COMM 150 -- fall 2010 -- final exam

Communications 150: Intro to Mass Comm.
Benedictine University at Springfield
Instructor: Pete Ellertsen eellertsen@ben.edu

Final Exam, Fall Semester 2010

Below are one 50-point essay question and two 25-point short essay questions. Please write at least four pages (1,000 words) on the 50-point essay and two pages (500 words) on each of the 25-point essays. Due at the regularly scheduled time for our exam, 10:30 a.m., Friday, Dec. 17.

• Question 1 (50-points). An NYU professor named Neil Postman said "Americans are the best entertained and quite likely the least well-informed people in the Western world" because the mass media blur the line between information and entertainment. He also suggested the media are complicit in a politics of "image" in which "charm, good looks, celebrity and personal disclosure" outweigh public policy issues. How can the media balance their need to entertain viewers -- and thus make the profits they need to stay in business -- and the role suggested in their codes of ethics as "watchdogs"/"zookeepers" who give citizens the facts they need to function in a democracy?

• Question 2A (25 points). Self-reflective essay: What do you consider the most important thing you have you learned in COMM 150 that you didn’t know before? Why do you say it is the most important? Be specific in your discussion of how it might fit into your career decisions, or your plans for further study (whether you plan to major in communication arts, another field or are undecided). Consider it in the context of what you knew at the beginning of the course and what you know now. In grading this essay, I will evaluate the relevance of your discussion to the main goals and objectives of the course; the specific detail you cite to support or illustrate your points; and the specific connections you make.

• Question 2B (25 points). In "Media of Mass Communication," John Vivian says since the 1980s, "sophisticated low-cost recording and mixing equipment gave garage bands a means to control their art" because they were less dependent on studios (120-21). "The result," Vivian says, "was liberation for creativity." Since Johannes Gutenberg's printing press, new technologies have given writers and artists new ways to get around the "gatekeepers" and get information to the public. How has the effect of the internet been similar to that of the printing press? How has the 'net given content creators more direct ways of reaching their audiences? Cite specific examples.