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Mass media. Communication

  • Not many people like hard news - news about important national and internatinal events, people like more exclusives about celebrities. These gossips are usually published with intrusive photos (taken by paparazzis).

    • Mass media in the United Kingdom

    • Nearly 80% of all households buy a copy of one of the main national papers every day. There are also more than 80 local and regional daily papers. Most local papers do not appear on Sundays, so on that day the dominance of the national press is absolute.
    • Another indication of the importance of the papers is the morning ´paper round´. Most newsagents organize these, and more than half of the country’s readers get their morning paper delivered to their door by a teenager who gets up at around half-past five every day in order to earn a bit of extra pocket money.
    • 2 types of national newspapers:
      1. quality papers – broadsheets devote much space to politics and other serious news. They are called broadsheets because it different shape. The broadsheets are twice as large as the tabloids. DAILY TELEGRAPH, GUARDIAN, INDEPENDENT, TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES + Sunday papers: SUNDAY TIMES, SUNDAY, TELEGRAPH, OBSERVER, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY.
      2. tabloids – popular papers sell to a much larger readership, they contain far less print and far more pictures. They use larger headlines and write in a simpler style of English. They concentrate on human interest stories, which often mean sex and scandal. SUB, DAILY MIRROR, DAILY MAIL, DAILY EXPRESS, STAR + Sunday papers: NEWS OF THE WORLD, SUNDAY MIRROR, PEOPLE, MAIL ON SUNDAY, SUNDAY EXPRESS, SUNDAY SPORT, STAR
    • Magazines:
      • If you go into any well-stocked newsagent’s, you won’t only find newspapers. Magazines for almost every imaginable taste and specialize in almost every imaginable leisure time:
      • The Economist – its analyses are generally more thorough. It is fairly obviously right-wing in its view, but the writing is of very high quality and that is why it has the reputation of being one of the best weeklies in the world.
      • Private Eye – a satirical magazine which makes fun of all parties
      • Radio Times - bestselling, all the television and radio programmes for the coming week. This magazine was first published before television existed.
    • BBC
      • Just as the British Parliament has the reputation for being ´the mother of parliament´, do the BBC might be said to be ´the mother of information services´. Tv channel BBC1 was established in 1936 and its most popular TV series is East Enders, BBC2 started in 1964 and is devoted to documentaries and programmmes appealing to minority interests, drama and alternative comedy.
      • It depends nor on advertising nor on the government for its income. It gets this from the licence fee.
      • BBC World Service was set up in 1932 and still broadcasts around the world.
    • BBC Radio:
        1. devote entirely to pop music
        2. light music and chat shows
        3. classical music
        4. a variety of programmes, from plays and comedy shows to consumer advice programmes
        5. sports and news
      • The Archers is actually the longest-running soap opera in the world.
    • ITV – Independent television started in 1954, gets its money from the advertisement. Its most famous series is Coronation Street
    • Channel 4 started in 1982, it is also a commercial channel.
    • Channel 5 - started in 1997. It is a commercial channel which is received by about 2/3 of British households. Its emphasis is on the entertainment. They have unconventional presentation of the news, which is designed to appeal to younger adults.

    Mass media in the USA

  • the First Amendment declares freedom of speech and press
  • 65% of Americans depend on TV for their daily news, reading habit is diminishing largely as a result of TV, video and DVD.(it is beginning in European countries too)
  • all media are independent of government
  • the most important news agency (on which most newspapers are depended) is Associated Press = AP, others are United Press and the International News Service
    Newspapers
    • the first American newspaper was The New York Sun - launched in 1833
    • at the end of the 19th century the most significant newspaper publisher was Joseph Pulitzer, a Hubgarian immigrant, whose Pulitzer Prices have become America´s highest newspaper and book honour.
    • more than 9,000 newspapers are published
    • top five dailies: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today (short news with many pictures photos, drawing, or graphs)
    Magazines
    • magazines are published mainly for leisure time and apetite for consumers
    • the firts magazine Time was launched in 1923 and was intended for people too busy reading daily newspapers
    • prominent news magazines are: Newsweek, World Report, Business Week, and US News
    • more than 11,000 magazines are published
    • many magazines have international editions: National Geographic, Cosmopolitan, Vogue or Reader's Digest
    Radio
    • the first attempt of radio broadcast was at Christmas in 1906
    • regular broadcasting began in 1920
    • FM radio dominates the music format, AM radio has talk and news format - there some experts usually answer listeners' call-in questiions and offer their advice on various topics
    • 4 national networks: the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS),the Mutual Broadcasting Company(MBC) and the National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
    • radio broadcasting in 47 languages Voice of America - the source of information for people in the countries which are cut off thr right information - in the past it brought information to Czechoslovakia, too.
    Television
    • there are no fees, it is paid only by advertisers
    • in 1941 regular black and white TV broadcasting began
    • in 1954 regular colour broadcasting began
    • in 1962 first TV transmission Europe - USA
    • three large private networks - NBC, CBS, and ABC were the biggest to the 1980s, when the fourth major network occured - the Fox Broadcasting Company. Its most successful program was The Simpsons.
    • cable TV originated in 1948. The most famous is Cable News Network (CNN) - the world's first 24-hour-all-news channel. The largest US cable network is Tele-Communications Inc (TCI)
    • [the best TV series nowadays are: Lost and Prison Break

    • Mass media in the Czech Republic

  • TV channels - Czech TV, Nova and Prima
  • broadsheets - DNES, Lidové noviny
  • tabloids - Blesk, AHA
  • magazines - Reflex
  • radio stations - Czech Radio, Evropa 2, Frekvence 1, Impuls
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