FUNCTIONS AND EFFECTS

1.  (a) What does it mean to say that communication is always situated?  (b) What is the definition of the situation?  What does it include?  (c) What are some examples of definitions of situations?  (d) Are the elements in a definition of a situation a haphazard collection, or are they related in some way?  (e) Are definitions of the situation socially shared?  How are shared definitions acquired?  (f) What is the relationship between situation definitions and physical locations?

2.  (a) In what sense do situations have goals built into them?  (b) What is an interpersonal goal?  How does communication facilitate the achievement of interpersonal goals?  Provide definitions and examples.  (c) What is a task goal?  How does communication facilitate the achievement of task goals?  Provide definitions and examples.

3.  (a) In what way is the distinction between task and interpersonal goals a rough-and-ready one?  (b) Can multiple goals be present in a situation?  How?  What kinds of multiple goals are commonly present?  Give examples.  (c) When there are multiple goals in a situation are they all equally important?  Provide examples of dominant and subsidiary goals.  (d) When there are multiple goals in a situation do the goals necessarily conflict with one another?  Why or why not?  (e) Illustrate the difference between intended and unintended effects of communication.

IDENTITY MANAGEMENT

1.  (a) What is identity?  Why can all interactions be analyzed in terms of identity management?  (b) What is dramaturgy?  (c) What is the theatrical metaphor for analyzing identity management?  Explain how the metaphor works to illuminate identity management in everyday life.  (d) What is dramaturgical awareness?  Explain how it varies from person to person and from situation to situation.

2.  (a) What is a performance?  (b) What is the front?  The physical front?  The personal front?  Give examples.  (c) What is the task of dramatic realization?  (d) Explain (and give examples of) how performers commonly try to project an idealized image of the performer.  (e) Explain (and give examples of) how performers commonly try to project an idealized image of the performer-audience relationship.

3.  (a) What is maintenance of expressive control?  (b) Why is it important for performers to maintain expressive control?  (c) Explain (and give examples of) ways in which a performer might fail to maintain expressive control.

4.  (a) What is a team?  (b) Why do teammates need to cooperate?  (c) When are teammates expected to project unanimity?  When are they permitted to not project such consensus?  (d) What is a team director?  What duties does the director have?  (e) What is directive dominance?  How is it different from dramatic dominance?  (f) Can the same person have both directive and dramatic dominance in the same performance?  Can one person have directive dominance while another has dramatic dominance in the same performance?  Provide examples.

5.  (a) What is the front region?  The back region?  The outside?  (Explain and give examples.)  (b) Explain how regions are defined relative to a given performance.  (c) Are regions fixed physical locations?  (d) Are there places that are intrinsically front or back regions?  Can the same place be a front region, back region, and outside?  Explain, and give examples.

6.  (a) Identify two types of behaviors that commonly occur in the back region.  What is audience derogation?  What is staging talk?  (b) Why do performers need to control access to the back region?  (c) Why do performers need to control access to the front region?  (d) What is audience segregation?  (e) Identify (and give examples of) two common techniques for dealing with failed audience segregation.  How well do these work?

7.  (a) What is a performance disruption?  (b) What is an unmeant gesture?  An inopportune intrusion?  A faux pas?  Making a scene?  Provide examples. (c) What performer attributes are desirable in order to avoid performance disruptions?  What is dramaturgical loyalty?  What is dramaturgical discipline?  What is dramaturgical circumspection?  (d) What practices does the audience engage in to help avoid performance disruptions?  What is voluntary avoidance of the back region?  What is tactful inattention?  What is showing extra consideration for novice performers?  Provide examples.  (e) Explain (and give examples of) how performers must make it possible for the audience to engage in such practices.

8.  (a) When are disclaimers and accounts used?  (b) What is a disclaimer?  (c) What are disclaimers designed to do?  Provide examples.  (d) What is an account?  What is an excuse?  What is a justification?  (e) What are accounts designed to do?  Provide examples.

SOCIAL SUPPORT

1.  (a) What is social support?  (b) Identify two ways that people experience social support.  (c) Describe two general categories of effects of  social support.

2.  (a) What is an on-record act?  What is an off-record act?  With which sort of act can an actor plausibly deny having intended the act?  (b) Describe how the distinction between on-record and off-record acts is different from the distinction between direct and indirect speech acts.  Give an example of an indirect on-record act.  (c) Explain how the distinction between on-record and off-record acts is fuzzy.  (d) Explain how the fuzziness of the distinction is functional.  (e) Describe how people seek support in off-record ways.

