1 History of Information 103 Study Guide for Final Exam Exam total points = 50 (50% of the final grade) I. Short Answer. Of the names/pictures/quotes below, 10 will be on the exam. There will be 7 short answer questions that you have yet to see, 5 of which you must do. Each question will be worth 1 point, such that this section will be worth 15 points total. A. Identify each of the following and briefly indicate its relevance to the history of information (ten items in all from Sections IA, B, and C will appear on exam, along with seven unseen items from which you can pick five). 1. The Fairness Doctrine 2. BSD 3. The Battle of Trafalgar (Horatio Nelson's great victory) 4. Vannevar Bush 5. camera obscura 6. Andrew Carnegie 7. Fireside Chats 8. Claude Chappe 9. Elisha Grey 10. Functional literacy 11. John Locke 12. muckraking 13. Vance Packard 14. packet boats 15. Pergamon 16. rivalrous goods 17. Sears Watch Company Catalog 18. Statute of Anne 19. Zimmerman Telegram 20. Infoganda2 21. Pergamum 22. Ada Lovelace B. Identify each of the following and explain its historical significance. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 19!The photographic truth!1839: In photograph of rue du Temple, Daguerre inadvertently makes first photograph of a person!12!The earliest photographs!1826: Nicéphore Niépce makes "heliograph" on plate from window in Gras; requires > 8 hr. exposure. !From 1829, Niépce collaborates with Louis Daguerre, who announces in 1837 a new "chemical and physical process" which "is not merely an instrument which serves to draw Nature; it gives her the ability to reproduce herself." !52!Eugenics and Photography!1870's: Darwin's cousin Francis Galton makes composite photographs, part as aid to criminology, part as effort to apply Darwinism to human differences. Coins eugenics, "nature vs nurture," "regression to the mean," notion of statistical correlation, pioneers questionaires and surveys.!With Wm. Herschel, "tries to put study of "fingerprints"on a scientific basis.!Francis Galton!Composite: "Violent" Criminals!Composite: Jews!29!Doctoring the Truth!1871: Paris Commune: Photographs of executions by communards are doctored to change identity of victims. !3 C. Who said each of the following, and what is its significance to the course? 1. "[It would be] inconceivable that we should allow so great a possibility for service to be drowned in advertiser chatter" 2. "The facts far exceed our curiosity." 3. "In truth, the Daguerreotyped plate is infinitely more accurate in its representation than any painting by human hands." II. Essays – 3 of the essays below will be on the exam. You will have to respond to 2 of the 3 questions. These two essays will be worth 11 points each. There will also be an essay question worth 13 points that you have yet to see. This section is worth 35 points. 1. Give examples from the course of ways in which advertising has initially been rejected as a way to support information media only later to be incorporated. Why does this seem to be a perennial problem? Give some examples of where the problem may be seen today. 2. What kinds of real property are there? What are some of the essential characteristics of real property? In what ways is information like and not like real property in these regards? 3. Why can it be helpful to think of documents as "immutable mobiles"? Give examples from the history of information of the tension between mobility and mutability? 4. "The easiest way to inject a propaganda idea into most men's minds is to let it go in through the medium of an entertainment picture." Do you agree? Using examples from the course or elsewhere, contrast the framing of propaganda as entertainment and as news. 5. "All you need for a computer, you have in 1830.” To what extent is this a reasonable claim? To what extent is it not a reasonable claim? 6. Technological enthusiasts talk of the Internet "annihilating space and time" and producing decentralized organizations. Why should historians of information be suspicious of such claims? Why is the university a useful case study for examining this question?4 7. "I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty—to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man." How does the episode that Frederick Douglas relates illustrate a particular view of the importance of literacy? Do Douglas and his master agree on the significance of literacy? What is the opposing view of the importance of literacy? -- give an example. 8. What are the forces that have jeopardized the future of the print newspaper? What are some of the proposals that have been made to preserve the newspaper's function? Which of these do you think are most practicable? 9. How was the form of American radio shaped by political, technological, cultural and economic factors? What other form might radio have taken if some of these were different? 10. Technologies that were originally conceived as suitable for broadcast have often turned out to be used more for point-to-point communication (and similarly, some conceived for point-to-point have been more widely used for broadcast). Give an example from the history of information of one such transformation and discuss how an understanding of such shifts in history might help us understand the development of a particular modern information