БЕЛОРУССКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТФАКУЛЬТЕТ МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫХ ОТНОШЕНИЙ

Кафедра английского языка экономических специальностей

Т.Е. Василевская, А. С. Тамарина

STUDY MASS MEDIA СРЕДСТВАМАССОВОЙИНФОРМАЦИИ

Учебно-методическое пособие для студентов III–IV курсов

факультета международных отношений

В двух частях

МИНСК2003

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УДК 820.07(075.8)ББК 81.2Англ.923 В19

Р е ц е н з е н т ы кандидат филологических наук, доцент Л.В.Шимчук

кандидат филологических наук, доцент В.Н.Билан

Рекомендовано Ученым советомфакультета международных отношений

Василевская, Т. Е.В19 Средства массовой информации = Study Mass Media: учеб.-

метод.пособие: в 2 Ч. / Т. Е. Василевская, А. С. Тамарина. – Минск : БГУ, 2003. – 96 с.

В учебно-методическое пособие включены тексты, направленные на развитие умений в процессе разных видов чтения (ознакомительного, обучающего и просмотрового) получать необходимую информацию. Пособие также ориентировано на формирование умений и навыков перевода, реферирования английских текстов публицистического характера, а также совершенствования коммуникативных равыков.

Предназначено для студентов III–IV курсов факультета международных отношений.

©УДК 820.07(075.8)ББК 81.2Англ-923

© БГУ, 2003

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INTRODUCTION

Study Mass Media is intended for teachers and students of the faculty for international relations and contains study materials on a variety of issues concerning such aspects of media studies as construction, characteristics, evalu-ation and production of news and try to focus students’ attention on the critical thinking and viewing skills associated with analysing the news. With the help of this book the authors wish to win students’ support for some media literacy. In an every day situ-ation they are surely exposed to both written and oral information coming from the press and TV. So why not imple-ment the same procedure at English classes? Analyzing news provides creative and original ideas for making effective use of the wealth of readily authentic, accessible and up-to-date English.

Thus we hope the book will help the students to improve their linguistic competence in different aspects such as listening comprehension, speaking, reading and writing.

The book consists of three sections. Section I “Access to Information” is based on prepared out-of class read-ing activity and presuppose careful analysis of the texts content. Focus is laid on such reading skills as synthesizing, summing-up and comparing information, extracting main ideas, identifying key sentences, etc.

Section II "Watching TV News" explores theoretical and practical aspects of producing TV news. Texts are al-lotted for the students' pre-class self-study. Assignments are for group work in class and provide a variety of exercises and activities. The instructions on the Assignments suggest a general scheme of working with a recorded or live news-cast and provide the teacher with a flexible model of introducing video into the classroom. Likewise they are envisaged to stimulate and enhance the students' interest for a deep insight into the problems posed at the lesson. Watching TV news in the classroom and at home offers a whole range of interesting possibilities to enhance students’ command of the English language and at the same time become aware of current events of a day.

Special attention in this book is paid to vocabulary development and reinforcement. Apart from pre-reading vocab-ulary notes intended as an aid for comprehension there is the Glossary. The Glossary of professional terms, abbreviations, and difficult words and phrases is significantly complementary to the manual and will contribute to better understanding of the material.

Reference materials, cited sources and other manuals used in preparation of this book are listed in the Literat -ure for further consideration.

We hope that this edition with a practical aid will be both conductive to a better understanding of certain aspects of mass media techniques and will serve to perfect the language and professional competence of the students.

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PART I

Section 1

Unit 1.

Which Media Are Mass Media?

1. Go through the following vocabulary notes to avoid difficulties of understanding.

alter [ ` :lte] to change; modifyassume [ `sju:m] Take for granted; to be provedattention span [spæn] Capacity or size of attentionconsequence [`k nsikwns] Something that follows from an

action or conditiondissemination [disemi`nei ( )n] The act of process of spreadingdiverse [dai `v :s] Having variety in formenlighten [in`laitn] To inform or to instructentertain [ent` tein] To hold the attention of with

something amusing or divertinginevitably [in`evit bli] Impossible to avoid or preventmediate [`mi:diit] To act as intermediaryongoing Currently taking placepose [pouz] To assume or cause to assume a particular position or pusture,

as in sitting for a portraitprecisely [pri`saisli] Clearly expressed or delineatedpresume [pri`zju:m] To take unwarrented advantage of somethingreadily [`redili] Easilyset forth [set] 1. To present for consideration. 2. To express in words. 3. To begin journey.via [`vai ] By way of…yield [ji:ld] To produce

2. Read the text carefully and do the tasks that follow.

Is the telephone a mass medium? How about a fax machine or personal computers linked in a network? What about a large museum? Should we include rock concerts, theatrical performances, church services, or parades in our study of mass communication? After all, each of these human activities is a form of communication. For our purposes, whether or not a medium is one of the media depends on whether it can carry out the process of mass communication we have just defined.

To be true to our definition, we would have to conclude that talking on the telephone is not really mass communi-cation, because the audience is not large and diverse; usually, there is only one person at each end of the line. Further-more, telephone users usually are not "professional communicators." The same is true of a fax machine or even a set of personal computers on which individuals exchange messages. A museum does not participate in mass communication because it does not provide "rapid dissemination" with "media." Neither does a rock concert qualify, because it does not disseminate messages "over distance"; it is a form of direct communication to audiences. Large-scale advertising by di-rect mail might qualify – except that it is not really "continuous".

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By exercising the criteria set forth in our definition we can identify precisely what we consider to be mass media. The major mass media are print (including books, magazines, and newspapers), film (principally commercial motion pictures), and broadcasting (mainly radio and television, but also several associated forms such as cable and video cas -settes).

The consequences of using Media: Communication via a mass medium between a professional communicator and particular individual within an audience is very different from face-to-face communication between a sender and a re-ceiver. In mass communication, a large, diverse audience is at the receiving end. There is no realistic way for the pro -fessional communicator to engage in any role-taking during the process of transmitting a message or for the audience to provide immediate and ongoing feedback while transmission is taking place.

Communicators try to guess how their messages will be received, with only indirect, delayed feedback in the form of advertising revenues, research findings, a few telephone calls, occasional letters, movie reviews, and box-office re -ceipts. This delayed feedback may help them shape future communications, but it provides no basis for altering a mes-sage while it is being disseminated. As a consequence, accuracy and influencing of any particular member of the audi-ence are significantly limited.

The consequences of large, diverse audience: Mass communication differs from face-to-face communication and from mediated interpersonal communication not only because it involves more complex media, but also because the audience is large and diverse. The existence of a large and diverse audience can pose significant limitations on the con-tent, accuracy, and influence of the messages transmitted by a mass medium. Inevitably, much mass media content – perhaps most of it – is designed for the tastes and presumed intellectual level of "the average citizen" or, often, for the average member of a specialized category of people who are assumed to share some common taste or interest (for in -stance, all fishing enthusiasts, football fans, or fashion-conscious women). In forming appropriate message content, pro-fessional communicators must make assumptions about such audiences. In fact, most professional communicators tend to assume that the majority in their audiences;

1. have a limited attention span,2. prefer to be entertained rather than enlightened, and 3. quickly lose interest in any subject that makes intellectual demands.

Thus, all of the factors discussed above work together in a kind of system that encourages media content that is high in entertainment value and low in intellectual demands.

It is important to understand the conditions and principles that fit together to yield the above consequence, because they explain a great deal about why the media function as they do. Furthermore, we can then more readily understand why the media inevitably attract the attention of deeply concerned critics who have generated a long list of charges and complaints that the media are both trivial and harmful in some way.

3. Assignment to the text: "Which Media Are Mass Media?"

1. Find information about:a) museums which do not participate in mass communicationb) communicators who try to guess how their messages will be receivedc) delayed feedback

2. Find the sentences with the following word combinations:a) a set of personal computersb) the major mass mediac) delayed feedbackd) the existence of a large and diverse audience

3. Translate the following sentences into English:a) Широкомасштабная рекламная компания может подойти под определение "средства массовой

информации".b) Большая и разнообразная аудитория является ограничением в содержании, точности и воздействии

информации распространяемой через СМИ.c) Замедленная обратная связь может помочь профессиональному коммуникатору приспособить будущие

способы передачи информации.

4. Put the questions to the following statements:a) In mass communication, a large, diverse audience is at the receiving end.b) Accuracy and influencing of any particular member of the audience are significantly limited.c) Telephone users usually are not "professional communicators"

5. Answer the following questions:a) What majorities features of audience do professional communicators tend to assume?b) Does mass communication differs from face-to-face communication?

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c) Which media can we call mass media?

