The Press in Britain

Of the major newspapers.........(1) in Britain recently the most

successful have been The Independent at the top ......... (2) and

Sunday Sport at the bottom. Of the three .......... (3) at the middle

market, two have folded while the third, Today, is already into its third proprietor.

Sunday Sport has a(n) ......... (4) interested in sex-related ad­vertising. The Independent has......... (5) an intelligent young mar­ket, taking readers from The Times and The Guardian. It is not as strong as other papers on......... (6), that is, those stories that con­tinue for days, if not weeks, but few would fault its design and use of

quality pictures. Its.........(7) of some particular issues, such as the

Spy catcher story, was much applauded and.........(8) sales.

It is in the middle market that there are limited prospects for

growth. Twenty five years ago the middle market......... (9) sold

7.5 million copies nationwide, but now the figure is half that. The

newspaper market is ......... (10) between the serious broadsheets

and the frivolous.........(11). The problem for the middle papers is

to create their own......... (12). The editor of the Daily Mail, who

regards The Times and The Telegraph as his ......... (13), says his

strategy is to encourage longer news stories, engage quality journa­lists for the.........(14) pages and introduce a Saturday leisure sec­tion in his tabloid paper to ......... (15) those of the broadsheet pa­pers. At the Daily Express......... (16) has dropped from 4 million

in the 1960's to 1 100 000. The editor says, «We have to move a lit­tle up market. We have to report in more depth».

Competition is important in determining.........(17). The Express

and Daily Mail are now making money. But things would change if they had to reduce the.........(18) as a result of competition.

Language in the News

As readers of newspapers, and viewers of television, we readily assume that the Nine O'clock News, or the front page of the Daily

Express or the Guardian, consists of faithful reports of events that happened «out there», in the world beyond our immediate experience. At a certain level, that is of course a realistic assumption: real events do occur and are reported - a coach crashes on the autobahn, postman wins the pools, a cabinet minister resigns. But real even are subject to conventional processes of selection: they are not intrinsically newsworthy, but only become «news» when selected for ir elusion in news reports. The vast majority of events are not mentioned, and so selection immediately gives us a partial view of the world. We know also that different newspapers report differently, in both content and presentation.

The pools win is more likely to be reported in the Mirror than in The Times, whereas a crop failure in Meghalaya may be reported in The Times but almost certainly not in the Mirror. Selection is ac­companied by transformation, differential treatment in presentation] according to numerous political, social and economic factors.

As far as differences in presentation are concerned, most people would admit the possibility of «bias»: the Sun is known to be consis­tently hostile in its treatment of trades unions, and of what it call «the loony Left»; the Guardian is generous in its reporting of the at fairs of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Such disaffection and affiliations are obvious when you start reading carefully, and discussing the news media with other people. The world of the Pres is not the real world, but a world skewed and judged.

Now what attitude might one take towards the «bias»? There is. an argument to the effect that biases do exist, but not everywhere. The Daily Express is biased, the Socialist Worker is not (or the other way round). In a good world, all newspapers and television channel would report the unmediated truth. This view seems to me to be drastically and dangerously false. It allows a person to believe, and to assert, complacently, that their newspaper is unbiased, whereas all the others are in the pockets of the Tories or the Trotskyites; or that newspapers biased, while TV news is not (because “the camera cannot lie”).

The danger with this position is that it assumes the possibility of genuine neutrality, of some news medium being a clear undistorting window. And that can never be.

Match the following words with their meanings as used in the

extract.

1 readily a favourable

2 faithful b particular

3 immediate с inherently

4 certain d willingly

5 intrinsically e unaltered

6 generous f accurate

7 unmediated g personal

Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases.

admit the possibility; in the pockets of the Tories;

the loony Left: the camera cannot lie.

disaffections and affiliations;

Making Headlines

Headline news. Look through the following newspaper head­lines where inadvertent puns have created second meanings. Can you explain what the news stories are probably about and what the other interpretations might be?

MILK DRINKERS ARE TURNING TO POWDER

THUGS EAT THEN ROB PROPRIETOR

MAN HELD OVER GIANT L.A.BRUSH FIRE

GRANDMOTHER OF EIGHT MAKES HOLE IN ONE

POLICE DISCOVER CRACK IN AUSTRALIA

IRAQI HEAD SEEKS ARMS

TRAFFIC DEAD RISE SLOWLY

STOLEN PAINTING FOUND BY TREE

DRUNK GETS NINE MONTHS IN VIOLIN CASE

CARIBBEAN ISLANDS DRIFT TO LEFT