A World We Live In - Unit5

25.Он хмуро посмотрел на меня и ничего не сказал.

26.Наша собака испугала вора, и он убежал.

27.Я искоса взглянул на документ.

28.Машина резко свернула, чтобы не сбить ребенка.

29.Она уставилась на него в изумлении.

30.Над нами нависла неминуемая беда.

31.Его речь вызвала шум в зале.

32.Он лихо вскочил в седло.

33.Землетрясение разрушило целые деревни.

IX. Fill in the articles where necessary and be prepared to explain their usage.

Theoretically, anyone in … United States can start … newspaper or magazine, but to become … radio or television broadcaster one must be granted … portion of … limited radio-television spectrum by … government licensing board, … Federal Communications Commission (FCC). For … most part, … American broadcasting system has always been … commercial system. It is supported by money from businesses that pay to advertise goods or services to … audience. Advertising messages are usually presented as 15, 30, or 60-second commercial announcements before, during, and after programs. Commercial broadcasting is … huge industry bringing in profits of about 1.8 billion dollars annually.

… funding for public broadcasting comes primarily from congressional appropriations, grants from foundations, and contributions from viewers. … programs, often educational or cultural, appeal to … highly selective audience.

… number of … radio and television broadcasting stations provides for wide diversification in programming. … most radio stations offer listeners … variety of … music programs, including country western, pop music, classical music, and jazz. Other stations feature news, talk interviews and discussions, and religious programs exclusively.

XI. Fill in the prepositions or adverbs where necessary.

U.S.A. – A Media State

Mass communication has revolutionized the modern world. In the United States, it has given rise … what social observers sometimes call a media state, a society … which access … power is … the media. The term media , understood broadly, includes any channel … information … which information can pass. … a democracy largely depends … public opinion, all those involved … communicating information inevitably have an important role to play. The print and broadcasting media not only convey information … the public, but also influence … public

opinion. Television, … access … virtually every American household, which typically tunes … about six hours a day, is a powerful influence. The broadcast media, capable … mass-producing messages and images instantaneously, have been largely responsible … homogenizing cultural and regional diversities … the country. Beyond this cultural significance, the power … the media is important … politicians, who use the media to influence voters; and … businessmen and women, who use the media to encourage consumption … their products.

DISCUSSION EXERCISES

I. Read the article and answer the questions which follow it.

TV News Dominance.

Today more Americans claim they get their news from television than from any other source. Since TV cannot begin to provide the variety of stories or the in-depth coverage that newspapers do, this has serious implications for a democracy that needs a well-informed citizenry to function properly.

Although network TV news seems more serious and sophisticated, it too is dependent on ratings and its share of the audience. Often those ratings are dependent on the local news because in most cities, local immediately precedes network news, and most viewers will watch their favorite local news show and stay tuned to whichever network news follows. The second and third reason people watch one network news show over another, according to William Wheatly, executive producer of NBC Nightly News, are the popularity of the anchor and the content.

By the 1990s, the networks had developed the technique of sending their nightly news anchors around the world to the scenes of major news events in an effort to boost ratings. When the Berlin Wall began to fall in 1989, NBC's Tom Brokaw was there to report on it. When U.S. forces were sent to Saudi Arabia in 1990 in preparation for war against Iraq, CBS's Dan Rather and ABC's Ted Koppel went to the Iraqi capital of Baghdad to broadcast live, while NBC sent Brokaw and its morning Today show host Bryant Gumbel to Saudi Arabia. Several weeks later, Rather was to win the "battle of the anchors" by becoming the first to televise an interview with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

TV News Sexism.

Women, more than men, find that an attractive appearance is essential for employment as a television anchorperson. In 1983 a jury awarded Christine Craft, a

former Kansas City TV anchor $500,000 in damages in a sex-discrimination suit. She had been fired from KMBC-TV because a consulting firm found that she was "too old, too unattractive, and not deferential enough to men." Although a United States District judge threw out the verdict, a new jury awarded her $325,000 in a retrial in 1984. But that award was also overturned, as the Supreme Court refused to hear her final appeal.

