Test 1 (Chapter ONE) Terms

Question 1

The process of creating symbol systems that convey information and meaning (Ex: Language, Morse Code, Computer Code…)

Answer 1

Communication

Question 2

The symbols of expression that individuals, groups and societies use to make sense of daily life and to articulate their values; a process that delivers the values of a society through products or other meaning making forms

Answer 2

Culture

Question 3

The cultural industries- the channels of communication- that produce and distribute songs, novels, news, movies, online computer services, and other cultural products to a large number of people.

Answer 3

Mass Media

Question 4

The process of designing and delivering cultural messages and stories to diverse audiences through media channels as old as the book and as new as the internet.

Answer 4

Mass Communication

Question 5

Images, texts and sounds that use pulses of electric current or flashes of laser light and are converted or encoded into electronic signals represented as varied combinations of binary numbers, ones and zeros; these signals are then reassembled as a precise reproduction of a tv pic, magazine article or telephone voice.

Answer 5

Digital Communication

Question 6

People who post commentary on personal and political opinion based web sites

Answer 6

Bloggers

Question 7

Editors, producers, and other media managers who function as message filters, making decisions about what types of messages actually get produced for particular audiences.

Answer 7

Gate Keepers

Question 8

Responses from receiver to the senders of messages

Answer 8

Feedback

Question 9

The texts, images, and sounds transmitted from senders to receivers.

Answer 9

Messages

Question 10

The authors, producers, agencies, and organizations that transmit messages to receivers.

Answer 10

Senders

Question 11

Newspapers, books, magazines, radio, movies, television, or the Internet.

Answer 11

Mass Media Channel

Question 12

The targets of messages crafted by senders

Answer 12

Receivers

Question 13

The phenomenon whereby audiences seek messages and meanings that correspond to their preexisting beliefs and values.

Answer 13

Selective Exposure

Question 14

The technological merging of media content across various platforms. Or a business model that consolidates various media holdings under one corporate umbrella.

Answer 14

Convergence

Question 15

A particular business model that involves a consolidation of various media holdings-such as cable connection, phone service, tv, and internet access- under one corporate umbrella (aka convergence)

Answer 15

Cross Platform

Question 16

The structure underlying most media products, it includes two components; the story (what happens to whom) and the discourse (how the story is told)

Answer 16

Narrative

Question 17

A symbolic expression that has come to mean “good taste”’ often supported by wealthy patrons and corporate donors, it is associated with fine art (such as ballet, the symphony, painting, and classical literature) which is available primarily in theaters or museums.

Answer 17

High Culture

Question 18

A symbolic expression supposedly aligned with the questionable tastes of the “masses,” who enjoy the commercial “junk” circulated by the mass media, such as soap operas, rock music, talk radio, comic books, and monster truck pulls.

Answer 18

Low Culture

Question 19

The term describing a historical era spanning the time from the rise of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the present; its social values include celebrating the individual, believing in rational order, working efficiently and rejecting tradition.

Answer 19

Modern Period

Question 20

A period of political and social reform that lasted from the 1890s to the 1920s

Answer 20

Progressive Era

Question 21

A term describing a contemporary historical era spanning the 1960s to the present; its social values include opposing hierarchy, diversifying and recycling culture, questioning scientific reasoning and embracing paradox.

Answer 21

Postmodern Period

Question 22

An understanding of the mass communication process through the development of critical -thinking tools-description, analysis, interpretation, evaluation, engagement- that enable a person to become more engaged as a citizen and more discerning as a consumer of mass media products.

Answer 22

Media Literacy

Question 23

The process whereby a media-literate person or student studying mass communication forms and practices employs the techniques of description, , analysis, interpretation, evaluation, and engagement.

Answer 23

Critical Process

Question 24

The first step in the critical process, it involves paying close attention, taking notes, and researching the cultural product to be studied.

Answer 24

Description

Question 25

The second step in the critical process, it involves discovering significant patterns that emerge from the description stage.

Answer 25

Analysis

Question 26

The third step in the critical process, it asks and answers the “what does that mean?” and “so what” questions about one’s findings.

Answer 26

Interpretation

Question 27

the fourth step in the critical process, it involves arriving at a judgment about whether a cultural product is good, bad or mediocre; this requires subordinating one’s personal taste to the critical assessment resulting from the first three stages (description analysis and interpretation.)

Answer 27

Evaluation