a) 1. How influential a part does the TV play in children's lives? Do recollections of TV programmes provide the most part of the majority of young people's childhood memories? 2. Why do you think people often refer to "the media" when talking
about television? 3. Why do the modern media tend to cause more problems than the printed media? 4. Are the additional implications of the word "mass" accurate? 5. How do you think watching television can become addictive? 6. Comment on the meaning of "global village" and how it's connected with the TV. 7. What does television impart to an uncritical audience? 8. How is ittcnown that some attitudes are absorbed indirectly from the television and then retained? 9. Does the television always achieve its intended predetermined response from its audience? Is it more successful than the other forms of media? 10. How independent are those people working for the television companies? 11. In the last sentence the pros and cons of television are put rather bluntly. Which outweigh the other?
b) The text under discussion is an essay. Behind the essay lie the traditions of oratory and debate. From them all essays inherit their persuasive techniques. The essay may usually be identified by certain characteristics of tone, language, and structure. Keeping all the above mentioned in mind, study the text and providing illustrations from it discuss the main characteristics of the essay: 1) tone: personal and conversational or highbrow and formal; 2) language: informal and colloquial or official and stylized; 3) structure: loose, flexible or strictly and logically organized.
What persuasion techniques does the author use?