Media, Culture

Newspapers, radio, television, Internet and the other media are very important for us. We can get through them the newest information from the whole world even if we are in the remotest village. Cultural life in our town is not so rich as in large cities. But we can go to the cinema, to the theatre, dancing or I can stay at home and listen to the radio, watch TV and read books.

Watching TV

Watching television is very popular. This media is very young, first TV transmission was in our republic in 1954. You can watch it everywhere and anytime you want. You can watch many TV-programmes on many TV-stations. But some people say, that watching TV is waste of time.

Now exist many TV channels. We can divided them, such as radio stations, to two groups. First group are state channels, such as Czech Television with her two channels – Czech Television 1 and 2. These channel are financed from charge, which we pay for each TV box in our flats. Main task of these channel is inform and educate people. Next part of channels are channels private. In Czech republic exist two private s channels – Nova and Prima. These channels are financed from advertising. Next group of channels are satellite s channels. I can appoint from famous Music Television – famous MTV. Special group are cables channels. Me must pay monthly charge, if we can watch these channels. I can appoint from famous channel HBO.

I think that TV is quite good source of information. You can get very cheep and fast summary of news. The news can be sometimes more concerned with entertainment than information, but every viewer has to choose the correct channel.

There are many kinds of programs – children’s, current affairs, discussion, pop music, gardening, arts, natural, history, film review, interviews, bedtime stories, customer affairs, language-learning, human interest, fashion, light entertainment, variety; documentaries, the news, soap operas, quiz shows, game shows, breakfast TV, costume dramas, the National Lottery draw, film, action series, weather forecast, sci-fi series…

I prefer documentary films or some sci-fi film or some competitions. The situation comedies are my favourite too, but they must be good. I like to watch some good films on TV too. It could be the film I had wanted to watch in a cinema, but I had no time for it. The TV programmes I hate are e.g. soap operas. They are too long and boring and even very predictable. Another bad TV programmes are stupid competitions, where you needn’t know anything to win some money. Then I hate advertisements. But sometimes some of them are very funny.

In Great Britain radio and TV broadcasting is mainly provided by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which has four radio and four television channels. The first channel presents almost news and information programmes, the second and third channels are for light programmes (such as films, soap operas or competitions) and the last one presents the cultural programmes. The channels of radio BBC have the similar kinds of programmes. In Britain there are also some independent TV e.g. ITV – Independent television, which is the biggest rival to BBC. BBC is financed by sailing of television licences and ITV is financed by advertisement.

The same situation is in our republic. There exist the competition between Czech TV – ČT (first channel – light programmes, news etc. and second channel – cultural programmes and programmes for minority) and independent (commercial) TV – Nova, Prima, etc.

Listening to the radio

Radio is the second oldest kind of media. Although we nowadays have TV, radio is still very popular. It has lots of advantages. You can take it nearly where you want (very popular in a car), it is mostly used for listening to music and so it is very good for relaxing – just to lie down and listen to it (watching TV became tiring). I like listening to the radio too. According to my opinion it¢s very good source of information and mostly the big source of music. I listen to the radio very often – in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening too. I think it¢s not so big waste of time, because you can do many thing by listening to radio. The radio programmes are for example, radio music charts, discussion programmes, commentaries, etc. There are many radio stations in our republic – local radio, music stations public service radio – Frekvence 1, Radio Šumava, Vltava (it is channel of classical music, Radiožurnál, Relax (local radio), Agara etc. There are plenty of programs – current affairs (news), discussions, music – all kinds of music, culture, weather forecast, sport events and matches or breakfast radio.

Reading newspapers

Newspapers are the oldest media. There are three main kinds of newspapers :

Broad sheets (a quality newspaper) – there are very big pages, not too much photos, more difficult language, it focuses on some topic – more details and facts, longer articles, more tidy looking, nearly about everything (policy, culture, economics). People who read it are businessmen, people with higher education, people who don’t like blabs. It is for example MF Dnes, Lidové noviny or Právo.

Tabloids – they have smaller pages, dramatic headlines, lots of colour pages, plenty of photos, short articles, human interests stories and sensations, simple language, many blabs. They more popular than broad sheets, it is read by all society ranks. It is for example Blesk or Hrom.

Special interests magazines – they are issued weekly or monthly, they intent on special things (gardening, computers, cars, food), they are much more expensive than daily newspapers but they are printed in better paper, you should be more educated in a special things to understand it. It is for example Chip PC World, Svět Motorů

We can buy national newspapers or local newspapers. There are many pages and many articles in the newspapers – cartoon, column, editorial, lead story, financal news, news on art, pop-music, TV programm guides, letters to the editor, wheather report, jokes, advertisements, competitions, births, marriages, deaths, home news, international news, law, obituaries, women´s pages or crossword.

There are plenty of newspapers in Great Britain – The Times (it is from 18^th century), The Sun, Daily Miracle, Daily Express, Daily Mail and in the USA – New York Times, Washington Post.

Going to the cinema

There are two cinemas in Rakovník – one is open-air cinema. I usually go to the cinema when I want to see some new movie and I don¢t want to wait for it in television. Sometimes I prefer going to the cinema when I am bored and there is nothing to do in the weekend. In the cinema there is the strange important atmosphere, but there is also one disadvantage – the tickets are quite expensive. There are many kinds of films – comedy, black comedy, romantic, adventure, thriller, horror, detective story, catastrophic, fairy tale, animated, sitcom, action, sci-fi. In the cinema, the screen is a little bit bigger and the sound is better than in TV. But there are a lot of people and it‘s not comfortable. Films in TV some advantages – more comfortable, you can sit, lie, eat, do what you want, but the screen is small.

Going to the theatre

You can buy tickets at the box stall, ticket office, through school or work. Men should put on a suit or diner jacket, shirt, shoes, tie or bow tie, they can have scarf or hat. Women can wear dress, costume, skirt, blouse, shoes. If you go for example to a small theatre, you don’t have to wear anything special. You usually take off your coat and leave it at the cloakroom. You can have a ticket in balcony, box or in the row in stalls.

There are many performances – tragedies, comedies, opera, operette, ballet, musical.

There are plenty theatres in ČR – in Rakovník Puppet Theatre or Tyl´s Theatre, in Prague National, Stavovske, Spiral, Pyramid, Lucerna, Husa na Provázku, Tyl, Vinohrady, Semafor, Divadlo na Zábradlí or Viola Theatre. In London there are National theatre, Globe or The Royal Albert Hall.

Going to the concerts

I have never been to a concert of classical music, because I don´t hear this kind of music. It can be good for relax. This kind or concerts takes place in special concert halls, opera houses, with special background. You have to wear dinner jacket or suit, tie, shoes… I visited some rock concert and it was perfect. The music is sometimes too loud, but when you listen to the music which you like you don´t mind it. This concert takes place in some halls, stadiums or just open air, the tickets cost the same as the tickets for theatre for example.

Musicians have many musical instruments – guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, clarinet, violin, piano, organ, trumpet, contrabass, drums, whistle, flute, violoncello, harmonica and saxophone.

There are many of kinds of music – classical, opera, folk, jazz, orchestral, country, chamber, pop, rock, pank, hip-hop, disco, house, heavy, hard rock and metal.