978-1506344461 Solution Manual Part 5

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Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

1. describe how major developments in audio technology changed how people experience music;

2. explain how rock ’n’ roll developed out of two different music traditions;

4. describe how different recording formats have given rise to concerns about the purchasing of

music; and

5. discuss how long–tail audio technology is changing the radio and recording industry for everyone

1. How has the podcast Serial changed both podcasting and traditional radio broadcasting?

2. Is radio still a distinct, separate medium, or is it just part of a larger world of audio

programming? Why or why not?

3. What is the role of a producer in music like rock, R&B, and hip–hop? Why do producers seem to

have such a big influence on the music industry?

4. Can musicians still make a living in the music industry today? Why or why not? How has this

changed over the last twenty years?

5. How are musicians using long–tail tools to create new ways of sharing their music while still

making money?

Media Literacy Exercises

Media Literacy Exercise―National Public Radio

Listen to one–half hour of news on National Public Radio (either Morning Edition or All Things

Considered). After the initial five–minute news update, time how long each story lasts. What was the

major topic of each story? How did these stories differ in terms of content and length from what you

would hear (and see) on television news? You can listen to these programs on your radio, or you can

All Things Considered

• http://www.npr.org/programs/all–things–considered/

Morning Edition

• http://www.npr.org/programs/morning–edition/

NOTES: The biggest challenge for this assignment is that students may not have taken a serious look at a

full half–hour evening newscast. You might consider asking students to do both for the assignment. In

addition to making a good out–of–class writing assignment, this could also serve as a good springboard

for class discussion.

As always, feel free to use whatever grading scheme works best for you. I use a criterion–based

system, where I assume that most students will complete the assignment in a competent manner and

should earn a grade of B. A graduate student grades my papers using the following standard:

• For a grade of B, students should provide a log of the news stories from NPR. They should have

comments that the stories are long. Students might also say that the stories are about issues

they are not familiar with. Finally, they may note that NPR does not have commercials.

• For a grade of A, students should note the longer nature of stories, the greater depth in

reporting, and a look at longer term, less “spot-news” oriented stories.

• For a grade of C, students may note that the stories lack the pictures that go with television as

their key difference.

Media Literacy Exercise―Radio Formats

For one–half hour, listen to a radio station that you don’t normally listen to. What station did

you listen to? What sort of format does the station have? Who is the station trying to appeal to? How

does it differ from the station you usually listen to? Would you listen to the station again? Why or why

not? (You may find it helpful to visit the station’s website, if it has one.)

NOTES: Students will have fun with this assignment, though they may have difficulty finding ownership

information. The reference desk at your school’s library can probably provide help with this information,

as can the FCC website. Also encourage students to go to the SALES portion of the station’s website,

which will often have target audience information for potential advertisers.

The main criterion to separate an A from a B paper is completeness on the ownership question.

A good discussion of who owns the station, whether it is local or national ownership, and where the

station’s programming comes from is the best evidence of an A paper.

Media Literacy Exercise―Music Videos

View a current music video. In a brief (300–500 words) paper, name the video and the artist and

briefly describe what kind of music it contains. Then analyze what the lyrics of the song say and compare

them with the message of the video itself.

NOTES: One of the startling things about music videos is the fact that the visuals and the lyrics are often

completely unrelated to each other, something that doesn’t seem to bother college students. It’s also

interesting to see how students try to see connections that may or may not exist.

• Students should get a B on the essay if they give a fairly literal interpretation of the visuals and

the lyrics.

• Students should get an A on the essay if they explain the metaphors and themes that show up in

the video and lyrics that go beyond a literal interpretation.

• Essays that are short or incomplete in describing the video or lyrics should get a C or lower.

Media Literacy Exercise―File Sharing

Read the material in your text on file sharing. The recording industry (and to a lesser degree the

television and movie industries) claims that file sharing is killing the CD/music business. New artists may

depend on file sharing as a way of promoting themselves outside of the traditional music business. How

do you see people using file sharing? Is it anything more than a license to steal? Should copyright laws

be respected? Does it matter if the artist is rich or poor? Is there any precedence in history to support

your position? How can the industry change to adapt to file sharing? Support your argument with

specific examples from your readings.

NOTES: Students uniformly engage in file sharing these days and will give a wide range of answers to

justify what they are doing. This can also be a great springboard for class discussion.

Suggested Readings

• Stephen Witt, How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient

Zero of Piracy (New York: Penguin, 2015). Fantastic history of the development of music file sharing.

It’s not the same narrative the RIAA has been trying to sell us for years.

• John Hockenberry, Moving Violations: A Memoir (New York: Hyperion, 1995): Hockenberry’s book

tells a great story about a career in radio and about living with a disability. You can view an interview

with Hockenberry from C–SPAN’s video archives:

https://www.c–span.org/video/?66079–1/moving–violations–memoir

• Kenneth Bilby, The General: David Sarnoff and the Rise of the Communications Industry (New York:

Harper & Row, 1986): David Sarnoff was the most powerful man ever in the broadcasting industry.

This biography looks at Sarnoff and how he created the myths that surrounded him.

• Howard Stern, Private Parts (New York: Pocket Books, 1997): Stern tells his own story of his bumpy

road to radio stardom as the original shock jock.

