MASSMEDIA
A high number of readers supports development of newspaper
industry. There are a lot of papers in the world. The most
prestigious are The Times of London, The Guardian (in Great
Britain), the largest daily newspapers published in the U.S.A.
are The New York Times and The Washington Post. In our country
are the most favourite The New Time, The Slovak Republic and many
others.
The main section of the paper contains the most important news.
There are separate sections for home news and for international
news. In some the sports news and the business news are also in
the main section. The contents of the often sections change from
day to day. They usually include feature articles on the arts and
reviews. Each day's paper has articles about particular topics.
Many people also read local newspaper. Some people (especially
older people) like local newspapers more than national ones
because they often know some of the people mentioned in the
articles. Although local newspapers usually concentrate on local
news, the most important national and international events are
also reported.
The habit of reading the paper is an important part of many
people's daily lives, although a lot of people don't have time to
read it from cover to cover.
RADIO
The existence of radio waves had already been demonstrated in
1886, by an German physicist, Heinrich Herty. Later, when the
microphone was invented, great improvments were made. Radio
could be used to transmit and receive the spoken world and even
music. The radio has become an important piece in our households
and it has come to occupy a special place in our life. Radio news
and wheater reports keep us informed of what is going on. Through
them we have a better knowledge both of our own country and of
the rest of the world.
Radio also provides us with a great deal of amusement and
cultural programmes. We can all hear - the best orchestras and
artists in our own homes, and follow a variety of events. It
keeps people in touch with current events and political or
economic waves. Other advantage of radio is that listening to the
radio can combined with many other activities.
TELEVISION
The first television transmissions were made in England in 1926
by the Scotman John Logie Baird.
The great progress was only after the war. It was partly due
to the war itself, which greatly developed people's knowledge of
electronics. Television soon appeared in the home and came to
occupy an important place there.
A large number of people are concerned with television every
day - technicians, cameramen, programmers and of course artists.
Thus television plays an important role in our society. This role
is sometimes positive, but it can also at time be unhealthy.
Through television we receive images from all parts of the
world and our knowledge is better. But not all of television's
effects are beneficial. Whereas people spent the evenings working
or studying, many now spend a large part of evening watching
TV programmes.
Many people say that watching TV is a waste of time. Some
adults also say that TV watching is bad for kids.
There are a lot of especially foreign film on TV, which are
about men who are killing each other for money.I never understand
these films but if you look around you that is what you see.
People are very violent and also children are agressive. The
killer become their heros. Maybe they like watching TV and videos
where men kills men. Also even cartoons are full of violence.
Just try to watching the famous Ninja Turtles or Tom and Jerry.
This cartoons are supposed to be for children. Is it normal ?
SOAP OPERAS
- they are called "soap" because the very first ones made for
commercial TV and sponsored by companies that made soap powder
American soaps are about rich attractive people who live their
exotic lives, they have a lot of expensive clothes, cars, houses
and dramatic problems.
Why do people watch the soaps? When we watch these soaps we
escape from our ordinary everyday world to the soap opera's fan-
tasy. Everyone likes sharing enthusiasm and TV soaps offer these
opportunity, people have a lack of drama in their lives and they
feel happier about their own real problems when they can watch
someone else's problems.
English soaps - are quite different, they are about ordinary and
normal characters and everyday situations. But it doesn't mean
that they aren't dramatic.
There are 3 famous English soap operas: Coronetion Street,
Eastenders and Brookside.
Coronation Street - it's set in an un-named town which looks
a lot like Manchester, the drama comes from changing relations-
hips, problems of teenagers, foolish arguments and jealousies,
it's shown on ITV - it's the first British commercial station
which is financed by advertising
- the rival station is BBC 1 - it's financed by the licencepaying
public, the station made Eastenders - it's set in London so it's
more fashionable and attracts more young TV viewers, the problems
are more current, unemployment, unmarried mothers, homosexuality,
homelessness, these problems are too adventurous for Coronation
Street, these topics are educational
Brookside - it's set in Midland (somewhere near Birmingham), its
characters live on a quite modern housing estate, these houses
were built especially for this soap
- also imported soaps are successful (Neighbours) - it's from
Australia, we can see Jason Donovan and Kylie Minugue there.