Media

COMMUNICATION MEDIA IN MODERN SOCIETY

Great  Britain:
THE PRESS:   Newspapers are the oldest of the mass media; they started in Britain at the end of the seventeenth century. The British are great newspaper readers. If we got on a bus or caught a train in Britain, especially during the morning and “rush hours” (dopravní špička), when the most people travel to and from work, we would see a lot of people with newspapers in their hands. That is to say (totiž) newspaper reading enjoys great popularity in Britain and more daily newspapers are sold per person than in other developed countries. For many British people the ritual of reading – during breakfast or on the bus, tube or train – is an important part of their daily routine.
Daily newspapers are usually published six times a week ( from Monday to Saturday) and there are also many nationals newspapers published on Sundays ( Sunday papers). Much of the press is owned by large publishing groups, including the national newspapers. Together with provincial papers there are about 120 daily and Sunday newspapers. All national papers are produced in London, sometimes with Manchester edition, but circulate through the country.
The national daily press in Britain is divided into two different groups: the quality press and the popular press.
 POPULAR PAPERS – have millions of readers. They are addressed to the lower classes, they have fewer pages and shorter articles with big headlines.  They are sometimes called tabloids, because they are printed on paper about half the page size of an ordinary newspapers and usually contain many pictures and a limited amount of serious news. They are full of crime reports, scandal stories and advertisement . These papers usually have large sections of sports. They devote a lot of space to football, cricket, rugby and horse racing. There are the “agony page” where readers write their own problems and the journalist offer them the advice. Each tabloids have own cartoons which are very popular. The most important popular papers are The Sun,  The Daily Mirror, The Daily Express, The Daily Mail. The popular Sunday papers are The Mail on Sunday, News of the World, The Sunday Mirror, The Sunday People, The Sunday Express and The Sunday Post.
QUALITY PAPERS – are thick and serious. They have smaller circulation than the popular ones. The quality papers contain international news, book and theatre reviews, music and artist criticism and speak about politics and current affairs. The famous quality papers are  The Times, The Financial Times. The Guardian, The Independent and The Daily Telegraph. The Sunday Times, The Observer, The Independent on Sunday and the Sunday Telegraph are the quality Sunday papers. They include colour magazine supplements (příloha).
Although financially independent of any political party, some of the newspapers have traditional political leanings (sklon). For example The Times are conservative, The Guardian supports the Liberal Party and The Daily Mirror the Labour Party.
Many people especially the older ones also read the local newspapers, which are often delivered in the evening.
PERIODICALS -  there are some 7.000 weekly, monthly and quarterly periodicals covering a wide range of interests from women’s magazines to specialized journals. The Radio Times, TV Times and Women’s Own have the highest sale. The leading political weeklies are The Economist and The New Statesman. Punch is the leading humorous periodical.

RADIO AND TELEVISION:  Radio and television broadcasting services (vysílací služby) are provided by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Independent Television Commission (ITC).
THE BBC -  operates (provozovat) two national television channels (BBC 1 and BBC 2), five national and more than 37 local radio stations. BBC 1 broadcasts a wide selection of programmes and BBC 2 specializes on educational programmes. The BBC channels have no advertising and are financed by a government grant, licence fees and sale of programmes. Each of the five national radio station has a different character: Radio 1 plays pop music, Radio 2 has light music and sport programmes, Radio 3 mainly plays classical music, Radio 4 presents news, drama, talks, entertainment programmes and school broadcast and Radio 5 present sport. BBC World Service provides external radio broadcast in English and 35 other languages.
THE ITC - is responsible for two television channels, one operated regionally ( e.g. ITV London, Anglia……) and Channel 4, and over 40 local radio stations. The ITC is financed by its income from advertising. ITC has programmes of general interests (news, sport, quiz, soap operas, comedies and so on). Channel 4 has more documentaries, plays and serious films.
There are also SATELLITE TV CHANNELS.  They are transmitted (přenášet) through cable. The famous British satellite channel producer is B sky B ( British Sky Broadcasting), a monopoly owned by News International, which has nine satellite channels.
The United States of America:
THE PRESS:  In the United States a very large number of newspapers and periodicals are published. You can buy them almost everywhere, in small shops or in large department stores. A large bookstore is the best place to go if you are looking for a special magazine.
Because of the size of the country, in the USA there are no national newspapers, but only local ones. There is only one local newspaper that can be considered as an  almost national newspaper, and that is the New York Times. This paper can be bought in almost every state. It has the more complete news. Its Sunday edition is very heavy: it has over 200 pages and includes many supplements and advertising.  Another famous American paper is the Washington Post. It become especially famous during the 1972 presidential campaign, when some of its journalists published the news that a group of agents employed by the re-election organization of President Richard Nixon were caught breaking into (násilím vniknout) into Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate building, in Washington D.C. This even become known as the “Watergate Scandal”.
 Most states and the towns and cities have local newspaper, which published the interesting articles to local readers. Many local newspapers are weeklies. Small newspapers are combined (spojený) into monopolistic “newspaper chain “.
Many magazines are published in the US. The majority of magazines are dependent on big-firm advertising for their financial existence. The most known magazines are Reader’s Digest, US News, World Report, Time. National Geographic and some women’s magazine.

RADIO:  In the US the radio broadcasting  is completely in private hands. It is  offered free to the public. It is financed by advertising (sponsors).
There are three national broadcasting networks (síť): NBC ( National Broadcasting Company), ABC (American Broadcasting Company) and CBS ( Columbia Broadcasting System).They are not supported or controlled by the Government. There are also many local and privately operated stations. At present, there are about 7.000  radio stations in the US.  The station “The Voice of America”, a broadcasting in many languages is the information and propaganda organ of the US Government.

TELEVISION:  There are about 600 TV stations in the USA, but the major television networks are ABC, CBS and NBC. TV viewers don’t pay any tax to receive these stations as the cost of programs is paid by sponsors who advertise their goods during the programs. Recently a new system has been introduced. If you pay you can be connected to the cable TV channel you like. In the US there are many specialized cable channels, we can find also many foreign channels. The most popular become TV network CNN by its excellent news.
Television programs  includes quiz programs, serials, documentaries, news, comedies, sitcoms, talk shows, Walt Disney movies…..and so on. The Americans also love soap operas. They have the origin in America and they are called “soap” because the first ones were made for commercial TV and were sponsored by companies that made soaps. American soaps are usually about rich, nice people living exotic lives with lots of expensive clothes, cars and houses but with many dramatic problems too. Many people watch them every day and they live with the main characters together and we can say that they escape from their ordinary, everyday world to the soap fantasy. English soaps are quite different. The plot is usually situated to the family, street and workplace. The characters are ordinary people and they have similar problems as the normal people.
The movie industry has centre in Hollywood. The best films, actors, actresses and producers, American and foreign, can win prestigious awards known as Oscar.

The Czech Republic
The press, radio, internet  and television are important media of mass communication. They have a great influence on what the public will think and say on many controversial problems, on their opinions and tastes (chuť), on what they will buy. Television has become a major form of home entertainment. Almost the every family has the TV set at home. Without TV, a radio or CD-recorder or stereo, no family can exist. And so people watch or listen music and reports all the day. Sometimes they even do not know what it is about, and noise creates just a background to them and so they do not feel lonely or depressed. Not long ago people could not imagine to live without their newspapers or magazines. But now the internet seems taking over this business.

TELEVISION:  In the Czech Republic there are 4  channels on our television.ČT1, ČT2 are state ones. Their income is from the licence fees for TV and the sale of programmes. Nova and Prima are independent and are financed by advertising. Each of these TV channels has got a different scope (oblast) of direction. ČT1 and ČT2  are more serious.  ČT1 presents a higher percentage of TV programmes of general interest, such as light entertainment, sport, commentaries, children’s programmes and current affairs, while ČT2 brings more documentaries, travel programmes, serious drama, music and educational films. Nova and Prima presents more serials, soap operas, thrillers` and so on. In fact, almost on all the channels , there is too much violence. So the trouble is, young people can be influenced by this violence and it is also very danger for small children.

INTERNET:  Recently, the internet has become the new way of  information.  You can get in touch with the most of people in the world. As a student I can find there useful information. The future is determined by virtual shopping and bussines.