Axia College Material

Appendix A

Midterm Exam

Answer each question below. Answers should be approximately 100 words per question.

1. What are the different forms of social media that exist today? Provide examples of
different social media and their primary purposes.

The different forms of social media are instant messaging, blogs, wiki websites, social networking
sites, and MMORPG. Instant messaging enables users to send and receive real-time computer
messages. Blogs are frequently updated sites that contain articles in chronological, journal-like
form, often with reader comments and links to other sites. Wiki websites enable anyone to edit
and contribute to them. Social networking allows users to create personal profiles, upload photos,
create lists of favorite things, and post messages to connect with old friends and to meet new
ones. MMORPG is the virtual world of online role-playing games. Although not available yet, it is
said Web 3.0 will be a layered, connected database of information that software agents can sift
through and process automatically for us.

Instant Messenger – Yahoo! Messenger

Blog – TMZ.com
Wiki Website – WikiMapia
Social Network – Facebook
MMORPG – World of Warcraft
Web 3.0 – Freebase.com

2. What are the greatest benefits of social media for individuals and society?

Mass customization is the best benefit for individuals and society. It allows the public to engage
with and create media as never before. Individual consumers are given the ability, by media
companies, to customize a Web page or other media form. Newer media forms such as music
distributed as MP3s, to online streaming of films and TV shows, to an array of blogs, allow
greater participation than any other element. Social networking allows individuals to communicate
with other people in society. Social networking connects the world and its people I guess you can
say.

3. What are the greatest problems of social media for individuals and society?

The greatest problems of social media for individuals and society would be security,
appropriateness, and access When an individual decides to go online to sign up for things in
which they have to provide personal information, they put themselves at risk of government
surveillance, online fraud, and unethical data-gathering methods. Appropriateness for media has
been a debate for centuries, but most of the debate about appropriate media content has
centered on sexually explicit imagery. A key economic issue concerning the internet is being able
to purchase a computer and pay for internet service. Seventy-five percent of U.S. households are
connected to the Internet. There are big gaps in access in association with age and education.

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 4. How have modern social media sites affected commerce? Include positive and negative
examples in your answer.

The Internet has become a huge playground for advertisers, who are targeting consumers more
accurately than any other operation before. None of the venerable ad agencies at that time could
have guessed that Google would become bigger than the leading multinational advertising
holding companies like Omnicom, WPP, Interpublic, and Publicis. Nearly 99 percent of Google’s
$16.6 billion revenue in 2007 came from advertising. It has helped in a positive way, because
many people have access to the internet and are able to purchase items without leaving the
comfort of their own home. It has had a negative effect in the fact that consumers can leave
feedback that can be negative.

5. How has the Internet changed the way many Americans consume information? Explain
the importance and value of the availability of information on the Internet.

Culture links individuals to their society, providing both shared and contested values, and the
mass media help circulate those values. The mass media are channels of communication. They
produce and distribute newspapers, novels, Internet services, movies, songs, and other cultural
products to huge numbers of people. The historical development of media and communication is
traced through several overlapping eras in which newer forms of technology disrupted and
modified older forms. The Internet is a very important aspect in our society today. It is as if we
have the world and its information at our fingertips. It has greatly enhanced our means of
communicating over long distances.

6. How might you determine if information found online is trustworthy? Describe credibility
issues with information found on the Internet.

In order to determine if information found on line is accurate, there are a few questions you can
ask. Those questions are:
1. Is the source up-to-date?
2. Is it from a reputable publisher or Web site?
4. Is the author qualified to write reliably about the subject?
5. Who sponsored the publication or Web site?
Do not assume that information found online is reliable just because it exists. There is an issue
with credibility, because anyone can create a Web site and put whatever they want on it. Try to
determine the purpose of a website to determine its credibility.

7. In what ways have politicians used the Internet in campaigning and in staying in touch
with constituents? What is the overall effect of the Internet on politics?