6. Discuss the following points:a) the consequences of using mass mediab) the consequences of large, diverse audience

7. Ask your friends what he/she knows about:a) influencing on audience with the aid of mass mediab) anything interesting about any sort of mass mediac) communication via mass media

Unit 2

Mass Communication as a Linear Process

Read the text consulting a dictionary, if necessary, and do the tasks that follow.

Mass communication can be conceptualized within an expanded version of the linear model that helps explain face-to-face communication. Each stage is far more complex, but, as can be seen, the basic stages are very similar:

1. Mass communication begins with senders who are professional communicators. They decide on the nature and goals of a message to be presented to an audience via their particular medium. (That message may be a news re-port, an advertising campaign, a movie, or some other media presentation.)

2. The intended meanings are encoded by production specialists (a news team, a film company, a magazine staff, etc.). The encoding process include the selection of not only verbal and nonverbal symbols, but the special effects that are possible with a particular medium (sound, graphics, color, etc.).

3. The message is transmitted through the use of specialized technologies characteristic of print, film, or broadcast-ing to disseminate it as widely as possible.

4. A large and diverse (mass) audience of individual receivers attend to the medium and perceive the incoming mes-sage in very selective ways.

5. Individual receivers construct interpretations of the message in such a way that they experience subjective mean-ings, which are to at least degree parallel to those intended by the professional communicators.

6. As a result of experiencing these meanings, receivers are influenced in some way in their feelings, thoughts, or actions; that is, the communication has some effect.These six stages provide not only a basic identification of what takes place in the process of mass communication, but also a convenient framework for defining it carefully. After discussing each stage more fully, we can formu-late a rather precise definition of mass communication, enabling us to separate it clearly from other forms.

A concise definition of mass communication Each of the six stages we have described must be part of a suc-cinct definition of mass communication. With these stages in mind, we can define the process in the following terms:Mass communication is a process in which professional communicators design and use media to disseminate mes-

sages widely, rapidly, and continuously in order to arouse intended meanings in large, diverse, and selectively attending audiences in attempts to influence them in a variety of ways.

With this definition in mind, we must ask which media really are (or are not) mass media. This is not an idle ques-tion because it sets boundaries on what needs to be studied under the general heading "mass communication."

1. Give Russian equivalents:

Linear process, stage, professional communicator, to be encoded, to be transmitted, diverse audience, receiver, to be in-fluenced, identification, mass communication, framework, definition, disseminate messages, continuously, boundary, face-to-face, interpretation, perceive, in some way, goal of message.

2. Match the words with their definitions:

Succinct, nature, separate, stage, receiver, face to face, audience, communications, media, idle.

1. The art technique of using words effectively to impart information or ideas. The field of study concerned with the transmission of information by various means, such as print or broadcasting. Any or various professions involved with the transmission of information, such as advertising, broadcasting, or journalism.

2. In person, directly.3. A level, degree, or period of time in the course of a process.4. The essential characteristics and qualities of a person or thing.5. One who takes or receives in any manner.6. The spectators or listeners assembled at a performance, for example, or attracted by a radio or television program.

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7. Characterized by clear, precise expression in few words; concise and terse.8. Lacking substance, value, or basis.9. A means of mass communication, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, or television.10. To remove from a mixture or combination; isolate.

3. Make sure you can translate the following word combinations into English:

Распространять сообщения, профессиональный коммуникатор, разнообразная аудитория, с помощью определенного средства, быть схожим до некоторой степени, концептуализировать, стадия, передавать сообщение, получатель информации, определение, вербальные символы, передавать по радио, интерпретировать.

4. Check your understanding of the gist by marking these statements as TRUE or FALSE1. Mass communication begins with senders who are not professional communicators.2. The intended meanings are encoded by production specialists (a news team, a film company, a magazine staff,

etc.).3. The message is transmitted through the use of specialized technologies characteristic of print, film, or broadcasting

to disseminate it as widely as possible.4. A large and diverse (mass) audience of individual receivers attend to the medium and perceive the incoming mes-

sage in general ways.5. Individual receivers construct interpretations of the message in such a way that they experience subjective mean-

ings which are to at least some degree parallel to those intended by the professional communicators.6. As a result of sending these messages, receivers are influenced in some way in their feelings, thoughts, or actions.

5. Give extensive answers to the following questions: 1. In what way can "face-to-face communication" be explained?2. What do we usually mean by saying smb is a professional communicator?3. Can we consider a CNN's news team to encode the intended meanings?4. What technologies are used to disseminate the messages?5. What is the result of experiencing encoded meanings by receivers?6. Can one agree to the definition of mass communication given in the text?

6. Discuss the following points:

1. Mass communication cannot be presented as a Linear Process.2. There are people who decide on the nature and goals of a message to be presented to an audience via their particu-

lar medium.3. Special effects do not influence the process of decoding message by recipient.4. There is no better technology to disseminate messages than "from mouth to mouth".5. Individual receivers perceive any incoming message.6. There are more than 6 stages of mass communication linear process.

7. Ask your friend what he/she knows about mass communication process (model). Can you put forward other theory of the abovementioned process or improve this one?

Unit 3

Newspapers

Read the text focusing on the main ideas.

Since the earliest use of language, people have been interested in gossip and tidings about others in their midst, people outside their group, and events in other places. For millennia, the only way they received such news was by word of mouth from travelers or roving troubadors and at social gatherings, taverns, and fairs.

It was technology that spurred the development of newspapers, as has been the case with each of the mass media. Gutenberg's inventions provided a critical foundation. Later, the ability to print improved swiftly as steam was linked to a roller-type press. Then came cheaper paper, zinc engraving, the telegraph for news-gathering, the typewriter, photog -raphy, the electric press, typesetting machines, and finally computers to assist both in gathering news and in controlling many of the mechanical functions required to produce and distribute a newspaper. But technology is only part of the

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story. Various social systems had to be designed in order to use new technologies to deliver news and other content that people wanted.

Changing Functions and ContentWhatever the size of a newspaper, running it as a business means knowing how to make a profit, which means

knowing how to sell the paper to the largest possible audience. Nearly three-quarters of a century ago, sociologist Robert E. Park pointed out that the "natural history" of the press is the story of how the strong survive in the struggle for existence:

It is an account of the conditions under which the existing newspaper has grown up and taken form. A newspaper is not merely printed. It is circulated and read. Otherwise it is not a newspaper. Furthermore, it has to derive income to survive. The struggle for existence, in the case of the newspaper, has been a struggle for circulation.To win this struggle – to maintain a flow of income from advertisers – newspaper publishers have had to adjust to the changing demands of their audience; they have had to do this by fulfilling a variety of needs among their readers and of-fering them many kinds of content that provide gratification. The ways in which they do this can be called the functions of the newspaper. Although they change from time to time, at least six major functions can be identified:

Persuading, informing, and entertaining;Providing detailed coverage and analysis: The detailed coverage and analytic function is closely related to the informa-tion function. However, in performing this function, a newspaper goes beyond transmitting information by providing background details relevant to the news, explanations of related events, and analyses of their importance and implica-tions. Newspapers are able to do this better than most other media/Serving as the official communicator: Increasingly over the years newspapers have worked out a special function as their local government's medium of public record. According to Black's Law Dictionary, an "official" newspaper is one "designated by a state or municipal legislative body, or agents empowered by them, in which the public acts, resolves, advertisements, and notices are required to be published."Appealing to specialized interests: Another change came during the second half of this century, when newspapers took on the function of appealing to specific reader interests with whole sections devoted to particular kinds of content. For example, even the New York Times, known for its coverage of hard news in a staid, serious, and reliable fashion, now includes special sections each week called "Home," "Living," "Weekend."

A Dual Identity with a Built-in Conflict of InterestNewspapers can seem like different things to different people: Some simply see profit-oriented businesses whose

main goal is to make money for their owners. Others see an important source of information serving the public as a guardian of democracy. Still others see newspapers as some combination of the two. For example, the U.S. Department of Commerce defined newspapers in both business and public service terms:

Newspaper publishing is the nation's tenth largest industry and its fifth largest industrial employer. The United States Constitution and its interpreters see newspapers as conveyors of information and opinion vital to the operation of government and the maintenance of freedom… The millions who read newspapers see them in myriad roles… The newspaper is at once a private enterprise struggling in a highly competitive economy and a quasi-public institution serving the needs of all citizens.

There is considerable merit to this complex view of the nature of newspapers. As it was indicated, whatever else they may be, newspapers are private, profit-making businesses. At the same time, however, they have a special obliga-tion – delivering information to citizens to allow robust discussion of public affairs. As a result, newspapers not only have to earn their keep financially, they also bear a special responsibility to serve the public.

