Media English examination questions (Spring/Summer 2011)

Week One: Why did Marshall McLuhan say that the medium is the message? changes different media have made to society. How does a medium Explain the (radio/TV/Internet) change a message and influence how it is understood? Week Two: Write a review of a movie seen recently. Make sure you consider some of the following criteria: the use of cinematography, the casting of the characters, the issues in the movie, the role of music and sound effects. Week Three: Choose one singer, band or genre, and explain why people like (or dislike) him/her/them. Consider the following criteria: media exposure, your experience with the artist(s) and the feelings the artist(s) evoke by way of lyrics/music/image. Week Four/Five Do we have true freedom of choice in the media? With power concentrated in fewer corporate hands (in the US: the six big companies; in the UK: Murdochs News International), what kind of freedom of choice do we have? Answer with reference to Corporate Media (BBC/NHK), Non-Corporate Media (Democracy Now/Russia Today) and Social Networking systems (Facebook). How much freedom do you have? What choices do you make when using media in 2011? Week Six: Compare and contrast two types of comedy. This could be British (surreal) comedy and a form of Japanese comedy or maybe American comedy and Japanese comedy. What are the sources of the humour and how are we made to laugh. Refer to specific comedy sketches and refer to the profile of the comedians if you can. Week Seven/Eight Discuss three commercials seen in class, on the class website or in the media. You can even choose the commercial you co-wrote with your classmates. Discuss them as you would a movie with special reference to the choice of characters (e.g. members of Smap, thin models selling Cup Noodle ). The commercials may be linked if you wish. Week Nine/Ten Describe what manufacturing consent means to you. Write about it in relation to the media, whether it be in the world of advertisement, media ownership, the link between politics and media owners and anything else you choose to consider.

You can use McLuhans Tetrad.

Week One: Marshall McCluhans The Medium is the Message..

Encyclopedias original going televised intended. bring back Visual Twitter Television Media Summary Humorous Social networking Amplify Original Novel

Many students at this university have studied Mark Twains Huckleberry Finn. In class we looked at how the message is altered according to what medium is used. First, we looked at the a) original version, i.e. the medium of the ____________. This was perhaps Twains intended medium, but because of its success the story was then made into b) a ____________ series for American and European audiences. In the television medium, emphasis was placed on _________ action over the power of the written word. More recently, the Internet has hosted a version on an online _____________________ (wikipedia.com). If you type in Huckleberry Finn on wikipedia.com you can get a quick ________________ of the story, which reduces the need for people to read the book in its _______________ form. Building on this, in the style of writing on ______________ _____________________ websites, the novel has also been written (for _______________ purposes) in the style of T__________ talk! Twitter has its own language and style, and many laughed at how the story was transformed by a present day medium. Something we didnt look at in detail was Marshall McLuhans Tetrad of ___________ Effects. This theory (see right) helps us think about how a medium can a) enhance, b) reverse, c) retrieve, and d) make something obsolescent in society.. In other words: Enhance = What does it ____________? Reverse = Where is it __________? Backwards or forwards? obsolescent = What does it kill? Retrieve = i.e. What does the medium _________ ____________? Make

Think of the following media: a) writing in ancient times, b) the newspaper in the industrial age c) the television in 1950, d) the Internet, e) Facebook, f) I-phones, g) robots, and apply the Tetrad to it.

Week Two: Movies

directed unknown issues cinematography sexual tension Music Sound played by Lover Produced Effects Cast mature classical affair underground

Eyes Wide Shut was a movie that was d__________, ______________ and written by the late Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick was well-known for his use of ___________________ to heighten the atmosphere of his films. Although Eyes Wide Shut was rated as suitable for viewers aged 17 years and above, this psychological piece of work can be appreciated by more ________________ audiences. With Tom Cruise _________ as Dr. Bill Harford, a man married to Alice, ________________ Nicole Kidman, there is an air of ______________________ between the two. Harford is shocked when he learns that Alice had contemplated an __________ a year earlier. In reaction to this, he embarks on a night-long adventure, to an unknown world where politicians and famous people are involved in a masked ________ orgy. The ____________ in the movie, however, are quite complex. For example, Kubrick highlights the plight of Alice, fantasizing about another man despite being married to Bill. Her admission that she considered having a ___________ shakes Bill up, and leads him to discover an ______________ world that he never suspected. However, even though the orgy scene is disturbing, the choice of _____________ and the accompanying cinematography make it a visual treat. In addition, the use of __________________ music heightens the senses as we enter a strange and frightening world. Did Kubrick name Kidmans character Alice because Bill fell through a rabbit hole? I dont know, but though the film uncovers a dark personal world and social world, the atmosphere is one which entrances from start to finish.

Week Three: Music

issues becomes Rap music question Sexualized When I was a high schooler, _________________ became a very popular __________ of music with some of my friends. It was 1988 and much of the rap was politicized and discussed ________ of importance to the African-American community in the United States. There was one group which I ____________ above all over rap groups. They were One known song was as called ___________ Fight the ________________ and their songs critiqued American _____________. _______________ and seemed to promote the idea of Black Youth to _____________ and _______________ how society treated them. Another song, ______ is a Joke, questioned the action of the emergency services when called upon by black people. Such songs were thrilling to me, even though I was not a big fan of rap music. However, by 2011, rap music seems to have changed in a way which I dont appreciate. One artist called ______________, in a song called Tip Drill, appears to sing about paying women for pleasure, and though I respect him and his fans for their freedom to listen and sing such songs, I dont like the images found in the video for this song. In fact, I think they might be dangerous. In her book, How Fantasy _____________ __________, academic Katherine Dill explained how fantasy scenes , such as those shown in Nellys video, can affect the way men think of women, and how women perceive themselves in reality. Dill said that people suffer from ________ Person _____________ where we believe that negative images dont affect us, but do affect a third person. I believe that rap songs which focuses upon paying women for pleasure and uses words like ho, bitch and pussy expresses a hatred of women, rather than a love of women. In contrast, Public Enemy never _____________ women in this way, and because of their stance on social issues, I respect them. Public Third Syndrome Liked Enemy Consider Reality Nelly genre 911 society Power

