COMM 150 -- UPDATED - D R A F T final exam -- fall 2010

This is a draft so you can get started over the weekend. I've done a copy-and-paste job from an old final (COMM 317 in Spring 2008) on the the parts that don't change from year to year, i.e. the heading and the self-reflective essay, and I'll update it and polish it before I hand out the final draft (the final final?) in class next week. But the substance of the questions will be what we've got here.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact me at my home email address: peterellertsen-at-yahoo-dot-com [I'm writing the address that way to reduce spam; as you know, you'll have to "connect the dots" to get the email message to me.] Questions not yet in final form, but I've worked on them [as of Saturday night] to focus them better. Keep watching this space. - pe

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). The same self-reflective essay you get on all my finals. Here’s one from when I taught COMM 317 in 2008: 2a. Self-reflective essay (25 points). What do you consider the most important thing you have you learned in COMM 317 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 plans, or your plans for further study. 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 the invention of the printing press, new technologies have given the creators of content new ways to get around the "gatekeepers" and get information to the public. How has the internet given them new ways of reaching audiences? Cite specific examples.