Thus, the contemporary newspaper has a dual identity: On the one hand, the newspaper is a quasi-public institution charged with being the watchdog of the public interest and often an antagonist of government and other forces in power. On the other hand, as a business, the newspaper seeks to make a profit and function as a member of the business com -munity, a major employer, and a member of the chamber of commerce.

This dual identity automatically brings with it an inherent conflict as business values and those of serious journal -ism clash. For example, the advertising department and news editors may compete for space, or they may argue over how some stories should be covered. Or, a publisher who sees the paper as only, or primarily, a business may not want to investigate a local scandal that is likely to antagonize advertisers. Why pay the kind of salaries that will keep good re-porters if the gossip columns, the comics, and the sports section can maintain circulation and advertising? Yet if the publisher does not see the paper as a business, it can easily go under financially. Thus, the dual identity of the newspa-per can pose a serious dilemma.

1. Write out the words and expressions from the text that will extend your vocabulary.2. Go through the following expressions and pay attention to the them.

to be linked toto deliver newsthe struggle for existencebeyond transmitting informationas a guardian of democracyto allow robust discussions

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to bear a special responsibilityto pose a serious dilemma

3. Find examples with the above expressions in the text and make your own sentences with them.4. Scan the text so as to answer these questions.

1. What can you say about the ways of receiving news in ancient times?2. What are the main functions of newspapers?3. Can newspapers seem like different things to different people? Can you explain why?4. What is a special obligation of newspapers?5. Why does the contemporary newspaper have a dual identity?

5. Define the topic of each paragraph of the text above finding the topic sentence where possible or identifying the topic from the general contents of the paragraph.

6. Define the main idea of each paragraph of the text finding the sentence carrying the most essential piece of in -formation or extracting it from the general contents of the paragraph.

7. Discuss how much of the information you found in the text was new for you.

Unit 4

Radio as a Contemporary Medium

Read the following text and try to understand it in details.

Radio developed as a logical extension of the electric telegraph, which became a reality in the 1840s. Reliable elec-tric telegraphy was not possible until after the invention of the electromagnet, which was at the heart of the system de -veloped by Samuel P.B. Morse.

When Morse sent his famous message, "What hath Gold wrought?" between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., the speed with which information could move increased from that of a train or a carrier pigeon to that of lightning. It was a truly startling advance.

The new form of telegraphy was an enormously useful device for communicating with ships at sea and with far-flung business, military, and diplomatic enterprises around the globe. Radio took on an aura of glamour very early when it played a critical role in rescue efforts at sea. Although it would be many years before it would even start to become a household communications medium, it quickly gained a large and enthusiastic following in the population.

An important problem that had to be solved before radio could become a household medium was how to pay for the broadcasts. After several alternatives were considered, the answer came in the form of selling air time to advertisers – a close parallel to selling space to advertisers in the print media. This permitted the development of sponsored shows, regularly scheduled broadcasts, and a star system.

The golden age of radio lasted from the 1930s, after the medium had matured, until it was almost displaced by tele -vision during the early 1950s. Many important features developed during the period, including worldwide radio news, FM broadcasting, and the ultimate adjustment of radio to its current format and style.

Radio continues in the 1990s to be the most widely attended to medium of communication. Radio stations stretch across countries, with numerous signals reaching every community and neighborhood. Studies show that in the USA 96 percent of the population over age twelve listens to the radio during an average week. This compares favorably to tele -vision viewing (90 percent) and newspaper reading (76 percent). Among the reasons why so many people listen is that radio is the most portable of the broadcast media, being accessible at home, in the office, in the car, on the street or beach, virtually everywhere at any time. Because listening is so widespread, radio has prospered as an advertising medium. Radio stations reach local rather than national audiences and are thus attractive to merchants who want to ad-vertise their wares and services to people in their community. Furthermore, radio serves small, highly targeted audi-ences, which makes it an excellent advertising medium for many kinds of specialized products and services. This fea-ture appeals to advertisers, who realize it would be inefficient and prohibitively expensive to tout a special-interest product to the heterogeneous audiences drawn to nationally popular entertainment programs.

Radio's changing formats: Today's radio stations offer their listeners a complex mix of formats. Some stations specialize in a particular form of music – classical, country, classic jazz, rock, new age, or folk. These musical offerings have loyal followings. Similarly, there is a good deal of talk radio, with many kinds of interviewers having different styles. Talk shows offer programming for personal problems, auto repairs, financial matters, handling pets, and even plant care. Local radio stations determine just what their formats will be, usually based on how they have fared in com -parative industry audience ratings. However, they get their programming from a variety of national and regional radio network, some of which own their own stations. The programming services these networks supply are paid for indi -rectly by national advertisers.

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Of course, a good many radio stations have a mixed format, with music, news, sports, and advertising as well as some commentaries. Such stations mix and match network sources and features with their own locally originated pro-gramming, which often involves a disk jockey playing popular music.

Radio also serves many ethnic communities. There are Spanish-language, Native American, and African-American radio stations (and even a national African-American network), as well as stations that feature programming in Greek, Irish, Scandinavian, Chinese, Japanese, and other languages.

Public radio and other forms of non-commercial broadcasting provide important services and typically reach a large, upscale market, especially in university communities. Many noncommercial stations are owned by educational in-stitutions, religious organizations, cities and towns, and other groups.

Today, radio is prospering. It still commands the largest cumulative audiences and it is gaining strength. If rev-enues from local advertising continue to increase, the worth of radio stations will increase, and this will help their prospects for future profitability. It is hard to say how far this trend will extend into the future. However has proved it -self a versatile medium, one that supplies a good deal of information and entertainment, some opinion, and effective lo -cal advertising. It will probably continue to readjust and recalibrate itself as audience tastes and interests change. Radio continues to have a market niche due to both its command of audiences and its ability to sell advertising and generate other revenues.

1. Find the information about:

a) the invention of radio;b) the golden age of radio;c) radio formats.

2. In the text find the sentences with the following word-combinations:

a) truly startling advance;b) far-flung enterprise;c) household medium;d) regularly scheduled broadcasts;e) ultimate adjustment of radio;f) the most portable of broadcast media;g) complex mix of formats;h) comparative industry audience ratings;i) public radio;j) the largest cumulative audience.

3. Give English equivalents and use them in sentences of your own:

a) по-настоящему поразительное достижение;b) аура волшебства;c) FM радиовещание;d) процветать;e) рекламировать товары и услуги;f) некоммерческое радиовещание;g) обладать огромной совокупной аудиторией.

4. Put the questions to the following statements:

a) Radio developed as a logical extension of the electric telegraph, which became a reality in the 1980s.b) Radio took on an aura of glamour very early when it played a critical role in rescue efforts at sea.c) Many noncommercial stations are owned by educational institutions, religious organizations, cities and towns, and

other groups.

5. Answer the following questions:

a) Who invented radio?b) Where was radio used at first?c) How many people listen to the radio in the USA?d) Why is radio so popular?e) What are the ways of getting programming?f) What is the future of radio?g) Which radio format do you prefer?

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6. Discuss the following points :

a) The invention of radio was a truly startling advance.b) The golden age of radio.c) Over 96% of the population in the USA listen to the radio.d) Today's radio stations offer their listeners a complex mix of radio formats.

7. Interview a partner to find out:

a) the place of radio in the modern world;b) advertising on the radio;c) radio formats;d) non-commercial broadcasting.

8. Now swap round, and get your partner to interview you.

9. Summarize what you know about:

a) P.B. Morse;b) Ways of using broadcasting;c) Popularity of radio;d) Radio stations in our country.

Unit 5

Television as a Contemporary Medium

1. Go through the following vocabulary notes to avoid difficulties of understanding.

Derive - to take or receive from a source.Amply - fully, generouslyOmnipresent - present in all places at the same time.To affiliate - to receive into close connection or association with a

larger body, group, organization.To barter - to trade goods, services, etc, in exchange for others,

rather than for money.Syndicate - an association of business enterprises or individuals to

undertake a joint project.To tape - to record speech, music, etc.To lease - to make a contract by which property is conveyed to a person for a specific period.Wares - articles of manufacture considered as being for sale.Standpoint - physical or mental position from which things are viewed.Jumble - state of disorder, disordered mass.Paramount - of the greatest importance or significance.To vie - to strive in competition.PBS - Public Broadcasting System.VCR - Video Cassette Recorder.Air time - a period of time while a program broadcasts.To appeal - to make an earnest, important request.To spiral - to increase or decrease with steady acceleration.Rating - a figure based on a statistical sampling indicating what

proportions of the total audience tune in to a specific program.

Survey - a critical, detailed inspection.Polling - the counting of votes.Remote control - control of a system or activity from a distance.Mute - not giving out sound or speech, silent.Commercial - a commercially sponsored advertisement on radio or

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television.Offset - smth that counterbalances or compensates for smth else.Presumably - one supposes that.Loom - to come into view indistinctly with an enlarged aspect.Undergo - to experience or sustain.Array - an orderly arrangement.Sitcom - situation comedy.

