One of the most famous artifacts in the British Museum is a broken part of a stone slab called the Rosetta Stone. It was discovered in 1799 in Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte’s soldiers and seized by the British in 1801. A message is carved into the slab. The message itself is not important; it is simply a decree that states that the priests in the Memphis, Egypt, temple supported King Ptolemy V. What made it a major discovery was that it said the same thing in three languages: Egyptian hieroglyphics, Demotic (the script of the everyday language of the Egyptian people), and ancient Greek. In 1801, no one knew how to read hieroglyphics, but many scholars knew how to read ancient Greek. Thus, they were able to compare the Greek to the hieroglyphics, and by 1822 the French philologist Jean-François Champollion, building on the previous work of the English physicist Thomas Young and others, had deciphered many of the hieroglyphics, although learning continued for many more years. Based on your reading in Topic 1 about the importance of human communication, which statement best explains why so many people put in so many years of effort to understand a language that had been long dead?

On May 18, 1980, the volcano Mount St. Helens in Oregon erupted, killing 57 people and earning the title of being the deadliest and most destructive volcanic eruption in the history of the United States. One of those who died was Dr. David Johnston, a USGS scientist who was manning an observation post six miles away. He first reported the eruption, radioing to his USGS coworkers, “Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!” before his radio went silent. His body was never found, although construction workers found fragments of his trailer in 1993. How could Johnston’s radio message be considered an example of Lasswell’s linear model of communication?

During World War II, the English country estate of Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, England, became the site for the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS). The main purpose of Bletchley Park was to break the codes of the secret communications of the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan), most importantly codes generated by the German Enigma and Lorenz cipher machines. In 1941, an Enigma machine and codebooks were captured from a German U-boat. Unbeknownst to the Germans, having the machine increased the ability of the Allies to break codes and determine what the enemy was planning. The development of the electromechanical Bombe machine and Colossus computer aided greatly in breaking the codes generated by the Enigma and Lorenz machines. Which of the following statements best explains how the Shannon-Weaver model of communication could be applied to the challenges faced by the GC&CS?

When broadcasting sporting events in the United States, major television networks employ “color commentators” who provide expert analysis and background information and occasionally throw in humorous stories. Color commentators are often former athletes or coaches of the broadcasted sport. One such commentator was John Madden, a former NFL Oakland Raiders coach, who also lent his voice and personality to the Madden NFL football video games. Madden was known for his exuberant, passionate personality, and his lively and flamboyant delivery made him a fan favorite. According to the Sender-Message-Channel-Receiver model of communication, what benefits did John Madden bring to his role in the model?

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered “a few appropriate remarks” at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery. His two-minute, 270-word speech honored the brave people who gave their last full measure of devotion to the cause of freedom and invited the audience to resolve that “these dead shall not have died in vain.” Following the speech, Edward Everett, the Massachusetts statesman and orator who had spoken for two hours prior to Lincoln, wrote to Lincoln and stated: “I wish that I could flatter myself that I had come as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.” Which of the following statements best explains how the Schramm circular model of communication can be applied to the Gettysburg Address and Everett’s response?

In the movie The Princess Bride, Inigo Montoya battles the six-fingered man, Count Rugen, who had killed his father many years before. During their sword fight in a castle, their transactional communication as senders/receivers included the famous lines, “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” Inigo repeats these lines over and over again during the fight. Click here to watch a clip of this scene. According to Barnlund’s transactional model of communication, which of the following might be considered the greatest “noise” that interfered with their communication are prevented them from mutually resolving the situation?

Diana, Princess of Wales, was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, the heir to the British throne. Although the two later divorced, Diana remained the “People’s Princess,” a title given to her by Tony Blair, the British prime minister, upon her tragic death at the age of 36. Known as both a fashion icon and a champion of charitable causes, Diana used her public platform to educate others about HIV, leprosy, homelessness, land mines, and drug addiction. In April 1987, she was invited to open Britain’s first AIDS ward at Middlesex Hospital. A picture of her shaking hands with HIV-positive patients without wearing gloves publicly challenged the idea that the disease could be transmitted via touch. Similarly, she visited hospitals in India, Nepal, and Zimbabwe and spent time with patients, saying, “It has always been my concern to touch people with leprosy, trying to show in a simple action that they are not reviled, nor are we repulsed.” Diana’s ability to connect quickly with others—reaching into crowds to hold people’s hands or give them a hug—was indicative of her skill at interpersonal communication. Based on your reading about this basic form of communication, which statement best describes why Diana was able to establish a relationship with many of those she met?

