BEGG 171 Solved Guess Paper 2026: Media and Communication Skills, IGNOU Bachelor of Arts (General)

What are the different elements of communication? Explain with examples.

"Communication is a dynamic process, ongoing and ever changing, which involves five major elements."

1. The Message: It is the thing that is actually sent, and it gives information. It travels through speech, writing, radio programmes, films, posters and photographs. Words alone do not carry full meaning; non-verbal signs also help the receiver.
2. The Communicator: He is the source and starts the process. Encoding takes four steps: form the message, pass it through psychological barriers (the sender's own knowledge, beliefs and biases), encode it, and transmit it. A good communicator at once turns into a receiver and waits for feedback.
3. Transmission Medium (Channel): It is the pathway by which the message flows, and it carries the message both ways. Channels may be verbal (face-to-face talk, telephone), written (letters, e-mails, memos) or electronic.
4. The Receiver: He interprets the meaning. True communication happens only when he has understood. The steps are receive, decode, filter and interpret. Noise, such as roadside sound, poor handwriting or a heavy accent, is a barrier here.
5. Feedback: It confirms that the message has been received and understood. The simplest way to get it is to invite questions from the receiver.

Conclusion: Communication is successful only when both the sender and the receiver understand the same information.

Name the various shot sizes and describe them.

"The 'size' of a shot is the extent of the image that is framed by the camera lens."

1. Bust shot: The face and head are shown, and below that the neck up to the chest. This is the standard size for television presenters.
2. Close up: The camera moves closer and shows just the face with a little of the neck. It shows feeling, for example a villain planning mischief.
3. Extreme close up: Only the eyes and forehead are shown, when the moment is dramatic enough.
4. Mid shot: The person is shown up to the waist.
5. Knee shot: The person is shown up to the knee.
6. Long shot: The full height of the people is shown with some background. It is the typical shot to begin a programme not set in a studio.
7. Very long shot: Much more of the scene and background is shown than the people.

Rule to remember: The camera must not cut the picture at a joint of the body, such as the knee, the elbow or the shoulder, or the person will look like an amputee. These terms apply to places, things and events too, such as an extreme long shot of a cricket stadium.

Conclusion: Shot sizes are described in terms of the human body, because television is more about people than anything else.

What are the basic rules to be followed while writing scripts for the radio broadcast? Explain by giving suitable examples.

"Language for radio broadcasts should be simple and sentences should be short and crisp."

News on the radio moves fast and the listener cannot go back, as he can with a newspaper. So whatever is written must be clear, precise and to the point. Sentences should be short and direct, without sub-clauses. A minute of broadcast time takes about 100 words, so an editor has about 1,000 to 1,100 words in a ten-minute bulletin.

Broadcast news must be big and important and put in crisp, easily understood language. Ceremonial or didactic speeches only distract the listener, who can switch off.

Use everyday words

There should be no need for a dictionary while listening to a radio bulletin. Say "The work has started", not "commenced"; "The play has ended", not "terminated". The shorter the sentences, the greater the impact. Padding must be avoided, but repeating the main points as a short summary at the end is allowed.

Enliven the script or commentary

The wider your vocabulary, the more visual your images become. A good radio feature or running commentary describes the subject in words that create atmosphere and concrete pictures in the listener's mind. Presented creatively, even a complex subject can sound simple.

Be completely natural

Read your narration aloud as you write it. If it sounds as if you were talking, you are on the right line; if it sounds like formal written language, you are off the track. One picturesque phrase will arouse more interest than a bunch of literary expressions.

Keep clichés out

The microphone only reinforces the staleness of hackneyed phrases. Be yourself. The art of writing a radio script often lies in knowing what not to say; it is said in BBC circles that a commentator is paid as much to comment as to keep quiet.

Keep looking for the needs of the market

Broadcasting is essentially a family affair, so good taste is the main criterion. Short sentences and short words are always more effective than long-winded and pedantic phrases.

Do not talk down to the audience

Guard against any slip of the tongue that would offend a listener. Do not sound like a teacher talking down to students. Be friendly without being familiar. Do not shout or preach; speak confidently and with dignity.

Conclusion: A good radio script is short, simple, natural and without clichés. Write it for the ear, read it aloud, and respect the listener as a friend.

Discuss the structuring of a TV advertisement. Write a 30 second TV advertisement for the promotion of an idea, without music and effects.

