Московский государственный университет имени М.В. Ломоносова

Черноморский Филиал МГУ в г. Севастополе

Учебное пособие

по английскому языку

для студентов по специальности

«Журналистика 3 курс»

« British Media in close-up »

Севастополь

2012

Учебное пособие предназначено для студентов 2-3 курсов по специальности «Журналистика», изучающих английский язык. Материалы пособия дают представление о характере и особенностях деятельности института СМИ в Великобритании в двух последних десятилетиях. Актуальный текстовый и учебно-методический материал учат студента преодолеть лексико-фразеологические трудности, помогают обогатить словарный запас по специальности, развивают умение аргументировать и

полемизировать. В пособии используются тексты британского издания ‘Britain in close-up’ D. McDowall раздел 12 ‘The media: the press, radio and television’, а также материалы газеты ‘Guardian,’ BBC, Oxford Media Convention.

Печатается по решению Методического Совета Филиала МГУ в г. Севастополе.

Contents

Unit1. The press …………………………………………………4

Unit 2. Radio ………………………………………………….. 14

Unit 3. Worldwide television …………………………………. 18

Unit 4. The BBC ……………………………………………….. 24

Unit 5. Government and the media ………………………….. 29

Unit 6. Privacy and self –regulation of the press ……………35

Unit 7. The Internet in the UK …………………………………41

Supplement ………………………………………………………..48

UNIT 1

The press

Before reading

1 Work in pairs and answer the questions below:

Do newspapers still have an important effect on public opinion?

How has newspaper benefited of computerised production?

In what way have graphic and photographs been improved?

Is running a newspaper an expensive and competitive business?

Vocabulary

2. The following words all appear in the text. Match each one with its correct definition on the right.

1 a tycoon	a) smth. you buy or the act of buying
2 flavour	b) smth. that you have obtained by buying
3 launch	c) sb. that is successful in business and has a lot of money
4 proprietor	d) a false written or printed statement that damages sb’s reputation
5 acquisition	e) the owner of a business, hotel etc.
6 vernacular	f) a rule, agreement that is to protect sb. or sth. from danger or problem;
7 purchase	g) a special quality, characteristic or atmosphere
8 libel	h) when a new product is made available or known
9 suit	i) a case in a law-court; legal proceeding
10 safeguards	j) a language spoken in a particular country or region, or by a particular group

3. Read the text up to the end of page 9 and answer these questions:

a Which publishing group controls one - third of the newspaper-reading public?

b How does private ownership affect the political viewpoint of newspapers?

c What caused the decline of Sunday readers in the 1980s?

Britain's first newspapers appeared over 300 years ago. Now, as then, newspapers receive no government subsidy, unlike in some other European countries today. Advertising has always been a vital source of income. As long ago as 1660, King Charles II advertised in a newspaper for his lost dog. Today, income from advertising is as crucial as income from sales. In 1995, for example, Ј5, 465 million was spent on press advertising, making the press by far the largest advertising medium in Britain.

There are approximately 130 daily and Sunday papers, 1,400 weekly papers and over 6,500 periodical publications. More newspapers, proportionately, are sold in Britain than in almost any other country. On average, two out of three people over the age of 15 read a national morning newspaper. National newspapers have a circulation of about 1 3 million on weekdays and 1 7 million on Sundays, but the readership is twice this figure. At first glance, therefore, the British press seems in good health.