The search for the perfect anchor continues, however. One Los Angeles television station faced with declining ratings used galvanic skin response (GSR) tests on randomly selected viewers to measure the perceived attractiveness of various anchors and, in this way, determine whom to keep and whom to fire.

1)What are the advantages and disadvantages of TV news presentation compared to other means of communicating information to the public?

2)What do you know about the problem of language sexism and how it is connected with the TV news sexism?

3)What personal qualities are important to a TV anchorperson?

4)What other topics can you offer for discussion in connection with

this material?

2) Read the following magazine and newspaper articles to learn more information on the problem Television and children.

Television and Children.

Parents and other groups are not concerned only with TV violence aimed at children. They are also bothered by some non-violent content. Research by the National Council on Alcoholism, for example, found that before a child reaches the age of 18, he or she will watch someone drink alcohol on television an average of 100,000 times. George Gerber, dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania, points out that having a drink is an effective dramatic device for TV programming.

Another concern regarding TV's influence on children developed in the 1980s when commercial enterprises began exploiting children by reaching into actual program content to sell their products. This new concern developed after the

FCC began deregulating the television industry in the 1980s. This hands-off policy toward TV encouraged toy makers to begin producing their own programs, a practice that had been abandoned after the quiz-show scandal of 1959. Such toy manufacturers as Hasbro, Bradley, Mattel, Coleco, Kenner, Tomy, Tonka, Selchow & Righter and even CBS Toys joined forces with animation houses to produce children's shows that featured planned and existing toys. These product-oriented entertainment shows were in reality 30-minute commercials.

Early program-length commercials featured such lovably dolls as Strawberry Shortcakes and the Smurfs , but by 1985 they included such aggression-oriented products as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, G.I.Joe: A Real American Hero, Transformers, She-RA: Princess of Power, M.A.S.K. (Medical Armoured Strike Command), Thunder Cats, Voltrol and Rambo.

Children, who at early ages have difficulty distinguishing between commercials and programs, now found that there was no difference. Efforts by Peggy Charren, founder and president of Action for Children's Television (ACT), to get the FCC to enforce its own regulations, which sponsors to be identified, fell on deaf ears (see Chapter 16). The FCC philosophy of the 1980s was that the marketplace, not government regulations, should determine what was in the public interest. In any case, by the end of the 1987-88 season, ratings for the animated superhero shows began to decline, as children tuned in to new live action game shows, like cable network Nickelodeon's Double Dare and Lorimar's Fun House, or watched their own videocassettes.

Concerns about children's TV programming did not start with the product-oriented children's shows, however. They are as old as the medium itself. Early concerns centred around physiological effects (will staring at a picture tube ruin a child's eyesight?) as well as on emotional or psychological effects. Numerous studies have been conducted over the years to examine TV's effects on children. Early research by the National Television and Radio Center in the late 1950s and early 1960s concluded: "For some children, under some conditions, some television is harmful. For other children, under the same conditions, it may be beneficial. For most children, under most conditions, most television is probably neither harmful nor particularly beneficial."

Most research seems to indicate that children do learn behaviour and that television does play a role in teaching that behaviour. In her book Mind and Media, Patricia Greenfield says that children often take well-known TV characters as examples to be imitated. She points out that the day after "Fonzie" took out a library card on Happy Days, there was a fivefold increase in the number of children applying for library cards in the United States. She contends that TV can be a very positive force in the lives of children if it is used constructively and if parents actively see to it that their children interact with the programs' content

through discussions and parental explanations.

Such parental involvement is not always possible, however. Recent changes in our culture regarding the traditional nuclear family are creating new problems. The traditional family where the father works and the mother stays home has been replaced with situations where either both parents are working or the household created a new kind of child in the United States - the "latchkey kid." Millions of American children today go home from school to fend for themselves.

