Беликова Е.К., Саратовская Л.Б. - The United Kingdom and United States of America in Past and Present (1268141), страница 10
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But their positions, usually39driven by readers’ opinions and political slants, in fact can varyconsiderably over time and under the inuence of events. Papers mayhave a political bias and support a specic party, particularly at electiontimes. A few, such as those of the Trinity Mirror group, support theLabour Party, some such as The Times and The Independent considerthemselves to be independent, while others, such as The Guardian, favoura left-of-centre position.The press is dependent for its survival on circulation gures; on theadvertising that it can attract; and on nancial support from its owners. Infact all the media are currently experiencing a downturn in advertisingrevenue.
A high circulation does not necessarily guarantee the requiredadvertising and consequent survival, because advertisers now tend toplace their mass-appeal consumer products on television, where they willbenet from a larger audience. Most popular papers are in constantcompetition with their rivals to increase their sales.
They attempt to dothis by gimmicks such as bingo games and competitions, or by calculatededitorial policies which are intended to catch the mass readership.Owners may refuse to rescue those papers which make continuous losses.A number of newspapers in the twentieth century ceased publicationbecause of reduced circulation, loss of advertising revenue, refusals offurther nancial aid, or a combination of all three factors.However, despite a fall in hard-copy circulation, most nationalnewspapers now have online Internet publication. This provides anadditional medium for information and communication, as well ascontinuously updated news.With almost 1.500 staff in 91 countries, no newspaper anywhere cancompete with Britain’s formidable news agency, Reuters. Its name hasbecome an assurance of objectivity, accuracy and reliability.
Althoughrun from London, Reuters avoids any image of being a British institutionwith English news values and besides English gives its reports indifferent world languages.Regional newspapers Some 1,300 regional daily morning or dailyevening newspapers, Sundays and weeklies are published in towns andcities throughout Britain. Financially they are supported by regionaladvertising and contain a mixture of local and national news. Some nineout of ten adults read a regional or local paper every week and 75 % oflocal and regional newspapers also operate an Internet website.
Excludingits national newspaper industry, London has one paper (the Evening40Standard) with daily sales of 440,000. But there are also about a hundredlocal weeklies, dailies and evening papers which appear in the GreaterLondon districts.‘Quality’ daily regional (and national) papers, such as The Scotsman(Edinburgh) and the Glasgow Herald, the Western Mail (Cardiff), andthe Yorkshire Post (Leeds), have good reputation and sales outside theirregions. The best-selling papers are in Scotland, such as the DailyRecord and the Sunday Mail (Glasgow) and the Sunday Post.Britain’s ethnic communities also produce their own newspapers andmagazines, which are increasing in numbers, are available nationally inthe larger cities and are improving in quality.
There is a wide range ofpublications for Jewish, Asian, Afro-Caribbean, Chinese and Arabicreaders, published on a daily or (more commonly) periodic basis.There has also been a growth of ‘free newspapers’ in the regions, suchas the London Metro (Compare with Moscow one!).Some 800 arepublished weekly on a local basis and are nanced by local advertising.Periodicals and magazines There are 9,000 different periodicals andmagazines in Britain, which are of a weekly, monthly or quarterly natureand are dependent upon sales and advertising to survive.
They are aimedat different markets and levels of readers and either cover trades,professions and business (read by 95 % of occupational groups) or areconsumer titles dealing with sports, hobbies and interests (read by 80%of adults).The teenage and youth magazine market is ercely fought for, but hassuffered large sales losses recently. This is attributed to greater Internetand mobile phone usage. The men’s general interest magazine market issimilarly volatile. Women’s periodicals, such as Take a Break, Womanand Woman’s Own, have large and wide circulations.
But the bestsellingpublications are the weekly Radio Times and What’s on TV, whichcontain feature stories and scheduled programmes for BBC andindependent television. Other magazines cover interests such ascomputers, rural pastimes, gardening, railways, cooking, architecture, doit-yourself skills and sports .Among the serious weekly journals are theNew Statesman and Society (a left-wing political and social affairsmagazine); the Economist , the Spectator (a conservative journal); andNew Scientist.
The Times publishes inuential weekly serials, such asthe Educational Supplement, the Higher (Education Supplement)and the Literary Supplement. The lighter side of the market is catered41for by periodicals such as Private Eye, which satirizes the short comings of British society.The broadcasting mediaThe broadcasting media are divided into public and commercial(independent) sectors and consist of radio, terrestrial television andcable/satellite television. Three authorities oversee these services: theBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the Independent TelevisionCommission (ITC) and the Radio Authority.The BBC is based at Broadcasting House in London, but has stationsthroughout the country, which provide regional networks for radio andtelevision. It was created by Royal Charter and has a board of governorswho are responsible for supervising of the programmes.
They areappointed by the Crown on the advice of government ministers and aresupposed to constitute an independent element in the organization of theBBC. Daily operations are controlled by the Director-General, chosen bythe board of governors.The BBC is nanced by a grant from Parliament, which comes fromthe sale of television licences.
These are payable by anyone who owns atelevision set and are relatively cheap in international terms. The BBCalso generates considerable income from selling its programmes abroadand from the sale of Radio Times, books, magazines and videos. TheBBC in recent years has come under pressure from governmentdemanding the reforms. It has struggled to maintain its position as atraditional public service broadcaster, funded by the license fee, at a timeof erce competition with commercial broadcasters.
Internalreorganization has led to a slimmer and more efficient organization,development of alternative forms of funding, such as subscription andpay services.The BBC’s external services, which consist of radio broadcasts inEnglish (the World Service) and 42 other languages abroad, werefounded in 1932 and are funded by the Foreign Ofce. These have areputation for objective news reporting and programmes.
The BBC alsobegan commercially funded television programmes in 1991 by cable toEurope and by satellite links to Africa and Asia; BBC World (news) –now merged with the World Service – and BBC Prime (entertainment).The BBC is not a state organization, in the sense that it is controlled bythe government. But it is not as independent on political pressures asmany in Britain and overseas assume. Its charter has to be renewed by42Parliament and by its terms the government can, and does, intervene inthe showing of programmes. The BBC governors, although supposedlyindependent, are in fact government appointees. Governments can alsoexert pressure upon the BBC when the licence fee comes up for renewalby Parliament.The BBC does try to be neutral in political matters; to such an extentthat all political parties have periodically complained that it is prejudicedagainst them.
The major parties have equal rights to broadcast on theBBC and independent television.The BBC now has two television channels (BBC1 and BBC2). BBC1is a mass-appeal channel with an audience share of 28 per cent. Itsprogrammes consist of news, plays and drama series, comedy, quizshows, variety performances, sport and documentaries. BBC2, with anaudience share of 11 per cent, tends to show more serious items such asnews analysis and discussion, documentaries, adaptations of novels intoplays and series, operas, concerts and some sport. It is also provides OpenUniversity courses.
The Labour government has approved (2001) theexpansion of BBC television (digital) services by the creation of a BBC4channel (culture and the arts) and two channels for young children.BBC Radio performs an important service, although some of itsaudiences have declined recently. There are ve national channels (to beincreased by ve new digital channels); 39 local stations serving manydistricts in England; and regional and community services in Scotland,Wales and Northern Ireland. They all have to compete for listeners withindependent stations but offer an alternative in news, debate and localinformation to pop-based local and national commercial stations.
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