Social Science Exam
Social Science 123
Exam #5
Visual Culture
Name _________________________
Student Number _______________
Date _________________________
Part I (10 points maximum)
Interpretation – Pick 5 (five) from the following list and construct concise, but thorough, interpretations that reflect the subject’s significance to American popular culture. Good luck!
George Eastman
Kinetoscope
Nickelodeons
National Board of Review
The “Independents”
Block Booking
The Jazz Singer
Film Noir
John Ford
“Race Films”
National Broadcasting Company
The Happiness Boys
Crooning
The “Magazine” format
Television Cities
CATV
All in the Family
Part II (15 points)
Short Answer – Write your answers to the following questions in the space provided. Good luck!
1. Provide two important ways in which the lasting power of any cultural form rests with the working class (2 points).
a.
b.
2. Provide the full name of the organization that Thomas Edison created to control the nascent American film industry and which was found to be illegal in 1915 (1 point).
a.
3. Provide two ways in which D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation is considered a landmark film (2 points).
a.
b.
4. Provide two reasons Hollywood was attractive to the film industry (2 points).
a.
b.
5. Provide one way in which the movie industry responded to the draining of audiences by the introduction of television (1 point).
a.
6. Provide the name of the Westinghouse radio station that began the era of radio broadcasting in 1920 (1 point).
a.
7. Provide one way of describing modern radio according to your text (1 point).
a.
8. Name the most popular radio serial of all time (1 point).
a.
9. Name the man who is considered the most ruthless and far-sighted innovator in the development of television (1 point).
a.
10. Provide one reason that the development of television was put on hold (1 point).
a.
11. Provide one of the television formats that have had the greatest staying power (1 point).
a.
12. Provide one of the new networks that spring up in the 1980s to exploit the cable TV market (1 point).
a.
Part III (4 points)
True or False – Write the letter “T” in the space provided for true and “F” for false. Good luck!
1. The role of major innovations in popular culture during the 20th century was unpredictable. _________
2. Many innovators in the 20th century pinned their hopes of profit on software while the potential lay in the technological hardware. ________
3. 20th century technologies filtered and changed ideas in packaging them for dissemination. _______
4. Television is the most structurally complex of the pop culture forms. ______
