COMM 421/621: History of the Mass Media
Instructor: Ross Collins
Midterm exam review (2010)
Chapters covered:
12, 15-20, 23-25.
Readings:
How to Read for Historical Research.
Writing Your Historical Term Paper.
Movies and clips, lectures.
The exam will consist of about 35 multiple-choice questions. Graduate students will also have several essay questions.
Below are general questions covering topics to be covered on the exam. These may or may not be (and usually are not) the actual questions. Note exam questions may include material not reviewed below. Students should study all materials as noted above.
1. Describe how the Spanish-American War of 1898 was related to the news media during the Yellow Journalism Era.
2. Who was Joseph Pulitzer?
3. Who was William Randolph Hearst?
4. What is the origin of the term "Yellow Journalism?"
5. Name two journalism concepts still with us today that date from the Yellow Journalism era.
6. Who were the "muckrakers?"
7. Who was George Seldes?
8. How does 1922 "Toll Radio" relate to today's commercial radio?
9. Describe two ways early twentieth-century media developed the idea of "celebrity" as we understand it today.
10. How did the U.S. Government explain its right to regulate radio and television despite the free-speech guarantees of the First Amendment?
11. Describe four techniques of propaganda as used by the Nazis in World War II.
12. How does the development of propaganda relate to World War I?
13. Who was George Creel?
14. Development of modern photojournalism relied on what invention?
15. Who was Robert Capa? Who was Dorthea Lange?
16. What does the "archeological model" mean when considering historical study?
17. Explain the difference between primary and secondary evidence as related to historical research.
18. What is "present-mindedness" as it relates to historical research?
19. What era are Edward R. Murrow and Sen. Joseph McCarthy most closely associated with?
20. Why did television, invented in the early 1930s, not reach most American homes until much later, in the 1950s?
21. Describe press freedom during these wars: Vietnam, Persian Gulf War of 1991, Afghanistan War (2002-present).
22. How were U.S. censorship operations handled in World War I and World War II?
23. Why did the Watergate scandals change the way American look at government?
24. How was the press involved with the Watergate investigations?
25. How did the World Wide Web, invented by Tim Berners-Lee, differ from prior internet technology?
26. Is it generally considered plagiarism to borrow another historian's topic idea?
27. Why did "Life" become the most influential magazine of the last century?
28. How was television related to Americans' attitudes toward the Vietnam War?
29. Who is Newton Minow?
30. Describe two dangers of relying on oral history.