2. Read the text carefully and do the tasks that follow.

Like radio, from which it was derived, television is both a technology and a complex medium of mass communica-tion. As its history amply demonstrates, it is also an economic system made up of communicators, advertisers, programs or content, and a large and diverse audience. And it has become an omnipresent medium – the form of mass communi -cation most preferred by the public.

In the system television broadcasting, the networks play a key role. Two-thirds of the commercial TV stations, with which they are affiliated. Thus, the networks are major suppliers of content to chains of local affiliates. At the same time, the networks are also broadcasters. A number of stations are owned and operated directly by networks (these are called "O & O's" in the industry).

Over the years, the number of independent (not network-affiliated) stations has increased. This has given rise to barter syndication. Thus, a local station can get taped content from program syndicators who lease their wares to inde-pendent, non-network stations, creating what amounts to a series of small networks. Such syndicated programming competes directly with network offerings.

From the standpoint of a family viewing their TV set at home, the sources that deliver programs can be a confusing jumble. What they see on their screen at any given time may originate from one of several networks, from an indepen-dent local station, from PBS, from their basic cable sevice, or from a cassette in their VCR. This variety in sources makes little real difference to viewers.

However, for the players involved, what source viewers use is of paramount importance. It is the basis for consum-ing battles for profit and economic survival within the system. Thus, competition among the sources that deliver pro-gramming to audiences is the central factor in understanding the economics of contemporary television.

Competition has always existed among the various networks. Every year they vied for dominance in terms of com-manding the largest audiences. And in recent years, competition started between network television and its alternatives (cable television and the VCR) as these systems came on line. That competition resulted in significant changes.

Since the commercial messages shown on the popular programs reached huge audiences, advertisers were willing to pay enormous fees for tiny segments of air time. And because of this great income, the networks were able to pro-duce still more expensive programs with even greater appeal to the public. Thus, advertising revenues spiraled up and up, along with the size of the audience.

At the heart of this mutually profitable system is audience attention. The worst nightmare of both the advertiser and the television network executive is that people will not view the programs on which their wares are advertised. Me-dia audiences are measured in terms of ratings, and various kinds of survey and polling techniques have been used to determine what kinds of people view what can be called the law of large numbers was the prevailing principle deter-mining the TV agenda presented by the major networks.

In recent years, a new factor has entered the competitive arena. Another nightmare of the advertiser and the televi -sion network executive became a reality. It came in the form of the "zapper" – the hand-held remote control, with its buttons for muting the sound or changing the channel without leaving the chair or couch. It has bought a significant re-duction in the amount of attention that viewers give to TV commercials.

The future of television will be one of constant and somewhat unpredictable change. The zapper will continue to trouble advertisers, and they will actively explore alternative media, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, and even di-rect mail. However, offsetting these negatives for TV advertising is another trend, that is, the total time people spend us-ing their television sets has increased over the years. However, it now appears to have stabilized, presumably because there is only so much time that people can devote to television. Overall, then. television today faces a complex situation, and there is little doubt that further changes are in store. The fortunes of the industry will continue to shift as new play-ers arrive on the scene.

Another aspect of television's future that is difficult to predict is its technology. Looming on the horizon are a num -ber of technological systems that will vastly extend the number of choices viewers will be able to make in their homes. These include a number of new ways of delivering the signal via optic cables and telephone lines. Other innovations will enlarge and clarify the picture that viewers see.

However, one thing about the future of television is entirely clear. The tastes and preferences of the TV audience will undoubtedly remain precisely what they are. Therefore, we will not undergo a revolution in program content that will parallel the new technological developments. Thus, whatever spectacular home TV sets are in store for us, perhaps with wall-sized pictures as clear as the real world and with hundreds of choices of channels, we will be seeing the usual

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array of soap operas, sitcoms, human interest news, quiz games, sports, home-shopping opportunities, religious evange-lists, negative political campaigns, and so on.

3. Explain the meaning of the words syndicate and network.4. Find the information concerning:

a) barter syndication.b) competition among the sources that deliver programming.c) interference of advertising and television.d) "zapper".

5. Find and read sentences with the following word combinations:

omnipresent medium, major suppliers, lease the wares, confusing jumble, of paramount importance, consuming battles, vie for dominance, enormous fees, mutually profitable system, law of large numbers, hand-held remote control, explore alternative media, offsetting the negatives, face a complex situation, clarify the picture, usual array.

6. Give English equivalents:

современное средство массовой информации; играть ведущую роль; основные поставщики; число независимых от вещательных компаний станций; записать содержание программ; сдавать товары в аренду; конкурировать (2 words); с точки зрения; мало отличаться; первостепенной важности; центральный фактор для понимания экономики современного телевидения; конкурировать с целью увеличения своего влияния; занимать свое место; это привело к значительным изменениям; платить огромные гонорары за крошечные отрезки эфирного времени; доходы от рекламы становились все больше и больше; опрос общественного мнения (2 words); закон больших чисел; пульт дистанционного управления; значительное снижение; столкнуться со сложной ситуацией; быть наготове; про запас; перенести революцию; телевикторина.

7. Put the questions to the following sentences:

Like radio, from which it was derived, television is both a technology and a complex medium of mass communica-tion.

In the system television broadcasting, the networks play a key role. Syndicated programming competes directly with network offerings. From the standpoint of a family viewing their TV set at home, the sources that deliver programs can be a confusing

juble. Competition among the sources that deliver programming to audiences is the central factor in understanding the

economics of contemporary television. Since the commercial messages shown on the popular programs reached huge audiences, advertisers were willing

to pay enormous fees for tiny segments of air time. At the heart of this mutually profitable system is audience attention. Media audiences are measured in terms of ratings, and various kinds of survey and polling techniques have been

used to determine what kinds of people view what kinds of television programs during what periods of time. The "zapper" has brought a significant reduction in the amount of attention that viewers give to TV commercials. The tastes and preferences of the TV audience will undoubtedly remain precisely what they are.

8. Answer the following questions in pairs or small groups:

What form of mass communication is the most preferred by the public from your point of view? Do you agree that television has been derived from radio? Are the programs you watch on TV confusing jumble? What is the purpose of consuming battles among the sources that deliver programming? Why are advertisers willing to pay enormous fees for tiny segments of air time? How can rating influence the way network operates? What has brought a significant reduction in the amount of attention that viewers give to TV commercials? How can you predict the future of television?

9. Discuss your findings with the rest of the class.

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Unit 6

Behavior Change Through Television

Read the following text and discuss in class what you think of the problem touched upon in it.

Strengths: you do not need a formal education to understand what you see and hear on television; television allows you to show people how to do something; people can see and hear role models acting out positive behavior on televi-sion.

Weaknesses: television may not be available in all areas of the country; televisions are too expensive for some people; producing a TV program can be more expensive than radio or print media; if the listener does not hear or under-stand the message correctly, he or she does not have an opportunity to ask for an explanation.

If you are in an area where there are many televisions and you want to reach thousands of people at once, television is a good method. It is also very good if you want to show people how to do something.

Television is also an excellent way to target different groups of people. You can even target the highest-level deci -sion-makers in your country. Many TV owners are important community and government leaders. Since decision-mak-ers can influence public behavior, it is important to reach them with clear and accurate messages.

Below are three tables. Each table has a specific communication goal and several options for reaching that goal by using television.

Goal № 1: To influence the policy and decision-makers in your country.

Shows Suggestions for UseNews and Current EventsShows

Decision-makers and community leaders watch tele-vision to learn about national and international events. Your messages on these shows will reach many influential people in your country. Invite a TV crew to a project event to film and interview impor-tant speakers.

Panel Discussions This type of program offers audiences an opportunity to learn all sides of an issue. It can influence attitudes if the issues are carefully selected and presented in an appropriate way.

PSAs A PASA (public service announcement) is a message presented by a nonprofit or government agency. PSA messages create awareness and understanding about different issues.

Goal № 2: To target as many people as possible.

Types of TV Shows

Suggestions for Use

News Programs Attracting news coverage of the issues of the prob-lem, events, programs and results is a good way to reach makers and the general public.

Drama series (soap operas)

Since drama series can run for several weeks or months, you can develop characters that real prob-lems and show how these characters solve them. If the public likes these characters they will be more likely to imitate their behavior. Example: "If this lip-stick is good enough for my favorite television star, then I will use it."

Comedy Shows Most comedy programs are shown at night and have large audiences. Although some problems (e.g. AIDS and illnesses) are not laughing matters, they can be dealt with sensitively. A lighter treatment of sensitive issues can sometimes make it easier for audiences to discuss them.