National newspapers

There are four main types of newspapers
QUALITY	TABLOID	MAGAZINE	JOURNAL of OPINION
Cultural people like The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The Independent, Today	Sport-news, letters to the editor and pages of advertisements in The Sun, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Express, The Daily Mail, The Daily Star	Regular publication containing articles and stories by different writers. Some have few pages, others more than 300	For both sexes they contain political and literary reviews. (Time, Newsweek)

Magazines may be weekly, monthly or quarterly. There are different magazines for specific sector and for different categories.
FOR MEN	FOR WOMEN	FOR TEENAGERS
There aren’t specific magazines for men, but only regarding their hobbies, job or favourite sport	Women’s magazines deal with love stories, gossip, Knitting, cookery and care of the family (Cosmopolitan, Woman’own, Bella Hello)	They deal with fashion, music and teenage problems (Jackie- Top Girl)

The TIMES and SUNDAY TIMES http://www.timesonline.co.uk/	I t contains Britain’s oldest national daily newspaper, The Times, and its sister paper, The Sunday Times. Both papers are renowned for the high quality of their news and current affairs reporting and authoritative comment on a wide range of issues. Letters to the Editor are included with effect from April 1991. News agency items, extract from books, articles by specific authors, entertainments listings, tabular information, and articles from The Sunday Times Magazine , are not included. The Times is a respected source of news and comment on UK and international issues, business, finance, law and current affairs. It was founded in 1785.
The INDEPENDENT http://www.independent.co.uk/	I t gives clear and accurate reporting of home and foreign news, accompanied by in-depth features on the major issues of the day. In addition there is comprehensive coverage of business and finance, the arts, health, education, sport and the media.
The HERALD http://www.theherald.co.uk/	F ormely known as the Glasgow Herald, it is Scotland’s biggest selling quality daily newspaper. Launched in 1783, The Herald is the oldest national newspaper in the English-speaking world. Three editions of The Herald are published six days a week.
The DAILY MAIL http://www.dailymail.co.uk/	Together with its sister paper, The Mail on Sunday , it covers a broad base of national and international news, financial, consumer and specific interest topics. Both papers have regular weekly sections, such as Money Mail.
TODAY	Launched by News (UK) in March 1986, was Britain’s first new national daily newspaper for 10 years. It was also the first UK tabloid newspaper to be publicly available online. Today provides a valuable source of general news and social comment, complementing the “heavier” political, economic and business information provided by the other UK newspapers available through FT Profile.
The FINANCIAL TIMES www.ft.com	Europe’s leading business newspaper, the Financial Times is produced six days a week by some 350 editorial staff and foreign correspondents. Primarly a paper of record, it aims to cover everything of interest to the international businessman. It carries news, features, special surveys and editorial comment, and has a name for authoritative, apolitical reporting. Its worldwide readership is estimated at one million. FT Profile carries the UK final edition of the newspaper, plus extra articles from the International Edition published in Frankfurt. Excluded are the largely-tabular sections on Currency, Money and Capital Markets, World Stock Markets and the London Stock Exchange.
The GUARDIAN http://www.guardian.co.uk	It aims to give good coverage of social issues as well as politics and economics. It is published six days a week, with a circulation of 423,000. The Guardian Europe supplement is included from January 1991. The Guardian is a very useful source of news and comment on a very wide range of topics. The Guardian covers a broad range of UK and international news. Its UK coverage is particularly strong on social services, education, health, local government, and local and national politics. In addition to the above, the Guardian file is also a key source of information on the Third World and development economics, civil liberties and human rights, women’s rights and minorities.
The ECONOMIST http://www.economist.com/	It is one of the world’s most distinguished periodicals, offering in-depth coverage and analysis of politics, economics, business, finance, science and technology. It is produced in London, printed in England, Singapore and the USA, and has a worldwide circulation of more than 250,000 copies a week. The file contains the full text of each weekly edition, with the exception of letters to the editor.
LLOYD'S LIST	It was founded in 1734, and has been renowned as the world’s leading shipping newspaper for more than 250 years. Lloyd’s List is a daily newspaper, and covers far more than just shipping news. All aspects of marine commerce, transport and insurance are covered, and news items that relate to these industries are also covered in detail. Energy and raw materials are covered, as are the financial markets that underpin all international commerce.
THE SCOTSMAN http://www.thescotsman.co.uk	I t is a leading Scottish quality newspaper, published in Edinburgh from Monday to Saturday. The file offers access to extensive of Scottish company, industry, social and economic issues, covered in a level of detail not available in the other national newspapers. In addition to the reporting of Scottish affairs. The Scotsman also provides coverage of new across the United kingdom. The full text of the newspaper is taken, with the exception of agency material, advertisements, sports results, court circular reports and certain special features. SCOTLAND on SUNDAY is the sister publication of The Scotsman. The newspaper comprises of two sections: Section One covers News, News in focus, international, Commentary, Business and Sport; Section Two includes Spectrum and covers the arts, leisure and magazine-style features. The SCT file carries the full text of the newspaper, with the exception of colour magazine articles, agency material, advertisements, sports results and certain special features.
The SUN http://www.thesun.co.uk/ The MIRROR http://www.mirror.co.uk/ The DAILY EXPRESS The DAILY STAR	One of the leadings papers is The Sun. It tells its 4.2 million readers a day almost nothing about international and national affairs. It gives news about Princess Di's clothes, dogs rescued from burning buildings and the divorces of Hollywood stars. The Daily Mirror sells 3.2 million copies a day and it is considered to be pro-Labour. It in fact encourages its readers to vote Labour in general elections. The other three popular papers are The Daily Express, selling 1.6 million copies a day, The Daily Mail with 1.8 million and the Daily Star.

