Final is ready

Your final is available to take whenever you are ready. Its 80 questions and you have two hours to complete it once you begin. The questions cover the chapters we looked at this semester, 1 through 11 with the exception of chapter 9. You will have until Midnight Wednesday to work on it.

Good luck, and have a good holiday season.

Final news

I'm working on the final. I need to convert it to D2L and that takes some time. It will be ready in the next couple days. Once ready I'll open it up and you'll have until Dec. 22 to complete it.

In the meantime, review the chapters we covered during the semester. Of course the test will be open book and you'll have plenty of time to work on it.

If you are still working on the extra credit assignment and need more time, let me know.

News blog

I know you're all busy but I thought some of you may be interested in the news blog we created in my reporting class. I'll be adding more stories this week as the students finish their assignments.

http://fvccnews.blogspot.com/

Advertising review/quiz ready

The advertising review and quiz are ready to go. The quiz will be open until Friday.

PR review

The public relations PowerPoint is available. You have until next Friday to take the quiz. I'll post an advertising quiz and review this weekend.

New quiz

A new quiz is up for the public relations chapter. I'm working on some review material to supplement your text book. I'll get that up tonight hopefully. The quiz will be open for you to take until Friday, Dec. 10. That's a week from Friday, not tomorrow. I'll post another quiz on the advertising chapter this weekend. That will be open until Dec. 10 as well. That's as far as I intend to go in the text. However, if you have read beyond chapter 11 and don't want your work to go in vain, e-mail me and I'll work out some extra credit compensation.

The Long Tail extra credit assignment

This graphic illustrates the Long Tail Effect. The y axis (that's the line the runs up and down) shows how popular a product is, or how great its sales. The x axis (the horizontal line) shows the distribution of sales of all of the products in a category. If we were considering movie ticket sales this weekend, the latest Harry Potter release would be represented by a place on the x axis very near its intersection with the y axis. In other words, Harry Potter ticket sales are in the red area designated as the "Head," as ticket sales for that movie are quite high. Some art house movie only showing on a few screens, primarily in big cities near universities with a concentrated population of pretentious intellectuals would be represented by a point on the x axis far to the right of the Head. Our art house movie, let's call it "Jacques Confronts the Meaninglessness of Existence While Drinking Pinot," would be placed somewhere out on the orange "Long Tail."

Why is this Long Tail important? Consider for a moment a different type of product: music. When I was a young lad in college I worked at a record store, Licorice Pizza (Get it? if you've never seen a vinyl record you might not, but don't get hung up on that distraction). Record stores where the place were everyone purchased their music back in the prehistoric 1980s. Record stores were a great place for distributing music, but they had a significant limitation: space. That limitation meant that we could only carry the best sellers, or records that sold well enough to fall in the Head section of the x axis.

What that meant was that if you were looking for the latest Phil Collins album (he was big back in the day) we had plenty on hand. But if your tastes ran more in the direction of "Echo and the Bunnymen," an arty New Wave act of that era, we might have had a copy stuck in a bin with the latest releases by "Agent Orange," "X" and "Magazine," other New Wave/Punk bands with considerable talent but sales that never climbed beyond the Long Tail into the Head.

But today my 16-year-old daughters have never purchased music in a record store, and have only been in Rockin Rudy's in Missoula a time or two. They purchase all of their music online in iTunes and load it directly on their iPods.

So, for extra credit I you need to answer the following five questions. Each answer should be 50-100 words (one or two paragraphs). If you answer all of them correctly the score on your Kindle paper will be increased a letter grade. I will consider this extra credit through Dec. 13 (that's the Sunday before finals). If you complete the extra credit early and would like to have it reviewed by me before final submission, you can e-mail it to me and I'll let you know what you need to improve.

Before you try answering these questions a little research is in order. I'd start here if I were you.

You may also find this helpful.

Your questions:

1 — Music on iTunes is distributed digitally. As the cost of digital storage space (memory) has declined, how has this affected digital music distribution?

2 — Retailers once focused their efforts on the few top products in the Head. What are the implications for profit making when products in the Long Tail can be distributed at virtually no cost?

