2.7. Interview with Joanna Bogle

You will listen to an interview with Joanna Bogle. She is a member of the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association, which aims to monitor the output of both television and radio.

Task 1. Discuss with the group:

• Is there anything in the media that you find offensive or even harmful? Elaborate.

• Is television a reflection of reality or does our behaviour depend on what we see on TV?

• Is it possible to cope with all the offensive material that is put out on TV? If yes, how can it be done?

Task 2. Before you listen to the interview, match some words and phrases from the interview with their definitions and periphrases.

revolting a side effect to slosh out at smb savage to be roasted on a spit grossly depraved overtones ridiculous to crop up stirring uplifted pageantry

very violent or cruel; impressive ceremonies or events, involving many people wearing special clothes; to appear (often suddenly) in a film, book, etc.; to be cooked on a long thin stick that you put through meat and turn when cooking over a fire; extremely unpleasant, disgusting; in a way that is clearly wrong and unacceptable; feeling happier and more hopeful; an unexpected or unplanned result of a situation or event; completely evil or morally unacceptable; very silly or unreasonable; signs of an emotion or attitude that is not expressed directly; producing strong feelings or excitement in someone; to tell many unpleasant thing to smb.

Task 3. Listen to the interview with Joanna and answer the questions. Remember to take notes.

• What do Joanna and the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association find offensive on TV? What adjectives does Joanna use to express her feelings?

• What examples does Joanna provide to show that many people don’t realize the difference between fantasy and reality?

• “Television both reflects and influences”. Elaborate on the statement.

 VOCABULARY PRACTICE

2.8. Censorship

Task 1. Put each of the following words or phrases in its correct place below.

moral standards perverted banned masquerading

unscrupulous excessive degrades safeguards

counter-productive infringes corrupting gratuitous

The amount of offensive material we are exposed to in films nowadays is surely (a)____________ . Most people accept that scenes of sex and violence are sometimes necessary to tell a story, but all too often these scenes are (b)____________, they are unnecessary and simply inserted in the film to appeal to the baser human instincts. Censorship is necessary, especially to protect children from the (c)____________ influence of such scenes, often (d)____________ as art, in our cinemas. There should also be censorship of pornographic magazines produced by (e)____________ people willing to cater to the (f)____________ tastes of a small minority. Such material destroys the innocence of the young and (g)____________ all who read it. On the other hand, there are those who say that something which is (h)____________ becomes desirable, so censorship is (i)____________, and that censorship (j)____________ on our freedom of choice. However freedom is not merely freedom to do what we want but freedom from attempts to destroy society's (k)____________ . Censorship provides the (l)____________ by which society protects itself.

Task 2. Comment on the ideas outlined in Task 1. Do you feel censorship in the media is necessary?

Task 3. Read the text and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best completes each collocation or fixed phrase.

With the advent of so-called ‘Reality TV’, which puts the emphasis on ordinary people doing ordinary things on TV, the BBC has been much criticised for (1)…C… down its schedules. But it worries me that the biggest victims of this never-ending diet of violent cartoons, immoral dramas and banal docu-soaps is the nation's children. The sheer quantity of TV watched by the under 16's is truly alarming, with the national (2).......... for Britain placed at three and a half hours per day. The programmes that are rubbish easily (3).......... the programmes that are decent and watchable. There will no doubt be howls of (4).......... out there from people who believe that TV is educational. Educational my foot. Fast-moving visual images (5).......... no useful educational purpose and will be forgotten by the next day. A young family near me has recently taken a (6).......... against TV and given their set away. Their children now do something truly educational. They read books.

1)	A dimming	B dumping	C dumbing	D duncing
2)	A medium	B norm	C average	D par
3)	A outdistance	B outdo	C outreach	D outnumber
4)	A protest	B complaint	C objection	D disapproval
5)	A fill	B serve	C make	D form
6)	A position	B place	C stand	D stage

Task 4. Put the correct preposition into each gap.

Television and reading

I pride myself (1)_____ the fact that I read two or three books a week. (2)_____ this rate I'll be familiar (3)_____ every book in our local library soon. I blame TV (4)_____ the way people don't seem to read as much as they used to. (5)_____ my way of thinking TV is responsible (6)_____ many ills in our society. I wonder (7)_____ the amount of TV watched by my sister's children. I have warned her (8)_____ the danger of this but (9)_____ vain. She refuses to get involved (10)_____ a discussion (11)_____ the subject. (12)_____ one time I used to watch a fair amount of TV but I restricted myself (13)_____ particular programmes such as documentaries and an occasional good film. However I soon grew tired (14)_____ even this. I was indifferent (15)_____ many of the topics in the documentaries and there is always something missing (16)_____ films or TV plays which are based (17)_____ the stories in books. However good the film, it is no substitute (18)_____ the original story. At last I think I'm beginning to convince my sister (19)_____ the bad effect of TV (20)_____ her children. She has agreed (21)_____ my suggestion of selective viewing and at the beginning of each week her family agree (22)_____ which programmes they want to watch and the TV is only turned on at those times. It's taken a long time to get her to agree (23)_____ me but I'm sure the schoolwork of my nephews and niece will benefit as a result.

