REVIEW QUESTIONS
Chapter 1 --- Chapter 2 --- Chapter 3 --- Chapter 4 --- Chapter 5 --- Chapter 6 --- Chapter 7 --- Chapter 8 --- Chapter 9 ---- Chapter 10 ---- Chapter 11 ---- Chapter 12
Chapter 1:
- What characterizes the first century of mass communication?
- How have the new media altered the options for entertainment and information content?
- Why are the new forms of media technology associated with increased social instability?
- Media theory are never completely innovative and are always the products of the particular era in which they are constructed. If this is true, how much faith should we place in the validity of these theories?
- What is the ultimate goal of scholars who develop theories?
- What do you understand by the 'empirical method'?
- How do the various eras in the history of media theory differ from one another?
- What was the underlying context of the mass society theories?
- How did the emergence of the 'scientific method' challenge the dominant mass society theories?
- How did researchers arrive at the 'limited effects paradigm'?
- How have the recent studies challenged the 'limited effects paradigm'
Chapter 2:
- What difficulties exist in applying social science to the demonstration of causality?
- What does the text mean when it says that social science is "schizophrenic"? Is this necessarily bad?
- What are the four kinds of mass communication theory?
Chapter 3:
- What was the purpose of the Payne Fund studies and what did they find?
- What was the complaint that traditional elite have against popular culture?
- What is the theory that pertains to the displacement of old media by the new?
- How did the three forces that typically shape mass communication theory converge in the 1920s to produce mass society theory?
- Why did some mass society theorists think that the ultimate result of the trend towards mass society would be totalitarianism?
- Explain why new media industries are often less socially responsible as they begin to compete against established media for a place in the communications marketplace?
Chapter 4:
- What is behaviorism?
- What is Freudianism?
- How did Freudianism and behaviorism combine to support propaganda theory?
- What is propaganda and where did it originate? What are the different shades of propaganda?
- Because media were so powerful, what did should be done according to Lasswell?
- What strategies did Lippman propose and what was his key assumption?
- John Dewey took a different approach to dealing with the power of media? What was his approach?
- Explain the different views that Dewey and Lippman took concerning average persons and their ability to resist the influence of propaganda?
- Which assumptions or assertions of the early propaganda theorists proved wrong? And which proved right?
Chapter 5:
- What is social responsibility theory? Is it consistent with Libertarian notions? Why or why not?
- What is the self-righting principle? Do you think it works in modern times? Why or why not?
- What are the most important limitations of professionalization as an alternative to government regulation?
- What are the three types of theory: scientific, normative and critical? What are the key differences between these three types?
- What is the difference between the authoritarian and communist theories?
- What does the Chicago School say about the role of media in Great Communities?
- What were the key recommendations of the Hutchins Commission?
- What are the key tenets of the development communication theory and democratic participant theory?
Chapter 6:
- How did research on the "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast signal the beginning of a paradigm shift in mass communication theory?
- Explain the fundamental differences between mass society theories and limited effects perspective?
- What was the role of media in the 1940 election campaign, according to Lazarsfeld?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of empirical method in conducting media research?
Chapter 7:
- How did World War II provide the impetus for Hovland's research on attitude change?
- How does Hovland's research differ from Lazarsfeld's research?
- What are the major tenets of the individual differences theories?
- What are the key elements in the Lasswell model of communication?
- What were the objectives of the 'Why we fight' films?
- What were the key findings of the Yale Communication Research Group?
- What is the cognitive dissonance theory?
- What are the three selective processes that eventually affect our attitudes?
- What are the limitations of Hovland's experimental research?
Chapter 8:
- What is functional analysis? Why is it said that fuunctional analysis is value neutral?
- What are the key functions of mass media?
- What is unique about the theory of Diffusion of Innovations? What are the key varibles that affect the process of diffusion?
- In the context of other social institutions such as the family and school, what is the role of media, according to Joseph Klapper?
- How did the limited effects theorists attempt to reconcile their findings with the classical democratic theory?
- What are the key differences between 'Elite Pluralism' proposed by Key and "Power Elite' proposed by Mills?
- What are some of the major criticisms of the limited effects paradigm?
Chapter 9:
- What were the major findings of Payne Fund Studies? How were these findings different from those of limited effects theorists?
- How is the concept of 'Catharsis' used to explain the benefits of media violence?
- What is the difference between 'imitation' and 'identification'?
- Explain Albert Bandura's theory of 'social learning'.
- What are the disinhibitory effects of media violence?
- What is the desensitization theory?
- How according to George Gerbner is a significant effect of media violence?
Chapter 10:
- What do you understand by the fraction of selection proposed by Wilbur Schramm?
- What is unique about the uses and gratifications approach to the study of media effects? Why did this line of inquiry find it hard to gain legitimacy?
- What do you understand by agenda setting as a critical effect of media?
- What is the spiral of silence theory proposed by Neumann?
- How does Media dependency theory explain media effects and the role of an active audience?
Chapter 12:
- What is unique about cultural theories? How do they differ from other media theories especially limited effects theories?
- Give an example of how social construction of reality can be applied to the study of media and politics?
- What are the basic precepts of symbolic interaction? How does 'society' influence the development of 'self'?
- What are the main precepts of social construction of reality theory?
- What are the differences between cultural analysis and critical cultural theories?
- What is the difference between transmissional perspective and ritual perspective?
- What are typifications?
- What is the significance of framing in our social behavior?
- What according to cultivation analysis is the major effect of media?
Chapter 13:
- According to critical theorists, what should be the role of media professionals - impartial and objective or commited and concerned?
- What are the similarities between normative theories and critical theories?
- It is said that Karl Marx's theories form the foundation of some of the critical theories. Why?
- What is the difference between Marxist and neomarxist theories?
- What are the major tenets of British cultural studies?
- What are the major precepts of the political economy theory?
- What are some of the key ideas proposed by Innis?
- What are some of the key ideas of Marshall McLuhan?
- What is the difference between hot and cool media?
- Why is it said the McLuhan's ideas justified illiteracy?
- Why is McLuhan called a technological determinist?
- What are the potential harms of imported media products to other cultures?
- Why is it said that advertising is the ultimate cultural commodity?