EXAM 2: STUDY GUIDE/CHECKLIST

➢ This study guide will be helpful if you also read handouts, chapters and uploaded articles.
After familiarizing yourself with the notions in the study guide, I recommend that you to
read the chapters (focus on the Key Terms), handouts and then, read the uploaded articles.
This guide will be useful as a checklist so that you make sure you do not miss some
important aspects of the in-class lectures and chapters.

➢ As a reminder, there will be questions from the book chapters. I don’t ask statistical details
or graphs. Your book complements our in-class lectures and that is why you should read
it.

➢ You are responsible for:

1) in-class lectures after the first exam

2) 3 uploaded articles on Sakai under Resources, in Articles for Exam 2 folder. As I

announced earlier in the semester, I reduced it to 3 articles. There will be 1
question for each article.

3) Chapters: 1; 8; 11; 12; 14; 15

4) Videos: Page One: New York Times & The Persuaders [very broad 2-3 questions
on the main points of the videos]

5) Guest Lecture: Mary D’Ambrosio

Some Possible FAQs:

FAQ 1: Why are we responsible for Chapter 1?

Answer: We covered basic things in Chapter 1 as we moved on to other chapters.

So, Chapter 1 was immersed in other chapters we talked about. So, you are
responsible for that. You can only focus on the parts I noted below.

FAQ 2: Why are we responsible for the entire Chapter 12?

Answer: Wait, who said that? You don’t have to read the entire Chapter 12. Just
focus on the key terms section I provided below under Chapter 12 title and know
what those concepts are. That’ll do. [Chapter 12 is an extension on what we
discussed for Chapter 11 and Advertising]

FAQ 3: So, are we responsible for the whole Chapter 8, 11, 14, 15?
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 Answer: Yes. Technically, you are only responsible for half of the Chapter 14. You
can read the parts I noted down below. As for the Chapter 8, if a topic/concept is
not on the handout on that lecture, it is not going to be on the exam.

FAQ 4: What is with the page numbers in the beginning of the PowerPoint slides
for the Chapter 8?

Answer: I explained that in the class. First, you are responsible for the whole
Chapter 8 which is on Newspapers. Second, it is helpful to know basic issues on
Print before moving on to the newspapers. That is why I added only p. 346 and p.
347 from Chapter 10, and we discussed basic issues on Print in the class. Third, we
cannot really separate our discussions on newspapers from the Magazines. That is
why I added p. 311, p. 312, p. 313, p. 314, p. 315, p. 316, p. 335, p. 336 to our in-
class discussions. I didn’t want to be hard on you by assigning too many chapters.
So, I reviewed the broad issues in the class and assigned you less reading. I hope
this is helpful. You can go to those pages if you want to read more on the topics we
discussed in the class.

FAQ 5: Oh god, we have too many things to read!

Answer: That is not a question, but I am going to give a response anyway. For this
exam, I really worked hard to significantly narrow down the amount of reading
you have to do. Below study guide/checklist will help you to focus on only
specific parts of the chapters.

Chapter 1

• Gatekeepers, p.9: This fits into the linear model of mass communication. Senders
(authors, producers, and organizations) transmit messages (programs, texts, images,
sounds, and ads) through a mass media channel (newspapers, books, magazines, radio,
television, or the Internet) to large groups of receivers (readers, viewers, and consumers).
In the process, gatekeepers (news editors, executive producers, and other media
managers) function as message filters. Media gatekeepers make decisions about what
messages actually get produced for particular receivers. The process allows allows for
feedback from citizens and consumers.

• Convergence, p.11: Media innovations go through four stages typically. Emergence

(inventors are trying to solve a particular problem), entrepreneurial stage (determine a
practical and marketable use for the device), mass medium (how to market new thing as a
consumer product), and convergence stage (the stage in which older media are
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 reconfigured in various forms on newer media). Ex. You can get the NY Times as an app
now. It’s a term that media critics and analysts use when describing all the changes that
have occurred over the past decade and are still occurring. The term actually has two
meanings—one referring to technology and one to business (multiple platform thing)—
and describes changes that have a great impact on how media companies are charting a
course for the future.

• Progressive Era, p. 27: where Walter Lippmann’s ideas came from. A period of political
and social reform that lasted roughly from the 1890s to the 1920s. Progressive Era
reformers championed social movements that led to constitutional amendments for both
Prohibition and women’s suffrage, political reforms that led to the secret ballot during
elections, and economic reforms that ushered in the federal income tax to try to foster a
more equitable society.

• Modern Period, p.26: beginning with the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century
and extending until about the mid twentieth century. What it means to be modern-
efficiency, individualism, rationalism, and progress. This meant throwing off the chains of
the past, breaking with tradition, and embracing progress. Focused on the now and the
reporting of timely events.

• Postmodern Period, p.27: mid twentieth century to today. The new culture represents a
way of seeing/a new condition. Four major features: populism, diversity, nostalgia, and
paradox.

• Media Literacy, p. 30: attaining an understanding of mass media and how they construct
meaning- requires following a critical process

• Critical Process, p. 30: takes us through the steps of description, analysis, interpretation,
evaluation, and engagement

• Benefits of a critical perspective, p. 30,32, 33: allows us to participate in a debate about

media culture as a force for both democracy and consumerism, evaluation, and
engagement

• Developing a media-literate critical perspective [5 stages in the box] [p. 32-33]:

Description, analysis, interpretation,

• Muckrakers: journalists who exposed corruption, waste, and scandal in business and
politics- represented media’s significant contribution to this era, crusading for social
reform for public good; which means that the content also had to be changed

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Chapter 8 [along with the Print, Newspapers, Magazines PowerPoint Handout]

[Reminder: you can use the PowerPoint Slides I provided as a study guide. For example, when
you are reading a topic in Chapter 8 in the book, if it is not covered in the class, it is not going to
be in the exam. So, we covered the specifics in the class.]

• Printing Press- developed in the fifteenth century. It helped to develop the novelty and
entrepreneurial stages of print media

• Partisan press: has to do with analysis and opinion

• Telegraph [who invented? Why does it matter?]: Wire services began as commercial
organizations that relayed news stories and information around the country and the world
using telegraph lines and later, radio waves. Samuel Morse invented it.

• Print: Social and Political Effects [refer to PowerPoint]: accessible publications -> new,
text-based communities, movements standardization of language -> new sense of national,
belonging, new patron: the printer as capitalist, printing as prototype for industrial mass
production for profit

• Horace Greeley: founder and editor of the new york tribune

• John Peter Zenger: Another important colonial paper, the New-York Weekly Journal,
appeared in 1733. John Peter Zenger had been installed as the printer of the Journal by the
Popular Party, a political group that opposed British rule and ran articles that criticized the
royal governor of New York. After a Popular Party judge was dismissed from office, the
Journal escalated its attack on the governor. When Zenger shielded the writers of the
critical articles, he was arrested

• Seditious Libel: defaming a public official’s character in print

• Penny Press Era Newspapers & founders [4 items]: Benjamin Day founded the New
York Sun with no subscriptions and the price was one penny (“It shines for all”, it
highlighted local events, scandals, police reports, and serialized stories). Also brought
human interest stories: ordinary individuals facing extraordinary challenges. Bennett and
the New York Morning Herald. He freed his newspaper from political influence. It
served middle and working class readers.

• Why is newspapers mass medium? [refer to PowerPoint]

• Yellow Journalism: journalism thats based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration.
started in 18th century using large headlines- diverting people from the actual thing to
facilitate interest in whatever is written

• Models of Journalism [p.278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284] [Objectivity in Modern
Journalism, Interpretive Journalism, Literary Forms of Journalism, Contemporary
Journalism] [just know the idea behind those 4, no need to be more detailed]: Objectivity
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 in Modern Journalism: facts and news Bec are marketable products because the
consumer marketplace was growing. So the more a newspaper appeared not to take sides
on its front pages, the more its readership base grew. Interpretative Journalism: the
impartial approach was starting to become insufficient. This new method aimed to explain
key issues or events and place them in a broader historical or social context. Literary
Forms of Journalism: “new journalism” that adapted fictional techniques such as
descriptive details and settings and extensive character dialogue to nonfiction material and
in-depth reporting. Contemporary Journalism: webpages, emphasis on visual style over
substantial news or analysis

• Muckrakers [favor for you: I will definitely ask this in the exam.]

• Thomas Paine: activist who helped rally the colonies against British rule. EXAM
QUESTION: Thomas Paine’s magazine “Common Sense” had a plain language and was
able to speak with the common person of the us and it promoted revolutionary struggles
challenging the british rule

• Zines [This is not in Chapter 8, but it is important to know about this usage. It is on p. 335
in your book: think about why ‘zines’ matter, then you will have another guaranteed
question!]: term used to describe self-published magazines- they don’t reinvent the status
quo. They’re motivated by self-expression and not profit.

Chapter 11 [along with the Advertising PowerPoint Handout]

• Product placement, p. 377: the purchase of spaces for particular goods to appear in a TV
show, movie, or music video

• Space brokers, p. 379: the first American advertising agencies were newspaper space
brokers, individuals who purchased space in newspapers and sold it to various merchants.
They paid up front so they were welcomed by newspapers.

• Subliminal advertising, p. 383: coined in the 1950s and refers to hidden of disguised print
and visual messages that allegedly register in the subconscious and fool people into
buying products (research suggested they're no more effective than regular ads but they
were banned in 1958)

• Slogan, p. 383: the shape ant pitch of most U.S. ads were determined by a slogan until the
1960s. Its a phrase that attempts to sell a product by capturing its essence in words. The
visual dimension of ads was merely a compliment.

• Mega-agencies [only know the general idea] [p. 384]: large ad firms that formed by
merging several agencies and that maintain regional offices worldwide

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 • Boutique-agencies [only know the general idea] [p. 384]: small agencies that devote their
talents to only a handful of select clients

• The Structure of Ad agencies [in your book p. 386: market research, demographics,
psychographics, focus groups, VALS]: four departments: account planning, creative
development, media coordination, and account management. Market research: assess the
behaviors and attitudes of consumers toward particular products long before any ads are
created. Demographics: studied and documented audience members’ age, gender,
occupation, ethnicity, education, and income. Now, people are broken down into zip code.
Psychographics: a research approach that attempts to categorize consumers according to
their attitudes, beliefs, interests, and motivations. Focus Groups: this is what
psychographics relies on. It’s a small group interview technique in which a moderator
leads a discussion about a product or an issue, usually with six to twelve people. Values
and Lifestyles (VALS): using questionnaires, VALS researchers measured psychological
factors and divided consumers into types. This type of research assumes that not every
product suits every consumer and encourages advertisers to vary their sales slants to find
market niches.

• Saturation advertising, p. 389: where a variety of media are inundated with ads aimed at
target audiences. It’s excessive repetition of a campaign.

• Conventional Persuasive Strategies [p. 393 in your book, there are 6 of them. Just know
the main idea of those 6 strategies]: the main purpose of advertising is to inform
consumers about available products in a straightforward way. But many agencies leave out
a lot of important information and just use persuasive techniques (using famous people to
endorse it, associate a product with simplicity, persuade consumers that using a product
will maintain or elevate their social status, points out a claim that everyone is using the
product, plays on consumer’s sense of insecurity, or creating product-name recognition by
being annoying or obnoxious. Btw those in order are: famous-person testimonial, plain-
fold pitch, snob-appeal approach, bandwagon approach, hidden-fear appeal, and irritation
advertising.

• Association/Disassociation [just know the idea behind those two strategies] [p. 394, p.
396]: Association principle: a widely used persuasive technique that associates a product
with a positive cultural value or image even if it has little connection to the product. Like
coke with America lol. Disassociation: separating self from negative stigma
like..Americans don't like big corporations so they might make a dummy corporation to
seem smaller and more personal

• Commercial Speech, p. 399: any print or broadcast expressions or which a fee is charged
to organizations and individuals buying time or space in the mass media. It’s about the
right to circulate goods, services, and images in the concrete marketplace of products

Chapter 12
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[Reminder: the idea behind this chapter is embedded in the discussion of the Chapter 11- The
Advertising Chapter. That is why we don’t cover it in the class. As promised, you are only
required to know the below keywords from this chapter. You don’t need to read this entire chapter.
There will be questions related to the below keywords:]

• Public relations, p. 415: refers to the Toal communication strategy conducted by a person,
a government, or an organization attempting to reach and persuade an audience to adopt a
point of view

• Press agents, p. 416: those who sought to advance a client’s image through media
exposure, primarily via stunts staged for newspapers

• Publicity, p. 418: a type of PR communication that uses various media messages to spread
information about a person a corporation, an issue, or a policy

• Press Releases, p. 424: also called news releases, they’re announcements written in the
style of news reports that give new information about an individual, a company, or an
organization and pitch a story idea to the news media.

• Psudo-event, p. 427: any circumstance created for the sole purpose of gaining coverage in
the media

• Lobbying, p. 429: the process of attempting to influence lawmakers to support and vote
for an organization’s or industry’s best interests.

• Astroturf lobbying, p. 430: is phony grassroots public affrays campaigns engineered by

public relations firms. Astroturf refers to apparently grassroots-based citizen groups or
coalitions that are primarily conceived, created and/or funded by corporations, industry
trade associations, political interests or public relations firms.

Chapter 14 [along with the Ethics and The Media PowerPoint Handout]

[This chapter is about News and Ethics. We covered the “news” part in the first exam. You are
only responsible for the parts in the chapter that elaborates on our class discussions on Media
Ethics. So, you do not need to read the entire Chapter. After studying the in-class lecture, just
focus on the parts in the book that are related with our in-class talks on Media Ethics. I am
providing the checklist below:]

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• Newsworthiness, p. 480 [read the Characteristics of the News sub-section in this chapter]:
information most worthy of transformation into news stories. Journalists are taught to
select and develop news stories relying on one of more of these criteria: timeliness,
proximity, conflict, prominence, human interest consequence, usefullness, novelty, and
deviance.

• Ethnocentrism, p. 482: the belief in the inherent superiority of one's own ethnic group or
culture. OR a tendency to view alien groups or cultures from the perspective of one's own.

• Responsible capitalism, p. 482: journalists sometimes naively assume that business people
compete with one another not primarily to maximize profits but “to create increased
prosperity for all”

• Small-town pastoralism, p. 483: favoring the small over the large and the rural over the
urban. Many journalists equate small town life with innocence and harbor suspicions of
cities, their governments, and urban experiences. Consequently, stories about rustic
communities with crime or drug problems have often been framed as if the purity of
country life had been contaminated by “mean” bug-city values

• Individualism, p. 483: remains the most prominent value underpinning daily journalism
Many idealist reports are attracted tho this profession because it rewards the rugged
tenacity needed to confront and expose corruption. Individuals who overcome personal
adversity are often the subjects of many enterprising news stories. Many journalists also
like working alone.

• Ethics and the New Media Section, p. 485-486-488-489

▪ Aristotle: the “golden mean”- a guideline for seeking balance between

competing positions. This is a middle ground between extreme positions.
So ambition is the balance between sloth and greed. He would say Robin
Hood is a villain.