3 — It you were an independent producer of low volume product, be it music, video or a manuscript, how would you seek to exploit the Long Tail to maximize sales and exposure?

4 — Has the distribution of intellectual property changed permanently, and if so is this good or bad (you may steal some ideas from your Kindle papers for this one)? If we lose the communal space of bookstores and record shops forever have we lost something of value?

5 — Do you expect the forces of the Long Tail to play out for books the way it did for music, or do you expect something different to happen?

Don't kill yourselves with these. Just give me a short graf or two on each that shows me you understand the concept. If you'd feel more comfortable answering one of the questions with five to 10 grafs instead of all five with one or two, that's find as well. Whichever approach is most comfortable for you.

I'll get some review material for our final chapter quizzes out tomorrow.

No quiz this week

In case you've been checking, we will not have a quiz this week. I will post some info on the Long Tail extra credit assignment either this evening or tomorrow.

In the meantime, stay warm and safe. Those temps out there are potentially lethal.

Media Economics quiz

Is ready to go.

Good luck.

New Media review

I've posted a PowerPoint for Chapter 3, Media Economics. We will have a quiz on Friday. It's more about my experiences working for newspapers as it is the content of the textbook. It's my take on some of the things I observed in 15 years in the business.

I hope you find it useful.

P.S. Many of you missed quizzes in the last few weeks. Touch base with me so you can make them up.

Olbermann takes on his critics

Keith Olbermann responds to his critics here. The link has both the text of his commentary from last night as well as the video.

Here's a link to the Ted Koppel column Olbermann references in his Special Comment.

Can both Koppel and Olbermann be right?

Long post on the state of the class

As some of you have already noted, I've added to your kindle paper feedback a summary of your grade in the class so far.

At this point we have three major elements you will be graded on: quizzes, exams and your Kindle papers. The syllabus also lists blog posts, but after looking the blog I have made an adjustment on how I'm weighting grades. The syllabus states grades will be weighted as follows:

30 percent: Papers
40 percent: Exams
20 percent: Chapter quizzes
10 percent: Blog assignments

I would like to amend it to:

30 percent: Papers
40 percent: Exams
30 percent: Chapter quizzes

I’d like to count blog assignments/posts as extra credit. Basically, if you’ve been a frequent, intelligent participant on the blog that work will move your grade a few percentage points in the right direction. In other words, if you’re looking at 88 percent (B) but you have been on the blog a lot, I’ll consider that 88 a 90 and you will have earned an A instead.

Changing the weighting doesn't make a big difference, but FAVORS everyone in the class. Generally, everyone's quiz scores brought their grade up. If calculating your grade based on the weighting that's stated in the syllabus gives you a better grade, that's how I will calculate it. But right now that's not the case.

What I have learned from this experience is that I need a better way of evaluating blog posts for grades. BTW, if you are looking for extra credit there a few posts below you can comment on for points.

As previously mentioned, I will also offer extra credit for a second writing assignment. The topic will be the Long Tail, focusing on the retailing concept popularized by Wired editor Chris Anderson in his book, “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More.”

Before signing off, I’d like to offer my sincere apologies for some of the problems we have encountered in the class this semester. I realize it has been frustrating for all of you, and for good reason. It has been frustrating for me as well. As I have been developing elements for the class I’ve run into some technical issues, and it has been difficult to find the help needed to correct them. The good news is that just this morning I was provided a copy of a user’s manual for D2L, the system FVCC uses for providing online instruction. I should be able to troubleshoot problems on my own in the future instead of having to track down support.

I don’t mean to whine (but I will whine anyway) but the lack of technical support really made it difficult for me to teach this semester. I have two other jobs and for about three or four weeks most of my efforts in this class were directed at trying to sort out technical problems rather than focusing on instruction.

We will keep things simple the rest of the semester. We have three more chapter quizzes to go: Media Economics, Public Relations/Advertising and Ethics and Media Law. We also have a final exam. And you will have the opportunity to earn extra credit either on the blog or with the Long Tail writing assignment. Give me a couple days and I’ll get that assignment to you. In the meantime, get some background on the Long Tail here.