The Camp David Accords, two political agreements signed at the White House on September 17, 1978, and witnessed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, charted the way for an Egypt-Israel peace in a part of the world that has known conflict for millennia. The second agreement, A Framework for the Conclusion of a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel, led to the 1979 Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, and President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for their part in the peace process. At the suggestion of his wife, President Carter had invited the two world leaders to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, for a historic 12 days of negotiations. The treaty was the first such agreement between Israel and any of its Arab neighbors, and President Carter was intimately involved in framing the negotiations, acting as a go-between and reworking communications dozens of times. Thinking of your reading about organizational (group) communication, how did President Carter effectively use group communication to reach a goal that had proved elusive for so many years?

On October 30, 1938, actor and director Orson Welles secured fame when he directed and narrated a radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’s novel The War of the Worlds. The broadcast became famous for scaring people (how many is not really known, as the program, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, had few listeners) who thought the Martian invasion of New Jersey was really happening, even though the program had announced that it was a dramatization of fiction. The next day, the headline of a New York newspaper read, “FAKE RADIO ‘WAR’ STIRS TERROR THROUGH U.S.” Which of the following statements best describes the effectiveness of mass communication in spreading a message in this example?

On September 12, 2011, at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, a group of people lifted one side of a burning BMW car high enough to allow a construction worker to pull to safety a 21-year-old motorcyclist who had crashed into the car and slid underneath it. A university media production specialist happened to be in the right place at the right time and captured the dramatic rescue. He knew he had something special. He posted the video on YouTube where it had more than 42,000 views within 24 hours. He was contacted by numerous media outlets to buy the rights to his video. Which statement best explains how measuring market responses, including responses to this example, has changed over the years?

The Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Jewish religious manuscripts found in the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea, are dated from approximately 300 BCE to 100 CE. Initially discovered in 1946 and 1947 in the Qumran caves, the writings include the second-oldest known manuscripts of text included in the Hebrew Bible. Based on your reading about the history of written communication, why are these documents a significant example of how communication methods advanced throughout history?

Louis Daguerre was a French artist and photographer who is recognized for his invention in the 1830s of the first practical process of photography, the daguerreotype. How did this new invention impact communication? Choose the best explanation.

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a stirring speech on August 28, 1963, during a civil rights march in Washington, D.C. The electrifying speech became known as “I Have a Dream” and was carried live by TV stations around the nation. According to your reading in Topic 2, how did televised events like King’s speech impact the civil rights movement of the 1960s?

On March 24, 1959, Texas Instruments, a leading electronics firm in the United States, introduced a new device called the microchip that transformed the conveniences of modern life—including personal computers, the internet, and anything else using digital technology. Which of the following statements best explains the impact the microchip has had on communications?

Statues have been torn down for thousands of years. The Assyrians did it, as did the Romans, the Greeks, and the Taliban. Statues are expendable as new regimes come to power or as events trigger people to anger. Recently, statues have been torn down in the United States, in England, and in Belgium. Some people say removing statues is justified because the people being honored were cruel, supported slavery, or were racist. Others disagree and say you can’t erase history by toppling a few memorials. Communication plays a major part in determining history, and its presence, or absence, is dependent on the people who recorded history. Based on your reading, which of the following statements best explains why the accuracy of recorded events can be questioned?

Messages sent by telegraph over the first long-distance telegraph line from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., could take several minutes, depending on how long the message was and how skilled the operator was. On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse sent his colleague Alfred Vail the historic first telegraph message: “What hath God wrought!” It was short and sweet, because the longer the message, the more it cost to send. As a mode of communication, what was the biggest challenge the telegraph faced?

In 1901, the first transatlantic wireless signal was broadcast. Developed and marketed by Italian inventor and engineer Guglielmo Marconi, Marconi radios (wireless telegraph technology) had many benefits, including ending the isolation of ocean travel and, for example, saving the lives of the approximately 700 Titanic survivors (more lifeboats would have saved the other 1,500 passengers, but that’s another issue). The wireless telegraph brought its own set of problems, however. Which of the following statements identifies the major issue faced with the advent of the wireless telegraph?

In the United States, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) determines the use of airwave frequencies and allocates licenses to radio stations for specific frequencies. Before FCC regulation, competition among radio signals depended on which company emitted the strongest signal. The FCC ended the free-for-all, but with government regulation came other issues. Based on your reading, what other issue occurred with early government oversight?

Television broadcasting benefited greatly from its wireless predecessors because signal allocation was already in place. Content demand from the public was high, and programming became less about education and more about entertainment. Scholars have studied and continue to study the effects of television on society. From your reading, what are some of the issues that have been identified because of these changes in television?

A vast amount of information is now available online, and much of that information is personal. Today, data brokers are largely unregulated, and personal user data is collected and sold by companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, making them some of the wealthiest companies in the world. Based on your reading, which statement describes a major societal effect that arises from the constant flow and lack of oversight of this information?