Many observers of this new trend contend that today's American child no longer obtains his or her cultural values from the traditional family structure, but instead gets them from the mass media. And some critics say that what they are getting is a popular culture filled with sex and violence.

However, some research studies have shown that TV has a positive impact on children's learning. These studies have found that vocabulary levels and general cultural awareness of youngsters starting school seem to be much higher than those of television-deprived children of the same age. Some TV programs for children, such as Sesame Street and The Electric Company (both on PBS), are designed to teach youthful viewers.

Another concern over the impact of television on children came from the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. Millions of children were watching the shuttle's takeoff in their classrooms because it was carrying the first teacher, Christa McAuliffe, into outer space. McAuliffe was to have given some lessons to the nation's school children from space. Concern was expressed that the explosion may have inflicted some long-lasting psychological damage on many of the young viewers.

Follow-up observations, however, have so far shown that some forgot about the incident within days, while others still remember the incident than single-parent children, who related to it as a case of other children losing parents.

Child psychiatrist Robert Coles says that what children do with television depends on the nature of their own lives. He points out that if a child has an unstable family life, he or she may be more vulnerable to the emotional and moral power of TV.

III. Read the article and discuss it in groups.

Does kids' TV need fixing?

Officials are debating whether to toughen the Children's Television Act: Should they require stations to air more quality kids' programming?

The Children's Television Act is either the last best hope for children's programs or an irksome symbol of how government meddles where it shouldn't.

Enacted in October 1990, the act requires local stations to meet the "educational and informational needs of children" to renew their licenses. The act's supporters want to strengthen its terms by requiring, among other things, that a specific number of hours be devoted to children's programming; its critics say Uncle Sam has no business regulating a local station's schedule.

Without government intervention, the television industry will not produce enough quality children's programming.

Broadcasters must serve the public.

They use spectra owned by the public and it's only right that their work benefit the public interest. "The law requires that broadcasters uphold public interest standards regardless of the share of 18-to-49-year-olds that they capture for advertisers", said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt in a recent speech.

Children need an advocate.

Federal courts have already recognized that government has a role in protecting kids' interests that extends beyond the constitutional protections of free speech. One recent decision affirmed that role when it upheld the FCC's regulations restricting "indecent" programming to certain hours.

Broadcasters cut corners.

The Children's Television Act vaguely defines educational as furthering "the positive development of the child in any respect." Broadcasters love that loophole. The Center for Media Education says some station license renewal applications have listed cartoons like "Casper" and "G I Joe" as educational. The definition of the word educational must be firmed up so that shows airing prior to 7 a.m. should not qualify and local stations are required to air a certain number of hours per week.

Threats of regulation bring results.

When presidents threaten to regulate the television industry, more educational shows are produced for children. Former ABC children's television chief Squire Rushnell has charted the relationship: Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford both advocated that there should be more educational children's programming or else the government would insist on it. As a result, the networks averaged almost 10 hours of such programming per week by 1975. By the end Jimmy Carter's term, in 1980, the total was up to 11 1/4 hours. By 1990, after Ronald Reagan's tenure it dropped to 1 3/4 hours. (Broadcasters dispute Rushnell's counting methods).

While there is industry support for the Children's Television Act, the free market does a good job of creating quality shows without government edicts.

Strict regulations violate free speech.

When government tells broadcasters how much children's educational television they should produce and what time slots they should use for such

programs, the First Amendment rights of those broadcasters are violated. "It takes away the discretion of the broadcasters", says Jeff Baumann, general counsel for the National Association of Broadcasters.

Government cannot make children watch "educational programming".

If TV producers have to scramble to produce educational shows to fulfil a requirement, the result will be a spate of mediocre programs that won't capture the imagination of children.

Broadcasters have responded to the act.