Goal № 3: To target messages to a specific group of people.17

Types of TV Shows

Suggestions for Use

Target: Teens and Young Adults

MusicVideoShows

Music video programs are often aimed at younger people. Ask the producer if you can host a your prob-lem awareness show. In between music videos, have a youth role model talk about your topic. You can also have live audience members ask questions about it

Target: MenSportsPrograms

Sports shows can target men of all ages. Ask the pro-gram director to broadcast a PSA or PSAs at the be-ginning, middle and end of each sports show.

Behavior Change through Print Media

If you want to reach thousands of people who read, then newspapers and magazines are an excellent choice. Many readers will also share important articles with family and friends, so even more people will get the information. Many decision-makers see newspapers as their most credible source for information.

The table below gives several options for getting messages out to the public through newspapers and magazines.

Types of Newspa-pers and Magazine Articles

Suggestions for Use

Article Series A series of articles is a good choice for communi-cating complicated messages and information. You can explore all the aspects of a topic in a series of articles.

Question and An-swer Columns

People can write in with questions that they feel un-comfortable asking anyone else. The author has the opportunity to answer urgent questions and many people will benefit from the answers.

Regular Health Col-umns

This type of article provides an ongoing venue for up-to-the-minute facts about diseases and health-ru-ining factors. Arrange with a local reporter to plan out stories in advance. You can give the reporter in-formation to include in each article.

Letters The Editor This area of a newspaper is reserved for letters the public writes in response to stories they have read or recent events in the community. This is a place for you to write a brief response to incorrect infor-mation and "set the record straight." Also, you can write a letter about an issue of importance.

Inserts These are pieces of paper that are put into the news-paper. You can put an important announcement or information on brightly-colored paper and ask the newspaper editor if they can be placed in every copy of that day's newspaper. Example: You could print a checklist of facts and myths about HIV/STDs and photocopy them onto bright pink paper. Every-one who buys that day's paper will get this informa-tion and can keep it for reference.

Unit 7.

World Wide Web

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We give you below just the beginning of the following text. Read it and find additional information on the topic.

These days it's easy to forget that the Internet and the World Wide Web began as academic research networks. But they did, and today the Internet's potential as a research tool is even more apparent. On list-serves and in newsgroups, scholars informally discuss the most recent developments in their fields. Private research centers and government agen -cies accept grant applications, conduct peer reviews, and publish papers online. By conducting a few effective searches you should be able to turn up several excellent sources on almost any topic.

But the Internet also has a lot of what scholars call "noise" – unreliable, misleading information that interferes with the research effort, like static disturbing a radio station. Besides locating sources, then, it's also important to evaluate those sources for quality of information and for relevance to your topic.

To get the most from Internet research, you need to "cast a wide net". The resources listed below are only a few of the excellent search engines available on the Web. Experiment with a few different ones. Even if you have a favorite, trying some new search engines, and practicing with your query language (read each site's instructions) will help you get a wide-ranging search with relevant results, sorted to your needs.

Alta Vista is almost always ranked highly for thoroughness and for allowing carefully worded queries, but is sometimes considered difficult to use.

eLibrary searches for magazine and newspaper articles on topics of your choice. These can be organized and ar -ranged in folders for future reference. It is a subscription site with limited free features and a free trial of all features.

HotBot is a powerful and highly regarded search engine associated with Lycos. It organizes responses into cate-gories of relevance.

Read the text and do the tasks that follow.

BILL GATES BIOGRAPHY

William Gates the 3rd was born on October 28th, 1955 in Seattle Washington. His nickname is "Trey" because he is the third to be named William in his family. His parents enrolled him at Lakeside High School because they knew he was intelligent. This is a school for the more academically inclined students.

His interest in computers took hold when in 1967 the Lakeside Mothers Club used the proceeds from a rummage sale to buy a digital training terminal linked by phone to a local phone company. As his father later said Bill was hooked to it, "completely engrossed".

While still in high school he and two other friends founded the Lakeside Programming Group (One of the co-founders was Paul Allen who would go on to form Microsoft with Gates). One of Bill's first programs was for making class schedules at his school. He devised it so he could share classes with the prettiest girls. He earned $ 4200 for this project.

Shortly after, he entered Harvard as a law student. He maxed-out the math section on the SAT test. He later quit Harvard at the urging of his friend, Paul Allen. He had seen an article about computer technology and felt the computer field was wide open for them. They both moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was at that time in 1975 that Microsoft Software was started. They got a contract with MITS to produce BASIC. Later that company failed and they sold their products to other fledgling firms. Their big break came when the Tandy Corporation hired Microsoft to de -velop software for Radio Shack. During this period they relocated the company back to Seattle.

Another big break came when IBM contracted Gates about developing an operating system. Gates bought a small program called Q-DOS and improved it. He renamed it MS-DOS.

On New Years Day 1994 he married one of his employees, Melinda French. His daughter, Jennifer Katherine, was born in April, 1996.

They started Microsoft in 1975 and by 1978 they had earned $ 4 million in sales. In 1980 it had grown to $16 million.

His goal is/was "to have a computer on every desk and in every home all running Microsoft software". Since then Microsoft has released windows 3.1, 95 and most recently windows 98. By 1983 40% of all comput -

ers used Microsoft software and today the figures are even higher.In 1987 Microsoft stocks went up to $90 each making Bill Gates the youngest billionaire in history. Today

Microsoft is valued at over $40 billion and of course Bill Gates is the wealthiest man in the world.He is currently buying-up cable companies and investing heavily in companies related to the Internet and its ac-

cess. A Washington Post writer says of Gates that he has "the slightly disheveled look of a brainy adolescent, with trousled hair and oversized glasses that slide down his nose".

His personality also doesn't fit the common thought of a billionaire. He buys suits off the rack, flies coach and has a simple taste for food. He enjoys cars and has two Porsches, a classical Mustang and a Lexus. For exercise he likes to play tennis.

I. Choose the best variant to complete the statements:19

1. Lakeside High School wasa) a grammar school;b) a privileged school;c) a comprehensive school.

2. William's parents enrolled him to Lakeside High School becausea) he was a capable student;b) they wanted him to be an academy student;c) they were a noble family.

3. He became interested in computers whena) he was hooked to his PC;b) a linked digital terminal was installed at his school;c) he founded Lakeside Programming Group.

4. Bill Gates designed his first program toa) earn $4200 for his project;b) to make class schedules at his school;c) to be able to share classes with the prettiests girls.

5. Gates quit Harvard becausea) he failed at maths;b) his friend asked him to;c) he wasn't interested in law.

6. Bill Gates is one of the wealthiest men in the world becausea) Microsoft is valued at over $40 billion;b) he is the head of Microsoft;c) he is buying-up cable companies.

7. His personality doesn't fit the common thought of a billionaire asa) he is very intelligent;b) he has a simple taste for food;c) he acts as a common man.

II. Decide whether the following statements are true or false: 1. William Gates was born in Washington.2. He tried his hand in programming while in high school.3. Microsoft Software was started in Seattle.4. Bill Gates married a French girl.5. Bill Gates is a good pilot and sportsmen.6. He doesn't care for his appearance.

III. Answer the questions:1. Why is Bill Gates called "Trey" by his family?2. How was Microsoft Software started?3. Did Bill Gates marry his boss?4. How does Bill Gates formulate his main goal?5. When did he become the youngest billionaire in history?6. Why didn't he fit the common thought of a billionaire?

IV. Decide whether:1. William Gates is a

a) lawyerb) Treyc) billionaire

2. Gates signed his first contract witha) MITSb) IBMc) Microsoft

3. Q - DOS isa) the prototype of MS - DOSb) the improved variant of MS - DOSc) Windows 98

4. Microsofta) was sold to Tandy Corporationb) developed software for Radio Shack

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c) founded in Seattle5. BASIC

a) produced by MITSb) a Microsoft Software productc) the company that failed

Follow-Up Activities

1. Give your comments on the following:

"As a net is made up of a series of ties, so everything inthis world is connected by a series of ties. If anyone thinksthat the mesh of a net is an independent, isolated thing, he ismistaken. It is called a net because it is made up of a seriesof interconnected meshes, and each mesh has its place andresponsibility in relation to other meshes."Buddha

2. Write rough notes about the pros and cons of Internet. In the conclusion give your own opinion.

3. Write up a short report telling how your Internet experience went: what you wanted to learn, what difficulties you experienced, what you did learn, and how the information might be useful.

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SECTION II

Unit 1.

When Events Become News

1. What is "news" in your opinion?2. Is there difference between your concept of "news" and your parents' / colleagues' / professional journalists' / politi -cians'?State your reasons for the difference of opinions.3. What are the usual subjects of news stories?

