The contemporary media

American media

Nowadays the media provide a very wide and sophisticated communications system. The Americans treat media differently from the British. The role of the media is much higher. Government is often trying to reduce media’s influence. The media influences public opinion. Non-commercial media exists in the USA, but mostly media is privately owned. The rating system for radio and television (statistics for audience’s approval) is important for determining success or failure.

Freedom of the media

The media in the USA claim explicit recognition of their right to be free – from the government and any censorship. The First Amendment to the Constitution stands: “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of the press”. Government and media very often engage in confrontations when reporters disclose classified information or when journalists start to pursue, investigating, reporting to uncover certain injustices, cases of corruption, etc. Many news executives and reporters even have their own advocates because some governmental officials and other officials tend to accuse the news media of transgressing the bounds of journalism and penetrating into the events.

Another very controversial issue is the issue of the function of the media. 1971 The Washington Post and New York Times published the Pentagon papers, which is a classified U.S. defense document dealing with involvement into the Vietnam conflict. … Watergate. … Resignation of Nixon.

The contemporary media

The newspapers and magazines have been source and means of communication for long and have always attracted large audience. Thousands of weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual editions exist nowadays in the USA – more than 11.000. There are 58 mln copies of Sunday papers published.

The readership has obviously decreased because of the competition from the television and the Internet.

There was a very massive trend of urban populations moving to the suburbs, most suburban readers prefer to get news from television and read newspapers mostly for comics, sports, fashions, crime news and local news. The Americans treat television as the most reliable news source.

Some metropolitan newspapers are published in “zoned” edition for different regional audiences. In some cases they have lost their readership to new weekly suburban newspapers that resemble magazines in format. But as for the public demand, it still stands for more feature material, and to meet this public demand some publishers have started editing “life-style” or “home-leaving” sections to their papers to make them look more like magazines.

There’s also a dramatic decline in competition. Variety has reduced. Media operations have become concentrated in the hands of the few publishers. New-York city is a good example. In the beginning of the 20^th century people in Manhattan could choose from 14 different morning and evening dailies. In the 50s the choice was reduced in half. Today New-York has only 2 morning newspapers. The publishers were driven out from business by larger counterparts. In 1926 there were more than 500 cities with competing newspapers, today there are under 40. 97% of the cities carrying daily papers have but one single publishers, they are called “one-owner-towns”.

Moreover, more and more remaining newspapers are under chain of group control. Chains comprise about 1/3 of the total 22 mln circulation of daily newspapers. However, the influence of the large metropolitan newspapers, most notably The New-York Times and Washington Post, has increased so that they came close to overcoming the national media. They are followed by The Los-Angeles Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, The United Press International (the latter two collect news stories and sell them).

A typical daily paper contains more than 40 pages of news, editorials, interviews, cartoons, sports, art, music, books, general entertainment, including radio and TV schedules. Well-known writers or news analysts write features. Complete news coverage of any event must include all the information available, which is the reporter’s responsibility.

Headlines and the way they are printed are very important in a newspaper. They are printed in various sizes which helps to differentiate the material. Most newspapers carry a few cartoons which, if political, may appear on the editorial pages. Most also carry some comics. The comics strips often feature a cast of characters which makes readers more involved.

Advertisements usually take up a large part of a newspaper’s space. But it’s true to state that newspaper advertisement has become an art and is very often put masterfully, cleverly planned, thus it can cause the reader to stop and read it. They are called eye-catching ads and they leap to the reader’s eye.

Among newspapers and magazines there are both quality and sensational editions. Sensational editions aim to cause emotional reaction, which is avoided by quality media, although the latter also strives for striking stories.

The New York Daily News is a tabloid with large circulation which gives compressed information with many pictures.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-13