14_Mass_media

Mass media

So, first of all I’d like to explain what the mass media are. The mass media refers collectively to all media technologies, including newspapers, radio, television and the Internet, which are used for mass communications, and to the organizations which control these technologies. The mass media are very important because they reach a mass audience. It could for example helps business - to sell more products, introduce new ones, etc. The mass media are mainly used to keep people informed about events in the entire world, but they can also influence political views and behaviour of society. They also often become the means of propaganda, mostly in non-democratic regimes.

The mass media can be divided into the four basic categories – the press, TV, radio and the Internet.

The printed media are probably the oldest mass medium. We can divide the press into newspapers and magazines.

Newspapers are still one of the most important medium even they are being gradually replaced by the other mass media. Most of them are published daily We can also distinguish two types of newspapers - broadsheets and tabloids.

Broadsheets are usually larger and more serious than the tabloids and they inform about current news, concerning political events, national and foreign affairs, crime, business, economy, culture, entertainment, sports, etc. They also include weather forecasts, comic strips and other entertainment for readers, such as crosswords and horoscopes. Many broadsheets also have more regional versions with special sections where they inform about the events in that particular region. Famous Czech broadsheets are for example Mladá Fronta DNES, Lidové Noviny or Hospodářské Noviny.

The second ones are the tabloids. They’re usually less serious, written in a simple language and they’re printed in a smaller size. They contain short articles with huge headlines, large coloured photos and illustrations. They inform mostly about celebrities, scandalous gossip, crimes, fashion, etc. The first page is called „front page“ and contains headlines and scandalous photos which should attract customers. The most-known Czech tabloid is Blesk.

In the Czech Republic we have also several newspaper which are distributed for free, such as Metro, Sedmička or E15.

The second type of the press are the magazines. A magazine is a periodical publication containing a variety of articles. They’re typically published weekly or monthly and they’re often printed in colours on coated paper. Magazines are usually focused on a certain interest of a group of readers, for example sports, cars, animals, music, movies and TV programmes etc. Famous magazines are for example Reflex, Instinkt, Týden, Respekt, Žena a život or Květy.

Some of the advantages of newspapers are that we can find there a large amount of information with many details, they are cheap and also easy to carry. On the other hand in the CR, we have only morning newspapers, so the news aren’t fresh during the day and it’s also more comfortable to listen to the radio or watch TV because you have to read newspapers and focus on them.