Week Four: Freedom of Choice?

comedian Positive liberty we got owners Corporate Politicians Networking From Choice the media Internet Freedom Role models business Negative liberty psychologist believe

In class we looked at whether we have _______________ of choice in the media. We looked at the opinion of US ______________ George Carlin who said that we dont have choice: (F)orget the politicians. They are irrelevant.
The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice! You have OWNERS! The wealthy ______________ interests are our owners. He added (T)hey use ______ New Wave _________ to tell you what to ____________ and what to buy.

band Devo referred to this when they said that Freedom of Choice is what ____ _____ yet Freedom ________ __________is what we want. Perhaps we dont want freedom of choice? Certainly, German _____________, Erich Fromm, claimed that people didnt want ___________ _____________ as it involves too much choice; instead ___________ ___________ (reduced power) is preferred as people like to hand power to a powerful other That powerful other can be the media, and, as Ben Bagdikian said,

the major media socialize every generation (of Americans). Whether conscious of it or not, they are being 'educated' in _____ ________, in social behaviour, in their (opinions) about the world in which they will enter, and in what to think about their ... fellow citizens." This might be worrying when we consider that power is concentrated in fewer and fewer corporate hands. From 1983 to 2004, the US went from over 50 corporations to just 6. Does this reduction of choice affect our freedom of choice? Do we rely on corporate media in 2011? Or has the growth of the ________, and the visibility of social __________ systems and non-_________ media increased our choices?

Gaga Role model or Agent of Social Change?

Week Six:
absurd Lumberjack disgusting Laugh at / at / with

UK Comedy and the absurd

comic sketches Dali surreal Monty Python Oxford Laugh with horrible cruel

womens clothes Comedy literature celebrities

There are several recurring themes in British TV ____________. Two of the more notable are satirical and sexual innuendo sketches, yet something which has characterized British comedy for decades has been the use of the __________ or _________. This tradition frequently sees comedians ___________ people, or at themselves, with their viewers laughing ____ or ____ the comedian. We saw examples of this genre in class with clips from ____________ ______________. Their classic _____________ Sketch sees us laugh at a man who was a barber, yet who dreamt of being a lumberjack dressed in __________________ _________________! Tres surreal!! Some would say that even something like Mr. Bean is filled with _____________ humour, when we laugh at a character who is socially inept. British humour also includes many jokes about foreigners (Ray K Rowrin?), politicians and _____________________ and also comments on daily life. Many British comedians went to __________________ and Cambridge University, but you might not think so when you listen/watch their ____________ _______________. Remember that the surreal topics range from the safe to the ______________________: On the programme Shooting Stars we saw Vic Reeves show his unclean underwear to a woman he was pretending to impress. nature of it! Surrealism is based around scenes where normal rules and expectations for speech and/or humour are not obeyed. From a funny walk to a transvestite barber, we do not expect that such scenes can happen in real life. Surreal art is mostly found outside humour, notably with the __________________ of Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland), or the art of Salvador __________, but British comedy has a long tradition of surrealism! It was a ___________________ scenario, but we laughed at the shocking

Week Nine/Ten: Manufacturing Consent (media and politics)

advertisers media power 911 Invent

Tabloids Illegal hand in hand mass destruction

News of the World terrorists minister anti-war reason hacked Agree. broadsheets

Noam Chomsky is better known in this university for his work in linguistics. Undoubtedly a legend in this field, he is now been better known internationally for his work in relation to social issues and _______ _______. Specifically, his theory of manufacturing consent is used to show how the media works ____________ with the government to control public opinion. In this case manufacture means to _______ or fabricate; and consent means to get you (the media user) to ________________ with the papers proposition. In a later class we looked at the difference between
_______________________ and __________________. We looked at Rupert Murdoch, head of News International, who owns both types of newspaper. By coincidence, a few days after that class (6th July), one of his newspapers was closed down. This was said to be because journalists from the paper had ________________ into the phone of a missing teenager, later found to be murdered. This led to ___________________ pulling out from advertising in the newspaper. It was later discovered that Murdoch met the British Prime ____________ 26 times in the past 12 months, which appears to suggest that media mogul Murdoch has close links with the highest level of British politics. Just as Noam Chomsky suggested (about media moguls) in Manufacturing Consent The News of the World was the Sunday paper of The Sun, a Murdoch tabloid, which often boasts about its ability to manufacture peoples consent and win elections for political parties (see Its The Sun Wot Won It). More seriously though: these tabloids may have played a role in promoting ____________ wars. In the aftermath of 911 the US public wanted a war in Iraq, but only if the UN would authorize it. UN staff workers failed to find the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that would justify the war, but the UK and the US went ahead with the invasion. In the US _____________ media reports made up only 3% of the reports, so was the media manufacturing consent or a war desired by the government? Who were the ___________ here? According to Chomsky, many regard the US as a terrorist state, with good _________ (Chomsky, 2001). Is your consent manufactured by the Japanese media?