10.1. The mass media.

10.1.1. Mass media is a term used to denote, as a class, that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience. It was coined in the 1920s (with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines), although mass media was present centuries before the term became common. Media refers to organize means of dissemination of fact, opinion, entertainment, and other information, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, banners, billboards, films, TV, the World Wide Web, CDs, DVDs, videocassettes, etc.

10.1.2. Newspapers developed from around 1605, with the first example in English in 1620; but they took until the nineteenth century to reach a mass-audience directly. Regular newspaper publication dates from the 1650s. During the Civil War there were regular news-sheets and then news books carrying general information along with propaganda. Following the Restoration there arose a number of publications including the London Gazette (first published on November 16, 1665), the first official newspaper of the Crown. In 1788, there came The Times. This was the most significant newspaper of the first half of the 19th century, but from around 1860 there were a number of more strongly competitive titles, each differentiated by its political biases and interests.

10.1.3. The first recognizably modern papers — depending on advertising and newspaper sales for revenue and providing a mixture of political, economic, and social news and commentary — emerged in Britain in the mid-18th century. As the first country to undergo the Industrial Revolution, Britain was able to provide the complex system of distribution networks, large urban markets, and advertisers necessary to make newspapers profitable enterprises.

During the 19th century, the British model became far more than the technical process of printing, financing, and distributing newspapers; it evolved into a political presence. The Times of London set the standard for a global press. It defined the principle of freedom of the press — the right to criticize the government and to campaign vigorously for its own political views.

10.1.4. Britain has two kinds of national newspaper – the quality papers and the tabloids. The qualities usually deal with home and overseas news, with detailed and extensive coverage of sports and cultural events. The tabloids are smaller in size. They offer news for the less interested in daily news reports. They are characterized by large headlines, carry a lot of big photographs, and concentrate on the personal aspects of news, with reports of the recent sensational and juicy bits of events.

10.2. Radio and television.

10.2.1. The story of radio begins in the development of an earlier medium, the telegraph. It was patented simultaneously in 1837 in the United States by Samuel F. B. Morse and in Britain by Sir Charles Wheatstone and Sir William Fothergill Cooke. Later, scientists worked to devise a system that could overcome the limitations of the telegraph wire. The Italian inventor Marconi demonstrated that an electronic signal could be cast broadly (broadcast) through space so that receivers at random points could capture it. The invention was called a radiotelegraph (shortened to radio). Marconi found supporters for his research in Britain and founded the British Marconi Company to develop and market his invention for military and industrial uses. Within five years a wireless signal had been transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean from England to Newfoundland, Canada. For his work in wireless telegraphy, Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1909.

10.2.2. Radio is very popular among the British. Many people rely on the radio to learn the latest news. The main television and radio broadcasting organization in Britain is the British Broadcasting Corporation (the BBC) set up in 1922. John Reith, a Scottish engineer, was appointed the first general manager and became the architect of “public service broadcasting,” in which the profit motive plays no part. Independence from political and business control, provision for minorities, impartiality, and respect for broadcasting as a serious cultural force became its hallmarks. The BBC runs five radio stations, pro­vides television information service in Britain, operating two nation­al television channels. The BBC World Service broadcasts in English and about forty other languages of the world. Britain has one of the world’s largest and most technologically advanced telecommunications systems.

10.2.3. Television today is a most important mass medium. The principles on which television is based were discovered in the course of basic research. The Scottish scientist James Maxwell predicted the existence of the electromagnetic waves that make it possible to transmit ordinary television broadcasts. Some of the earliest work on television began in the 1880s, when a German engineer designed the first true television mechanism. His mechanical scanner was used in England by the inventor John L. Baird. The first television picture was shown on October 2, 1925. Baird transmitted a picture of a human face – the face of a fifteen-year-old boy.

10.2.3. In time, the process of watching images on a television screen made people interested in either producing their own images or watching programming at their leisure. Affordable videocassette recorders were introduced and in the 1980s became almost as common as television sets. During the late 1990s the digital video disc player had the most successful product launch in consumer electronics history. The DVD player also offered the digital surround-sound quality experienced in a state-of-the-art movie theater. Another development in this sphere is the high-definition television (HDTV) system.