Assignment 5: Radio Station Analysis

Assignment No. 5

Radio Station Analysis

Mass Media and Society

Choose one radio station from each of the following categories and listen to it for at least half an hour. When you finish the listening portion of the assignment, you will have listened to three different stations. You can do the listening at home, in your car or through the Internet. Once you’ve listened to the three stations, answer the following questions in a 1- or 2-page response paper. Be sure to itemize which three stations you listened to.

Commercial radio - Listen to either of the following:

1. KFI – AM 640 – The No. 1 ranked station in Los Angeles
2. KIIS – FM 102.7 – The No. 1 ranked music station in Los Angeles

Public radio - Listen to any one of the following:

1. KPFK – FM 90.7 – A listener-supported public radio station

2. KPCC – FM 89.3 – A partially listener-supported radio station

3. KXLU – FM 88.9 - Non-commercial educational station broadcasting from Loyola Marymount University in Westchester

Your radio – What’s your favorite station?

3. K??? – ??? – Your favorite radio station

1. Go to each station’s website and check out the programming schedule listed online. What kind of programming (Music? Talk? Sports?) does each station carry? What kind of programming did you hear when you listened?

2. Did any of the stations carry more advertisements than the others? If yes, why do you think this is?

4. Who do you think the average listener is for each station? What makes you think that and why? Be specific here. Was it the ads, the disc jockeys, the callers, the shows?

5. What did you think of the public radio station?  Would you listen to it again?  If so, why?  If not, why?  Please be specific.

6. Based on what you heard, do you think the public radio station is serving a purpose in Los Angeles? Elaborate. Would you say that this station serves its community or no?

7. Come up with a list of five words that describe the commercial station you listened to. Then come up with a list of five words that describe the public radio station you listened to. Compare the lists. What do you think? (Be sure to include the two lists in your response)

Assignment 4: Make up and answer your own essay questions

Assignment No. 4 – Essay Questions

Mass Media and Society

Come up with two essay questions you think might be on the test and then answer them as completely as you can. So your homework will have two essay questions followed by two complete essay answers.

NOTE: Make sure that your questions are NOT fill-in-the-blank questions or one-sentence-answer questions. Essay questions and should be multi-dimensional; they should provide an opportunity for reflection, exploration and depth. The answers should be at least one fully developed paragraph that looks at all aspects of a topic and provide specific examples.

An example of an essay question follows. (Obviously, you can’t use this example question for your assignment.)

Sample question: The textbook discusses several specific examples of how media generate revenue. Identify and explain in detail two different revenue streams, including how they work and if they are still viable in today’s media world. Also, reflect on the importance of economics in media. In what way do economics impact content?

Assignment 3: Newspapers

Assignment No. 3 – Newspapers

Mass Media and Society

For your assignment this week, you’ll need to get a physical copy of the Los Angeles Times and read it. Reading the paper doesn’t mean reading every single story. The way to read the paper is to scan the headlines and photos on every page and stop on those stories that interest you and read them. For this assignment, you should read 10 stories in whatever issue you choose to read. The Sunday issue is always a good one to use for this assignment, as it’s large.

As you read, I want you to keep a list of the 10 stories that interested you enough to stop and read, then answer each of the following for each story in a response paper.

Response paper questions:

1.     For each story, provide:

a.     the headline, byline (the byline is the name of the writer or writers) and  BRIEF (as in a sentence or three) summary of the story.

b.     Why did this story interest you? Be specific.

c.      Do you feel the reporter did a good job with this story? Why or why not. Be specific.

        2. At the end of your paper, after you’ve done the above on the ten stories, Tell me how you felt overall after spending time reading the paper. How does reading the paper compare to the way you normally get your news and information?

Assignment 2: Books

Assignment No. 2 – Books

Mass Media and Society

In addition to anything listed on the syllabus for homework this week, you will need to do the following two things:

1.     Select a book and photocopy a page from it. The page should contain narrative, not an index or a dedication, or a table of contents. You can choose your favorite book; or your least favorite book; or the book you’re reading right now; or the book you read last summer; or the first book you ever read; or the only book you have ever read. The page you choose to copy can be your favorite page, the first page, the last page, whatever. Just make sure you’ve actually read the page before showing up to class with it. If you can access your book page on the Internet and print it out rather than copy it, that’s fine.

2.     Provide a response to the following questions/statements. Make sure your answers are typed and follow the formatting guidelines outlined in the syllabus and the MLA handout. Once you’ve completed your response, staple the book page to the back of your response and bring it to class on the due date.

Response paper questions:

1.     What is the title and who is the author of the book you chose?

2.     Tell me what the book it about; summarize it in a paragraph.

3.     Why did you choose this particular book? Be specific.

4.     What excerpt did you choose to bring in? Why?

5.     What do you like/not like about this book?

6.     Do you enjoy reading books? Why or why not?

7.     Do you think the human experience would be diminished if physical paper books no longer existed? Why or why not?

8.     In your own words, how is the experience of reading a bound, paper book different from experiencing other media? (TV, Internet, Radio, etc.) Be sure to use specific details to illustrate your point(s).

Media Use Survey Grid: Assignment 1 Part 4

                                                     MASS MEDIA AND SOCIETY:  MEDIA USE SURVEY

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  Books     Newspr.    Radio    Internet     Movies    TV     Recording    Mgzns.        DETAILS (more is better)

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DAY 1

DATE:

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DAY 2

DATE:

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DAY 3

DATE:

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Totals: _______   ________   ____     ________    ______   ____   ________    ________

Total texts for the three days _______