Take-Home Final

Answer one question from part A and one question from part B:

Part A

1.  How would the Perry campaign have benefited from reading the Iyengar book?  And how would Iyengar benefit from reading the Root book?  That is, how could Root's analysis correct errors or omissions in Media Politics?

2. Evaluate a proposed reform of the mass media. (See, for instance, Iyengar, chapter 11). Drawing on what you have learned in the course, identify both the costs and benefits of this reform. Would you support it? Explain.

Part B

1.  Campbell discusses media myths.  Groseclose discusses media bias. Explain how social media and other aspects of the Internet are affecting both phenomena.  On balance, will new technology produce more or less  myth and bias?  Explain.

2.  Professor Joseph Bessette has defined deliberation as reasoning on the merits of public policy. In recent years, have technological and organizational changes in the mass media improved or diminished the quality of deliberation on national issues?  Your analysis should include chapter 8 of Malecha as well as other class materials.

• Exams should be typed, stapled, double-spaced, and between six and seven pages long (including both answers). I will not read past the seventh page.
• Cite your sources. You may use either endnotes or parenthetical references to a reference list. In either case, put your documentation in a standard format (e.g., Turabian or Chicago Manual of Style). The endnotes or reference sheet will not count against the page limit.
• Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you.
• Return exams to me no later than May 8. Papers will drop a gradepoint for one day’s lateness, a letter grade after that. (The deadline for senior grades is May 10, so two days’ lateness will mean a failing grade for graduating seniors.)