3.  (a) Identify two general kinds of support that people provide.  (b) What is psychologically-focussed support?  (c) Identify two types of psychologically-focussed support.  What is esteem support?  What is motivational support?  (d) What is problem-focussed support?  (e) Identify two types of problem-focussed support.  What is informational support?  What is tangible support?

4.  (a) Identify and explain two general things we want from others in interactions.  (b) What is the desire for acceptance?  (c) What is the desire for autonomy?  (d) Explain how a support-seeker might face threats to his/her acceptance.  (e) Explain how a support-seeker might face threats to his/her autonomy.  (f) Explain how a support provider might face threats to his/her acceptance.  (g) Explain how a support provider might face threats to his/her autonomy.


ARGUMENT AND ARGUMENT STRUCTURE

1.  (a) What are the two senses of the word "argument"?  (b) Is having an argument the same thing as making an argument?  Can you make an argument without having one?  Can you have an argument without making one?  (c) Explain the relationships among justification, correctness, and persuasiveness.  Is a justified claim necessarily correct?  Is a correct claim necessarily justified?  Is a persuasive claim necessarily justified?  Is a justified claim necessarily persuasive?  Give examples.

2.  (a) What is a claim?  (b) What are the grounds?  (c) What is a warrant?  (d) What is backing?  Explain the idea of an argument chain; explain how "backing" is a shorthand way of acknowledging the possibility of argument chains.  (f) What is a rebuttal?  Give the formula for identifying rebuttals. (g) What is a qualifier?  Provide examples.

3.  (a) What is an argument prototype?  (b) Explain which part of an argument especially distinguishes different argument types.  (c) Explain, give examples of, and be able to identify the various argument prototypes discussed:  argument from classification, argument by generalization, cause to effect argument, effect to cause argument, argument by analogy, argument by authority.

4.  The three standards for a good argument are acceptability, relevance and sufficiency.  Define each, and illustrate how it can be used to evaluate an argument.

5.  (a) In applying the argument model to actual arguments, what is the recommended sequence for identifying the parts of the argument?  (b) What part of an argument is often left implicit?  Given the text of an argument, be able to identify the various parts of the argument.


PERSUASION AND SOCIAL INFLUENCE

1.  (a) What is compliance?  (b) Do people who adopt a new behavior through the compliance process believe in the new behavior?  Why do they adopt the new behavior?  (c) What is the source of the influencing agent's effectiveness in  compliance?  What is means control?  (d) How are behaviors/opinions based in compliance most effectively changed?  Describe two ways an influencer can change a person's perception of the conditions for reward or punishment.

2.  (a) What is identification?  (b) Do people who adopt a new behavior through the identification process believe in the new behavior?  Why do they adopt the new behavior?  (c) What is the source of the influencing agent's effectiveness in identification?  (d) What is the most effective way to change behaviors/opinions based in identification?

3.  (a) What is internalization?  (b) Do people who adopt a new behavior through the internalization process believe in the new behavior?  Why do they adopt the new behavior?  (c) What is the source of the influencing agent's effectiveness in internalization?  What are the two dimensions of credibility?  What is competence?  What is trustworthiness?  (d) What is the most effective way to change behaviors/opinions based in internalization?

4.  (a) Are the processes of social influence mutually exclusive?  Provide examples.  (b) How can a given behavior be based on different processes at different times?  Provide examples.  (c) Explain how multiple goals can be relevant in a communication situation.

MASS MEDIA NEWS

News coverage of political campaigns

1.  (a) Explain the connection between sport and drama. (b) What is the sportsframe?  (c) When the sportsframe is applied to political campaigns, what are the central questions asked about the campaign?  (d) Why does the sportsframe call attention to the polls?  (e) Why does the sportsframe focus on campaign strategy?  (f) What is an alternative way that campaigns could be covered?  (g) Is the sportsframe a common way of covering political campaigns?

2.  (a) Explain the four constraints on news coverage of political campaigns (objectivity, entertainment, informativeness, brevity). (b) Identify the specific facets of the commitment to objectivity. (c) Explain how the sportsframe satisfies the constraints under which news media operate. (d) Identify two effects of news media's using the sportsframe in campaign coverage. (e) Why don't voters learn much about candidates' positions and programs from news? (f) How does the use of the sportsframe in news coverage encourage public cynicism?


News diffusion

1.  (a) Where do most people get most of their news?  (b) Which news media are most likely to be the first sources of information about major news events?  (c) Under what circumstances are persons more likely than usual to hear news first from another individual? (d) How is the use of online news sources changing?


