Final Exam
The final exam will include one empirical section (50%) with 25 questions (multiple choice, true/false, and identification) and one essay question (50%) which you will answer in a blue book.
Essay Questions:
You must include 3 direct quotes from at least two different readings assigned from this class to support your points. These must be in the form of direct quotes that are used meaningfully in your essay, and they must be correctly attributed. You may not use other outside sources in your answer. Please write the quotes on one side of a 3x5 index card, and remember to include your index card in your blue book when turning in your exam materials.
You will be assessed based on the accuracy of your summaries, the strength and clarity of your argument, and your ability to correctly employ terminology from the reading.
Choose one of the following:
1. What is a semiotic analysis? What kind of questions does this approach seek to answer? What benefits and drawbacks do you think relate to this method of analysis? Choose a new media object to analyze (a video game, an interface, a software application, a web site, etc.), and apply a semiotic approach to your example. Be as specific as possible as you walk us through your analysis. What can we learn or understand about your example using this approach that we might not learn from other critical methods that have been discussed this semester (ie, ethnography and/or political economy)? Finally, what kinds of questions do you think cannot be answered using a semiotic approach?
2. The exchange of digital media over the Internet has led many critics to question the current state of copyright law. What are some of the characteristics of digital media and the Internet that relate to some of these challenges? Describe some new media activities or practices that raise issues surrounding the protection of intellectual property. Choosing one specific example to focus on, weigh the rights of content owners to protect intellectual property with the values of a shared participatory culture. Should fans be able to appropriate or share licensed media properties? Why, why not, or under what circumstances? Is there anything that might be harmful about this practice? Be sure to discuss both the arguments of fans and the arguments of media industries in your answer. Finally, describe any potential solutions or alternate models that have been proposed in order to ease some of these tensions. Can you think of any new suggestions or ideas that have not been discussed in class?
3. Now more than ever, online activities are considered linked to off-screen borders and exchanges. Most notably, virtual and physical worlds can be understood as “blurred” or overlapping in regard to geography and economy in particular. Present visions of computing tend to integrate virtual activities and environments with physical ones. Drawing on lecture notes and readings, describe previous understandings of how the physical and the virtual interact. Choose any new media object (this can be a web site, an application, a virtual world, or any new media technology) that you think exhibits this blurred or symbiotic relationship between physical and virtual space. How would you describe the relationship between the virtual and the physical in your example? What do you think this example tells us about changing visions of computing? You may choose to write about your practicum project or you may find your own example.