JMC 101 Final Exam 2026/2027 – 60+ Questions & Answers | Mass Communication, Media History, Journalism, Advertising, PR, Broadcasting & Digital Media | University of Kansas

This comprehensive JMC 101 Final Exam 2026/2027 study guide spans 16 pages and contains 60+ practice questions, key terms, definitions, and verified answers covering the development and operation of mass communication and media. The material begins with foundational concepts such as narrative, selective exposure, mass communication, medium, libel, censorship, empiricism, freedom of expression, and the marketplace of ideas, before progressing through newspapers, radio, television, film, photography, advertising, public relations, telecommunications, the Internet, software, and contemporary digital media. It provides a broad chronological review of major technologies, institutions, individuals, legal developments, and communication theories represented in the JMC 101 material. A substantial section focuses on journalism, newspapers, and the historical development of mass media. Students review the printing press and its effects on literacy and the spread of ideas, the partisan press, Publick Occurrences, the Penny Press, wire services, agenda-setting, yellow journalism, Western Union, and the Associated Press. The source connects these developments to larger questions involving media accessibility, political influence, monopoly power, and the transformation of news distribution. It also discusses major journalism episodes such as the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, including the document's treatment of Daniel Ellsberg, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, government transparency, and investigative reporting. The radio, television, and telecommunications material traces technological and regulatory developments from Guglielmo Marconi's wireless telegraphy and spark system through RCA, the FCC, broadcasting licenses, television, satellite communication, and modern telecommunications. Key topics include the Mayflower Decision, Fairness Doctrine, Telecommunications Act of 1996, Nielsen Ratings, National Association of Broadcasters Code of Conduct, INTELSAT, Bell Labs, AT&T/Ma Bell, Arthur Korn, Philo Farnsworth, and Edward R. Murrow. The guide also examines television's relationship with the Civil Rights Movement and the amplification of Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” speech through radio and television. Another major section examines film, photography, advertising, and public relations history. Film topics include nickelodeons, Thomas Edison's Kinetoscope, the Lumière brothers, silent cinema, A Trip to the Moon, The Birth of a Nation, the Golden Age of Cinema, blockbuster filmmaking, and the Hollywood Ten. Photography material covers Louis Daguerre and daguerreotypes, George Eastman and Kodak, and the f/64 group. Advertising and PR topics include P. T. Barnum, Thomas Lipton, the Red Book of Advertising, patent medicine advertising, the Red Clause, Ivy Ledbetter Lee, Edward Bernays, the Four Minute Men, and the War Advertising Council. The study guide further addresses media law, regulation, ownership, and freedom of expression. Students review libel, censorship, New York Times v. Sullivan, FCC regulation, broadcasting obligations, media conglomerates, ownership concentration following the Telecommunications Act of 1996, SOPA, and Section 230. The source describes Section 230 in terms of protection for interactive computer services regarding information supplied by other content providers and contrasts platform responsibility with the responsibility of individual speakers. These concepts provide useful preparation for questions connecting historical First Amendment principles with modern media platforms and regulation. The final portion moves into digital communication, technology, and contemporary media economics. Topics include deep neural networks, geo-fencing, cool hunting, the Free Software Movement, open-source software, Moore's Law, graphical user interfaces (GUI), university Internet systems, Internet service providers such as CompuServe, Prodigy, and AOL, the Internet and World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, WikiLeaks, and tethered apps. The material also identifies major technology conglomerates under the term “Frightful Five” and discusses media conglomeration as ownership of numerous media properties by a relatively small number of large companies. Relevant Students: This resource is particularly relevant for JMC 101 students, University of Kansas journalism and mass communications students, journalism majors, mass communication students, media studies students, strategic communication students, advertising and public relations students, broadcasting students, digital media students, communication studies students, and learners preparing for a final examination covering media history, journalism, broadcasting, advertising, PR, telecommunications, and Internet media. The document explicitly identifies the course as KU JMC 101; the expansion to University of Kansas is based on that KU designation rather than a separately written university name in the document. 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