Answer five (5) of the following questions, each worth 10 marks, for a possible total of 50. Try to include at least five separate ideas, observations, or illustrations. You are free to access all class readings or sources available to you. Make sure you write enough to clearly establish the point(s) you want to make. However, clarity, not the number of words, should be your goal. Please write as accurately and grammatically as you can.

To receive credit for this exam, you must include a statement at the end to the effect that you alone have written the contents of the exam, and that full credit has been given to any writing that is not your intellectual property.

Final Exam 2002

2. Discuss the inter-relationships between mass media and popular culture. (10)

3. Write a satirical piece skewering a media phenomenon you believe needs to be exposed. (10)

4. Apply Hakim Bey's notion of the temporary autonomous zone (TAZ) to the use of the public sphere in a democracy? (10)

5. Describe specific examples of conflicts over copyright issues, noting arguments on both sides of these disputes. Conclude with a summary of your thinking on copyright. (10)

6. Paul Rutherford in Endless Propaganda writes: "Postmodern democracy...does have something of a 'refeudalized' quality" (275). What do you think he means by this? Why does Rutherford make this claim? (10)

7. H.A. Innis claimed that "monopolies of knowledge" were traditionally important to the longevity of empires or nations. Apply his thinking on this to contemporary events in your own nation. (10)

8. Apply McLuhan's laws of media to the emerging practise of video activism.

Marshall Soules
April 2002