FCC Commissioner Rachelle Chong points out that since the act took effect, children's educational fare has increased from about one hour per week to three hours on average. She believes that broadcasters are getting the message about educational fare and plans to follow up with broadcasters who promise her that the trend will improve. Quantitative guidelines should be "our last resort."

The free market works.

Cable stations like the Disney Channel, the Learning Channel and Nickelodeon and several satellite and online services have all come into being to serve children (though 36 percent of American homes do not have cable). With new players entering the entertainment business, the choices for children will only increase. "If there's a program niche there, the marketplace will find it," says Ben Tucker, president of Retlaw Broadcasting and chairman of government relations for the CBS affiliate's advisory board.

IV. Use the advice given in the article to complete this list of tips for kid’s parents.

What TV-savvy parents can do to help their kids.

As TV gets wilder and wilder, more parents are opting to junk television altogether. Those not ready for this drastic step can find solace in media literacy - the art of deconstructing television. Schools in Canada have taught media literacy for years, explaining to students that programs exist to deliver an audience to advertisers, that sex and violence sell and that TV news isn't all the news that's fit to air -it's more likely the news that gets the best ratings. American schools are just six key precepts for a crash at home.

1.Rethink your image of TV. Newton Minow, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, suggests imagining a stranger in your house blathering on to you and your children about sex and violence all day long. No one dares interrupt or tell the stranger to shut up or get out. That stranger is your TV set.

2.Keep a diary. Ask your kids how much TV they think they watch. Then

have them write down everything they watch for a week. Parents might do the same. Both generations may be shocked by the results. A reasonable goal for kids: two hours a day. Several primers help with this and other steps: The Smart Parent's Guide to Kids' TV by Milton Chen (KQED Books, 1994, $8.95); "Taking Charge of Your TV," from the National PTA and the cable-television industry (free copies from 800-743-5355 or http:// www.widmeyer.com/ncta/home.htm on the Internet), and guides from the Center for Media Literacy (call 800-226-9494 for a free catalog).

3.Be choosy. You wouldn't stroll into a library and pick up the first book, and you shouldn't just turn on the TV and watch whatever's on. Media literacy mavens suggest choosing a week's worth of programs in advance. Sorry, no channel surfing.

4.Watch with them. Unless parents are confident that a show is safe for youngsters (rarely the case these days), they should watch with their kids, then talk about controversial content. Sample queries: "Why was that the lead story on the news?" "Could a cop really be back at work a week after being shot in the chest?" "When the star of the sitcom decided to have sex with a woman he just met, should she have suggested that he use a condom?"

5.Just say no. And also why-which means you first need to watch the series in question. "My daughter, who's 11, wanted to see 'Married... With Children'", says Karen Jaffe of Kidsnet, a children's media resource center in Washington, D.C. "I said no. I don't like the way the parents talk to the kids or the kids talk to the parents".

6.Media literacy isn't a cure-all. No child can be immunized against all the bad stuff on TV. So parents (and children) need to make their objections known. Letters to the local station, with a copy to the local newspapers and the FCC, can carry weight, especially if you use the words feared by TV executives; "failing to serve the public interest" and "doesn't deserve to have its licence renewed."

V. Answer the questions and read the articles.

THE SOAP OPERAS ON TELEVISION

One of students recently told me that she never schedules any of her classes between 2 and 3 p.m. because she's been hooked on General Hospital, a daily television soap opera, ever since she came to this country several years ago.

And she's not alone. It has been estimated that some 35 million people watch

at least one soap opera every day, and 56 percent of all college students watch at least one per week. Is it any wonder that students gather in front of college union TV sets each day to argue over whether to watch the latest activities of Erica, Jill, Rachel or Gina?

The TV soaps have become extremely popular with college students, but others have also "come out of the closet" and admitted that they watch soaps, including business executives who now join their hour to watch the daytime shows. But most important, these programs remain quite popular with the homemakers of the United States - just as their radio counterparts were from the 1930s through the 1950s. During the depression years the radio soaps provided a form of escape for listeners - they had found a way to listen to stories of people who were having tougher times than they were.