The primary focus of the news media is the human world - society - since it is other people we find interesting and who most often affect our own fate, and since, in a larger sense, the human condition is its subject. Thus, the news media finds itself constantly giving us updates about important people, about their actions, interactions, and reactions to actions, and about chains of action and reaction that result from these. It tells us about intentions, deliberations, propos -als, decisions and events, which can be hidden from view or open to public scrutiny. And so the media finds itself inex -orably drawn into reporting the minutiae of the human world.

It focuses on nature, too, of course, but usually nature as it fits in the human world. It depicts nature as destroyer - hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes; and nature as something we destroy that can also destroy us -- global warming, mass die outs of frogs. And it depicts nature as something we are conquering and making transparent - rocks analysed on Mars, diseases conquered.

Fulfilling its role as non-stop update service, the news media is forever describing the permutations of power in this realm: who’s got it, who’s fighting over it, who the winner is, and what the consequences will be. Journalists are forever trying to find out how power is being exercised; who has it and who doesn't. How are those with power using it? And they describe a great many issues as contests over the right to make policy and control government. Political parties, elected officials, pressure groups and everyone else in the game is portrayed as involved in a never-ending tug of war, as the news media records every movement of the rope.

The one thing all news stories have in common is that they are expected to meet a set of specific relevance cri-teria, if they are to be told. Journalists must be able to answer the question: "Why is this news?" - and they must have an answer that meets a set of standards accepted by their audience.

There is a general consensus of ideas held by analysts and researchers, such as Galtang and Ruge (1973), over the categories that an event must fulfil to become viable news. For example, the duration of time between a story 'break-ing' and its coverage is obviously a key factor, which help to produce the illusion of television news being up to the minute. Viewers tend to consider television as more 'up to the minute' than other forms of news circulation because ac -cess is instant - one can simply turn on a television rather than going to a newsagent. News is perishable. It loses value as it ages. People want to know now. What happened yesterday, last night, or this morning is more newsworthy than what happened last week. A new twist, angle, discovery, or disclosure, however, will make an old story timely again. The same holds true for news of future events. For this reason, broadcasters must endeavour to break stories at least as fast as newspapers to maintain the illusion. Fiske points out that 'A newsworthy event should have occurred within the last twenty-four hours, and during that time things should have happened that can be seen as an origin and as a point of...closure' (Fiske 1987: p284)

Thus, recency is obviously a key criterion, contributing to the idea that the TV news is up-to-the-minute. This is a key application of new technology.

As well as recency, negativity plays a large part in the selection of events to classify as news. The seemingly cynical statement that all of the news on television is bad news is quite true and accurate. News is represented as that which breaks the norm and disrupts harmony. This is a telltale sign of construction of reality by news broadcasters in

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two ways: firstly all the events of the world are obviously not bad (if the news is to be believed, the world is complete hell); the second indicator is the way in which broadcasters structure around the ideological rather than the concrete.

The most general relevance criterion for news is simply that it is something that journalists deem their audiences would be interested in and want to know. Getting a little more specific, anything that might affect large numbers of people - whether that effect is good or ill or neutral, whether the meaning of the effect is widely agreed on or hotly de-bated - is considered news. Much of what is defined as news is information about whether things are, or will, get better or worse for the audience, or for some group of people.

Thus, journalists are forever trying to tell audiences whether they may be helped or hurt by events. Their job is to take the temperature of events. Is the economy sick or robust? Are politicians stealing from the public? Are there more single teenagers having children? Does a nation with terrorist links have the bomb? Will the accused be convicted, thereby closing the case and partially repairing the moral order of society?

In this, the news is much like popular fiction, which also depicts people and societies immersed in problems and then shows us how they make things better or worse, usually leading us to invented happy endings that the news can only rarely offer. News is more tightly tethered to actual events, it is reduced to reporting humanity’s endless machina -tions and the incremental changes that result, as people try to make things better, according to their own vision of what is good.

1. Name the criteria for defining events as news.2. Why is it often said that "all of the news on television is bad news"? To what extent do you agree with this statement?3. What is the key application of new technologies in the process of news making?4. What are the common and different features of news and popular fiction?

Assignment: When Events Become News Set I.1. What is news on television? 2. Who decides what stories, people, events should be on the news? 3. List the most important international events for the 2-3 previous days. 4. Did you notice any news items that repeatedly appeared on TV within this period of time? Are there any issues that disappeared from news programs?5. Why do some news items have a long run while others maintain a day's interest?

Set II.1. Watch a 15-20 minutes BBC (or other) news program. While viewing, complete the chart:

countries places events participants statistics details

2. Decide which news determinants lead to selection of each issue.3. Watch a program of local TV news. Complete the same chart. 4. Are there issues treated in both programs? Do these topics take the same place and time limit in both programs?5. State the reasons for the topic's inclusion in these programs.6. State the reasons for the topic's exclusion from these programs.7. Why do some events treated as top stories in the first broadcast make no news in the second?

Set III.1. View a recorded selection of mixed news items from local, national, international news broadcasts and distribute them accordingly to three sets. Decide upon the place of each news item in a set.

Unit 2.

Newspaper and TV News Stories; Common and Different

1. Do you spare much of your time to get news?2. What forms of getting news are common with most people? Are the long detailed stories or short precise accounts of events mostly preferred? Why?3. In what way do TV news stories differ from newspaper articles? What do they have in common, in your opinion?

Every now and then, television will cut away from normal programming to show an event that is deemed to be of public significance or dramatic value, unfolding live on the screen. At times, during these exercises in reality, the televi-sion journalists are silent, watching along with the rest of us, rather than expressing what they have to say. At other

23

times, they "frame" the events with spontaneous descriptions, sometimes explaining with great drama and moment what we are watching or what it might mean.

Such televised events are as close as news comes to anything resembling "reality" - unedited, unpackaged, with all the loose ends dangling. Television has the capacity to do a great deal of this but with the partial exception of C-Span, it doesn't and for a good reason - most events in their raw form aren't all that interesting to most people, and can't hold the attention of most audiences.

When we turn on the television or open a newspaper, it is precisely to avoid this mundane world of unpackaged life - of waiting for the water to boil or waiting on hold, trying to figure out directions or filing our bills. And so, instead of life, what the news media gives us is what fiction gives us -- stories, packaging, orchestration. It takes raw events (and a great many events staged for its benefit) and coverts them into brief and fast-moving narratives, that use tech -niques of literature, poetry, rhetoric, theatre and film to create a sense of drama and excitement for audiences.

These stories typically have one or more narrators who may or may not be directly represented themselves inside the story. In most print stories, the narrator is the reporter who introduces him or herself with a byline and then politely disappears from the text. In the case of television, the news is spoken by narrators who usually appear on screen at vari -ous points, and who are, themselves, very obviously narrator-characters in the story, although they may or may not have originated the words in the story they tell and rarely have taken or edited the pictures. Even when events do unfold be -fore our eyes, as in the televising of live events, the journalists will frame what we see and hear with this same kind of narration.

There are also other elements that appear as part of news stories, of course - spoken or written quotes, photo -graphs, videotapes, illustrations, recordings. Typically, these are intended to create a sense that the story contains "win-dows," which allow the audience to directly see into the events described, instead of merely being told about them. To create such a window, a written news story will typically refer to some situation, and to those involved, and then include a quote from the various parties or from other observers. Similarly, a photograph accompanying a news story will create a sense that the reader has a visual porthole to some element referred to in the story - the scene of conflict, the prize be -ing fought over, one or more of the players involved, and so forth.

In the case of print stories, narration and quotes seem to unfold along a single track, alternating with each other in a linear sequence. If there is a second track, of photographs or illustrations, it is usually spare and consists of one or a few visual elements, next to the verbal narrative.

Whith television news, things are more complicated. Like print stories, television news is dominated by verbal narration - with journalist narrators, speaking to us directly, so the story unfolds in time as we listen to it, rather than be-ing laid out on a page that we can take in, as a whole, in one or a few glances. When the journalist-narrator appears in video, which alternates with other videos that show elements of the story, it feels as if we are seeing the story unfold on a single track, not unlike print stories, in which narration alternates with quotes.

There is a far greater sense here than in print stories that the news is providing windows onto the world, allowing us to peer in on events and situations. As in the case of photographs in the print media, this has some truth to it. But, for the most part, once again, all these pictures and words are just more narrative.

So, despite their differences, print and television news have certain similarities in form, although television has more possibilities to play with. Both narrate a story that unfolds in a sequence, and that sequence often conveys inform-ation about one or more other sequences of events, some of which may be shown. Both use quotes from participants, witnesses and experts, any of whom may act as additional narrators, commenting on the story and saying things or adding believability in ways the journalistic narrator can't, not unlike the way an author telling a story will have charac -ters tell parts of the story about other characters, inside the narrative. And both use pictures, although print stories will mostly use verbal descriptions.

