The mass media.

10.1.1. Mass media is a term used to denote, as a class, that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience. It was coined in the 1920s (with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines), although mass media was present centuries before the term became common. Media refers to organize means of dissemination of fact, opinion, entertainment, and other information, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, banners, billboards, films, TV, the World Wide Web, CDs, DVDs, videocassettes, etc.

10.1.2. Newspapers developed from around 1605, with the first example in English in 1620; but they took until the nineteenth century to reach a mass-audience directly. Regular newspaper publication dates from the 1650s. During the Civil War there were regular news-sheets and then news books carrying general information along with propaganda. Following the Restoration there arose a number of publications including the London Gazette (first published on November 16, 1665), the first official newspaper of the Crown. In 1788, there came The Times. This was the most significant newspaper of the first half of the 19th century, but from around 1860 there were a number of more strongly competitive titles, each differentiated by its political biases and interests.

10.1.3. The first recognizably modern papers — depending on advertising and newspaper sales for revenue and providing a mixture of political, economic, and social news and commentary — emerged in Britain in the mid-18th century. As the first country to undergo the Industrial Revolution, Britain was able to provide the complex system of distribution networks, large urban markets, and advertisers necessary to make newspapers profitable enterprises.

During the 19th century, the British model became far more than the technical process of printing, financing, and distributing newspapers; it evolved into a political presence. The Times of London set the standard for a global press. It defined the principle of freedom of the press — the right to criticize the government and to campaign vigorously for its own political views.

10.1.4. Britain has two kinds of national newspaper – the quality papers and the tabloids. The qualities usually deal with home and overseas news, with detailed and extensive coverage of sports and cultural events. The tabloids are smaller in size. They offer news for the less interested in daily news reports. They are characterized by large headlines, carry a lot of big photographs, and concentrate on the personal aspects of news, with reports of the recent sensational and juicy bits of events.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16