Mass media (Дополнительное чтение), страница 3

It has always been thepaper of the “Establishment” and has a good reputation for reliable and seriouscomment on foreign and home affairs.The popular daily papers are also called tabloids. A tabloid is both a papersize and a term for the style of the newspapers that tend to use that format. Tabloidis the smaller of the two standard newspaper sizes; the larger newspapers are calledbroadsheets. The name seems to derive from a pharmaceutical trademark meaningcompressed tablet, and has been applied to other small things. There are twodistinct uses of the term today. The more recent usage, actually deriving from theoriginal usage, is to refer to weekly or semi-weekly alternative papers in tabloidformat.

Many of these are essentially straightforward newspapers, publishing intabloid format.What principally distinguishes these from the dailies, in addition to theirless-frequent publication, is the fact that they are usually free to the user, relyingon ad revenue, as well as the fact that they tend to concentrate more on localentertainment scenes and issues. In its traditional sense, tabloids tend to emphasizesensational stories and are reportedly prone to create their news. Such nationaltabloids as The Sun, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Mail, The Daily Express, TheDaily Star, Today and others do not pay a great deal of attention to importantworld events and when they do, the facts are often distorted in an effort to makethe news exciting and entertaining.

Much space is devoted to crime, scandal, whilegenerally a small amount of information is on different topics. Sometimes opinionstake more space than “hard news”. Their front page news is presented in asensational manner, with banner headlines. Popular papers use more pictures andcartoons. They deliberately employ slang and up to date expressions to give theirreports more vitality. The vocabulary is forceful, abounding in words and phrasesappealing to the readers’ emotions.9The Daily Mail devotes its space to commercial advertisements (ads), sportsreports, features, home news, human interest stories, competitions and puzzles,notices, financial news, reviews, gossip, letters from the public, comic strips,opinion and comment, horoscopes, topical cartoons, parliamentary reports andweather forecasts.The Daily Mirror, tabloid, is the only large national paper which supportsthe Labour Party. It can boast of the third mass circulation.

It is one of the firstpapers to use strip cartoons.Most daily newspapers have no Sunday editions, but there are Sunday papers.The latter are sometimes closely linked with national dailies either because theyare owned by the same proprietor or because “they are printed on the samemachine”.The Sunday press for a long time has been notorious for its extremes of goodand bad quality, and for enormous circulation of some of the more scandalouspapers. Much space in the Sundays is given to features, comment and leisureinterests.The national quality Sundays are The Observer, The Sunday Times, TheSunday Telegraph.

They have smaller circulations than the popular Sunday papers.Sunday papers devote much space to literature and the arts.The popular Sunday papers (The News of the World, The Sunday Mirror,The Sunday Express, The Mail on Sunday) are the newspapers with hugecirculation bringing reports of violence, crime and scandal. With the Sundayquality and popular papers the differences between them are even more marked.The classification of British newspapers:Daily Broadsheet: The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, TheIndependent, The Financial Times.Daily Tabloid: Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Sun, The Mirror, The Star.Sunday Broadsheet: Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, The Observer.Sunday Tabloid: Mail on Sunday, Sunday Express, News of The World,Sunday Mirror, Sunday People.*From: http://window.edu.ru/library/pdf2txt/938/29938/13167/page1Find the English equivalents in the text.•иметь своей целью…;•полное и серьезное освещение событий внутри страны и за рубежом;•быть основанным;•различные употребления данного понятия;•намеренно использовать сленг и современные выражения;•придавать живость;•уделять внимание;•особенно отличать10Answer the following questions.1.What kinds of newspapers are mentioned in the text? Into which types arenewspapers divided according to the frequency of publication?2.How are quality papers characterized in the text (coverage of the events,language, style…)?3.Why are quality papers called broadsheets while popular papers are calledtabloids?4.What is special about tabloids’ vocabulary and headlines?Word listadvertisementto aim atapplied tocoveragedeliberatelyto be devoted todistinctto emphasizeextensivereliablesignificanceto tend toрекламастремиться к чему-тообращенный к чему-тоосвещение событияпреднамереннопосвящатьотличный, отчетливыйподчеркивать; делать упор на чем-тообширныйнадежный, достоверныйзначение, важностьсклоняться кPart 3Electronic MediaTelevisionThe history of the BBC: the first TV eraThe British Broadcasting Company started daily transmissions on November14th 1922, by which time more than one million ten-shilling (50p) licences hadbeen issued.

