The role of mass media in our life

There are more than 1500 daily newspapers in the USA. There are over 1600 daily newspapers, that are mostly regional, but same are distributed almost all over the States. The most important whole country papers are The USA Today - the are read by more than 6.000.000 people a day. All American dailies have circulation about 64 million - one paper for every four inhabitants of America. There is also large number of magazines - 7623 weeklies and more than 100.000 specialised magazines.

In USA are also tabloids and broadsheets as in Britain. Most important tabloid is The New York Post and the most important broadsheets are The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times or The Chicago Tribune.

In Czech Republic there is also many newspapers and magazines. The most popular broadsheet are Mladá Fronta DNES and Lidové Noviny. The most popular and in fact the only tabloid is Blesk. Here is not so different size of newspapers as in Britain, but content is almost the same. In last time there is many new magazines for women.

Radio & television

Majority of people can not imagine life without this massmediums. This programmes are spread all over the world and foreign broadcast can be found in many countries. People use radio and television to get the latest news from the world.

Broadcasting in Britain is controlled by the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Independent Broadcasting Authority. The BBC is financed by the government, but the private stations controlled by the IBA get money from advertisement. The BBC has two TV channels - BBC1 and BBC2. BBC1 has the programme for public interest as entertainment, sport and commentaries on current affairs. BBC2 has more serious news. The exists many of commercial TV-companies that are intent on2 special group of people - there also exists one television programme, that shows only cricket, very popular British sport.

National radio is controlled by BBC. Listeners can choose from four stations, that includes news, sports, pop music, drama, etc… In Great Britain there are many local stations (private or controlled by the BBC).

In the USA there is very popular television. There exists more than 1300 commercial and 370 non-commercial television programmes. Over 98% of American households have the television set. There are three big private national networks: ABC, NBC and CBS. Each day at 6 o’clock sit plenty of people in front of television and follow one of many soap operas, that are broadcasted on that time.

There is no national radio station in the USA, but every large city has a lot of independent stations. There are about 10.000 of commercial and 1500 non-commercial stations.

In Czech Republic in not so many television stations as in other countries. Here are four all-area stations: state ÈT1 and ÈT2 and private NOVA and PRIMA. Czech Television (ÈT) gets money from people by charges. NOVA and PRIMA get their money only from advertisement.

Czech radio broadcasting is ensured3 by Czech Radio (ÈRo). It has six stations and they have different programme. ÈRo1-Radiožurnál is mostly reporting stations. Other broadcast for example classical music, or other programmes specially prepared for some group of people.