The national newspapers, both on weekdays and on Sundays, fall into two broad categories: the 'popular' and 'quality' press.

Ownership of the press, as can be seen, is in the hands of a few large publishing groups. The most significant of these are News International, owned by the Australian-born press tycoon Rupert Murdoch, and the Mirror Croup. Although the law provides safeguards against undue concentration of control in one company, the acquisitions of News International have caused concern. Its purchase of The Times in 1981 marked the beginning of a shift in that paper from an establishment view, politically slightly right of centre but independent, to a more openly right-wing position, in line with the right-wing flavour of the Conservative governments in the 1980s. It also acquired The Sunday Times, and two popular papers, the Sun, a daily, and the News of the World, a Sunday paper, both of which it successfully turned into the two largest circulation newspapers. Thus News International owns the papers read by over one-third of the newspaper-reading public. In 1989 it entered the television market by launching a satellite television network, now known as BSkyB Television.

Private ownership affects the political viewpoint of most newspapers. Most proprietors, or owners, are more sympathetic to a right of centre political viewpoint. Until the 1990s it could be claimed that 70 per cent of the newspapers sold supported a Conservative viewpoint. Among the populars, only the Daily and Sunday Mirror, and the People, express a left of centre view, while among the qualities The Guardian, and its sister Sunday paper, the Observer, reflect a moderate left-of-centre view.

The Independent and The Financial Times tend to be left of centre on social issues while right of centre on economic ones, but would prefer to be viewed as non-aligned. In fact several right-of-centre papers supported a Labour victory in 1997, partly because of Conservative disarray, and partly because of Labour's perceived shift to the right.

The table above categorises newspapers as either popular or quality. All the popular papers, with the exception of the Sunday Express, are 'tabloid' in format. The tabloids are essentially mass entertainment. They are smaller than the other papers, and are distinguished by large illustrations, bold captions and a sensational prose style. In the words of one ex-editor of The Times:

The values of mass journalism are the traditional romantic values of energy, intuition, personality, sexuality, excitement and myth. The romantic element in the mass mind responds instinctively to the energy in the mass newspaper. Readers are presented with an exciting world of demons and temptresses, a flickering and exotic fairy tale ...By contrast the values of the serious press are those of analysis, rationality, truth, lucidity, balance, reality and, I would hope, compassion.

The result is that the tabloids' news content is minimal and their emphasis is on gossip, emotion and scandal. By contrast quality newspapers, known as 'broadsheets' on account of their larger, rather cumbersome format, emphasise news coverage, political and economic analysis and social and cultural issues.