In 1927 the company was restructured as a public corporation― theBBC that we know today― by its founding father, John (later Lord) Reith, but bythis time an even newer technology was being developed ―television.In 1923 the Scotsman John Logie Baird began developing a system bywhich television would be made possible. Baird wasn't the only one developingthis new system at that time; indeed, Earl Ferdinand Braun had invented the firstcommercial cathode ray tube as early as 1897. But it was Baird who developed the11disc-scanning equipment that made television possible. In 1926 Baird enlisted theaid of Selfridges in London to put on public demonstrations of his equipment.In May of 1934 the British government appointed a committee, under theguidance of Lord Selsdon, to begin enquiries into the viability of setting up apublic television service, with recommendations as to the conditions under whichsuch a service could be offered.

The results of the Selsdon’s Report were issued asa single Government White Paper in January of the following year. The BBC wasto be entrusted with the development of television, which had to transmit adefinition of not less than 240 lines with a minimum of 25 pictures per second.The committee proposed that the two new high definition systems (Baird's240 line and Marconi-EMI's 405 line) would be chosen to alternate transmissionsby the BBC over a set period, until it was decided which was the better.

Lookingfor a suitable site for the new service, the BBC chose Alexandra Palace inHaringey, Greater London. Its position, high on a hill, made it the ideal place toplace a transmitter that would cover all of London and many of its surroundingcounties.Sanctioned with the monumental task of bringing high-definitionbroadcasting to the British public as a regular service was Director of RadioOutside Broadcasting, Gerald Cox, now appointed the BBC's Director ofTelevision. Cox's first task was to assemble a team of experts and then summonthem to a meeting where a plan of strategy could be worked out.

In front of camerawas to be experienced Movietone News commentator, Leslie Mitchell, and femaleannouncers Jasmine Bligh and Elizabeth Cowell were chosen from thousands ofhopefuls who had applied for the job. According to popular legend Cox assembledhis staff and told them that since none of them knew a thing about televisionbroadcasting, he was going to give them ample time to find out. They were givenfour months to study the new medium and do all the experimenting they needed inorder to get it "right on the night".• "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

It is with great pleasure that Iintroduce you to the magic of television..." - with those words Leslie Mitchellintroduced Britain's first high-definition public television programme fromRadiolympia. The date was 26th August 1936.On November 2nd 1936 the world's first regular high definition servicebegan transmitting to the 100 or so TV sets available in Britain.The BBC began transmitting from Alexandra Palace for two hours everyday (except Sunday's).

A copy of the Radio Times dated October 30th reveals theopening day line-up. According to the publication, on this particular week theBaird System was being used.The range of the service offered by the BBC covered a radius ofapproximately 40 miles from Muswell Hill, although that was by no means a rigidlimit.

Some people reported picking up pictures from beyond that range although itseemed to depend on a mixture of freak conditions and which transmission systemwas being used at the time.12On May 12th 1937 cameras were sent to cover the Coronation of KingGeorge V1.

Following this, viewers got their first chance to witness a majorsporting event when the Wimbledon Tennis Championships were first broadcast onJune 21st, 1937, with a match between Bunny Austin and George Rogers. By 1939programmes were being broadcast seven days a week.Then on 1st September 1939 the screens went blank. Viewers waited for anannouncement but none came.

Britain and the BBC were about to go to war, andthe first television era had come to an end.*From: http://www.teletronic.co.uk/tvera.htmAnswer the following questions.1.2.3.4.When was the BBC organized?What kind of events did it transmit?What were the two new high definition systems?Do you know how it’s functioning now?TV reality shows are third-rate entertainment and not worth watching.What do you think?There is nothing new about reality TV.

Confessional shows, where ordinarypeople make their private life public, have been around for a long time. However,over the last five years TV reality shows such as Big Brother and Survivor havebecome more popular. Obviously some of these programs have been the mostsuccessful shows in television history. Is it unfair to say they are third-rateentertainment?In order to evaluate reality TV, we need to define exactly what a TV realityshow is. Reality shows have several things in common with soap operas. Actually,they both involve a group of people who have to live together and get on with eachother whilst solving various problems.

The difference is that reality shows aren’tscripted, so the dialogues are often quite tedious. In addition, problems contestantsdeal with are artificial and don’t arise naturally from a “story”. Apparently, in thissense they could be seen as third-rate entertainment.Why then do people watch them? Presumably, what holds the audience’sattention is the “reality” or spontaneity of the shows. You never know what isgoing to happen next, and we are fascinated by people who will stop at nothing intheir pursuit of fame.