Your final grade is determined mathematically. Add all the points you earned this semester and divide it by all the points you could have earned.

5 tests at 50 points, the midterm and final at 100 points each. Network assignment was 35 points for turning it in. That’s 485 points total.

Not happy with your grade? Did you do the papers correctly? Did you turn everything in on time? I waited until 3pm today (Tues, May 5th 2009) –that a whole 24 hours extra–before entering grades, in case someone handed in their final LATE. Deadline was yesterday at 2:40.

If you are looking to contest your grade you must have valid reason to do so–please consider that before contacting me. Otherwise, have a great summer.

Just in case, the final (due 5/4) and the take home test (due 5/1) are both available here. Please be sure you real ALL the directions!!!!!

com-300-final

take-home-test

The rest of the test will be the usual multiple choice and true/false mix. I have broken the study guide into chapters. This test relies a lot on the notes we took, since some of that information is not the same as the text. Click on Keep Reading for the Study Guide and Take Home Essay!!

Spiral of Silence (Chapter 29, notes will be given on 4/6)

Definitions of spiral of silence, pluralistic ignorance

Driving force behind the spiral of silence

What groups have the potential to hange the world/don’t care what society things of them?

Biggest factor in determining who will voice their opinion? (p376)

Name of the test that determines who speaks out

Cultivation Theory (Chapter 27) by Gerbner

What’s the main focus?

Definition of dramatic violence, heavy viewer and what 4 things do they believe?

How many violent acts occur in a drama show per hour (prime time TV)

Which racial groups are more often the victims?

Double Dose Effect and Mean World Syndrome

The Truths about media violence

Agenda-Setting (Chapter 28) by McCombs and Shaw

Main idea of agenda setting

Why did they come up with the theory?

Gatekeeper

Important (salient) issues—where would they be in TV or print news? (ex: fromt page vs inside pages)

Other Media notes:

Direct Effects

2 Step Flow: what does it include (human agency or involvement and opinion leaders)

Definition of Opinion leader

Who really created Media Ecology?

Semiotics (Chapter 25)

What is a sign? What kind of meaning does it carry? (refer to myth for the answer)

Definition of myth

Definition of ideology

Definition of semiotics

Whether or not mythic signs reinforce dominate values of society

Take Home Essay

Essay Question: Due day of test (4/15) You must refer to at least one TV show (preferable prime time) and one news show (local or national, not sports—sorry guys) when answering the essay.

Repeatedly it is said that TV is something that amuses boredom.

“We’re in the boredom killing business…we’ll say any shit you want to hear.” –Howard Beale

“…and all boredom amused…”-Jensen

(add to this anything people like Postman or McLuhan might say)

A. How does this apply to today’s TV programming (mention specific shows)

B. How does it (or can it) be applied to the news? (watch local and national news and refer to it.)

13 points.

Typed, double space. Usual directions, you know the drill. At least 2.5 pages, (full pages, none of that large header to take up space that some of you are STILL doing.) Nor more than 5 pages.

]]> http://profsw.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/test-4-study-guide/feed/ 3 profsw http://profsw.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/get-some-green-for-going-green-psa-contest/ http://profsw.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/get-some-green-for-going-green-psa-contest/#comments Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:44:31 +0000 profsw http://profsw.wordpress.com/?p=280 ]]>

The Challenge: Create a 60 second (exactly 60 seconds) public service announcement (PSA) designed for a college aged audience (18-24 years old) to encourage/support sustainability/going green.
Who can participate? Current Medaille College undergraduate students only
Submission Deadline: 4/15/2009 by 4:00 p.m. Student Affairs Office to Mary Johnson
Submission Format: QuickTime movie format burned on a DVD, file size not to exceed 1 GB
Judging Criteria: creativity, video quality (consistency of audio levels and video quality), writing, editing and originality
Winning submission to be posted on the Medaille College website
1st Prize –$200 Cash reward and making a contribution to the greater good…priceless
Camera equipment can be signed out in the NMI (New Media Institute) in Huber Hall or the TV Studio only if students are familiar with these cameras. Individual or group projects will be accepted.

Contact Lisa V for more information at lvanvalkinburgh@medaille.edu

China bans youtube…again

Twitter is being used for advertising. Thoughts? Or it’s ruining our lives….

And last but not least, cable and phone comanies are trying to get your business by having more community news channels. Do we need more local news, other than what’s already covered? Do we need a station just for 24 hour local news and weather? What does that implications might that have for the quality of the news? (sorry no link for this story)

Cross-posted at the dept website.

Three questions are needed for this reading–either to the author or to the class.

Remember to skip the first page of the reading.

Structure of communication

With another occurrence of school violence, and speculation as to why mass shootings keep happening, I wonder what your thoughts are? Are people mentally ill? Victims of bullying? Influenced by media? Simply just a change in our society?

