UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DEL COMAHUE

FADECS Comunicacin Social Requisito Idioma Ingls, Nivel II

Name: .....................................................................

Date: ... /...... /.........

PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENT - UNIT 3

1. READING COMPREHENSION.

Read the first part 1 of New Media and the Information Society in

Stevenson, N. (2002). Understanding Media Cultures.Second Edition.SAGE Publications. (Chapter 6: New Media and the
Information Society - Schiller, Castells, Virilio and Cyberfeminism.) Then, complete the activities.

a) Re read the introduction to the chapter and first paragraphs of Section 1 and say Who says what?
1.

It is the Wests dominance of economic relations that leads inexorably to cultural forms of dominance. ________________

2. Knowledge and information are becoming the key factors in economic and social development.
3.

________________

The most important structural change impacting upon new media is the convergence of telecommunications, data
communications and new and old media.

________________

b) Re read the first two paragraphs in the first section (1) and fill in the missing info in the following ideas.
1. ____________________ represented the apex of American economic and cultural power.
2. Since this period, ____________________ has become increasingly complex with competing centres of economic
power and activity.

3. The American response to these challenges has been to ____________________ more forcefully into the
____________________ through the development of new ____________________.
4. These developments have aided the increasingly global spread of ____________________, the deregulation of
____________________ and the spreading ____________________ of the mass media.

c) Complete the following table with Schillers ideas.

The expansion in entertainment services and its relevance
1. It

2. It

3. It

4.It

d) Look at the following Wordle word cloud of paragraphs 3 and 4 and try to organize your ideas about this
section in a paragraph in Spanish.
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

In this assignment we will revise the Introduction (up to p. 185) and from the first section (1) we will cover up to p. 188 before
the paragraph on Mattelart and Mattelart.

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DEL COMAHUE

FADECS Comunicacin Social Requisito Idioma Ingls, Nivel II

e) Translate the ideas in the following paragraph into Spanish.

Popular culture in America is driven by capitalist accumulation strategies.
Economic forces are the main structures behind technological developments
such as the super information highway and the Internet, and they also help
determine the superficiality of much of mainstream mass culture. The
dominance of the economic system over other social spheres helps foster a
culture of conformity rather than critique, of sensation rather than substance
and technique rather than reflection. Cultural concerns, other than for a small
intellectual elite, are run, managed and determined by the parameters of
economics.

f) Answer the following questions after a quick read of paragraphs 3 and 4 in Section 1.
1. Explain the process of Americanization.
__________________________________________________________________________.
2. What is the implication of saying that Global economy is the new mechanism of governance?
__________________________________________________________________________.
3. What is the strategy that will be used on the globes wealthy consumers?
__________________________________________________________________________.
4. What does Stallabrass claim? Explain it in your own words.
__________________________________________________________________________.
5. Why does the author say that cyberspace becomes a zone of irresponsible consumption?
__________________________________________________________________________.
6. Why are Time Warner, America Online and Microsoft mentioned?
__________________________________________________________________________.
2

UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DEL COMAHUE

FADECS Comunicacin Social Requisito Idioma Ingls, Nivel II
g) Read the text again and ask 6 questions about the text:
1. ________________________________________________________________________ ?
2. ________________________________________________________________________ ?
3. ________________________________________________________________________ ?
4. ________________________________________________________________________ ?
5. ________________________________________________________________________ ?
6. ________________________________________________________________________ ?

h) Explain the message of the following quote from the article:

The globe it seems is being remade

in Americas own image.

____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
i) Do you agree with the author? IN SPANISH, explain why or why not.
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
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