Mass Media: TV, Press, Radio, Internet
Television
Most people don’t realise the fact that television has just become as much part of their life as
going to work, eating or sleeping. One of the main reasons, why TV has gained so much influence on nearly everyone of us, that is more convenient to
relax at home than to put on evening dress and go to a theatre, especially after a hard working day.
Television
brings us entertainment and information. We can watch:
- New broadcasts - with both national and international news
-
Documentary programmes - about the achievements of economy, sciences, art, ...
- Discussions - about current affairs
-
Interview - with prominent people
- Live sports programmes
- Educational programmes
- Children wait for
their bedtime story in the evening and their fairy tale on Sunday morning
- Music lovers never miss any concert or
recital
- Successful serials, various competitions and travel programmes are very popular too
In
our country people make a monthly payment but television authority also gets money from the state. Live transmission via satellite is common today.
People can choose the channel that they want to watch. There are also people who refuse to see advantages of watching TV. They argue that TV-screen
prevents us from reading books, developing hobbies and reduces communication in families. There is also a danger that parents use the TV set as
a sort of electronic baby-sitter, whenever they do not have the time to take care of their children, answer their questions or play with them.
In spite of the fact that there are people who love television and on the other hand people that hate it, television is the most successful mass
medium of today.
Press
Most people in our country take a daily newspaper. They read it at the bus stop,
going by bus, train or tram. The newspapers can be divided into:
- The quality newspapers (board-sheets) – The Times, The Telegraph, The
Guardian
- The popular newspapers (tabloids) – The Mirror, The Sun, The Daily Mail
- Local newspapers – The London
News, The Newcastle Evening
1. The quality press:
- Devote a lot of space to serious articles, news and
comments, recessions.
2. The popular newspaper press (tabloids):
- They try to attract
readers with detailed crime stories, domestic sensations, scandals and gossiping about well-known people. The articles are short and not very serious,
they contain a lot of big pictures, sport sections and TV programmes. About half of pages are given to advertising.
The front of a newspaper offers the main political and economic news. There is some leading article on the first page. We can also find the
picture from the main event of the day.
The next few pages contain more home news – current political events in the country, the main
cultural events and economic news. Then we can read the foreign news, what happened in the world.
One page is devoted to TV programme,
exhibitions, published books and songs. There are also cartoons, competitions, crossword puzzles and some advertisements.
Last page is
usually devoted to sports events and sports results.
We can subscribe to a newspaper or get a paper at the local newsagent’s.
Radio
This media became very important part of our life. It is distributed by radio waves. Transmission contents news,
music, advertising or some funny programmes. Such a portable transistor can be a good companion. In comparison to TV set radio has at least two
advantages: - we need not sit in front of it and we can enjoy listening to it while we have to do some boring tasks. It can be as quick as possible in
covering an event. Most of us switch on the radio to hear the time signal, morning news, press views, some good music or a hitparade. Some other
programmes such as popular talks and discussions with well-known personalities can be very interesting, too.
There are many radio stations in
our country; we can divide them into two groups – state and private. One of the state stations is Slovensko 1. I prefer private stations because
I like music and relaxation. One of my favourite ones is Radio Express
The Internet
Today´s era brings us
many technological innovations and so we discover new kinds of media. One of the youngest one is the Internet. It is an international network of
computers. We can find a lot of information there about everything. Each Internet user has got his/her own e-mail address and we can send a letter
to our friends. We can talk or chat during this network in real time. Over 80 % of e-mail messages on the Internet are written in English. We use the
Internet also for fun and work as well. In the last 30 years, the Internet has grown dramatically. In 1980s, there were only 200 computers connected
to the Net. Now there are about 50 million and this growth is clearly going to continue.
The history of the
Internet:
1. The Net began for military reasons. Later scientists started using it.
2. It started in 1969.
3. In
1980s people started calling it the “Internet”.
4. In the mid-1990s the Internet began to grow very fast.
1.
Pessimistic opinions:
Cyber criminals-young hackers can get into the computers of banks and governments.
Cyber
terrorists-they may attack the world’s computers, cause chaos and make aeroplanes and trains crash.
2. Optimistic
opinions:
Users can buy books, find out about holidays offers, they can book their tickets and get all sorts of information from the
Internet.
Zones.sk – Zóny pre každého študenta