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For this assignment, you will choose and answer 3 questions based on the reading and viewing
assignments listed below.
Each answer should be a minimum of 3 paragraphs that are 3–5 sentences in length.
Read Chapter 1 of the Straubhaar et al. text.
1. Describe what convergence has meant in your life and how it affects you.
Media convergence is the convergence of mass media, computers, and telecommunications. New
media technologies impact our culture by offering new lifestyles, creating new jobs and
eliminating others, shifting media empires, demanding new regulations, and presenting unique
new social issues (Straubhaar, LaRose & Davenport, 2017).
Convergence has made a big change since my school days. As I was growing up, I can remember
when the internet was beginning to be the next big thing. I don’t remember searching much stuff,
only maybe to check email. It also was dial up and you have to use your home phone line. I can
also remember cell phones were beginning to boom. It was the start of when we had the ability to
connect with others not just at home anymore but even on the go. Even years after the first cell
phone that I brought later comes when we would have the ability to access the internet on the go
through our cell phones.
Working in healthcare, I’ve also experienced the change into the paperless world. Healthcare has
changed drastically from patient paper charts to everything being billed electronically over the
internet. Although the phones and pagers are still be utilized in healthcare, other
telecommunication devices have been introduced. Physicians now how the ability to treat
patients from afar, such as over the internet with webcam devices.
Media convergence has drastically changed my life. By working in the hospital and when my son
was first born, I still had to work some night shifts. I had the ability to watch him from his baby
monitor while I was at work.
2. Is social media a fundamentally new type of communication or not? Justify.
Yes, I believe that social media is fundamentally a new type of communication. When using
social media, you don’t necessarily have to call someone or write them. You could be just
keeping up to date with them by the photos or post that they make.
Since it has been 20 years since my high school graduation, I have lost contact with lots of
friends. Most of them have Facebook which is also a great way to invite and put together a high
school reunion. All through out life we meet people along the way whether it be in college,
clinical site and past or present job.
In my earlier years when Facebook was just coming out and a lot of people were attracted to it. I
was living in a different state. It helped me to feel back at home with my family and friends
would post pictures. Also, when I moved out of state again, I kept in contact with those friends as
well through Facebook. Social media these days has a lot of capabilities such as ways to post a
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job, looking for jobs and a creative way to post your unique creations. It’s also sad but true you
can sometimes hear of a death now on social media before it has actually reached the news
station.
Read Chapter 2 from the Straubhaar et al. text.
1. How has the hegemony of ideas affected you personally?
Read Chapter 3 of the Straubhaar et al. text.
1. Which culture should receive the most credit for the invention of printing? Explain.
The Chinese culture should be given the most credit for the invention of printing. The pressing of
the ink from wood blocks on to paper had a great influence in creating the printing press. They
were the first ones to create brushes, ink and paper. With these creations they were the first to
press the ink on paper to create books. Just like today after one person sees it, they try to make it
better. After the Chinese saw fit to press ink, greater ideas came from this as it was passed on to
the Japanese, the Koreans and then to the Arabs. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one
another and build one another up, just as you are doing.
As time passes thing are sure to get better as anything else in our culture today. The printing
press had been redefined and cultivated by many. Until Gutenberg books were limited because
they were hand written. Gutenberg of Germany printed the first German Bible. Before Gutenberg
only a few educated individuals had access to the handwritten printed books.
I believe when something is in the process of being invented it has to start somewhere and all the
ideas might not be there until it reaches the right person but it is forever changing and growing.
Even today we have many forms of printing and the invention of ideas keep pressing. We have
laser printers, inkjet printers, and 3D Printers with many more. Some printers are fast, some are
slow with all types of capabilities. But it is the European explosion of print technology that has
built a much larger world context (Straubhaar, LaRose & Davenport, 2017).
2. Debate the following proposition: Books are an obsolete medium.
Read Chapter 4 from the Straubhaar et al. text.
1. What is the proper role of a free press in a democratic society?
2. Go through your local newspaper—in print, on the Internet, or mobile device—and
describe the objective of each section. How do local newspapers differ from national ones
in content?
3. What does it mean for journalists to be the watchdogs?
Read Chapter 5 from the Straubhaar et al. text.
1. How do conglomerates affect print publishing? What are the positives and negatives
associated with conglomerates?
View the video The Future of Journalism
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1. Discuss your position on the place for investigative journalism in the future. Explain how
you either agree or disagree with Tom Rosenstiehl when he says digital technology
caused the problems in current journalism BUT that digital technology will also solve the
problems.
BIBLE INTERGRATION
