The mass media in the life of Society.
Modern life is hardly possible without information. Of course
friends & relatives keep us informed about what is happening in the
world, but such information is second-hand, & therefore is not at all
reliable. It is the mass media that provide us with first hand &
reliable information.
The mass media plays an important role in our life. Millions of
copies of newspapers are printed in our country every day. The role of
the press can hardly be overestimated, particularly at present. It keeps
you informed in the latest news, different events, home and foreign
affairs, news of culture, science and engineering development. But
publishing news is not the only purpose of the press. There are many
other purposes, which can be achieved by the press. It enriches our
knowledge and broadens our outlook. The press shapes public opinion,
influences governmental policy, gives citizens a view of our country and
foreign countries as well. It performs a few functions: informative,
entertaining, commercial & is addressed to people of different political
views & different stations in life. What is printed & what is not,
largely depends on the publishers’ concert of news. There is a
well-known joke circulating among the publishers, which exactly defines
their idea of news: “If a dog bites a man, that’s not news, but if a man
bites a dog, that is news”. In other words, news must be something
unusual, unexpected, and sensational. But with many papers & magazines
there exits a funny tradition to mystify their regular readers with
sensational & incredible stories, published on their pages.
Everyone knows that we get a great amount of information by mass
media, especially TV. TV now plays an important part in many people’s
life. It is an immensely powerful medium, as it uses the most important
from of communication, the visual image, it is essential for us to try
to decide whether it is a blessing or a curse. It demands complete &
silent attention. It is death to conversation & normal two-way contact
between individuals. It makes passive non-participating spectators of us
all. We begin to forget how to occupy our spare time. Now all our free
time is given to television. Obviously TV has both advantages &
disadvantages. But to the former outweigh the latter. Really if there is
a TV set in your home all you’ve got to do is to turn a knob, or to turn
over to another channel or to turn the sound up & down, &you see plays,
films, operas & shows of every kind, not to mention political
discussions & the latest exciting football matches. TV, it is often
said, keeps one informed about current events, allows one to follow the
latest developments in science & politics &offers an endless series of
programmes, which are both instructive & stimulating. The most distant
countries & the strangest customs are brought right into our sitting
room. You can hardly find a corner where one cannot receive radio or TV
broadcasts. Hundreds of stations speaking in every language of the world
fill the air. Radio & TV-n are undoubtedly, the quickest means of
spreading news & information. What a great amount of information we get!
We watch TV to be well informed. It gives wonderful possibilities for
education. There are considerable variety of programmers & we can select
what we want to see: a film or a play, sport programmes, the latest news
and so on. We find it pleasant to sit in our armchairs and glue to our
sets & little by little people get accustomed to this mode of life & are
cut off from the real world.
Another kind of link between the public & the media is advertising.
The mass media helps us with information about new goods & services. But
some people are tired of advertisements & don’t like to see their
favourite films or programmes interrupted by them. I hope some way will
be found to solve this problem. For example, there are 2 organizations
providing TV & radio services in Great Britain. The BBC is state-funded
& there is ABC on lately no advertising in BBC programmes, & in the
programmes of the Independent Television, the advertising is also
restricted.
As for me & my family, we like the programme “My family”, I think
it is a very useful one, because it gives us many examples how to live,
how to act in different situations. I watch this programme with
admiration.
So to my opinion, I’ll be quick right to say that the volume of
information in the modern world is tremendous, that is why we should
decide for our selves what is really necessary & what may some day
appear to be useless.
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