Politicians are able to use the internet to reach a mass amount of people more often. It enables
those who want to be involved in the political process, to participate. It seems that voters feel
more comfortable expressing themselves over the internet rather than a town hall meeting. The
internet is a great way for candidates to gain voter, but it should not be used to manipulate voters.
Politicians also have to be aware of the things they say, because within minutes the incident
could be on YouTube for the world to see. Ultimately, political candidates must stay in the know
with the ever-changing tools available on the internet.

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 8. Newspapers, once available only in print, have evolved into 24-hour multimedia
operations. In addition to newspapers, briefly describe the evolution of movies, television,
Internet, books and magazines, and media companies throughout the last century.

Technology has evolved tremendously over the years. We have been able to view material on the
internet moments after it occurs, where as in the past, we had to wait to hear the story on the
news. With television, we have come to the age where it is no longer analog, but everything is
digital. With the invention of the internet and the evolution of it, people are more up to date on
current world events, as well as what is going on with the latest celebrity or politician. Books are
now available to read on the Kindle by simply purchasing the electronic version of the book online
and downloading it to the device. I am not sure if magazines are available on the Kindle, but if not
I am sure it is in the making. Personally, I would rather read the old-fashioned way, by holding the
book and flipping the pages.

9. What is media convergence? Provide an example of media convergence and explain the
media elements that are being combined. Explain how the combination of media elements in
your example may be useful and to whom.

Media convergence is the technological merging of content in different mass media. The state of
media convergence is always evolving, but its best application will most likely be with computers,
utilizing the endless capabilities of the Internet. The second generation of the Internet, known as
Web 2.0, is a much more rapid and robust environment, and has become a place where music,
television shows, radio stations, newspapers, and movies coexist. It is useful in the fact that users
create content like wikis, blogs, YouTube, Flickr, and PhotoBucket. It is the users who rule in Web
2.0, sharing the words, sounds, images, and creatively edited mash-up videos, that make these
Web communities worth visiting

10. How has media convergence changed American culture?

Media convergence changes the relationship that already exists between industries,
technologies, audiences, genres and markets. It changes the way media industries operate & the
way that media consumers process news and entertainment. It gives Americans different outlets
to receive their news and stay informed. Media convergences can allow a person the ability to
stay home and do accomplish everything from staying up to date on the world’s events to doing
grocery shopping from their home desktop. It has made life very convenient, but maybe too
convenient. I believe, sometimes we are too dependent on technology. What if all of the cell
phone towers crashed? A lot of us would not be able to do our everyday tasks, considering
technology is huge part of our everyday life whether professional or personal.

11. Explain how music and culture influence one another. Provide an example of a song or
album that affected culture. Provide examples of songs with cultural references.

Music is an expression of one’s thoughts, feelings, attitude, love, anger, excitements, hopes, and
strengths. No matter how it is produced and distributed, popular music endures because it speaks
to both individual and universal themes, from a teenager’s first romantic adventure to a nation’s
outrage over social injustice. It often reflects the personal or political anxieties of a society. It can
break down artificial or hurtful barriers better than many government programs do. A song that
has had an impact on our culture in this century is Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” (Put a Ring on It). It
has become a catchy phrase and everyone is doing her dance routine from her video. Examples

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of songs with cultural reference are Edwin Starr’s “War” (1970), Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On”
(1971), Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” (1975), and Green Day’s “American Idiot” (2004).

12. A big part of how pop music affects culture involves how it is distributed. Briefly describe
how pop music and music distribution has changed over the last century.

The first experiments with sound were conducted in the 1850s using a hog’s hair bristle as a
needle. De Martinville was able to record sound, but he could not play it back. In 1877, Thomas
Edison figured out how to play back sound. Around 1888, Emile Berliner invented the flat disk and
developed the gramophone to play it. The disks were easily mass-produced. A labeling system
was created and sound recording became a mass medium. By 1925, music could be heard over
radio airwaves. Then there was digital recording, which came about in 1970. Digital recording
allowed for the production of compact disks. Now we are able to download music from the
internet using MP3 file format, which was developed in 1992.

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