Good luck with the rest of the semester,
Rob

Olbermann saga rages behind the scenes

Speaking of The Daily Beast and its growing stable of highly regarded writers, Howard Kurtz has a follow up to the controversy surrounding Keith Olbermann's suspension and reinstatement at MSNBC.

Kurtz is well known in journalism circles as he was formerly the media critic at the Washington Post.

Match made in heaven?

Last week it was announced the Newsweek, the venerable ink-on-paper news magazine, was merging with The Daily Beast, an upstart news Web site that has been attracting attention and a number of big-name journalists (including editor Tina Brown). But this writer argues it's a match made for disaster.

I tend to agree.

Ebooks could be big for Christmas

It looks as though retailers are expecting big sales for ebooks this holiday season.

Also, some signs of life in the retail world that the economy is slowly turning around.

Grades so far

I have added information regarding your overall grade so far to the feedback I left for you Kindle paper. The info includes your overall average, as well as your quiz score averages (minus your lowest score) your exam grade and your paper grade.

I will post some more information about the remaining material to cover and extra credit hopefully by tonight.

Quiz reopened

It looks as though some of you missed the news quiz yesterday. I reopened it until Monday night. If you have trouble taking it, let me know.

I am going through your scores this weekend. Once I've done the math I will let all of you know where you are at in the class. I will also post direction for the final month. I'm working on it today and with the goal of posting this evening.

Are modern news organizations replaying the partisan era?

Kind of interesting. Keith Olbermann of MSNBC gets suspended indefinitely and then returns to work a few days later for making campaign donations to a trio of Democratic candidates just before the Nov. 2 elections.

I like Olbermann, but he has been a harsh critic of Fox News and many of the channel's hosts for doing exactly the same thing.

This critic thinks Olbermann made a mistake.

If you're not familiar with the story, here's some background.

News quiz is ready

The news quiz for Chapter 8 is ready. You'll have until midnight Friday to complete it. Watch out, there's an extra question, with 11 total.

News review up

The Chapter 8 News PowerPoint is up.

I'll look into the grading issue with the last quiz tomorrow.

Kindle paper grades posted

Your Kindle paper grades are posted in the feedback section of the drop box. I will leave hard copies of your papers with my chicken scratches in Ed Services at the college for you to pick up if you're interested.

I will post review material for the next chapter this evening.

Quiz ready

The Chapter 7 New Media quiz is up and ready to go. Good luck.

New Powerpoint review is ready

I have posted a review Powerpoint on Chapter 7, New Media. We will have the usual 10-question quiz on Friday.

Since we got sidetracked by quiz issues earlier in the semester, here's a revised schedule for the remaining weeks.

Nov. 1
Unit 7 – New Media Landscape

Nov. 8
Unit 8 – News

Nov. 15
Unit 9 – Media Economics

Nov. 22
Thanksgiving Week, eat turkey and review

Nov. 29
Unit 10 – Public relations/advertising

Dec. 6
Unit 11 –Ethics and Media Law

Dec. 13
Final review

Also, we have another paper on the syllabus, but I've decided to make that optional. In other words, if you would like to write a longtail paper for extra credit you will have that option. I'll post links for those interested in E.C.

I promised to have papers finished, but I still have a few to go. I'm meeting with tech support in the morning and I hope they will be able to tell me how I can post your grades so only you can see them. If so, I'll let you know on this blog tomorrow.

I will need a little more time to get the hard copies back to you unfortunately.

Exam ready

Your midterm is ready to go. You can take it any time between now and midnight Friday. There are 50 questions and you'll have 90 minutes to complete the exam once you begin.

When you get to the class page just click on quizzes. You'll find it there. Good luck.

New quiz ready/Midterm exam next week

The Chapter 6 Motion Media quiz is now available. I set it up so you have until midnight Monday to complete it.

This will be our last unit before the midterm. Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 will be covered on the midterm. I'll post some review items next week. The exam will be multiple choice. It will be available Friday.