1. What is the most commonly used form for mass media to present us news stories?2. Examine the narrator's role and place in print and televized stories.3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of TV news narration?4. State the points of the TV and print media interference.5. Comment on the role and content of "windows" in each type of media.

Assignment: Newspaper and TV News Stories: Common and Different

Set I.1. How much time during a day do you spend on learning news from TV broadcasts and printed media respectively?2. What way of getting information is most favoured by you? Why?3. What are the advantages/disadvantages of both media? 4. What do these media have in common in the way they present news? What are the differences?

Set II.1. Name the different kinds of newspapers. Read a recent national (or local) newspaper and paying attention toa) What kind of stories prevail? Why?

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b) How much space is given to the leading story? How is this story told?c) Who tells the story?d) What are some alternative formats that could be used?e) What means are applied to add to the stories' impact?f) What is the role of language means and visuals?g) How could the stories be told differently?2. Name the different kinds of broadcast available during a day. Watch a recording of national (local) news broadcast of the same day and consider the issues of Question 1.3. What common features of newspaper and TV news presentation did you observe? 4. What is different? 5. Is there uniformity or a range in what is considered "top news"?6. Compare the order and placement of stories in the newspaper and the newscast.7. What stories are missing?

Set III. After you have read the newspaper and watched the newscast, compare the way printed and TV media present news is -sues. Complete the following chart and analyse your findings:

TV broadcast NewspaperWhat time did the news broadcast originally air? When was the newspaper edition issued?

Who are the presenters? Who are the correspondents?

Give a brief description of the presenters. Is it always possible to describe the correspond-ents?

What is the lead story? What is the lead story?

How long did this story take to tell? How much space is given to the story?

Who was interviewed for this story? Who was interviewed for this story?

What is the tone of the newsperson's voice and what is the tone of the story?

What is the tone of the story?

What were the other stories about? What were the other stories about?

In what order are they told? In what order are they told?

Who tells them? Who tells them?

Who were the people interviewed for these stories? Who were the people interviewed for these stories?

conclusions:

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Unit 3.

Types of News

1. What types of news does the newscast consist of?2. Which of them do usually prevail in the newscast?3. Do you usually prefer to watch hard or soft news? State the reasons for your choice.

There are two major types of news: "hard" and "soft." The term "hard news" usually refers to serious, factual and timely stories about important topics. The stories may describe a major crime, fire, accident, speech, labor dispute or political campaign.

Hard news also may be called "spot news" or "straight news." A similar label, "breaking news," refers to events occurring, or "breaking," at the present moment.

The term "soft news" usually refers to feature or human-interest stories. Their topics may be old and unimportant − but never dull. Soft news is written to entertain rather than inform and appeals to its readers' emotions more than to their intellect. Such stories may make readers laugh or cry, love or hate, envy or pity. Such stories may also use a more colorful style of writing, with more anecdotes, quotations and descriptions.

An editor may instruct a reporter to find a "news peg" for a potential story whose topic seems too unimportant or uninteresting to be newsworthy at that moment. The reporter may look for a new or local angle. If none is available, the reporter may wait for a new development that thrusts the issue into the news. Readers may be uninterested in Civil De-fense until a disaster demonstrates a need for it. They may be uninterested in a local artist until she succeeds. Or they may be uninterested in a local museum until it runs out of money and is forced to close.

Most Americans are more familiar with the terms "good" and "bad" news. Critics frequently charge that the me -dia report too much bad news. One of those critics, Howard K. Smith of ABC News, has said the media do not "give the public a rounded, whole picture of the times they live in." Smith explains that journalists generally become interested in stories "only when things go wrong," and that a steady diet of negative news about the United States, whose history has been mainly successful, creates a false picture of life in the country.

Other journalists have defended the media's performance and insisted that they must report all the news, good or bad. During the war in Vietnam, Dr. Frank Stanton, president of CBS, acknowledged the fact that viewers said televi -sion brought the horrors of Vietnam too vividly into Americans' homes. However, Stanton also stated that: "The respon-sibility for the decisions made in Washington and culminating on a battlefield 10,000 miles away begin and end in that living room. Because that final responsibility rests with the people, they must have the facts − the bad news as well as the good, the unpleasant as well as the pleasant."

More systematic studies have found that readers exaggerate the amount of crime and violence reported by the media. Dozens of studies have examined the issue, and they revealed that individual newspapers devoted from 2 percent to 35 percent of their space to violence. On the average, one-tenth of newspaper content is concerned with violence.

Because of the public's complaints, journalists have tried to report more good news, but without much success. A retired journalist started a special service, called "Good News from Everywhere." He sent customers − about 200 news-papers, radio and television stations − 10 "good news stories" a week. Many of the stories were about good Samaritans and animals. One story reported that a cat earned $7 a day by tasting cat food. Another described a law that would have required cats to wear bells so they could not quietly stalk and kill birds. The news service failed because its stories be-came too repetitious. Many of the stories were also unimportant, and editors wanted to devote their resources to stories they considered more newsworthy.

In Florida, the Miami News tried to eliminate all the violence from its editions for one day. It killed every violent feature, including three comics, and news stories about two armed robberies, a bloody campus riot and a boxing match. The newspaper's editors almost abandoned the experiment when a fugitive sought for murdering a policeman was cap-tured in a shoot-out that morning, but instead, the paper's front page featured a strike by garbage workers and a waiter who had been awarded $3 million.

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One of the newspaper's editors wrote a front-page explanation that concluded: "This de-emphasis of violence for this one day may demonstrate that we, as readers, would not receive from our paper an accurate and complete picture of the world around us if the paper practiced such deliberate selectivity every day and tried to shield us from reality."

Nevertheless, the criticisms continue. The Reagan administration accused the media of prolonging a recession by constantly reporting bad news about the nation's rising unemployment rate. Journalists responded that it was absurd to believe that a few news stories could affect anything so complex and massive as the nation's economy. But President Reagan urged the television networks to devote a week to good news, "then, if the ratings go down, they can go back to the bad news." CBS news anchorman Dan Rather responded that Reagan was blaming his administration's difficulties on "the people who call attention to the problems."

(Mitchell V. Charnley, “Reporting”)

1. What does the term “hard news” mean?2. What do we imply using the term “soft news”?3. What is the difference between “spot” and “breaking” news?4. What is a “news peg”?5. Why do critics frequently accuse the media?6. What is the readers’ attitude towards newspaper contents?7. Comment on the following:"Because that final responsibility rests with the people, they must have the facts − the bad news as well as the good, the unpleasant as well as the pleasant." Dwell on the responsibility of audience for taking the decisions that later become news.

Assignment: Types of News. Set I.1. What are the basic types of news? 2. Which of them are most frequent on every TV-channel? 3. List the most important hard and most interesting soft news for the 2-3 previous days. 4. What type of news usually opens a newscast?5. Why do some news items are treated as ‘good’ or ‘bad’?

Set II.1. Watch a 15-20 minutes BBC (Eurovision or other) news program. While viewing, complete the following chart:

News item 1 News item 2 News item 3 News item 4 News item 5 …Duration of the news itemTopic of the news itemTimeliness (from 1 to 5 points)Prominence(from 1 to 5 points)Proximity(from 1 to 5 points)Consequences(from 1 to 5 points)Human interest(from 1 to 5 points)Type of the news item

2. Did you notice any pattern in the order of appearance of the news items?3. News of which type are usually placed at the beginning of a newscast?4. Watch a program of your local TV news. Complete the same chart. 5. Can you trace the same pattern in both programs? 6. Why are some news items treated as hard on BBC (Eurovision or other) and as soft on local TV-channels? State your reasons.

Set III.

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1. You will act as a news gatherer and an editor - try to watch today’s evening newscasts on all available to you TV-channels and make an outline of a newscast for an international and your local TV news programs. Do obey basic prin -ciples described in the Unit 2. Be aware that the same news can be hard for some and soft for other people.

Unit 4.

Time is Everything

1. What is the usual length of the news broadcasts?2. What is the ordinary time limit for a lead story / other stories in a newscast? 3. Would you like newscast be longer or shorter in time? Is it easy for you to percept such huge volume of information given in the news?

Time dictates almost everything in radio and television news. Broadcast deadlines are absolute. The news begins at exactly six o’clock, or ten, or eleven. The lead story in broadcast news must be ready when the anchor says, "Good evening."

Sure, you could place that story later in the newscast. But if the audience is expecting today’s big story and it’s not ready at the top of the newscast, they’ll switch to the competition.