Agenda-setting

1.  (a) What is the agenda-setting hypothesis?  (b) Identify a weakness in evidence (concerning agenda-setting) obtained from simple correlational designs.  (c) What is a cross-lagged correlational design?  (d) Explain how a cross-lagged correlational design provides information about the direction of effect between two variables.  (e) How can experiments be used to investigate the agenda-setting hypothesis?

2.  (a) Does agenda-setting occur?  (b) How is the strength of agenda-setting effects influenced by the amount of news exposure?  (c) How is the strength of agenda-setting effects influenced by the medium of news exposure?  (d) Which has a stronger agenda-setting effect, newspapers or television?


Suicide stories

1.  (a) What happens to the suicide rate after front-page newspaper reports of a suicide?  (b) How does the amount of publicity influence the suicide rate following such reports?  (c) How does the geographic area of publicity influence the suicide rate following such reports?

2.  (a) What is the coroner-classification explanation of the apparent relationship between suicide coverage and suicides?
(b) Why is it unlikely that the observed relationship can be explained as a matter of coroner-classification effects?  (c) What is the precipitation-not-causation explanation of the apparent relationship between suicide coverage and suicides?  (d) Why is it unlikely that the observed relationship can be explained as a matter of the changed timing of suicides?  (e) What conclusion should be drawn about the relationship between newspaper coverage of suicides and the increase in suicides that follows such coverage?

MASS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT

1. (a) What motivates the use of entertainment media?  (b) What is instrumental exposure?  Give examples that illustrate the occurrence of instrumental exposure. (c) What is ritualistic exposure? Give examples that illustrate the occurrence of ritualistic exposure.  (d) Which kind of exposure (instrumental or ritualistic) accounts for most television use?  (e) What is involved in the two-step viewing decision?  (f) Describe how entertainment media can be used for mood management. Is this type of mood management always successful?

2. (a) Is violent media content widely available?  (b) How does exposure to media violence influence aggressive behavior?  (c) Give an example of a study that illustrates the effect of media violence on aggression.  (d) What is catharsis?  Is catharsis an effect of consuming media violence?  (e) Does the type of violence shown influence the effects of media violence?  Describe some characteristics that distinguish “good” and “bad” media violence. Is the violence shown in cartoons “bad”?

3. (a) Identify two types of frightening stimuli and provide examples of each.  (b) Are fright reactions to these stimuli common?  (c) What types of stimuli are most frightening when a child is in the perceptual thinking stage?  (d) What types of stimuli are most frightening when a child is in the abstract thinking stage?  (e) How should parents respond when their child is frightened by something the child sees in the media?  


4. (a) Describe three major findings regarding the way minorities are portrayed on television. (b) What effect could the under-representation of minorities have on the television audience?  (c) Which has a stronger effect on the creation of stereotypes: television portrayals of other racial groups or interpersonal contact with other racial groups?

5. (a) What are prosocial effects?  (b) Can children and adults both experience prosocial effects?  (c) What are the two main types of prosocial effects?  (d) Do children who watch a great deal of television exhibit more prosocial behavior than children who do not watch as much TV?  (e) What kind of effects typically occur for children who watch Sesame Street?  (f) What kind of effects typically occur for children who watch Mr. Rogers Neighborhood?  (g) Does adult involvement matter for children who are watching television shows with prosocial messages?

6. (a) What larger lessons can be learned from research on effects of mass-media (news and entertainment) content?  (b) What is the third-person effect?

MATERIAL COVERED ONLY IN DISCUSSION SECTION (not at the review session)

Identity management:
 1.  (a) Do performers always want to present as favorable an identity as possible?  (b) When and why might performers have an interest in displaying an appropriate level of modesty?

Persuasion and social influence:
 1.  (a) What is congruence (match-up) between a celebrity and a brand? (b) How does congruence influence recall of brand information? (c) How does congruence influence the transfer of affect from celebrity to brand?

Mass media news:
1. (a) What does the face ratio refer to in news media photographs?  (b) What is the difference between men and women in terms of face ratio?  (c) What is the difference between whites and minorities in terms of face ratio?  (d) How does a higher face ratio in a picture effect the viewer’s perception of that person?
2. (a) In research comparing readers of a print version and an online version of a newspaper, was there a difference in the number of news stories recalled?  (b) If so, what was the difference?
3. (a) In research comparing readers of a print version and an online version of a newspaper, were there differences in the kinds of news stories recalled? (b) If so, what were the differences?