Quiz ready

The Sound Media quiz is up and running. You have until midnight Wednesday to complete it. I think I have it set up so that you can see your answers, right or wrong, after you submit your work.

I have also opened up the three previous quizzes for those of you who have not completed them. This is a one shot amnesty deal, so if you've been slacking now is your time to make amends. You'll have until Wednesday to complete those as well.

Look for the next quiz on Motion Media Thursday.

Cheers,
Rob

The way forward

OK, we've got the quiz scores semi-fixed. We'll move forward with the Sound Media quiz this weekend. I'll post it on Friday and leave it open for four or five days to allow all of you time to complete it. I will also reopen the earlier quizzes for those of you who have missed assignments. And, I will take a look at where we are early next week and provide some instruction on when to expect the mid-term exam and on what it will cover.

Look for the quiz tomorrow, and a post about make up quizzes this weekend. I'll try to get through your papers as well, but my kids have a soccer match in Helena on Saturday so I'll lose a day for that.

Cheers to all and thanks for the patience with the quiz troubles.

Oh yeah, I will drop your lowest quiz score before I calculate your grade.

Can you see your quiz scores now?

I hope we have this issue resolved. Check to see if you can see your quiz scores. If yes, or no for that matter, post to let me know the result.

In the meantime, here's a short, short story, by Tobias Wolff I really like. The link takes you to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog post. Don't read the blog post, just click on the "Bullet in the Brain" link in the first sentence of the blog. That takes you to a PDF of the story. And I do mean short, its only four pages. But it is very good.

Sorry, there are a couple typos in the PDF file. You'll need to buy the book and load it onto your Kindle if you want to read a mistake-free version.

Quiz woes

I worked on the quiz issue on Friday, plus I received assistance from Swen on the help desk (I think he really was in Scandinavia judging by his accent which was a little tough to understand). I will work on it again on Monday. Hopefully I can get it set up properly and we'll be good to go.

Some of you have asked to have your quiz scores e-mailed to you. I have resisted doing this so far because it is potentially a violation of FERPA (Federal Education Records Protection Act). I'm hoping I can just get this grade book set up and you'll be able to access them on your own, and I won't get in trouble for sending grade information via e-mail. Sorry, I'm trying to get this fixed.

In the meantime, here's a link to one of my favorite poems. It's kind of funny, in a morbid sort of way.

New drop box, no quiz yet

I've created a new drop box for your Kindle papers. If you've already dropped your paper in the quiz drop box don't worry. I'll get it there.

I don't have the quiz situation squared away yet, so I'm going to delay the Sound Media quiz a little longer. It should be available next week. I'll keep it open longer than 24 hours so you will have plenty of time to finish.

Let's see some more feedback on the battle of grunge vs. hair bands post.

Grunge versus the hair bands

Sorry for the late post. My original plan went astray when I discovered the link to the Elvis Costello performance I wanted you to see has been blocked. But that's OK as Plan B is pretty good too, featuring nothing less than the ...

Best. Video. Ever.

This is Nirvana's grunge rock classic Smells Like Teen Spirit. This is the song that defines 1990s counter culture. In my opinion this is one of the greatest rock songs of all time, if not the greatest. And the video is something else. There's the band, the tatted up anarchist cheerleaders, the creepy janitor (every school has one) and the pep rally that has gone terribly, terribly wrong. Trust me, the pep rallies at Glacier High are nothing like this.

This is Nirvana's take on that universal theme, youthful alienation. It goes where Catcher in the Rye and Rebel Without a Cause once tread. The lyrics (posted below) are the poetry of teen angst.

Now compare Spirit to this 1990s hit.

Same decade. Same music genre. But could the music and message be any more different?

Also, is there any doubt which lead singer later died tragically by suicide and which went on to star in his own reality dating show just a few years ago?

So what do you think about these contrasting messages, both of which are well represented in the annuls of rock music? Which do you prefer, the tragic-artist posturing of Nirvana or the let's party philosophy of Poison? Do we have to choose?