"Television is an intimate medium. It responds well to intimate, personalised messages. Mystique does not work very well on TV."

Salient features of the medium

1. Because of its size, television is a medium of close ups and detail. Panoramic views do not create the same feeling as on a large screen.
2. Television magnifies blemishes. It does not gloss over them.
3. Television has immediacy. Short, crisp, fast-paced messages work well, and a twenty or thirty second ad is ideal.
4. Ads aired at fixed time slots give the best recall value.
5. Television works best when it is unpretentious.

How to structure the ad

Begin with the product profile: the USP, the price, the distinctive features and the wrapper colour scheme. Then build the framework around the market segment identified; the language of the ad follows from that segment. If the USP is non-visual, such as "higher aroma" in a coffee, associative ideas must act as trigger cues.

The total text of an ad, spoken or used as a caption, is the copy, and writing it is the most creative part of an ad film. The copywriter must sell in the most lucid manner and dramatise the idea through a fresh insight, a haunting image or a daringly different symbol, in rarely more than three or four short sentences.

Keep reinforcement and counterpoint in mind: a verbal cue running with a visual cue reinforces it, while a deliberate distancing of the two is counterpoint, to be used sparingly.

Model 30-second TV advertisement (without music and effects)

Idea: Save Water, Save Life. Duration: 30 seconds. Natural sound and voice only.

1. Shot 1 (4 sec): Interior, morning. Extreme close up of a tap in an ordinary kitchen. A single drop falls, then another.
2. Shot 2 (4 sec): Close up. A child's hand enters the frame and closes the tap firmly. The dripping stops.
3. Shot 3 (6 sec): Mid shot. The same child walks past a wide-open tap in a courtyard and shuts that one too.
4. Shot 4 (6 sec): Long shot. A dry village hand pump. An old woman stands beside it with an empty pot, looking straight at the camera.
5. Shot 5 (4 sec): Close up. The child fills a glass, drinks, and holds the glass towards the camera.
6. Shot 6 (6 sec): Freeze on the glass. Voiceover, plain and unhurried: "Every drop you save today is a life somebody drinks tomorrow. Save water. Save life."

A storyboard

A storyboard sets out the same ad scene by scene, noting the location, shot size, action in the frame, sound and exact time including the dissolve. The sketches are suggestive, not prescriptive: if you can draw matchstick figures, you can plan an effective ad.

Conclusion: A TV ad is short, close and personal. Fix the product profile and USP first, write a copy of three or four sentences, and lay it out scene by scene on a storyboard.

Discuss the impact of social and cyber media on our lives.

"Cyber media is the Internet-based form of communication that allows the Web-users to converse with each other or share and exchange information, ideas, opinions, feelings, pictures etc. through a particular network or web."

It is also called Web media, and social media because it gives users a platform for socialising. It comprises blogs, micro-blogs, instant messaging, wikis, photo-sharing and video-sharing sites, podcasts, widgets, virtual worlds and networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Impact on education

Students can browse Wikipedia and Google anytime. Teachers share subject videos on YouTube and post schedules and submission dates on a common page. Students present, take tests online and receive feedback from home. On the negative side, information needs cross-checking, children can reach explicit or violent content, and plagiarism is a real bane.

Impact on the youth

Teenagers and young adults are the most frequent users. Networking sites help them stay in touch, find opportunities and build confidence. On the negative side, hours of chatting waste productive time and weaken face-to-face skills. Eye strain, backaches and social isolation affect addicts, and oversharing raises the risk of identity theft and cyber bullying.

Impact on society

The internet has reduced the world to a global village. Online messaging and webcams let people talk and even see each other, which fosters a sense of community. YouTube is a platform for film makers and musicians, and news reaches the farthest corner quickly. Still, the elderly, the illiterate and the poor have limited access, and cybercrime has grown.

Impact on politics

Networking sites are used for campaigning and act as a watchdog over elections by reporting irregularities. They educate voters on their rights and give parties and people a platform for debate. Social media also drove change, as in the Arab Spring uprisings from 2011. But misinformation spreads fast and can lead to civil unrest.

Impact on business

Companies advertise, run promotions and learn customer likes and dislikes through their pages. But a single negative comment can snowball into bad publicity, and a wrong online brand strategy can destroy a company.

Conclusion: Cyber media has touched education, youth, society, politics and business alike. It brings speed, reach and voice, but also addiction, misinformation and crime, so it must be used with care.