Chapter 1: Mass Communication, Culture and Media Literacy

Question 1

What is communication?

Answer 1

the transmission of a message from a source to a receiver

Question 2

What is feedback?

Answer 2

a response to received communication

Question 3

What is interpersonal communication?

Answer 3

communication between 2 or 3 people

Question 4

What is encoding and decoding?

Answer 4

Encoding is the transformation of a message into an understandable form of signs and symbols. Decoding is interpreting these symbols.

Question 5

What is the Osgood Schram model of communication?

Answer 5

This model shows the ongoing and recirprocal nature of communication. There is no source. no receiver, and no feedback.

Question 6

What is noise?

Answer 6

anything that interferes with successful communication.

Question 7

What is a medium?

Answer 7

the means of sending information; plural form is media

Question 8

What is a mass medium?

Answer 8

the means of sending information to a larg number of people

Question 9

What does media consist of?

Answer 9

Radio, newspaper, television, books, magazines, movies, sound recordings, cell phones, and computer networks

Question 10

What is mass communication?

Answer 10

the proecess of creating shared meaning between the mass media and their audiences.

Question 11

What is inferential feedback?

Answer 11

indirect feedback that is gained by inference rather than specifically communicated means of response

Question 12

What is the cultural definition of communication?

Answer 12

James W. Carey devised this definition that proposed communication and reality are linked as communication is the foundation of our culture and its primary maitenance mechanism.

Question 13

What is dominant culture, or mainstream culture?

Answer 13

the culture patterns that seem to hold sway with the majority of people

Question 14

What is a bounded culture, or co-culture?

Answer 14

small sub-cultural groups that exist within the national culture

Question 15

What is technological determinism?

Answer 15

The idea that machines and their developments drive economic and cultural change.

Question 16

What is media literacy?

Answer 16

the ability to effetively and efficiently comprehend and use any form of mediated communication

Question 17

What is a literate culture?

Answer 17

a culture with a written language as a major means of communication

Question 18

What is an oral or preliterate culture?

Answer 18

a culture without a written language, spoken word is primary means of communication.

Question 19

What is a griot?

Answer 19

“talking chiefs” within certain African and Eskimo cultures who would provide oral histories of their people

Question 20

What are ideogrammatic alphabets?

Answer 20

alphabets that are picture based

Question 21

What is a syllable alphabet?

Answer 21

alphabets that employ sequences of vowels and consonants; words

Question 22

What is the earliest example of a syllable alphabet?

Answer 22

Sumerian Cuneiform 1800 B.C.

Question 23

What was the early medium used by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans?

Answer 23

papyrus

Question 24

What is papyrus?

Answer 24

rolls of sliced strips of reed pressed together

Question 25

What is parchment?

Answer 25

a writing material made from prepared animal skins

Question 26

What is literacy?

Answer 26

The ability to effectively and efficiently comprehend and use written symbols

Question 27

What changes did writing bring?

Answer 27

1. meaning and language became more uniform 2. The culture’s memory, history, and myth could be recorded on paper

Question 28

What are some characteristics of oral cultures?

Answer 28

1. the meaning and language is specific and local 2. knowledge must be passed on orally 3. memory is crucial 4. myth and history are intertwined

Question 29

Who invented the printing press and why is this invention important?

Answer 29

Johannes Gutenburg; it allowed for mass communication

Question 30

What are the characteristics of media literacy?

Answer 30

1. critcal thinking enabling audience to make judgements 2. an understanding of the process of mass communication 3. an awareness of the impact of media on individual and society 4. strategies for analysis and discussion 5. understanding of media content as insight to our culture 6. ability to enjoy understand and appreciate media content 7. development of effective and responsible production skills 8. an understanding of the ethical and moral obligations of media practitioners

Question 31

What are media literacy skills?

Answer 31

1. ability/willingness to make an effort to understand content and pay attention 2. understanding and respect for the power of media messages 3. ability to distinguish emotional from reasoned reactions when responding to content and acting 4. development of heightened expectations of media content 5. a knowledge of genre conventions and ability to recognize when they are being mixed 6. The ability to think critically about media messages no matter how credible the sources 7. a knowledge of the internal language of various media and the ability to understand its effects, no matter how complex

Question 32

What is the third person effect?

Answer 32

the common attitude that others are influenced by media messages but we are not

Question 33

What is a genre?

Answer 33

categories of expression within certain media

Question 34

What are conventions?

Answer 34

the standardized style elements of a genre