Since 1971 over three million readers have been lost, mainly from the populars. A fundamental reason lies with television becoming the main medium for news. Consequently all newspapers now give more attention to sports results, city finance and entertainment, but this has failed to halt the decline in readership.

Sunday readers have also declined. Since 1991 there has been a drop of one million in the number of populars sold each Sunday. Sunday quality papers have become fatter as the market competition increased during the 1980s. No Sunday quality paper can afford a circulation of less than about 400,000 without serious difficulty in attracting enough advertising. The Independent on Sunday (1 990) was integrated with the daily The Independent in order to reduce production costs, but both seriously need to increase their circulation if their future is to be assured.

During the 1980s virtually every paper was radically affected by new printing technology. Bitter conflicts were fought between management and the unions as the new technology was introduced. Almost every newspaper left its historic home in Fleet Street, known colloquially as 'the Street of Shame', the centre of the British press for over a century. Some went to new sites in London's Docklands, while others moved elsewhere. New technology increased the profitability of the press, and this in turn allowed the creation of new newspapers. Some of these flopped. The most important new paper was The Independent. Established in 1986, it rapidly seized the centre ground vacated by The Times, which had moved to the right following its purchase by Murdoch's News International. By 1990 its circulation was only slightly behind its two main competitors, The Times and The Guardian, and it rivaled The Times as 'the newspaper of the establishment'. However a sustained price war by The Times from 1993 seriously damaged The Independent's sales and by the mid-1990s, its future looked uncertain. Circulation of The Times, however, increased from 350,000 in 1993 to 680,000 as a result of what its critics would describe as 'predatory' pricing.

Britain has a substantial number of regional newspapers also. Of these the two Scottish ones, The Scotsman (Edinburgh) and the Herald (Glasgow) are the most important, since they are also national papers. They each sell about 750,000 copies daily. But others with a large circulation include the Birmingham Evening Mail (200,000), the Wolverhampton Express and Star (208,000), the Birmingham Sunday Mercury (145,000), and the Leeds Yorkshire Post (75,000). These, too, are all in numerical decline.

Britain's ethnic minority communities also produce their own papers, both in English and in the vernacular languages. The oldest of these is the Jewish Chronicle, founded in 1841. But there are Asian, Caribbean and even Arabic newspapers published in Britain.

Finally, there are over 800 free newspapers, popularly known as 'freebies', almost all of them weekly and financed entirely by advertising. They achieve a weekly circulation of over 40 million. They function as local notice boards, where local events are advertised, and anyone can advertise in the 'for sale' or 'wanted' columns.

The best-selling weeklies are those giving details of the forthcoming week's television and radio programmes, What's On TV, the Radio Times and TV Times, with circulations in 1996 of 1.6 million, 1.4 million and 1 million, respectively. Second to them in popularity are women's magazines, of which easily the best-selling is Take a Break, with a weekly sale of almost 1.5 million, and Woman's Weekly, Woman's Own, Woman, Woman's Realm, which sell between 300,000 and 800,000 copies each week. During the early 1990s some recently established men's magazines, Loaded, GQ and Esquire, became popular with circulations of 100,000 to 240,000. The leading opinion journals are The Economist, a slightly right-of-centre political and economic weekly, the New Statesman and Society, a left-of-centre political and social weekly, the Spectator, a right-of-centre political weekly, and Private Eye, a satirical fortnightly with a reputation for devastating attacks on leading personalities, and some libel suits against it in the law courts.

With almost 1,500 staff in 91 countries, no newspaper anywhere can compete with Britain's formidable news agency, Reuters. Across the world its name has become an assurance of objectivity, accuracy and reliability. Although run from London, Reuters deliberately avoids any image of being a British institution with English news values. As the day progresses, its world news file is edited from three different cities, switching time zones from Hong Kong to London to New York. Its reports are filed in French, German, Japanese, Arabic and Spanish, as well as English. Reuters also owns Reuters Television (RTV), the largest international television news agency in the world, providing news video to broadcasters in 89 countries.