The Press

It has been claimed that no country buys as many daily newspapers per person as Britain. On an average day two out of three adults regularly read a national morning newspaper.

There are about 200 daily and Sunday newspapers, 1.300 weekly newspapers and about 7,500 peridiodicals in Britain.

The national newspapers can be divided into two groups according to their layout and the way they treat the news: the quality papers and the popular or tabloid papers.

While the quality papers usually try to inform their readers as widely as possible about national and international news, the popular press aims to attract general readers with sensational news mixed with decorative photographs.

Tabloid usually has a smaller format than a quality newspaper, it has large headlines and shorter stories and, in Britain, it prefers stories about film stars, crimes, the royal family.

There are national and regional papers. The national papers circulate throughout the British Isles; the regional papers provide general and local news of interest to the readers in the area where they are produced.

There are about 8.000 periodicals published in Britain: from fiction magazines to learned publications. A journal is a name given to an academic magazine.

Periodicals are generally classified as general, specialized, trade, technical and professional and include magazines for a wide range of interest: women’s magazines, dealing with sport, gardening, cooking, computer, hobbies, pop music, motoring. The “Economist” is the leading journal of opinion. It comments on events of international, political and economic life.

There are also comics. A comic is a magazine for children or teenagers, with lots of picture stories or cartoons.

There is no censorship of the press and there are no specific press laws in Britain. The press has generally the freedom to comment on any matter of public interest.

But, a newspaper may not publish comments on individual people or organizations which are untrue or can do them harm.

Notes:

1. claim - утверждать

2. average - средний

3. layout – макет(газеты)

4. royal - королевский

5. fiction - художественный

6. deal with – иметь дело, касаться чего-либо

7. cartoon – карикатура

Ex.2. 1.What is mass media? 2. What is a quality newspaper? 3. What is tabloid (popular newspaper)? 4. How can you recognize a tabloid? 5. What do quality papers write about? 6. What stories do the popular papers publish? 7. What papers provide local news for the readers of the area? 8. Who reads journals? 9. What is a comic? Who reads them? 10. What is the oldest English newspaper?

KEY VOCABULARY

Nouns

1. mass media средства массовой информации

2. daily newspaper ежедневная газета

3. weekly newspaper еженедельная(воскресная) газета

4. periodicals периодические издания

5. quality newspaper серьёзные издания

6. popular/tabloid press «жёлтая пресса», популярные газеты

7. national/international news национальные/внутренние/международные известия/новости

8. headline заголовок(статьи)

9. regional papers местные(региональные) издания

10. journal серьёзный/научный журнал

11. publication издание

12. comics комиксы

13. cartoon карикатура

14. censorship цензура

15. soap opera сериалы

16. channel канал

17. TV serials телевизионные сериалы

18. viewing time время просмотра ТВ передач

19. entertainment развлекательные программы

20. broadcasting радиовещание

broadcast радио/телепередача

to broadcast передавать по радио/по ТВ

21. documentary документальный фильм

22. current affairs текущие события

23. quiz викторины

24. weather forecast прогноз погоды

25. commercial коммерческий, (зд.) реклама

26. editorial передовая/редакционная статья

27. feature article большая газетная статья

28. small ads небольшие газетные объявления

Verbs

1. publish публиковать

2. deal mean иметь дело, касаться

3. comment on комментировать

4. watch смотреть (зд. ТВ)

5. listen to слушать

6. raise the problem поднимать вопрос/касаться проблемы

7. look through просматривать

8. keep up with следить за

9. be concerned with беспокоиться, (зд.) быть связанным (вовлечённым)