Mass Media
We can divide them into several groups
- the press – newspapers, magazines, journals, etc
- television broadcasting
- radio broadcasting
- Internet
Functions:
They bring us new information about what has happened home and in the world
They spread the news very fast
They provide education and entertainment
Information in mass media can have large influence on public opinions
The press
The oldest way of distributing information.
Nowadays we can buy newspapers, magazines, brochures and other kinds of press.
It is issued:
Daily – daily press – dailies – especially newspapers, readers can subscribe them and recese them in morning through newspaper delivery or they can buy them at the newsagent´s.
Weekly – weekly press – weeklies – especially some magazines, TV programmes.
Monthly – monthly press – monthlies
Fortnightly
Quarterly
Newspapers can be further divided into:
Broadsheets (quality press) – it contains only serious political, cultural, industrial and other news, pages with finance matters and international news, it provides us with information, which is reliable and unemotional. The pictures are usually black and white. They are larger in size. Some famous Czech broadsheets are Mladá Fronta Dnes, Hospodářské noviny, etc. and British broadsheets are The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Independent.
Tabloids – They are smaller in size, there are lots of pictures which are coloured, the text is shorter, they use large headlines that usually tell the whole story, they don´t provide serious information and contain mainly gossip and sensational stories about famous people and violent crimes. The information there is very subjective. Some famous Czech tabloids are Blesk and Aha and British tabloids are The Daily Mirror, The Sun, The People.
Every newspaper gets information either from press agencies or from their own correspondets. Correspondents are people who stay abroad, they know the country and are familiar with what is going on in the country. They write articles and send them to the newspapers.
Contents of the newspaper
- Front page – summerizes the hottest political issues from inside and outside the country
- News on various aspects of everyday life from home and abroad
- A cultural section which provides us with reviews on recently published books and songs or films, plays etc.
- A section Informing us about tragedies – road accidents, robberies, murders
- Essays and opinions on various subjects and topics
- The last pages are usually dedicated to sport – we can find there results of sports matches, information about famous sportsmen, statistics etc.
- Newspaper often comprises SUPPLEMENTS – which are additional pages inside tha main paper. We can distinguish HUGE supplements – they are issued once a week, it´s a mixture of news and entertainment and SMALL supplements – they are issued on a daily basis and specialize in one topic which is often seasonal – in spring – taxes, in autumn – universities, or jobs, hottest political issues etc.
Magazines
They provide either entertainment or information. They don´t come out daily, but rather monthly or fortnightly. The difference from newspapers is that they don´t provide us with fresh daily news. The contents is also different from the newspapers.
Journals – specialized issues of one particular field in which only a limited number of readers are interested. Experts are given information there on the latest inventions, discoveries, events etc.
Hobby magazines – they are aimed at general public – motorists, nature lovers, fishermen, people keen on science, war, history, weapons etc.
Radio
Radio was invented at the beginning of the 19th century and it is another means of communication. It broadcasts 24 hours a day. Advantages of the radio are seen mainly for people who are busy and don´t have time to watch TV – motorists, people at work etc. It also gives us a lot of information from the world and local recent events, we can listen to the latest music hits there, as well as to the old classic.
In the Czech Republic there are loads of radio stations which can be generally divided into:
- A) state stations – e.g. Radiožurnál – it is mostly a reporting station, a lot of debates, interviews, less music than on commercial radios. We can also tune stations which broadcast classical music, sport transmissions etc. They are targeted on certain groups of people only.
- B) private stations – e.g. Evropa 2, Rubi, Krokodýl etc. They produce short news every half an hour or every hour, they organize lots of contests so you can win various things from a mug to a holiday. But mostly they focus on music broadcasting.
Television
It is probably the most common kind of media. In the Czech Republic there have been only four channels until recently. Nowadays we can choose from more of them.
Again the channels can be divided into :
State channels – ČT1,ČT2,ČT24,ČT4
Commercial channels – Nova, Prima – they are free of charge
or Nova Cinema and Prima Cool, but you have to pay for them.
You can also get hold of a cabel TV or buy a sattelite dish and have a sattelite TV – you will be able to catch many more channels, but you have to pay for it as well.
Nowadays it is also possible to watch some channels online on the internet or using a TV card stationed inside your computer. The advantages are that you can stop the film you are watching or you can minimalize the windows and do other things with your computer while watching it.
The main income of the state TV is from a charge that everybody has to pay on a monthly basis, even people who don´t own a TV.
The main income of the commercial TVs comes from the commercials which run between the programmes or during films. The more people watch the programme, the more expensive the commercial is.
There is also a difference in quality. State TV broadcasts more documentaries and educational progammes, music, concerts, language courses, debates and sport transmissions. On the other hand commercial TVs broadcast more soap operas, Hollywod blockbusters and series.
The prime time comes at about half past seven when news is broadcasted, followed usually by a film.
In Britain, there are five „terrestrial“ channels – BBC1 – programmes for general public, BBC2 – broadcasts documentaries, travel programmes, dramas of minor interest. Then there are Commercional channels – ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
Internet
Is becoming a medium number one.
We can join discussions, browse the web, do some shopping, send and recese emails, read online press, book seats, chat, search for information, create our own web sites and run our business there, we can communicate via Instant Messangers such as Skype, Icq, Facebook all over the world no matter where we are located.
Advantages – it is anonymous, fast, relatively cheap, you can connect to the internet almost everywhere, even in some cafés, bars, hotels, schools. The only thing you need is a computer, laptop , Pocket PC or PDA with integrated Wireless internet card or a similar device.
Disadvantages – Some pages on the Internet are safe and you can have your computer infected with a virus, which can harm your computer, erase some files or in the worst case damage your hardware. There is also a danger that your computer might be hacked and your files downloaded illegally or misused.