Essay, Journalism, mass media and communication:
New Media communication class
Instructions: 1) Locate each of the items on the list below, either offline or online. 2) If the item requires you to photograph it, then paste the photo into the Word document you have downloaded with the assignment. 3) If the item requires a description of steps or location, type that into the space after the question on the Word document. 4) After you have completed all the items on the list – or at least given it a good try and written an explanation of any reasons you couldn’t locate a particular item – write a short reflection paper (250 words or so) that describes what this process has shown you about the communications infrastructure around us.
This activity is meant to take you a few hours of total time (the length of one class, plus homework and writing time). If you find that it is taking you much longer than this, over the course of the weekend, just make a note of this fact and where you finished.
1. There is a box, usually made of gray plastic, where the telephone lines inside your private house or apartment connect to the telephone network owned by the phone company. The box usually says “Network Interface” and is located near the property line — often outside. Find this box and photograph it.
2. If construction workers are preparing to dig up a street with heavy equipment, they first mark the location of underground communication lines with special symbols or colors using spray paint so that the digging does not cut them. Because these symbols/colors are painted in advance, you can often see them around the area if you know what they look like. Find out what the look like and describe them, and take a picture of some.
3. The place where a city’s cable network distributes the cable television signal from a satellite to that city’s wires in the ground is called the “head end.” Find the “head end” that is connected to your cable television wire, go to it, and take a picture of it.
4. How would you obtain a special phone number whose numbers spell out a word of your choice? Find out and explain. How much would it cost? Include a picture of an advertisement that features a phone number that spells something.
5. Find three off-campus establishments that offer Wi-Fi access to patrons. Visit these establishments and find the antennas that provide the service. Include a photograph of each antennaand information as to the originating service (the ISP).
6. In 1996 Congress passed an act that requires all televisions larger than 13 inches to be equipped with a V-Chip. Find a V-Chip and explain how it works. Take a picture of the chip, or the mechanism that you use to turn it on and off (there is no need to take anything apart to complete this item!).
7. Take a photograph of a police patrol car radio and find out what is different between it and a ‘normal’ walkie-talkie or trucker’s radio. (Ask permission before you do so.)
8. Where is your local telephone exchange? Find it and take a photograph of it.
9. There are several large towers on the top of Capitol Hill (on E. Madison). Find out what they are for, and what area they serve.
10. How are wire transfers (money transfers) sent? Find and photograph some electronic part of the network that handles wire transfers.
11. Find and photograph a (permanent, not construction-related) sign or flag indicating that a communications-related cable is buried underground. State its location.
12. There is a smartphone app (also available on the web) that gives real-time information about the buses in the King County metro system. Find, photograph, and explain the apparatus on a metro bus that tracks the bus in real-time.