Some questions sent to me:

Ch 14 1. when you ask about when ego involvement is higher or lower: is it high ego = high LR and low ego = high LA??
Ch 14: Ego involvement is how much the issue matters to you. So high ego involvement means the person also has a high latitude of rejection. They are very firm on their position. (Think of someone who feels VERY STRONGLY about something. How hard are they to talk to?) Low ego involvement means the issue doesn’t really matter much to them at all, therefore they have a high latitude of noncommittal. Think about it, if you’re noncommittal on something you really don’t care one way or another.
So….High LR = high ego involvement
High NC = low ego involvement
2. what makes the most persuasive argument?? is that the Boomerang effect
The most persuasive argument is not the boomerang effect. The most persuasive argument is on that falls JUST IN the range of Latitude of acceptance. So you know where the ranges are for a given person—the most persuasive argument is one that is still in the latitude of acceptance but is further from anchor point.
Ch 16 3. what is the goal of the cog dis theory? is it justify internal conflict
Ch 16: the goal of Cog. dis Theory is (like all theories) to predict behavior/attitude in certain situations. Specifically: to explain why people change their attitudes when they do things they don’t believe.
4. what causes post decisions dissonance? is it big decisions
Several things cause post-decision dissonance: A big decision, one that took a long time to make, (the longer it takes, the more dissonance we experience,) One that might have cost us (like buying a house or a car), that it’s an important issue or decision and that it’s something that can’t be (or is hard to) reverse once the decision is made.

First, if you do the facebook essay, there’s a link to one article right there with the assignment. It’s a good article. You may also refer to your text. Or to THIS . All I am looking for is outside information, is doesn’t all have to be scholarly, I just don’t want a paper that’s 100% your rant without outside info backing you up.

Study guide:DOWNLOAD All you need to be able to do is recognize the definitions of these terms. Not that bad really.

You have 3 options for the midterm. Your midterm must be TYPED, double-space, 12 point font, approximately 4-5 pages (too short? Make sure you answered ALL the questions of your topic.) DETAILS!!!! Click on Keep Reading to read your options. Midterm is due on March 13th 2009, I require a hard copy.

1. Facebook etiquette

I recently joined the ranks of facebook and set up my own rules for who I would/wouldn’t be “friends” with. I spoke with others who also created such guidelines for themselves. (For the record, you need to graduate before you can friend me. Then we’re good.)

How have you dealt with situations where people “friend” you and you didn’t want to accept? What rules do you have in place? Is it awkward? Have you ever unfriended someone? What happened?

Are you really developing close CMC relationships on this forum? Talk about Facebook in relation to Social Information Processing theory. Can you find other articles (academic or otherwise) that talk about this problem? What do you think about their advice?  You should have at least 2 reliable outside sources for this AND reference your text book (so 3 references total). Look up things like Netiquette for other sources and fee free to use THIS ARTICLE as a source. In face I prefer it.

2. Annotated Bibliography Content and Format:

Pick a theory we’ve already covered in class. (go look at your text book……waiting…..ok)

Identify One scholarly journal articles, that are current and consist of empirical research. Read the article and write an annotated bibliography entry for it.

(a) Provide a cull citation of each article using APA style. The citation should appear at the top of the first page of each annotated discussion (summary, critique, cumulation). Single space citation information; double space discussion. The discussion should include the following (b-d):

(b)Article summary: identify the key ideas, main arguments, evidence used to support the argument, method(s) used to gather evidence (research, empirical evidence, textual analysis, etc.), and conclusions. Put this information in your own words: DO NO use direct quotes.

(c) Article critique: (1) Identify stated assumptions and any unstated assumptions of the argument (i.e. what does the author seem to accept as a “given” -biases-in terms of the topic of their argument?); (2)identify any gaps in the arguments in terms of what is not covered; (3) identify any limitations to either the evidence of the argument presented.

(d) Knowledge cumulation: (1) discuss briefly how this article relates to what you’ve learned in class and read in your text book

3. Nonverbal Essay:

Watch one of the following pre-approved shows: NCIS, CSI (original not spinoffs), Gossip Girl, Numb3rs, or Heros. You may choose another show IF it is PRE-APPROVED by me (failure to do that gets an automatic zero), and if it is a scripted show–as in no reality TV please.

a) You MUST watch this show with NO SOUND and NO CLOSED CAPTIONING.  Mute, no “subtitles”. b) Look for different types of nonverbal behaviors: proxemics, chronemics, haptics, facial expressions, emblems, appearance, etc (look all those up or ask me). c) What do the nonverbal interactions tell you about character relationships? Their personalites? Consider the things you’ve learned about nonverbal communication, and your own personal experience. d) Describe how you decided to evaluate the relationship, what you looked for specifically and if you really think that 80-90% of communication is nonverbal. Did you observe any gender differences in your TV show (nonverbally)?

Reference textbook, web (wikipedia has a nice overview).