Several radio soaps made the switch to television in the early days, but only one of those transplants remains on the air today: The Guiding Light.

The original TV soaps followed the same basic format as their radio predecessors, including the daily length of 15 minutes per show. The first half - hour soap, As the World Turns, made its debut in 1956. One year later , The Edge of Night-another 30-minute soap-debuted, and TV soap operas were changed forever as sponsors and producers found that it was a lot cheaper to put together one 30-minute program than to hire actors, writers and technical crews for two 15minute programs.

In 1975, expansion hit the soap operas again as NBC's Another World went to 60 minutes daily. In 1979 it expanded to 90 minutes per day. However, this format was unsuccessful because it took so many story lines becoming confused. Another World returned to its 60-minute format in 1980.

Several other soaps expanded to an hour in the 1970s, with two of them making a stop along the way. In 1976 ABC converted two of its half-hour soaps- General Hospital and One Life to Live -to 45-minute shows running back to back. Two years later they both expanded to their present one-hour format.

It was also in the 1970s that a new soap opera was introduced in an attempt to lure younger viewers with story lines involving younger people: The Young and the Restless.

As the 1990s began, the three major television networks were running more than 10 hours of soap operas per day and one of them, NBC, was bringing back a soap from the 1960s-one that was scheduled in the later afternoon hours because of its popularity with high school students -Dark Shadows (complete with vampires). However, the plan was to make it a prime-time soap.

Soap operas, begun as a radio escape in the depression years of the 1930s, survived wars and radicalism by stressing love, romance and the importance of the family unit. They not only became the most popular form of daytime

programming, but they have expanded into prime time as well-from Peyton Place, two and three times a week in the 1960s, to Knots Landing and Dallas in the 1980s and '90s.

In addition, their popularity has been overflowing into other media. There are now magazines specifically for the soap fans, and many newspapers across the country run weekly columns designed to keep readers up-to-date on the daily activities of their favourite soap characters. To top it off, a series of books has been published that deal with the original story lines of some of the more popular shows for fans who weren't born when their favourite shows went on the air. Now those younger members of that audience of 35-million avid soap opera viewers can see how their favourite soaps began.

And the way things are going, the soaps may never end.

(James R. Wilson)

SELLING SOAP

by Jamie Ambler If somebody wrote a book entitled "Famous Personalities Past And Present", the list of the dead would undoubtedly include Kings and Queens, filmstars (or

politicians) and possibly sportsmen. The list of personalities of the present would be a slightly different story: I'm sure the names Sue Ellen, Blake Carrington and Betty Jo Bramegan would feature high in the ratings. The wholesale invasion of airtime by glossy drama series has taken the entire world by storm. Somehow J.R's southern drawl must get translated and dubbed into most of the major languages of this commercial planet.

The so-called drama series were dreamed up in the land of glossy illusions, America, by the huge competing TV networks in the late 50's and early 60's. The idea actually came from that other dream merchant, the advertising agency. Procter & Gamble Inc., producers of detergents and one of the largest worldwide spenders on advertising, invented a new social transmitter in order to bombard the jargon messages of "whiter than white" directly at their prime target, the housewife. The stories were so removed from her ironing-board that the poor imprisoned housewife soon became hooked to the series.

These programmes became known as "Soap Operas". Sponsored to the hilt by the huge corporate giants, they were an instant hit in both the home and the supermarket. Times have changed and many of the characters have either died or been killed off. The tragic car accident has been replaced by the heroin overdose, but ultimately the message remains "whiter than white".

By the swinging late 60's the soap operas had become so popular that a new series made TV history by switching to peak viewing time. The series Peyton Place is now an institution of worldwide renown and its then young stars (e.g. Barbara