MEDIA.
Speaking about media I should say that mass media is widely spread in our
Country today. I fink there is no family today which has no TV set or radio. Thousand of newspapers are published in our country each day. It is possible to buy them everywhere. Many of them are delivered to people's homes.
Reading newspapers we can learn a lot of interesting and useful things. I read
Many newspapers and magazines but « Komsomolskaya Pravda» is my favorite one. It has a lot of pages now, about 16, I fink. We can read some news on the 1st page; we read some facts, which are usually short, but very interesting. On the 2nd page we can read about our life. We can also find the information about events abroad, about favorite people, for example, singers and artists. We can see some advertisement and use it. There is also weather forecast and sports news.
Most families in Britain have a radio set though they say they don't listen to the radio very often. BBC programs are on the air from 6 in the morning till 12 o'clock at night. After the programs there are comments and discussions, interviews with people, broadcasts for schools, plays, serious and light music. The main news bulletins are followed by light music and short plays. A special program consists of informative talks and instructions on different subjects: gardening, cooking, and bringing up children, foreign languages and some others.
Radio.
The BBC broadcasts on 5 national and 32 local radio stations, which are specialized, for, example: Radio-1 – in rock music, Radio-2 – in pop music, Radio-3 – in classical music, Radio-4 in current affairs and drama, Radio-5 – in current affairs and sports, Radio-1 is the most popular-people like to listen to the radio while getting ready to go to school or driving to work.
Young people and teenagers like to listen to commercial stations (they are about 150).
Television, often called TV or tally, is very popular in Britain . TV programs are broadcasted 24 hours a day. Viewers [] can watch “live” transmission of topical events, foreign news, interviews with prominent people, educational programs, theatrical and musical performance.
TV.
Over 99% of British homes have a TV set and an average person watches “the box” 26 hours a week. There are 4 (non satellite) TV channels in Britain : BBC-1, BBC-2, ITV, and Channel 4. The two state channels (BBC-1 and BBC-2) do not show advertisement; BBC-1 and ITV show popular programs (sport programs, recent films, the news, game shows, children's programs and soaps). BBC-2 and Channel 4 show programs, which attract much smaller audience: TV plays, classical concerts, foreign films and programs for minority groups. Only 8 % of British homes subscribe to satellite or cable TV.
“Soaps” are popular TV serials. Usually they show the characters' daily life. The story is usually entertaining but often unbelievable. They are shown 3 of 5 times a week, and each film lasts about half an hour. The most popular “soaps” in Britain are: “ Coronation Street ” (it is about the working class in Manchester ), and “East enders” (about these who live in the East end of London ).
Mass media in Britain .
British people like reading newspapers. More newspapers are read in Great Britain than in any other country in Europe . There are 2 types of newspapers: tabloids and broadsheets.
The favorite magazines of 15 year olds are “Just 17”, “Shout”, “Smash Hits”, and «TV Hits”. “Smash Hits” is a music magazines for girls. “TV Heats” is about TV stars, film stars and pop stars.
Television.
Television is a hobby for many people in our country today. They prefer to watch a film sitting comfortably in an armchair in front of the TV-set and not to go to the cinema house. The same can be said about the theatre. Why do people prefer to stay at home? On of the reasons is that cinema tickets are expensive, traffic fare is also expensive. Besides there is a wide choice of programs on TV nearly every day. Among them there are political programs, show-games, reports and interviews with interesting people, sports competitions, different festivals, reports from other countries of the world, foreign and home news and so on.
Questions.
• 1. What is the most popular hobby nowadays?
• 2. Why do the people prefer to stay at home instead of going to the cinema or the theatre?
• 3. Is there a wide choice of programs on TV?
• 4. What programs do you like?
• 5. Do you like to watch show-games?
• 6. What TV-channels do we have now in Syktyvkar ?