MIDTERM
COM203
FALL 2012
1. Describe and interpret the photograph on
the screen. Refer first to the image itself and then explain its
relationship with the caption and the news
article. Use the following terminology: icon, index, symbol, denotation, connotation,
sign, signifier, signified, signification. One full page. (25 points)
Extra credit: Apply the terms “anchorage” and
“myth” as used by Roland Barthes. (Three possible points)
2. Magic bullet theory/theory of limited
effects—two pages. Choose A or B.
A)How was the magic bullet theory disproven
through communications research? Discuss the validity of the theory of limited
effects. Use evidence from the following studies: The Invasion from Mars (War
of the Worlds), Experiments with Film (Why We Fight) , The People’s Choice
(Erie County), and the Personal Influence (Decatur) study.
B) Focus on one of the following studies--The
Invasion from Mars, Experiments with Film, and the Personal Influence study—and
argue how it disproves the magic bullet theory and supports the theory of
limited effects.
(25 points)
3. Define four of the following groups of terms in a paragraph of more than four sentences. Give examples
not used in class or in class notes. (7.5 points each)
I paradigm/syntagm
II synecdoche/metonymy
III
irony/trope
IV linguistic
value/onomatopoeia
V deictic/demonstrative
VI locution,
illocution, perlocution
4. What does Saussure mean by “the arbitrary
nature of the sign”? Why is this aspect of the sign so essential to semiotics?
Answer in two paragraphs. (20 points)
Extra credit: Why do Roman Jakobson and Emile
Benveniste argue that the word “I” is an indexical symbol? Why do they use the
term “shifter” to describe the pronouns “I” and “You”? Answer in two paragraphs. (3 points)
Extra extra credit: Explain Roland Barthes’s argument in “The
Photographic Message.” (3 points)
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