Text 12в Mass Media in Our Life

Mass media play a very important role in our everyday life. They serve to inform people of different events that take place or may happen. They also entertain people or even help to make their lives better. But the most important thing that newspapers, radio or TV bring to people is information.

Complete and accurate information is very important to get nowadays. Those TV and radio programmes and newspapers that provide reliable information are always very popular. Sensational events such as crimes, natural disasters or unusual events are also of great interest. That is why many newspapers and TV programmes combine them with serious information.

Usually daily mass media carry some international, state and local news. They also contain some other topics like health care, arts and so on. A lot of newspapers have advice columns, review of books, comics, crossword puzzles, etc. Most of them have different pictures, photographs and illustrations.

Advertising is also paid much attention to in mass media. It helps people to get oriented in variety of firms and shops that offer their goods and services. All in all, mass media help us to form our opinion on different events, provide us with the information of what takes place in society, and are also means of entertainment.

Mass Media in the English-Speaking Countries

In the morning before work and in the evening when they come home, people in the English-speaking countries like to read newspapers and magazines, watch TV or listen to the radio.

The newspapers, which are produced in Great Britain, the USA and other English-speaking countries, are divided into national and local. The national newspapers are those, which are sold all over the country, “The Times”, “The Guardian”, “The Independent”, “The Daily Telegraph” and “The Financial Times” in Great Britain and “The Wall Street Journal”, “The New York Times”, “The Washington Post” and “The Christian Science Monitor” in the USA.

There are two main types of national newspapers – the “popular” papers and the “quality” papers. Most of the popular papers are tabloids – that is the papers with small size pages. The tabloids place a lot of pictures, big headlines and short articles. The popular newspapers are easy to read and often contain little real information – they usually have stories about ordinary people and events, which are amusing or odd. Examples of this type of newspapers in Great Britain are “The Daily Mail”, “The Sun” and “The Daily Mirror”. “Quality” papers give more reading material about politics and foreign affairs, their articles are bigger in size and have much news. They have different pages for home news, foreign affairs, articles on literature, business, fashion and so on.

All types of newspapers publish a lot of advertisements. Local newspapers usually give more attention to local than to world or national news. Some of them are weekly newspapers – they are printed once a week. Some weekly papers are usually printed in small towns or even villages where people know each other and are interested to know some news about their neighbors and friends. Weeklies often print reports on weddings, births, deaths and news of local business and politics.

People in the English-speaking countries buy more newspapers on Sundays than on weekdays. The Sunday papers have a higher circulation than the dailies. Besides newspapers, a lot of different magazines and scientific journals are printed in the English-speaking countries, too. Editorial offices of most London newspapers are situated in Fleet Street near the City.

Like in any other country of the world, television is very popular in the USA and Great Britain. The most popular channels on the British TV are BBC 1, BBC, ITV and Channel. The two BBC channels are national – they are founded by the government but are nonpolitical. On BBC Channels the televiewers can watch news, TV sport programmes, educational programmes, interviews with prominent people, musical programmes and many other items.

Films are shown on TV, too, some of the films are made specially for television, for example, so-called soap operas.

Out of the 1,500 TV stations in the USA about 1,200 are commercial ones. Сommercial TV stations broadcast mainly entertainment programmes because they must attract as many televiewers as possible in order to sell advertising time at high prices. About 300 are public TV stations, which are nonprofit organizations. The public TV broadcasts mainly educational and cultural programmes – plays, ballets, symphonies, programmes on art and history. And yet, sometimes, the television in Britain and the USA is criticised, because people think that it shows too much violence and crime.

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Дайте відповіді на запитання:

1. Why do mass media play a very important role in our everyday life?

2. How do we get any information? What brings it to us?

3. What TV programs do you like to watch?

4. What do daily mass media carry to us?

5. Does mass media help us to form our opinion on different events, information?

6. What types of newspapers are produced in the English-speaking countries?

7. What are tabloids?

8. What are “quality” papers?

9. What are the most popular channels on the British TV?

10. Why is the television in Britain and the USA criticized?

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