Midterm

Please complete the following questions by midnight on Sunday April 30 and email your answers to adrienne.russell09@gmail.com. If you don’t receive a confirmation email from me by Monday morning around 9am, email it again. Please make the subject of your email “midterm” and paste the answers into the body of the email. Do not send it as an attachment. You may use your books, notes, the Web, or any other source of information you find helpful. Be sure to read over the exam before you start.

Part I: Answer the following questions in a concise paragraph. Each answer is worth 10 points and should be roughly 100-200 words.

1. Please define and give an example of pirate politics. Include in your answer a discussion of how this example challenges widely held ideas about intellectual property.

2. How do The Yes Men act as a counter-hegemonic force? Please give specific examples and make sure to demonstrate an understanding of concepts of hegemony and counter-hegemony.

3. Why is activist media important to the democratic process?

Part II:  Write an essay for each of the following questions that draws from the reading, videos, discussions, and any other material you think will support you answer. Please write as clearly and concisely as possible and be sure to answer all elements of the question. Each answer is worth 35 points and should be 600-800 words each.

4.  Drawing from class reading, describe the typical mainstream media frame of street protests and the larger activist movements that drive them. Please outline a.) some of the prevailing news standards that dictate how events and issues are covered and b.) some media strategies employed by activists to counter the limits of the mainstream frames. Include in your answer historic and contemporary examples of different types of activist media and discuss the various aims of these groups and their media. For this you will have to draw on the Gitlin reading.

5. Please write an essay comparing media strategies of the Civil Rights movement and Black Lives Matters.  Include in your answer details about the practices used by each, referring to those outlined in Beautiful Trouble and, for Black Lives Matter, a new practice that is not outlined in the book. Please be sure to include in your answer references to the ideas of Jeff Chang, the intro to Journalism as Activism and the 2 articles we read on Black Lives Matters.

Reminder! Assignment Due on Tuesday May 2: an outline of your case study, including hypothesis about what you're going to find; sources of info about your subject; list of some of the BT principles you think your subject's experience might demonstrate; and brand-new principle (not yet listed in BT) you think it might demonstrate.