Examples of Questions

These are just examples of the types of short-answer questions to expect. The actual questions could be drawn partly from this list, or not, or appear as variations on these questions.

1. In what ways did printing enable scientists and scholars to move away from just recovering old knowledge and move toward discovering new knowledge?

2. Briefly contrast medium theory with social construction of technology as ways of understanding the effects of communication technology on society. What are two key differences?

3. In assessing the impact of a technology, it often is necessary to pay attention to the occupational group that used it as well as to the technology itself. What role did printers play in the Protestant Reformation?

4. DROPPED Most Americans rarely sent a telegraph message themselves. Yet, the telegraph indirectly touched the lives of most people. Discuss two ways that the telegraph changed the lives of average people (people who did not make special use of the telegraph)?

5. Explain how the telegraph tended to centralize the operations of different institutions. Give two examples to illustrate your explanations.

6. How did the telegraph change the nature of news stories and the news business?

7. As Nord points out, some new technologies don’t realize their full potential right away because people use them as extensions of old technologies. Illustrate this point by examining the early years of printing or the telegraph.

8. Short essay. One of the “Ironies of Communication Technology” discussed by David P. Nord is that new technologies are “never so new as people imagine,” at least initially. He gives four supporting arguments. Explain at least three of the arguments he gives in support of this proposition and illustrate each one with an example from a technology that we’ve discussed.