Топик: Средства массовой информации /english/

The mass media

The press, the radio and TV play an important role in the life of society. They inform, educate and entertain people. They also influence the way people look at the world and make them change their views. Mass media shapes public opinion.

Millions of people in their spare-time read newspapers. It is impossible to imagine our life without newspapers. Millions of copies of them appear every day. Many people subscribe to two or more newspapers, others buy newspapers on the news-stands. There are national daily newspapers such as "The News" and "The Economic newspaper". There are also national weekly newspapers such as "The arguments and the facts". Most national newspapers express a political opinion and people choose them according to their political beliefs. Most newspapers contain news, detailed articles on home and international affairs, reviews of book are and TV-shows. Mane of them cover sport events. There are local newspapers in every city and town of Russia. The most popular local newspapers in Moscow are "The Moscow Komsomolets" and "Evening Moscow", in Kazan - "Evening Kazan. It is a local paper, because it is circulated only in our city. It is a daily paper because it is issued for times a week. The circulation of this paper is more than 80 thousand copies. This paper is delivered to our house. I am fond of reading it because it gives a full coverage of the events at home and abroad. One can also find newspapers for teenagers and children, for sportsfans and people of different professions. In Britain there are great differences between the various daily newspapers - in the type of news they report and the way they report it. On the one hand there are "quality" newspapers: "The Times", "The Guardian ", "The Daily Telegraph". These concern themselves, as far as possible, with factual reports of major national and international events, with the world of politics and business, and with the arts and sport. On the other hand there are the popular and tabloids, so-called because of their smaller size. The tabloids - the most widely read of which are "The Daily Mail", "The Daily Express" and "The Sun" - concentrate on more emotive reporting of stories often featuring violence, the Royal Family, film and pop stars and sport. The tabloid press is much more popular than the quality press. In addition to the national daily newspapers there are some national papers which are published on Sundays. Most of the Sundays contain more reading matter than daily papers. Besides, nearly every area in Britain has one or more local newspapers. The British are one of the biggest newspaper-reading nations in the world.

Millions of people watch TV. In our technological age TV has become a part of daily life. It broadens our horizons and enriches our mind because there are different programs on the arts, history, archeology, technical inventions. The strength of our television lies in its high quality, in its willingness to experiment and its ability to please most tastes. But a peculiar feature of modern TV is a soap-opera. It is s sentimental serial drama dealing with domestic problems. Most people find soap-operas boring. There is a lot of advertising on TV. The same advertisements are repeated dozens of times every day which bores the viewers.

In my opinion some new American films pull the rest of the people down to their own intellectual level. But it hardly fair to say that our media do not try to raise the cultural level of the people or to develop their artistic taste. Many of the TV programs are excellent, they are made in a good taste and with a great professional skill.

The radio is turned on most of the time. It doesn't interfere with your activities. You can listen to the radio while doing some work about the house, reading a book or driving a car. On the radio one hear the music, plays, news and various commentaries and discussions. Radio and TV bring into millions of homes not only entertainment and news but also cultural and educational programs. For instants you can take a TV course in history, political, economy, management and many other subjects, learn a foreign language by radio. My favorite is "Current affairs". This program deals with political and social problems of modern society. Its aim is to give an analysis of the problems and to show different view points.