch a magazine boom during the latter part of the 19th century.
• The muckrakers were magazines that published exposés and encouraged reform.
• Magazines began to specialize their content following World War I. News magazines, digests, and picture magazines became popular.
• The magazine industry is experiencing a difficult time due to declining advertising revenue.
• Magazine publishers hope that the tablet computer will re-energize the publishing business.
• Magazines are specialized, current, influential, and convenient.
• The magazine industry is dominated by large publishing companies.
• The magazine industry can be divided into the production, distribution, and retail divisions.
• A typical magazine publishing company has several main departments, including circulation, advertising, production, and editorial.
• Magazines get revenues from subscriptions, single-copy sales, and print and online advertising.
• MRI is a company that measures magazine readership.

Essay Answer one of these in a 300-word, handwritten response.

1. Are there dangers in having large corporations dominate the magazine publishing industry?
2. GQ, Cosmopolitan, and Ms. —three magazines that influenced social trends—all came on the scene before 1980. Are there any more current magazines that have been influential in shaping American culture and society? If not, why not?
3. Is it possible for a magazine to become too specialized? How big does a specialized audience have to be to support a print magazine? A Web-only magazine?
4. Read "Critical/Cultural Issue: Teen Magazine Web Sites: What's the Message?" (page 000), and consider the following: Do these websites have a responsibility to present a more realistic and well-rounded view of young womanhood? How might the emphasis on beauty and beauty products affect young women who may not be able to afford the "right" cosmetics? Would the same messages be contained in Web sites for magazines targeted at adult women?

Questions

1. Why did the number of magazines produced in the U.S. increase between 1860-1900?
2. What was Look magazine?
3. The shift in economic development and the change in lifestyles between World War 1 and World War 2 influenced the development of which type of magazine?
4. According to our text, how are magazines distinguished from other media?
5. Which of these is NOT a functional category of the magazine industry?
6. Controlled circulation magazines gain most of their revenue from what source?
7. A magazine’s rate base is the number of buyers guaranteed by a magazine
8. A magazine’s rate base is the minimum cost the magazine must charge in order to make revenue?
9. Most adults read at least one magazine a month
10. A magazine dummy is the schedule drawn up to ensure that articles get to the printer in time for the forthcoming issue

Chapter 7: Books

Purpose

• understand that books are the oldest form of mass communication
• recognize the factors that led to the commercialization of book publishing
• explain how the digital revolution may change the underlying structure of the book industry
• identify the main parts of the book industry
• understand how economics affects the book industry

Main Points

• The book is the oldest form of mass communication. Early books were printed by hand until the invention of movable type and the printing press.
• In early America publishers were also printers. Books became more popular during the 17th and 18th centuries.
• From 1900 to 1945, the book publishing industry became more commercialized. Continuing consolidation has resulted in a modern book industry that is dominated by a few large companies.
• The book industry consists of publishers, distributors, and retailers. The emergence of online booksellers has changed the way books are sold and distributed.
• The book publishing industry is trying to cope with unfavorable economic conditions.

Essay Hand-written, 300 words

1. Which is better: traditional ink-and-paper books or e-books? Why?
2. Book sales have not increased in the last couple of years. What might be some of the reasons? What impact, if any, do you think the Internet has had on book reading?
3. What advantages and disadvantages go with a book industry dominated by a few big firms?
4. Read "Critical/Cultural Issues: Labor versus Management in Journalism Textbooks", and then consider the following: To what extent—and why—does it matter whether such texts avoid discussing labor problems in the media industry or carry a promanagement bias? If you are taking a course in writing/reporting, look at the text you are using. Does it marginalize or trivialize labor? What can students do to raise awareness of these issues in class?

Questions

1. What was the first book Gutenberg printed?
2. How did publishing become commercialized?
3. What is printing on demand?
4. What is an advantage of printing on demand?
5. Name the three segments of the publishing industry.
6. Who is the world’s largest educational publisher?
7. What are the departments in the publishing industry?
8. What is the main source of income for the publishing industry?
9. What is the main source of feedback in the book industry?
10. Is book reading connected to a person’s level of income?
11. When did copyright laws begin?
12. Reading became a popular after World War 2. Name two reasons why.

