The Linguistic Culture-9-10 (Political Parties and Elections_ Media_ Soap Operas)(Education and Science in the USA) (1157935), страница 3
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It is estimated that altogether,around 2 billion people get most of their news directly or indirectly through AP and UPI.It is often said that there is no “national press” in the United States as there is in Great Britain. Inone sense this is true. Most daily newspapers are distributed locally or regionally. There havebeen attempts to publish truly national newspapers, e.g.
The USA Today. But it still has only acirculation of 1.2 million, which is not enough in a country where state, city, and local news andpolitical developments most deeply affect readers and are therefore especially interesting tothem.The papers with large circulation and national brand The Wall Street Journal, the NewYork Times, the Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times not only print newspapers,but also collect and sell news, news features, and photographs to hundreds of other papers inthe U.S.A. and abroad. Many other newspapers “borrow” news from the major Americannewspapers and magazines, so their influence spreads far beyond their own readers.
When theInternet first engaged the attention of the newspaper industry, it became a new, cheapdistribution medium. To papers such as The Washington Post or the New York Times theinternet offered a way of getting the paper more around the country.The Freedom of Information Act allows anyone, including newspaper reporters, to getinformation. The American press proudly repeats Thomas Jefferson’s noble words: “Ourliberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost”. Evensmall-town newspapers employ reporters who are kept busy searching political corruption,business malpractice, or industrial pollution. Almost all American editors and journalists agreethat news should be separated from opinion about the news as much as possible, and thatopinion and political viewpoints belong to the editorial and opinion pages.
Therefore, when anews story appears with a reporter’s name, it means that the editors consider it to be a mixtureof fact and opinion.Political and editorial cartoons are also widely syndicated. Well-known political cartoonists areknown to most American and many foreign newspapers readers.
Satire and humor columnsoften have international reputations as well. Many newspapers also use columnists as a way ofbalancing political opinion. The so-called op-ed pages (opposite the editorial page) ofnewspapers, columns from leading liberal and conservative commentators are often printedside by side.Many American newspapers have Sunday editions, which are much larger than regular ones(some of them around 900 pages). Reading the Sunday paper is not only English but also anAmerican tradition.
Getting through all the sections can take readers most of the day, leaving justenough time for the leisurely Sunday dinner.The tradition of “muckraking”- digging out the dirt and exposing it for all to see - is stillextremely strong. When something which has been hidden behind closed doors about publicfigures, politicians, judges, policemen, generals, business leaders, sports figures, or TV andmovie personalities is brought to the front pages, it can appear in a lot of newspapers.Besides newspapers there are over 11, 000 magazines and periodicals in the United States.More than 4,000 of them appear monthly, and over 1,300 are published very week.
They coverall topics and interests, from art and architecture to tennis, from aviation and gardening tocomputers and literary criticism.Quite a few have “daughter” editions in other countries. Among such internationals are Time,Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report, National Geographic, Reader’s Digest,Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Time, Newsweek, and Psychology Today. The best known professionalperiodicals The Atlantic Monthly, Harvard Educational Review, Saturday Review, NationalGeographic, Smithsonian (published by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.),Scientific American have a huge readership both in the USA and abroad.Radio and TelevisionThere are many different types and varieties of American radio and television: commercial, noncommercial, individual, etc.
All radio and television stations in the United States, public orprivate, educational or commercial, large and small, must be licensed to broadcast, by theindependent federal agency The Federal Communications Commission (FCC).There are several such regulations, preventing any single group from having too much influencein any area. E.g., laws prohibit any state or the federal government from owning or operatingradio or television stations (stations such as Voice of America may only broadcast overseas).TheFCC regulation, the so-called Fairness Doctrine, requires stations to give time not onlyto opposing views but also devote some part of their broadcasting time to “public service”advertising free of charge: e.g.
advertisements for Red Cross blood drives, for dental care, forprograms on Alcoholics Anonymous and car safety.There is also a great variety among television stations. The majority of commercialtelevision stations buy most of their programming, roughly 70 %, from the three commercialnetworks: ABC (American Broadcasting Company), CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System),and NBC (National Broadcasting Company). Two of the TV commercial stations in Louisvilleare “independent” and take their programs from a wide variety of sources.
The growth of publictelevision in the past two decades has been dramatic. PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) withits 280 nonprofit, non commercial stations has become also very popular.There are plenty of cable systems serving the cities The largest cable networks are CNN{Cable News Network) which carries only news and news stories and ESPN, the all-sportscable network, or MTV, which is famous for its music videos.There is no nationwide system or policy on cable television.
There are many different types ofschemes, systems, and programs. Some offer top-rate recent movies on a pay-as-you-watchsystem, some offer opera and symphonic music. All are willing to provide “public access”channels where individuals and groups of citizens produce their own programming. Cable firmsare trying to offer something special to get many people to pay. Over the years, technology andeconomics have produced more and more ways of occupying people’s time: more televisionchannels, more magazines, more theme parks, and now besides traditional media video andcomputer games, chat rooms and all other delights of the information age.Advertising through CommercialsEvery country has the radio and television service it deserves ( George Mikes “How toScrape Skies”). American radio and television is the reverse of the Shakespearean stage.
InShakespeare’s time the world’s greatest dramas were acted with the most primitive technicalmeans; on the American air the world’s most primitive writing is performed under perfecttechnical conditions.Numerous articles have been written about American commercial television, its quality or lackof it, its power or effects. Commercials -advertisements in a form of a small play-take up aboutten minutes of every 60 minutes of viewing (roughly 20% of the broadcasting time).
Everyperformance (even the news), except the sacred baseball match commentaries, is interrupted bycommercials.Commercials range from witty, well made, and clever to those that are dull and boring. Themoney for the advertising is provided by the manufacturers of cars, soap, cigarettes, spaghetti,cosmetics, etc. Commercials are declaimed in prose and recited in verse, sung by soloists andchoirs, persuading you that you will become rich and beautiful if you eat Z cheese or else you dieyoung, poor and neglected.
They tell you that if you use a certain orange squeezer in yourkitchen, you remain young, lovely and beautiful; if you wash with a certain soap, you’ll becomerich; if you wear a certain type of underwear you’ll inherit a large sum from a wealthy uncle andif use only a special kind of tomato ketchup you’ll learn foreign languages more easily. Onceduring a performance of King Lear, the tragedy flowed on in its majesty until at its climax KingLear broke in, condemning all his daughters for not drinking ‘Optimum’ orange juice forbreakfast.Commercials make you feel that you really must have the product you see on t.v.
To do this anumber a different effects are used:-The snob effect. This tells you that the product is most exclusive and of course ratherexpensive. Only the very best people use it.-The scientific effect. A serious-looking man with glasses and a white coat, possibly adoctor or a professor, tells you about the advantages of the product.-The words-and-music effect.
The name of the product is repeated over and over again,put into a rhyme and sung several times, in the hope that you won’t forget it. The sungrhyme is called a “jungle”.-The ha-ha effect. The advertiser tries to make you laugh by showing people or cartoonfigures in funny situations.-The VIP (Very Important Person) effect. Well-known people, like actors or footballplayers, are shown using the product.-The super- modern effect. The advertiser tries to persuade you that his product is a new,sensational breakthrough.-The go-go effect. This is suitable for the teenage market.
It shows young people having aparty, singing, laughing, having a wonderful time, and, of course, using the product.Soap OperasAnother special feature and invention of American broadcasting is the soap opera. Soapoperas are plays originally sponsored by soap advertisers, hence the name. They are called“operas” because they present highly emotional situations like European operas.
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