Mass Communication Theory: Chapters 1 & 13

Chapter 1

• In the Middle Ages, truth was dictated by the church and the king.
• Different kinds of mass media have existed for centuries.
• Mass media often determines what makes the pop culture scene, what news stories people have access to, what books are popular, and what movies make the most money.
• Lower audiences for radio, cinema, and live theater was caused by the growing popularity of television.
• The modern era was marked by grand narratives that attempted to explain the totality of the human experience.
• Culture is historically transmitted knowledge and attitudes toward life expressed in symbolic form.
• An important part of being media literate is being able to identify bias.
• For the postmodernists, meaning was injected into a work by its reader.
• Cultural imperialism happens through television, movies, and cultural projects.
• The process by which previously distinct technologies come to share tasks and resources is Convergence.

Chapter 13

• There are still many unresolved issues regarding a person’s right to privacy and the use of the internet.
• Advertisers use the data collected about online activities to create very targeted ads.
• The Communications Decency Act (CDA) was passed to regulate pornography online.
• Copyright law can be applied to books, movies, artwork, and magazine articles.
• Most works end up in the public domain when the copyright expires.
• The USA Patriot Act expanded the power of the federal government to access personal records.
• The Privacy Act protects records that can be retrieved by personal identifiers.
• Media outlets must be wary of committing acts of defamation.
• Theodore Roosevelt created the Bureau of Corporations to investigate the practices of increasingly larger American businesses.

Chapter 3

• Publishers are not always very sure of how many books to produce in a print run of a new book.
• Printing a book only when it has been ordered is referred to as print-on-demand.
• All authors do not receive more or less the same amount of royalties.
• The book part of the economy thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The innovations of paperback revolution include large print runs, publishing quality literature in paperback, selling books in nontraditional locations, and cheap access to literature.
• Project Gutenberg is the oldest digital library, founded by Michael Hart in 1971.
• More books in the U.S. are sold in the paperback format than other format.

Chapter 4

• The Wall Street Journal focuses on articles about business and finance.
• One of the critiques of objective journalism is that truly objective writing is impossible.
• Newspapers control the public’s access to information by determining which stories are important enough to get published.
• Newspapers became popular in early seventeenth-century Europe despite the fear of persecution..
• A major outcome of the Zenger trial in New York was that newspapers could print honest criticism of the government.
• John Milton helped advance a discussion about the role of a free press.
• A story about how a factory is leaking pollutants into the local water supply, which suggests that people boycott its products, is an example of advocacy journalism.
• Rupert Murdoch purchased The Wall Street Journal in 2007.
• Journalists are prohibited from using fabrication and plagiarism tactics.

Chapter 5

• The first true magazine was published in Britain.
• "Can this Marriage Be Saved?” is a feature of Ladies’ Home Journal.
• Time and Newsweek experienced major changes in their content in the late twentieth century.
• Hobby and special-interest magazines soared in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Benjamin Franklin’s General Magazine of 1741 was not a great success.
• Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition was started in order to increase sales during the winter.

Chapter 6

• The term for the urban culture that includes break dancing, graffiti art, and techniques of rapping, sampling, and scratching records is hip-hop.
• Some actions of large record companies fueled racism.
• Billie Eilish was signed by no record labels.
• The Copyright Act of 1911 protected composers and authors.
• Independent record labels focused on neglected areas of the music industry, such as folk, rural blues and gospel.
• Each major record label has a strong infrastructure that oversees every aspect of the music business, including production, manufacturing and distribution, marketing and promotion.
• Music may influence cultural perceptions about race, morality, and gender.
• Make-ups are not allowed if you miss the midterm exam and must be completed by 11:59 p.m. Friday, Feb. 28.