- •If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.
- •I wish there was a knob on the tv so that you could turn up the intelligence. They’ve got one marked "brightness", but it doesn't work, does it?
- •I ntroduction
- •1.1. Print media
- •Spine jacket subscription foreword issue binder edition quarterly
- •1.2. The newspaper: types and structure
- •1.3. The rise of the newspaper industry
- •The Rise of the Newspaper Industry
- •William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951)
- •Пулитцеровская премия
- •1.4. Reading newspapers
- •1.5. The british and american press
- •The british and american press
- •1.6. The news: gathering and delivering
- •1.7. From event to story – making it to the news
- •1.8. Newspapers in britain
- •Newspapers in britain
- •1.9. Newspaper headline language
- •1.10. The british newspaper market
- •The british newspaper market
- •1. National Daily and Sunday Papers
- •2. Local and Regional Papers
- •3. The Weekly and Periodical Press
- •1.11. A journalistic code
- •A Journalistic Code
- •The Public's Right to Know?
- •1.12. Interview with nigel dempster
- •1.13. Getting into the news
- •A Tabloid Experience
- •Press Invasion
- •1.14. Newspapers, inane sheets of gossip
- •Newspapers, inane sheets of gossip
- •1.15. The future of newspapers
- •The Future of Newspapers
- •1.16. Revision
- •2.1. Television
- •2.2. A national disease?
- •A National Disease?
- •2.3. The story of tv broadcasting
- •The Story So Far
- •2.4. Tv news
- •2.5. Radio and television
- •British Radio and Television
- •Radio and Television in great britain and the usa
- •2.7. Interview with Joanna Bogle
- •2.8. Censorship
- •2.9. Children under the influence of the media
- •2.10. Children and television
- •2.11. Print journalism versus electronic journalism
- •Print Journalism versus Electronic Journalism
- •2.12. Revision
- •3.1. Media and advertising
- •Illegible manuscript prose unprintable
- •Implicit catchy jingles exploit ubiquitous
- •3.2. Advertising language
- •3.3. Advertising tricks
- •Advertising tricks
- •1. "Before and after"
- •3.4. Advertising media
- •Advertising Media
- •3.5. Revision
- •Век свободы не видать?
- •A letter to the editor
- •Writing a comment
- •Academic writing 1
- •Academic writing 2
- •Agreement, disagreement and compromise
- •Comparison and contrast
- •Signpost expressions for discussions
- •In the course of a discussion there definitely come moments when some clarification is asked for and given.
- •If you are asked awkward questions, the following phrases may be useful:
1.14. Newspapers, inane sheets of gossip
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
Thomas Jefferson
Task 1. Do you agree with the quotation above? Elaborate.
Task 2. Read and translate the following extract into Russian with the help of a dictionary. The extract contains some facts and opinions on the functioning of the Western press.
Newspapers, inane sheets of gossip
The popular press calls the people of the world to play. It does not call them to think, to assess, to become concerned, involved or emphatic. Its journalism is splashy, superficial thoughtless and tenuous. It is complacent journalism that appeals to self and to status quo, to mere verbal frolicking about the surface of vital issues. It is "supermarket" journalism - a little of everything for everybody. It shows no thoughtful selection, assessment of editorial matter, meaning or interpretation. It is vulgar in the truest sense of the word - speaking to the masses of semiliterates who feel they need to read something called "a newspaper" but who have no desire to understand the vital issues of the day, and even less desire to concern themselves with these issues.
When one glances about at the reading fare offered by the world's press generally and at the disjointed manner in which it is presented, he can understand why astute press critics indict newspapers for being mainly inane sheets of gossip and instruments of national propaganda seeking to create barriers to understanding by presenting without interpretation "unreal" or "alarmist" news without a context of meaning and often without a follow-up.
Envy, resentment, and suspicion, and one wonders if there is a chance for humanity to survive intact and in a civilized way. The press generally gives little help.
The serious observer of the world press sees contradictions in the news columns, discrepancies in reporting among world news agencies, slantings, exaggerations and exclusions, and opinion in news columns that is shallow and uninformed. Is it any wonder that the world press is doing so little to supplant ignorance with knowledge, bewilderment with understanding and irrationalism with reason?
By American scholars
Task 3. Discuss with your group:
What newspapers are described in the article?
Is the description true only for popular papers or for quality ones as well?
Do you agree with the author’s opinion that newspapers create an obstacle between humanity and the world at large?
Can the same description be true for other mass media? Elaborate.
Task 4. Rewrite the article in Task 2 in a simpler language and retell it.
READING&SPEAKING
1.15. The future of newspapers
Task 1. Do a quick survey in your class:
Do you regularly read a newspaper or magazine? How often?
What paper or magazine do you read and what do you like about it?
What sections of a newspaper are you most interested in?
What do you look for in a newspaper: entertainment, human-interest stories or comment and analysis?
Task 2. Now read the following extract from a lecture by the vice president of the Philadelphia Inquirer, one of the leading US quality papers, and translate it in the written form.