- •Section 1 Mass media
- •Activity 1. Vocabulary expansion. Familiarize yourself with the words and word-combinations and compose sentences of your own. The news: gathering and delivering Gathering the news
- •Delivering the news
- •Activity 2. Vocabulary expansion. Familiarize yourself with the words and word-combinations and compose sentences of your own. The media: print
- •History of the media
- •Activity 4. Read the text and do the assignments suggested. How news gets around
- •Newsworthiness
- •Language in the news.
- •Newspaper headlines
- •India seeks us aid
- •Что значит быть журналистом?
- •Journalists under fire
- •Порноиндустрия.
- •Section 2 Crime and punishment
- •Vocabulary expansion. Familiarize yourself with the words and word-combinations and compose sentences of your own.
- •Органы правопорядка. Почему они необходимы?
- •A woman’s right to self-defense.
- •Methods of Death.
- •Lethal injection
- •Gas chamber
- •Hanging
- •Electrocution
- •Firing Squad
- •Факторы риска и тревожные сигналы.
- •Section 3 Woman and contemporary society.
- •What do the women want?
- •Activity 2. Read and discuss the text. Что обещает феминизм
- •Gender stereotypes or "Keep silence, woman, your day is 8 of March!"
- •Чого хоче українська жінка?
- •What is democracy without women?
- •Activity 6. Talk about the situation with gender equality in Muslim countries.
- •Жінка в Україні: особистість чи річ?
- •Activity 9. Render the article and discuss the burden issues, presented in it, in class. Імпортуватимемо чоловіків?
- •More young fathers choose family time, not overtime.
- •Activity 11. Read the text and do the assignments suggested. Horror films warn of sex trade.
- •Наскільки непривабливе сексуальне рабство?
- •Сексуальные домогательства как вид дискриминации.
- •Language and gender.
- •Men and women are from different planets
- •Section 4 Work, unemployment, welfare
- •The job interview
- •Identifying your interests
- •Professional qualities.
- •Where and how to find an employee?
- •Activity 8. Read the article, render it and discuss the most burning issues involved. Від безробіття може врятувати лише робота.
- •Мы живем, чтобы работать, или живем, чтобы жить?
- •Bibliography list
Activity 4. Read the text and do the assignments suggested. How news gets around
News is one of the most vital products we consume. It is also one of the most perishable. The worker who contributes to the making of a car, bridge, house, or even a pair of shoes knows his efforts has produced something that will endure – perhaps beyond his life-time. Not so with the news worker. The story on which he labored so hard and which he wrote so eloquently will be on its way to the recycling machine a day later – if it is not used to wrap fish. By then he is gathering facts for his next story. By the same token, who can remember the words of a television or radio news announcer twenty-four hours afterwards?
The fleeting quality of news helps in explaining how it is obtained, written, edited, printed and distributed. This process continues twenty-four hours a day to satisfy a worldwide demand for fresh information. On the basis of the news we get, we vote, buy, sell, make or change plans, carry an umbrella to work, attend the theater, go to a meeting or write a letter to the mayor. Thus, the newspaper at the breakfast table and the eleven o’clock TV news shows are part of our lives. We want to know what’s going on. The news media tell us.
To supply news, a huge army of people works around the clock throughout the world. United Press International, a globe-circling press agency, operates on a slogan “A Deadline Every Minute”. This means that somewhere in the world one or more of its clients is going to press or on the air with news.
The key word is “deadline”. News is gathered under deadline pressure. The reporter is always aware that this story must be in the hands of his editor by a rigidly prescribed time. The editor, in turn, knows that the edited copy must be in the print shop by a specific time if it is to get into a paper. Newsmen work by the clock. As the newspapers roll off the press, circulation trucks are waiting to carry them to various parts of the city and to trains and planes that will take them to more distant points. The same pressure applies to broadcasting. A television news crew must have its film and tape at the studio by a certain time if the spot is to be aired that evening. Even magazines have to meet deadlines, although not as tight ones.
Does deadline pressure affect the quality and accuracy of the news? Of course. Reporters working at great speed in gathering and writing news stories cannot always tie up loose ends, furnish sufficient background for total comprehension, or give both sides of an issue. And inaccuracies may crop up. Newsmen and newswomen often obtain information under less that ideal conditions – at the frenzied scene of an accident or above the shouts of a mob. The most conscientious of reporters is liable to miss the correct spelling of a name or get an address wrong. Also news sources don’t always tell the truth and often there isn’t time to verify given statements.
But remember, editors and reporters are meeting the public demand for news shortly after events happen. They are dealing in instant history. The news in perspective, the background details, and so forth can be handled by the columnists, in editorials and in long perspective or think pieces in the Sunday paper. Daily newspapers also carry a feature story. As for accuracy, studies have shown that newspapers and wire services have a high batting average on this score considering the hectic pace at which news is produced. But this does not give the news media a blanket excuse to commit errors. It is possible to double-check the facts even on a fast-breaking story and reporters fail their obligation when they don’t do so. In fact inaccuracies result as much from careless news people as from the necessity for speedy coverage. However, the reporter who is consistently inaccurate will not last long with a news organization. Editors know that when readers lose confidence in a newspaper its future is bleak.
Answer the questions:
What kind of product is news?
What is the difference between a newsworker and other workers?
How long does the news treatment process continue?
How does news influence people’s lives?
How does a huge army of people work to supply news?
On what slogan does United Press International operate?
What does the word “deadline” mean?
What happens with newspapers after they roll off the press?
What do you know about other mass media? Do they also work under deadline pressure?
How does deadline pressure affect the quality and accuracy of news?
Why do inaccuracies crop up?
What is the result of the hectic pace at which news is produced?
What happens to a reporter who is consistently inaccurate?
Take a look at the chart and discuss the newsworthiness issues of our society.