Task 5. Discuss with your group:

• How do you find the idea of selective viewing? Is it an adequate substitute to censorship?

Task 6. In most lines of these letters, there is either a spelling or punctuation error. For each line, write the correctly spelled word, or show the correct punctuation. Indicate correct lines with a tick.

Dear Editor,
I am writing to express my disatisfaction with the pictures, recently	0 dissatisfaction
published in your newspaper, of the soap actress Kathy Walter, shown	0 … ……………….
sunbathing, topless on a beach in the Mediterranean. Was the approval	0 sunbathing topless
of Ms Walter sought for this tasteless invasion of her privasy? Of	1 …………………….
course not. Ms Walter's face appears on TV every day, so she is	2 …………………….
public property. Well, Ms Walter may be a public figure, but that	3 …………………….
does not give you the right to photograph her in an embarassing	4 …………………….
situation, purely in the interest of your circalation figures. And she	5 …………………….
still has a right to enjoy private moment's with her friends in a quiet	6 …………………….
location of her choice. The growing phenomonon of newspapers	7 …………………….
deliberately seeking scandal in order to outdo each other is one that	8 …………………….
this reader finds both offensive and insulting to ones intelligence	9 …………………….
Yours sincerely, Geoff Rope

Dear Mr Rope
With all due respect, your letter is based on some extrordinary	10 ……………………
assumtions regarding famous people. First of all, we are in the	11 ……………………
business of selling newspapers, and if we had to ask the permision	12 ……………………
of the subject of every photograph, no copies' would ever make it to	13 ……………………
the printing press. You should also remember, that Ms Walter's	14 ……………………
career has bennefited enormously from the Press and other media,	15 ……………………
and indeed she has often used the media to her own avantage. She is	16 ……………………
one of the most photographed personalitys in the country, and can	17 ……………………
not expect to dictate when and where, she wants media attention	18 ……………………
and when she does not. In short, we feel that we were fully	19 ……………………
justified in our decision to publish the photographs conserned.	20 ……………………
Yours sincerely, Sarah Hull Editor

Task 7. Read the passage carefully, then decide which of the words below A, B or C best fits each space. Sometimes more than one word may be possible. The first sentence has been done for you.

Television on Trial

Once again, television is the (1)__B__ of a national debate - this time about the effect on young people of seeing violence and sex on their TV screens. According to a (2)____ published yesterday, the number of complaints about television shows has (3)____ from 2,000 to 15,000 in just one year! What lies behind this dramatic increase? It seems that the thinking that makes (4)____ most angry is the fact that violent or sexual images are often shown during the early evening, when children are not yet in bed. Channel 6's "News World" was recently criticized because it showed images of a plane (5)____ in which 350 people were killed. On that occasion, hundreds of furious parents called in to say that the images were completely unsuitable for the early evening, and their children were clearly (6)____. But Channel 6's news boss Frank Lane (7)____ that his programmes are unsuitable. "We take great care not to include any images that might be disturbing. On this particular occasion we may have been wrong. But let me (8)____ the public that every effort is made to prevent unnecessary offence. At the same time, we have a duty to show the world as it really is, not as we would like it to be. And sometimes it is a terrible place. Even children have to learn that lesson." Mr. Lane, who at 64 years of age is planning to (9)____ next year, hopes that the programme will remain unchanged after he has gone. “I’ve spent 30 years making it what it is. It would be a shame to waste all that hard work.”

1.	A	issue	B	subject	C	question
2.	A	account	B	commentary	C	report
3.	A	doubled	B	shot up	C	grown
4.	A	audience	B	spectators	C	viewers
5.	A	crash	B	collision	C	pile up
6.	A	depressed	B	unhappy	C	upset
7.	A	insisted	B	denied	C	claimed
8.	A	swear	B	assure	C	guarantee
9.	A	resign	B	retire	C	quit

Task 8. Discuss the following with your group:

• Can you recall any other examples of offence in the media similar to the one described in Task 7? Do you consider such material offensive?

• If you were to decide, what material would you prohibit to put out at peak viewing hours? Explain your point of view.

 LISTENING