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?