Understanding Media, Culture, and Technology
From
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
From
Table of Contents
Preface
Teaching a Course with Media Now
Teaching an Introductory Communications Course Online
Sample Syllabi
Suggested Assignments
Chapter 1: The Changing Media
Chapter Outline
Active Learning Activities
Video Resources
Suggested Websites
Test Questions
CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers
Chapter 2: Media and Society
Chapter Outline
Active Learning Activities
Video Resources
Suggested Websites
Test Questions
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
Chapter Outline
Active Learning Activities
Video Resources...... 98
Suggested Websites...... 99
Test Questions
CourseMate Tutorial Quiz Questions & Answers
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
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
From
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 true/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: