Mid-term 1 for Intro to Media Studies covers all the assigned readings and all the lectures from August 25th to September 15th. The test includes approximately 30 multiple choice, true or false, and fill-in questions and one brief (1 page written) essay. You have the entire class period to take the test.
In preparing for mid-term 1, you should read (or listen to) and understand the following:
J. Charles Sterin, “Early American Newspaper Publishing,” from
Mass Media Revolution, pp. 96-101.
Richard Campbell, Christopher R. Martin, and Bettina Fabos, “Magazines in the Age of Specialization,”
Media & Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, 7th edition, pp. 280-303.
Tom Standage,
A special report on the news industry: Bulletins from the future (especially The people formerly known as the audience; and The Foxification of news),
The Economist, July 7, 2011.
Fresh Air with Terry Gross,
Late Night "Thank You Notes" From Jimmy Fallon,
NPR, May 23, 2011 (45 minutes).
Fresh Air with Terry Gross,
Covering "Tainted Justice" And Winning A Pulitzer,
NPR, May 3, 2010 (38 minutes).
You should also review the
syllabus and your class notes and be familiar with the following:
* 10 elements of new media
* early stages of US newspapers
* the relationships among the Industrial Revolution, urbanization, literacy, and newspapers
* the relationships between news and technologies
* why newsrooms matter
* journalism and justice ("tainted justice")
* magazines as mass media
* muckrakers
* jacob riis
* magazines and gender
* magazines and specialization
* magazines and visual culture
* magazines and consumer society
* the relationships between transportation and media
Also, review notes from class discussions of
Adbusters and Rebecca Solnit’s
Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas.
Friendly suggestion: consider studying and discussing this material with a classmate or small group.
