Средства массовой информации (english)

The mass mediaThepress, the radio and TV play an important role in the life of society. Theyinform, educate and entertain people. They also influence the way people lookat the world and make them change their views. Mass media shapes publicopinion. Millionsof people in their spare-time read newspapers. It is impossible to imagine ourlife without newspapers. Millions of copies of them appear every day. Manypeople subscribe to two or more newspapers, others buy newspapers on thenews-stands.There are national daily newspapers such as The News and The Economic newspaper . There are also national weeklynewspapers such as The arguments and the facts . Most nationalnewspapers express a political opinion and people choose them according to theirpolitical beliefs.

Most newspapers contain news, detailed articles on home andinternational affairs, reviews of book are and TV-shows. Mane of them coversport events. There are local newspapers in every city and town of Russia.Themost popular local newspapers in Moscow are The Moscow Komsomolets and Evening Moscow , in Kazan - Evening Kazan. It is a localpaper, because it is circulated only in our city. It is a daily paper becauseit is issued for times a week. The circulation of this paper is more than 80thousand copies.

This paper is delivered to our house. I am fond of reading itbecause it gives a full coverage of the events at home and abroad.One can alsofind newspapers for teenagers and children, for sportsfans and people ofdifferent professions.

In Britain there are great differences between thevarious daily newspapers - in the type of news they report and the way theyreport it. On the one hand there are quality newspapers TheTimes , The Guardian , The Daily Telegraph . Theseconcern themselves, as far as possible, with factual reports of major nationaland international events, with the world of politics and business, and with thearts and sport.On the other hand there are the popular and tabloids, so-calledbecause of their smaller size. The tabloids - the most widely read of which are The Daily Mail , The Daily Express and TheSun - concentrate on more emotive reporting of stories often featuringviolence, the Royal Family, film and pop stars and sport.

The tabloid press ismuch more popular than the quality press. In addition to the national dailynewspapers there are some national papers which are published on Sundays.Mostof the Sundays contain more reading matter than daily papers. Besides, nearlyevery area in Britain has one or more local newspapers.

The British are one ofthe biggest newspaper-reading nations in the world.Millionsof people watch TV. In our technological age TV has become a part of dailylife.It broadens our horizons and enriches our mind because there aredifferent programs on the arts, history, archeology, technical inventions. Thestrength of our television lies in its high quality, in its willingness toexperiment and its ability to please most tastes.

But a peculiar feature ofmodern TV is a soap-opera. It is s sentimental serial drama dealing withdomestic problems. Most people find soap-operas boring. There is a lot ofadvertising on TV. The same advertisements are repeated dozens of times everyday which bores the viewers. In myopinion some new American films pull the rest of the people down to their ownintellectual level.But it hardly fair to say that our media do not try toraise the cultural level of the people or to develop their artistic taste.

Manyof the TV programs are excellent, they are made in a good taste and with agreat professional skill. The radio is turned onmost of the time. It doesn t interfere with your activities. You can listen tothe radio while doing some work about the house, reading a book or driving acar. On the radio one hear the music, plays, news and various commentaries anddiscussions.Radio and TV bring into millions of homes not only entertainmentand news but also cultural and educational programs.

For instants you can takea TV course in history, political, economy, management and many other subjects,learn a foreign language by radio. My favorite is Current affairs .This program deals with political and social problems of modern society. Itsaim is to give an analysis of the problems and to show different view points.