Chapter 8: Radio

Purpose

• explain how radio broadcasting developed in the 1920s
• recognize how television affected radio
• discuss the defining features of radio
• understand that radio gets programming from local stations, networks, and syndication companies
• explain how the digital age is affecting radio
• appreciate the potential of HD radio
• understand how the Internet and tablet computers have affected the radio industry

Main Points

• Radio started out as point-to-point communication, much like the telephone and telegraph. The notion of broadcasting did not come about until the 1920s.
• The decade of the 1920s was an important one in radio. Big business took control of the industry, receivers improved, commercials were started, networks were formed, and the FRC was set up to regulate radio.
• The coming of TV forced local stations to adopt formats, such as Top 40 or country.
• FM became the dominant form of radio in the 1970s and 1980s. Sparked by a loosening of ownership rules, a wave of consolidation took place in the industry during the 1990s.
• Radio is moving slowly into the digital age. Satellite radio and Internet radio are two digital services that will compete with traditional radio. Radio stations are introducing HD radio and promoting themselves via social media.
• Radio programming is provided by local stations, networks, and syndication companies.
• Stations have refined their formats to reach an identifiable audience segment.
• Most radio revenue comes from local advertising. Big companies now dominate large-market radio.
• Radio advertising revenue has recently declined.
• National Public Radio is the best-known public broadcaster.
• Radio audiences are measured by Arbitron using a diary method or the personal people meter. The demographic characteristics of the radio listener vary greatly by station format.

Essay

1. What might have happened if radio had developed during the 1930s—the Depression years—instead of the Roaring Twenties?
2. What formats might radio stations have developed if rock and roll had not come along?
3. The radio industry is highly concentrated. Consolidation may have helped radio's bottom line, but is the listener better served? Why or why not?
4. Listen to the radio stations in your market. Are there audience segments in the market that are not being served?
5. Read "Critical/Cultural Issues: Radio and the Local Community", and consider the following: What effect might the Internet have on the amount of local news, information, and other services in a given community? Will the Internet allow access to "those voices which cannot gain any serious measure of volume elsewhere"? Who owns the radio stations in your hometown? How do the locally owned stations compare with those that are corporate owned?
6. Compare traditional radio listening with listening to a station via a mobile app. How are they different?

Chapter 9: Sound Recording

Purpose

• understand the development of the recording process
• explain the impact of the Depression and World War II on the industry
• recognize the significance of the recording technology
• discuss the impact of file sharing
• explain how the digital age is affecting the recording industry
• describe the departments that make up the recording industry
• understand the current economic problems of the Industry

Main Points

• Thomas Edison pioneered the development of the phonograph, which was first used as a device to record voice. Emile Berliner perfected the modern technique of recording music in a spiral pattern on a disk. By the end of World War I, record players were found in most American homes.
• The coming of radio and the Depression hurt the development of the recording industry, but the business was able to survive because of the popularity of jukeboxes.
• After World War II the industry grew quickly because of the development of magnetic tape recording and the LP record and, most of all, because radio stations began to play recorded music as part of their formats.
• Rock-and-roll music helped spur record sales and made young people an important part of the market for recorded music.
• Digital downloading is transforming the way the music industry conducts business.
• The recording industry has four segments: talent, production, distribution, and retail.
• Four big companies dominate the record business.
• Billboard magazine's charts are the most important audience feedback for the industry.
• After several years of growth, the recording industry's revenue has declined, due in part to the declining popularity of the CD format.

Essay

1. Why did it take the recording industry so long to figure out that radio airplay helped record sales?
2. What are the implications of large corporate ownership in the record business? Are big companies less likely to promote new acts and risky musical styles?
3. What are the ethical implications of downloading and sharing music? If you have ever downloaded music illegally, did you feel guilty doing it? Why or why not?
4. What will be the future of the retail record store in the digital era? If you can download music directly to your computer or mobile device, why go to a store? Do people go to music stores for purposes other than simply buying an album?

Questions

1. What was the first disk player designed to look like?
2. What made the Beatles famous? How did they twice fundamentally change music?
3. What effects did the iPod have on the music industry?
4. What genre of music accounts for the most record sales?
5. What percent of American homes have a means of playing a record, tape, or CD?
6. What age and gender demographic buys the most music?
7. What is a jukebox? What are the top five songs ever played on jukeboxes?
8. Is the recording industry centralized or decentralized? Explain what you mean.
9. Find a famous recording studio. Tell me about it.
10. What made them famous?
11. What bands did they record?
12. What genre of music did they specialize in?
13. How did they create popularity?