• Linda Wertheimer (Ed.), Listening to America: Twenty–five Years in the Life of a Nation, as Heard on

National Public Radio (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995): Read the stories that put

National Public Radio’s news programs on the map.

• Neil Baldwin, Edison: Inventing the Century (New York: Hyperion, 1995): This is the most recent

authoritative biography of inventor Thomas Edison. You can view an interview with Baldwin from C–

SPAN’s video archives:

https://www.c–span.org/video/?63449–1/edison–inventing–century

• Patricia Romanowski, Holly George–Warren, and Jon Pareles (Eds.), The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of

Rock & Roll (Revised and Updated for the 21st Century), Completely revised and updated ed. (New

York: Rolling Stone Press, 2001): The ultimate reference book for settling rock ‘n’ roll arguments.

Just don’t pull it out when you have work to do.

• James Miller, Flowers in the Dustbin: The Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947–1977 (New York: Simon &

Schuster, 1999): One of the best histories of rock ‘n’ roll covering the genre from its inception

through the release of Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run.

• Gerald Early, One Nation Under a Groove: Motown and American Culture (Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press,

1995).

• Lucy O’Brien, She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop and Soul (New York: Penguin

Books, 1995).

• Stephen Witt, How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the Patient

Zero of Piracy (New York: Penguin Books, 2015).

• All of the Chapter 7 links posted to my RalphEHanson.com blog at

http://www.ralphehanson.com/category/chapter–7/

Lecture Builders

A Look Back at the 1970s Punk Scene

A great collection of photos by David Godlis from the punk scene in New York from the 1970s,

including images of the Ramones, Talking Heads, and Blondie.

• http://time.com/4447310/a–nostalgic–look–back–at–new–yorks–1970s–punk–rock–scene/

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

Mass Communication: Living in a Media World, 6th edition

Ralph Hanson

2. discuss how the growth of television and home video transformed the movie industry;

4. explain how digital production and projection have changed filmmaking;

6. explain how the Internet and other long–tail tools have changed the movie promotion and

1. What is the difference in the “realism” of practical and CGI effects?

2. How did the coming of television change the nature of the movies? How has the rise of online

media transformed this process?

3. Explain how blockbuster movies become more than just movies for the companies releasing

them. What products are developed to go with them?

4. What are the consequences of having a movie industry that is mostly controlled by white men?

5. How does having access to a wide range of both popular and obscure movies change our movie–

viewing habits? Is this level of choice a good thing or a bad thing? Why?

1966). How did movies of that era differ from those released today under the ratings system? Were they

better or worse? Why?

In addition to having students learn more about the Production Code, this is also a good oral

history project. For example, I have had African–American students come back with stories about their

grandparents having to watch movies from the balcony because Jim Crow laws wouldn’t let them sit on

the main floor.

This can be a difficult assignment for some students because it requires that they locate and talk

to someone in their seventies or eighties. For this reason, you may want to propose a series of choices

for this assignment.

Media Literacy Exercise―Internet buzz

Visit the movie gossip website Dark Horizons (www.darkhorizons.com). Summarize the “buzz” at

the site about a current or upcoming movie. What is it based on? How might these messages affect

audience members’ perceptions of the movie?

NOTES: This assignment can also be completed using www.aintitcool.com/. Be forewarned that both of

these sites have extensive use of profanity on them, especially in the posts that readers make on the

discussion boards. This is also a good time to look at the issue of how the Internet allows anything to be

published, even if there are no credible sources backing up the information.

Media Literacy Exercise—The Bechdel Test

There are lots of movies with great relationships between men. There are a number of movies with

interesting roles for women. But how many movies out there feature multiple major female characters

who interact with each other? That’s the question the Bechdel Test for Women in Film tries to answer. I

stumbled across this amazingly simple tool for analyzing films in one of those “You might also like” boxes

at the bottom of the Mediaite page.

Here’s the scoop, quoted from Rachel Sklar’s Mediaite article (which references a post from Boing,

Boing):

The Bechdel test—named for the cartoonist Alison Bechdel who wrote a long–running comic strip called

Dykes To Watch Out For and the critically acclaimed graphic novel Fun Home—is a test to assess

whether women have a meaningful presence in a movie. It consists of three questions.

1. Are there two or more women in it that have names?

2. Do they talk to each other?

3. Do they talk to each other about something other than a man?

• Big Lebowski

• Home Alone

• Slumdog Millionaire

• The Truman Show

• Lord of the Rings

• Tomb Raider

• and even . . . The Princess Bride

This test doesn’t judge the quality of the movie or whether it is misogynistic, only that it doesn’t portray

the interaction of two women with names dealing with something other than a man.

Read the above material (including the links) on the Bechdel Test for the significance of women in the

movies. Then view this video. You are then to perform the Bechdel Test for a movie that has been

released in the last year. You need to view the movie with the Bechdel questions in hand. They are

1. Are there two or more women in the movie who have names?

2. Do they talk to each other?

3. Do they talk to each other about something other than a man?

After you have done so, you are to write a 500–word (minimum) essay that does the following:

• Briefly discuss what the Bechdel Test is for and what it tells us about a movie.

• Give the name of the movie you are analyzing and when (specifically) you watched it.

• Give detailed answers to the questions. (Who are the women characters? What do they talk

about? How is the presence of women in the film different from that of men?)

• Were you surprised by what you learned completing this assignment? Why or why not?