COMM 10 EXAM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Which medium was the first to reach a national audience on a regular basis? - Answer-Magazines What media shifts in the 1950s and 1960s led magazines to become more specialized? - Answer-Television took away magazines' mass audience, as well as the advertisers that had previously used magazine ads to reach national audiences. General interest magazines gave away to specialized ones; aimed at specialized and segmented readers. Tend to have broader range in terms of geographical distribution than newspapers, but designed to reach more specialized audiences. Which medium has the broadest ownership? - Answer-Magazines; primary advantage of magazines = their ability to custom-tailor mass communications; ideally suited to small groups and their specialized interests What advantages do magazines have over newspapers in dealing with the new world of the Internet? - Answer-Smaller staffs and more work that can be outsourced; higher quality paper and graphics; functions as social marker of wealth, intelligence, etc. What is a zine? - Answer-Self-published magazines; quirky periodicals with only handful of readers that tackle some narrow subject matter with unrestrained subjectivity; specialization run amuck What is selective editing? - Answer-Advertisers can place their ads in some editions of magazines and not others Why do advertisers like magazines? - Answer-Delivers target audience to them (specific type of person); magazine readers tend to be better educated and more affluent (can afford products); more women read than men, and women tend to buy for families; HOWEVER, magazines now get most of money from paid circulation vs. ads Which medium was the first to become a true mass medium? What does that mean? - Answer-Newspaper; it was available to large numbers of people on a regular basis What was the primary content of the earliest newspapers? - Answer-Commercial and business information; info of political conditions that affected business What is yellow journalism? - Answer-Sensational news stories; type of journalism more interested in catching eye with headlines and stories about scandal/gossip, etc. than in factual accuracy What was the significance of the penny press? - Answer-Led to newspapers being first truly mass circulation medium