Chapter 10: Motion Pictures

Purpose

• explain how the motion picture industry developed
• describe how the studios dominated the industry
• discuss how television affected the film industry and its audience
• understand the implications that digital moviemaking holds for the industry
• explain how the digital age is affecting film
• describe the components of the movie industry and how a motion picture is produced

Main Points

• The motion picture developed in the late 19th century. After being a main attraction in nickelodeons, films moved into bigger theaters, and movie stars quickly became the most important part of the new industry. Sound came to the movies in the mid-1920s.
• Big movie studios dominated the industry until the late 1940s, when a court decision weakened their power. Television captured much of the film audience in the 1950s. By the end of the 1960s, however, Hollywood had adapted to television and was an active producer of TV shows. A major trend in modern movies is the rise of big-budget movies.
• The transition to digital moviemaking may transform the film industry.
• The movie industry consists of production, distribution, and exhibition facets. Large conglomerates control the business. Producing a motion picture starts from a concept, proceeds to the production stage, and ends with the postproduction stage.
• Movie revenues have shown small but steady growth over the past 10 years. DVD sales and rentals and foreign box office receipts are important sources of movie income.
• Movie audiences are getting older, but a significant part of the audience is still the 30-and-under age group.
• Streaming is becoming a popular way to view movies at home.

Essay

1. Suppose the movie industry had never moved to Hollywood, staying instead on the East Coast. How might films be different?
2. What are the potential advantages and disadvantages of big corporations controlling motion picture production?
3. Do filmmakers have an obligation to be socially responsible for what they present on the screen? Why or why not?
4. Will movie theaters still exist in 20 years? Or will people watch movies in their homes on big HDTVs?
5. Someone once said that Hollywood producers don't make films; they make deals. Comment on the validity of this statement and its implications.

Questions

1. What was the first practical motion camera and viewer?
2. How did the MPPC control film exhibitors?
3. What was the star system?
4. Sound in film could have happened 10 years sooner. Why did it not?
5. What’s a double feature?
6. What were the studio years?
7. What are the defining features of the motion picture?
8. Which department in the film industry handles advertising and promotion?
9. What is treatment in the film industry?
10. What is a joint venture in the film industry?
1. What is the major source of revenue for the film industry?

Chapter 11: TV

Purpose

• trace the development of television
• describe the evolution of the networks
• explain the impact of the Telecommunications Act of 1996
• detail the implications of the digital age for broadcast television
• explain how television ratings are formulated
• describe the departments of the television industry and how programs are produced

Main Points

• Electronic television developed during the 1930s. After World War II it quickly grew in popularity and replaced radio as the main information and entertainment medium.
• Three networks—NBC, CBS, and ABC—dominated early TV. Live drama, variety, and quiz and game shows were popular during the 1950s.
• Television matured in the 1960s, and its content became more professional. The public television network began in 1967. Cable TV grew slowly during this decade.
• The 1970s saw TV programs criticized for excessive violence.
• In the 1980s and 1990s, the three traditional TV networks lost viewers to cable and to VCRs. The Fox network became a major competitor.
• The Telecommunications Act of 1996 had a big impact on TV station ownership and also introduced program content ratings. Rules for digital TV were announced in 1997.
• TV broadcasting has switched from analog to digital broadcasting. TV stations may use the digital signal to broadcast high-definition television or lower-definition programs among which viewers may choose. HDTV sets are in more than half of U.S. homes.
• TV is universal, dominant, and expensive. Its audience is currently fragmenting into smaller segments.
• The broadcast TV industry consists of program suppliers, distributors, and local stations.
• Big conglomerates own the TV networks, and large group owners control the stations in large markets
• Public broadcasting relies less on tax revenues and more on private sources of funding.
• The Nielsen Company compiles both network and local station television ratings.

Essay

1. What should be the goal of public television? Should the government support public TV?
2. Large companies control the broadcast television industry. What are some of the good points and bad points of large corporate ownership?
3. The major broadcast networks have been losing viewers for the past two decades or so. Will they still be around 10–15 years from now? Why or why not?
4. What will be the impact of social media on broadcast television?
5. Review "Critical/Cultural Issues: The Bachelor, ". Next, consider the following. The Bachelor has a female counterpart in The Bachelorette. Ratings for The Bachelorette have not been as good. Can you think of any reasons why? Are there other reality programs that utilize a fairy tale theme?

Questions

1. How many TV stations and how many TV sets did America have by 1945? And in 1955?
2. Early TV was modeled after what other mass media?
3. Which decade saw concern for the TV programming and its effects?
4. What was the Telecommunications Act of 1996?
5. What is PBS?
6. What is syndicated programming?
7. What is Nielsen?
8. What are five major events that were broadcast on TV? Name and describe each.
9. What are five major milestones in the history of the TV industry itself? Name and describe each.