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Instructor’s Manual
Lecture Suggestions and Resources
Chapter 1: Mass Communication, Culture, and Media Literacy
A good lecture device for this chapter is to ask students to express what they mean when they speak of
some important cultural concepts—for example, freedom, success, happiness, motherhood, and so on.
There will, of course, be much agreement, but there will also be a lot of variation. As students discuss
why these similarities and differences exist, the points from the culture section of the chapter will surface
naturally. A good way to support the media section of the chapter is to expand the opening vignette. Once
the instructor lists his or her scores of media encounters before 9 A.M., the students can be asked to do
the same.
There are several audiovisual routes that instructors can take with this chapter, depending on their
interests and those of the students.
Chapter 2: Convergence and the Reshaping of Mass Communication
One tactic to build in-class discussion is to ask students with video-capable cell phones to demonstrate
their technology for their classmates. Students can debate the relative merits of the screen size, absence
or presence of commercials and/or cost, and so on. Also effective is to have students identify themselves
in terms of the technology that best defines them, for example “film buff” or “TV fan” or “computer fanatic.”
Two examples are the widely available documentary releases: Weapons of Mass Deception and Out-
Foxed. The IFC Media Project, discussed in the previous chapter, has a dozen excellent 30-minute
episodes on the forces reshaping mass communication. Bill Moyers’ Journal, Independent Lens, and
Frontline, all from PBS, offer scores of fascinating videos.
Chapter 3: Books
A good way to begin the lecture for this chapter is to play a variation on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs.
Play Desert Island Books. Tell the students that they are stranded on a desert island. They have no
electricity (so they can have no TV or CDs), but they do have five books. None are survival-oriented
Chapter 4: Newspapers
A useful lecture device in support of this chapter is to bring the day’s paper to class and discuss its
content. Instructors might even want to offer a quiz on some of the more interesting or important stories.
Those who read the paper will fare well. Naturally, those who haven’t read it won’t be so fortunate. The
lecture can then proceed to a discussion of why this is so and the traditional importance of the
newspaper.
Chapter 5: Magazines
An effective device for this chapter is to ask students to name the magazines they read. If they are a
normal group of college students, their tastes will be all over the place. Then ask other students to tell
what they know about the people who read some of the magazines mentioned. Match those
“demographic descriptions” with the actual readers. Several of the chapter’s important points can be
introduced in this way. And again, several of the IFC Media Project episodes include magazine-oriented
segments.
Chapter 6: Film
The choices of approach and supporting audiovisual material abound, depending on the tack that
instructors wish to take. For those who are historically inclined, any of the early films mentioned in the text
(e.g., The Great Train Robbery, Birth of a Nation, and Intolerance) are available on disc and online. In
Chapter 7: Radio, Recording, and Popular Music
As suggested in an earlier chapter, a good lecture strategy to open this chapter is to re-create the BBC’s
Desert Island Disc. Ask students to name the five records they’d want to have if stranded on a desert
island. From there, they should be able to explain why they made the choices they did. In this way, the
importance of music can be highlighted. Instructors can then relate the music choices to the kinds of radio
stations that carry them and then to the kinds of people who listen to those stations.
There are many audio-visual options. Three feature films offer some good insights into radio’s Golden
Age. The 1975 ABC made-for-TV movie The Night That Panicked America features an all-star cast (John
Chapter 8: Television, Cable, and Mobile Video
A useful lecture device for this chapter is to ask students to identify their “great TV moments.” Then not
only can they be asked why they classify their choices as such, but they can speculate on how other
people might rate the ones they have chosen. Narrowcasting, effects, and other issues can logically flow
from this start.
The audiovisual options here are limitless. Off-air taping of any of the programs mentioned is possible,
and collections of classic and contemporary TV shows abound online and on disc.
Television is well represented in Hollywood movies. Available at most good video stores are films like A
Face in the Crowd, a powerful 1957 Elia Kazan–directed early warning of television’s immense power to
Chapter 9: Video Games
A useful lecture device here is to have students examine their experiences with games and gaming. You
might have them take the gamer demographics from the chapter and have students create the “perfect
game” for specific groups. Try to direct them to gaps in the demographics, rather than serve what is
already there. Another strategy is to have students bring in their favorite games (in a format that can be
Chapter 10: The Internet and Social Media
One way to organize early lectures in support of this chapter is to examine the idea of technology’s
double edge. As an emerging technology, the Internet is subject to damning criticism and profuse praise.
Instructors may even want to allow students to give their opinions first in this debate. Is technology a good
thing or bad thing for our society? Why? Challenge students to examine the things they take for granted
Chapter 11: Public Relations
Before the first lecture on this chapter, ask students to reveal their feelings about public relations (PR).
Typically, there is much negativity toward and some support for the profession. Skilled instructors should
have no problem weaving students’ responses into the themes of the chapter. The Pentagon’s PR efforts
in the run up to the invasion of Iraq and during the conflict itself should provide plenty of heat! For those
instructors with the courage to handle in-class controversy, the 2006 documentary Why We Fight will
generate it. There is also a wealth of online video dealing with BP’s PR deficiencies after its Gulf of
Mexico oil well blew out in 2010. The same goes for Toyota’s PR difficulties during that same year.
Chapter 12: Advertising
A productive in-class activity that encourages students to think about how ads are constructed, the
themes they employ, their persuasive elements, and their conventions is to ask students to create ads for
a variety of products that the instructor selects. It’s best to do this without advance warning, preferably at
the start of the chapter or after the history portion is completed.
A number of Hollywood movies available at video stores can be used with this chapter. A bit dated but still
Chapter 13: Theories and Effects of Mass Communication
A good way to help students begin to think about theory is to ask them their “theory of __________.” For
example, ask a student her theory of dating; ask another his theory of shoe buying; ask another her
theory of movie selection, and so on. Then ask the students how they developed these theories—that is,
on what data or evidence did they draw to assemble their explanations and predictions. From there, ask
students their theories of how people learn from the media, how media affect politics, and so on. The idea
is to demonstrate that mass communication theory is a more formal, systematized example of what they
all do in their everyday lives.
Chapter 14: Media Freedom, Regulation, and Ethics
In-class lecture and discussion supporting this chapter tend to flow easily from students’ own experience
with the media, either as subjects of media accounts (for example, at the scene of an accident) or from
their own consumption (“I can’t believe they get away with that!”). A useful device, then, is to ask students
to make evaluations of the ethical performance of the media from their own experiences. If instructors
need to jog students to action, ask if any of them have ever been to a sporting event, concert, or other
Chapter 15: Global Media
This chapter can be enriched with television content from other lands, easily recorded from any of a
number of cable and satellite channels; radio broadcasts taped from shortwave signals; or newspapers
and magazines available at all university libraries. Comparisons to similar domestic media fare can be
