22. Mass Media, GB, USA,CR

22. Mass media in the UK, the USA and in the Czech Republic

Mass media has 3 general functions: to inform, teach and to entertain us. In fact, under this word are included press, radio broadcast, TV, film and theatre. They have to inform us as quickly as possible about news from home and abroad, weather or just about new gossips from show business. They are easily available, complex and cheap. Thanks to the press, radio and television we learn about the world around us.

We use daily new appliances which were found out thanks to development in science. It is for example computer, internet, mobile phone and others.

According to me the most effective instrument among mass media is internet. Because with a few clicks in a moment you find on this World Wide Web just the information you want what is very effective.

The press is one of the oldest information instruments. The press like newspapers and magazines have a great influence on public opinion and they also influence the political life. Newspaper can be national, regional, broadsheets and tabloids. Newspapers are published every day, some of them are published even at weekend. Most people in our country take a daily newspaper. They read it at the bus stop, when they go by bus, train or tram.

The newspapers can be divided into the quality newspapers (board-sheets), the popular newspapers (tabloids), local newspapers.

Broadsheets are printed on large pages and are serious in tone. They bring us information that is serious and objective, for example national and political news, financial and economical advertisements and so on. They are usually published daily, and so we call them dailies.
Tabloids have smaller size and bring us less serious news. They try to attract readers with detailed crime stories, domestic sensations, scandals and gossiping about well-known people. The articles are short and not very serious, they contain a lot of big pictures, sport sections and TV programmes..

Serious papers in UK are The Times, , The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Observer.
Tabloids are Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Star.

The serious papers in USA are The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, NY Daily News.

Serious papers in the CR are Právo, Lidové noviny, Mladá fronta DNES, Hospodářské noviny.
Tabloids are Blesk, Aha, Prásk.

The front of a newspaper offers the main political and economic news. There is some leading article on the first page. We can also find the picture from the main event of the day.
The next few pages contain more home news – current political events in the country, the main cultural events and economic news. Then we can read the foreign news, what happened in the world.
One page is devoted to TV programme, exhibitions, published books and songs. There are also cartoons, competitions, crossword puzzles and some advertisements.
Last page is usually devoted to sports events and sports results.

Magazines are usually published weekly, have more pages than newspapers and are in colour. Many magazines are of general interest, they concentrate on subjects of interest to many people: an ideal home, garden news, good food, mother and baby, DIY, cars, sport, travel, films, music and theatre.

Women`s and men`s magazines contain stories, articles on fashion, make-up, food and fitness, cars, music, sport and so on.
Children`s magazines publish short fairy tales, short poems, simple crosswords and so on.
Magazines for specialists in a particular field – for example computer programming, fashion, medicine, biology, etc.
Journals are serious magazines. They publish articles written by experts – e.g. doctors, scientists, teachers etc.