And add a link to your favorite music on www.youtube.com to share with the class.

Smells Like Teen Spirit

Load up on guns
Bring your friends
It's fun to lose and to pretend
She's overborne and self-assured
Oh no, I know a dirty word

Hello, hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello ,hello
With the Lights out it's less dangerous
Here we are now entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now entertain us
A mullato an albino
A mosquito my libido
yay

I'm worse at what I do best
And for this gift I feel blessed
Our little group has always been
And always will until the end

Hello, hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, hello
With the Lights out it's less dangerous
Here we are now entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now entertain us
A mullato an albino
A mosquito my libido
yay

And I forget just why I taste
Oh yeah I guess it makes me smile
I found it hard it's hard to find
Oh well whatever nevermind

Hello, hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, hello
With the Lights out it's less dangerous
Here we are now entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now entertain us
A mullato an albino
A mosquito my libido
A denial

Quiz this Friday?

I have some help (finally) to get the quizzes set up properly so that you can see your grades and monitor your progress. Assuming all goes well, the quiz on Sound Media will be available on Friday.

Some of you have asked to make up quizzes you missed. I'm looking into that as well and expect to have an answer this week.

In the meantime, this evening I will post a discussion topic focusing on the messages communicated in music videos. I'll post some of my all time faves to get the ball rolling. I'd like all of you to think about some of your favorite videos to share with the class. If you haven't done this before, just go to www.youtube.com and type in the name of your favorite song. You'll find just about anything on youtube.

No quiz this week

I'm going to delay the Sound Media quiz until next Friday, Oct. 8. That will slow our progress down a little bit, but hopefully will give you extra time to work on your Kindle papers. I also want to have a discussion about some music videos that I will share next week. So you get an extra week to get up to speed on Sound Media, and we'll watch so cool music videos and discuss next week.

P.S. If you've missed a quiz, or two, don't just let it slide (unless your goal is to fail the class). Contact me via e-mail and we'll see if a make-up is appropriate.

Quiz this week

I had a question about the quiz. We are moving on to Sound Media this week, so there are two PowerPoints on the recording industry and radio.

I have been in touch with tech support about the quiz score issue. However, the guy I work with is out on maternity leave. He should be able to help working from the hospital and I hope to get this resolved this week.

There was a trick question on last week's quiz. It is the Rocky Mountain News, not Herald, that closed its doors. The correct answer is the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. However, on further review I think the question is a little misleading as the P-I didn't really close its doors, it just ceased print publication. It is still available online. I'll review those scores and give credit for those of you who missed that question.

Looking back on my notes I think you have enough direction on what I'm looking for in the Kindle paper. I still may post some additional reference material for you to consider. If you feel as though you need more direction from me on the paper, let me know on the blog and I will respond.

New quiz ready Friday

I hope you don't mind that I didn't add a reading assignment this week. I was sick most of last week and I'm just getting caught up. I won't give you an online assignment next week either. You should, however, be looking here this weekend for more direction on our Kindle writing assignment.

Since I haven't heard anything since the last quiz, I'm assuming you are able to get your score when you complete the quiz and know where you stand. I'm still trying to correct the program so you can see your grades as they are compiled.

New quiz available Friday

The Chapter 2 quiz is ready to go at midnight. I didn't add any questions from the reading as I suggested. Just 10 questions from the chapter.

I'm looking into the issue of having the system report your grade to you. Is it at least telling you how many you get right? That's the key? Nine or 10 right is an A, eight is a B, seven is a C, etc. They will all be totaled and averaged in the end.

Good luck!

When a Fringe Figure Becomes News

Take a look at this interesting conversation about the media coverage of the Koran-burning controversy. Post a comment by 8 p.m. Friday for a grade. Granted, this isn't exactly on topic for Chapter 2, but this debate about how the media covers the news is happening now. Our class blog is more flexible than our text book. Lets take advantage of that.

Also, unless I hear some strenuous objection, I'm thinking I'd like to delay the deadline for your Kindle paper for a couple weeks, until say Oct. 8. I'm going to assume that's a popular decision unless I hear otherwise.