▪ Kant: “categorial imperative”- this idea maintains that a society must

adhere to moral codes that are universal and unconditional. Applicable in
all situations at all times. So the first amendment could be considered an
unconditional national law. Absolutist rules. example: you’re in an exam
because you’re not cheating because you’re worried about getting caught.
So according to him, you’re being unethical. You need to not cheat because
it goes against your moral guidelines not because you’re just afraid of
getting caught.

▪ Bentham: promotes an ethical principle derives from :the greatest good for
the greatest number” directing us “to distribute a good consequence to
more people rather than to fewer, whenever we have a choice”. focuses on
quantity/measuring pleasures

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 ▪ Mill: helped Bentham. focuses on quality- it’s about happiness rather
than pleasure

• Reporting Rituals and the Legacy of Print Journalism, p. 490-491-492-493-494: practice

of reporting- which includes focusing on the present, relying on experts, balancing story
conflict, and acting as adversaries towards leader and institutions

• Herd journalism, p. 492: occurs when reporters stake out a house; chase celebrities in
packs; or follow a story in such herds that the entire profession comes under attack for
invading people’s privacy, exploiting their personal problems, or just plain getting the
story wrong. (this is like paparazzi)

• Happy talk, p. 497: the ad-libbed or scripted banter that foes on among local news
anchors, reporters, meteorologists, and sports reporters before and after news reports. It
creates more ofd a relaxed feeling on the news set and fosters the illusion of
conversational intimacy with viewers. Some believed it would counter the “bad news”

• Sound bite, p. 497: it’s the TV equivalent of a quote in print news. A sound bite is the part
of a broadcast news report in which an expert, a celebrity, a victim, or a person-in-the-
street responses to some aspects of an event or issue. With increasing demands for more
commercial time, there is less time for interview subjects t explain their views. As a result,
count bites have becomes the focus of intense criticism.

Specifically from the slides:

• Socrates: founder of ethical philosophy, question/answer discussion, faith in human ability

to formulate guidelines

• Plato: “the good” was independent of culture or opinion, uphold the goof despite public
opinion, do something for “the greater good” despite punishment or ridicule

• Aristotle: practical, the ends don’t justify the means, golden mean (correct behavior can be
found between the extremes), focusing on building character because you have to build
some kind of character in order to continue this practice

• Utilitarianism: principle of utility (so the principle of benefit). Bentham thinks that any
decision should benefit all. Mill thinks you are morally obligated to do what is best for the
most people. They both believe that the ends matter more than the means.

• Bentham: any decision should benefit all, he focus on quantity/measuring pleasures.

• Mill: you are morally obligated to do what it best for the most people. He focuses on
quality so it’s about happiness rather than pleasure.

• Absolutist Ethics: moral society has laws and codes, including honesty that everyone must
live by, we should tell the truth all the time, the ends never justify the means

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 • Situational Ethics: also relativism, promotes ethical decisions on case by case basis, is a
great public good could be served then you can of deception as practice, this way can be
more popular

• Edward Snowden- the computer professional guy who worked for the CIA and leaked the
secret information

Chapter 15 [along with the Media Theory PowerPoint Handout]

Please read the chapter again using the PowerPoint slides [Media Theory Lecture] as a framework
for your reading. You already took a quiz about this Chapter; you are already familiar with the
methods and theories discussed in the book. The idea behind the questions in the exam will be
similar to the questions in the quiz. You can use the PowerPoint Slides as a guide to quickly go
over what you already studied for the second quiz.

Page One: Inside the New York Times & The Persuaders Documentaries

You don’t have to do anything about these videos. The questions will be broad; and as you wrote
reviews about those, you’ll be fine.

Guest Lecture: Mary D’Ambrosio

You are responsible for the in-class discussion (Wednesday, March 29). You will be able to
download full PowerPoint slides after that lecture. Please take notes in the class and focus on the
general argument of the class and the examples she will provide. There will be questions about
her discussions in the exam.

In-class Lecture on April 3

I will make an announcement about this lecture in the class on Monday, April 3. No worries, there
will not be any additional PowerPoint slides or any kind of readings.

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