Quiz, paper and assignments to come

The good news is that the quiz last Friday seemed to work, and everyone did just fine as well. Scores ranged from seven correct to nine. We'll have a quiz of 10 questions every Friday, as we finish each unit.

One of you asked for more direction on the Kindle paper, which is due Sept. 30. As mentioned in the syllabus, the paper needs to be 1,000 words (or more). One thousand words is about 2 1/2 to three pages, double spaced.

The paper should focus on the future of books. Does Kindle, or other ebooks, represent the future of reading, or will there always be a place for ink-on-paper books? Will the Guy Montag's of the future have actual paper books to burn when the dystopian police state decides it needs a mechanism to both pacify the public and control its access to information? Or will the state simply be able to transmit a virus via the Internet to everyone's ebook, scrubbing the text of all subversive ideas?

Feel free to ignore that pessimistic comment on the future. I'm not that pessimistic, actually. But I've still got Fahrenheit 451 on my mind due to my daughter's summer reading assignment. What I'm really looking for you to do is discuss the future of books. Will ebooks replace the printed page, or is there some shared role for the two formats to coexist in the future? I'd like to reference at least four sources, and two can be the articles I asked you to read in the initial Kindle post.

Interesting thoughts on the Daily Show clip about the way Fox presents the "news." One of you mentioned that all the shows do this to one degree or another. In fact, all journalists do this to a certain degree, choosing for instance which quote makes it into the story and which get the delete button. There is the question of whether any other network does its quite so brazenly as Fox. I'm not aware of any examples that bad, but if you know of some please share.

Look for another reading assignment from me by Wednesday. I'll be requiring responses from all of you, and expect a question or two from the reading to show up on the Friday quiz.

Quiz ready to go at midnight

The chapter 1 quiz has been created and the 24-hour window in which you can take it begins tonight at midnight. You will have until midnight on Friday to take the quiz. It's 10 questions and once you start the quiz you'll have 20 minutes to complete it. Good luck. I'm looking forward to seeing your scores. I'm expecting nothing but 10's.

Getting ready for the quiz

Kelly, you've covered the basics for the quiz.

Are there any examples of the media manipulating its audience? Take a look at this clip from the Daily Show: (You may want to skip over the crude Tosh.0 promo before the clip)

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/mon-august-23-2010-rod-blagojevich

What should we make of Fox News demonizing one of the funders of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque when that person is also a partner with Rubert Murdoch in News Corp, the parent company of Fox News? Is Fox manipulating its audience?

Quiz on Friday

We will have a quiz on chapter 1 this Friday. My goal is to have the quiz available from 12:01 a.m. Friday until midnight. However, once you log in there will be a time limit. This is my first online quiz of any kind, but hopefully I'll get it posted properly and there won't be any glitches.

Review the Chapter 1 PowerPoint and your textbook to prepare.

Nice job on the Kindle blog post. Many interesting points were raised. I think the discussion took a somewhat unexpected turn toward the impact technology has on our humanity. Is there a truth that can only be found during your fourth day at elk camp, but is completely inaccessible via your Blackberry or iPad? Maybe.

Welcome Intro to Mass Media Students, Fall 2010

We'll, you found our class blog. The first thing I'd like you to do is to add a response to this post. Just click on comments below, type in your name and you're good to go. I want to check to make sure everyone is able to find the blog and post. I'll post your first assignment here on Tuesday.

I will use this blog as my primary form of communication with you. I will post instructions, reading topics and future assignments right here. So bookmark this site and check it on a regular basis throughout the semester.

If you're interested, scroll down a take a look the posts from last fall. It will give you an idea of some of the things we'll be discussing this semester.

Remember, post your name below just like I've added mine, so I know you've been here.

How do our brains read Kindle?

Here's a review of the latest Kindle ebook from Amazon.

And here's an interesting story about the way we swamp our brains with digital overload.

Take a look at both. You have until 8 p.m. Friday to post a comment on the stories.

For a podcast on the lighter side of the digital debate, go here.