A Precise FitTime restricts broadcast stories in another way. The producer who assembles the newscast must build a

collection of taped stories, live material and commercials that will fit the time slot exactly. The time tolerance is so precise, listeners and viewers will notice if there is an awkward split-second of dead air. Producers live with stopwatches hanging around their necks.

A television newscast, in its entirety, will be 30 or 60 minutes long. The time slot is rigid, just as the "news hole" in a newspaper (the space set aside for news stories) can’t be stretched. The newspaper news hole varies from day to day, depending on how much advertising has been sold. The newscast length remains the same.

Radio Even ShorterA radio newscast producer will have only five or 10 minutes. Most radio news stories are 10 to 15 seconds

long. In radio, 30 seconds is a very long story. Unless it’s National Public Radio.The 17-Minute NewscastTime is absolute, and it is precious. After you subtract commercials, weather, sports, good evening and good-

bye, a 30-minute local TV newscast is only about 17 minutes of news. Most stories will run 30 seconds, or less. A few will have the luxury of a full minute. For a major story — 90 seconds.

Half-hour network newscasts contain about 22 minutes of news. They don’t have weather and sports segments.There is an old joke producers scream when young reporters say they need more time for a story. "What do you

think you’re covering?" they yell. "This story isn’t worth it. For the end of the world, you get two minutes. But only if you have good video."

TV Alters the MindTelevision has radically altered the way most people receive, retain, and react to information. Fifty years ago,

first graders had an average attention span of 20 to 30 seconds. Today, that is beyond the limit for most adults. Television’s ability to flick from one picture to another — sometimes several times per second — has conditioned us to expect frequent changes of scenery on the tube. When it doesn’t happen, our attention drifts.

A new form of TV commercials evolved in the mid-1990s. Dubbed "MTV-style," they got their name from music videos. It had become trendy to edit videos with extremely rapid cuts. Some shots were so brief they were virtually subliminal.

(Clarence Jones. Winning with the News Media)

1. Why time limits are so important for TV news?2. What is the actual length of a typical TV newscast?3. How much time is usually given to the major story?4. What is the main criterion for giving extra seconds to a story?

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5. How much did TV and TV news change during the last fifty years?6. How has television altered the way of information consumption?

Assignment: Time is Everything

Set I.1. What words do usually open a newscast? 2. Have you ever come across a late start of a TV news program?3. Does the length of a newscast depend on a TV channel / network peculiarities?4. What is the usual duration of a newscast?5. Does the length of a newscast vary during the day?

Set II.1. Watch a BBC, Eurovision or other news program. While viewing, complete the following chart:

The whole TV newscast

News item 1

News item 2

News item 3

News item 4

News item 5

…

Duration

2. What news items got longer coverage?3. Did the TV crew follow the typical time limits in the newscast?4. Were sport and weather sections included into the newscast? If so, how much time did they take?5. Were commercials a part of the newscast? How long were they?6. Was the newscast well-balanced in time? State your reasons.

Set III.1. Watch several newscasts on different channels (different newscasts on the same channel) and compare them to radio newscasts of the same day. State all the differences and similarities concerning time issues: length of the newscast, time given to the major story / to other stories.

Unit 5.

Content Analysis of Ex-Soviet and Western Newscasts

1. What were the most typical features of ex-Soviet television newscasts?2. Were they successful in informing people?3. State merits and demerits of ex-Soviet newscasts.

Many characteristic traits of Soviet television news can be found in one form or another in Western European public service broadcasting, including the BBC and Finnish television. For example, Mickiewicz (Ellen Mickiewicz, Split Signals) describes Soviet anchors as "impassive" and "faceless," and depicts them as professionals who do not regard personality and emotional attachment to the audience as a necessity. Mickiewicz could be describing YLE (YLE – Finnish television channel) television news-only instead of considering their television anchors "faceless" and

Mickiewicz describes the performance given by Soviet news anchors as "straight reading," as if the anchor is "reading the news from a paper on the desk." It is also a "conservative presentation of the news reader..." with a "rigid and inflexible order" made up of "governmental pronouncements..." Anchors on Soviet television "read from papers in front of them," and "talking heads," are the rule, whereas, on American television, the lone anchor who would choose to read from a sheet of paper would be encouraging audiences to change channels. Likewise, similar to American commercial news broadcasts, Soviet television makes use of voice-overs. However, both Soviet television and YLE voice-overs are usually read by the studio anchor and not a field reporter.

There are many other observations made by Mickiewicz about former Soviet television news which closely parallel YLE. The fact that both broadcasters were state controlled, and as Mickiewicz emphasizes: "highly centralized," plays an important role in her analysis. Media professionals belonged to a "single union" (as in Finland). The size of the audience (in the Soviet Union) was "staggering...over 80 percent of the adult population." Soviet

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television's main news program, Vremya, was broadcast "simultaneously on all television channels." (YLE-and other Western European broadcasters have had the same practice.) Soviet news programs chose "a small number of stories from the daily news, and the commentator elaborated on them, providing analysis, judgments, and additional filmed footage." Stories on Vremya "have lasted over an hour and a half." (On YLE, following the news, audiences also get a more detailed review with commentary.)

Government business and many other items considered news worthy on both Finnish and Soviet television would not receive as much attention on American television. According to Mickiewicz, 8 percent of news time on Soviet television was devoted to "government policy," as opposed to only 1 percent on American television. 14 percent was devoted to official visits, as opposed to only 2 percent on American television. 18 percent of Soviet news time had to do with the economy, as opposed to only 1 percent of American news program time. Crime and disasters received only 2 percent of Soviet television news' time, and even then, observes Mickiewicz, "stories about crime are presented by the anchors alone more than two-thirds of the time." Crime on American television is given more than 15 percent of network time and even more time by local stations.

Concerning the actual format, Soviet news, Mickiewicz notes, had a "rigid and inflexible order" in which "governmental pronouncements" came first, "then economic stories, then international stories, and only then science and arts stories..." These observations by Mickiewicz also reflect the template used on Finnish television news. Stories about the fine arts, for example, are always featured "at the end of the nightly news show" on Soviet television, while "ordinary people" are given much less time than on American television. ABC, for example, devotes almost a third of its broadcasts to interviewing "ordinary people." "People in the arts" are mentioned on ABC only 1.4 percent of the time.

Mickiewicz also considered quality and production standards inferior. Editing, for example, was too loose. "Standards for editing Vremya are often rather different," Mickiewicz claims. Transition from one story to the next can even include "some two or three seconds of silence... This editing would not be considered tight enough by American standards," which "more artfully" arranges its transitions. Whether standards are actually higher in the United States or not, there is still a striking similarity between the style of Soviet television news broadcasts and YLE News. This observation especially holds true when comparing the Soviet and the Finnish models with their American counterparts.

Mickiewicz' study seems to be most critical of Soviet television because it is a product of a "centralized," "state-controlled... communist system." It seems that the content of Soviet television news is being mistakenly confused with the style. Without being able to take into account that many of her observations are indeed characteristic of most European public service television broadcasters, the reader is left to believe that many of these characteristics have something to do with Soviet doctrine. As a consequence, she falsely assumes that many stories are considered "inappropriate" for ideological reasons. There is no denying that, in many instances, she would be correct, but the reader is still led to believe that Soviet television's style of presentation is a direct result of communist ideology, which has supposedly specified that "media is education." It was not until the "waning of the Chernenko leadership," the author writes, that the Soviet media began covering "disasters, accidents, crime, or other events tinged with sensationalism... celebrity doings... fluff... horoscopes... negative events... the underside of life." Such stories are of interest to Finnish audiences, as well. But in Finland they are not considered "news." Finns, like many Europeans, do not expect to see such stories in their news casts.

After ten months of watching Soviet television, Mickiewicz comes to the conclusion that the very meaning of "news worthiness" appears to be something quite different on Soviet television.

Perhaps the most distinctive element of the Soviet media system is the understanding of what is newsworthy. That understanding is not something that the television studio or the newspaper defines for itself; it has already been set by overarching doctrine and Party policy. The denial of plural (competing, equally valid) approaches is derived from the notion that the ruling doctrine is based on science.

Newsworthiness could be and often is defined by the state, but it does not necessarily have to be tied to a particular state doctrine. Mickiewicz' analysis, while striving to make the point that "plural (competing, equally valid) approaches" are best served by American-style commercial media, overlooks other non-commercial alternatives. The picture drawn by Mickiewicz also assumes mistrust on the part of Soviet audiences, especially when one is told that the understanding of news worthiness is something "set by overarching doctrine and party policy." Widespread audience mistrust of television's messages, however, could just as well be found among American viewers who experience a plethora of "plural...approaches" every day. Finnish viewers, in contrast, consider their state-supported television news anchors "the most trusted people in Finland."1. How did Ellen Mickiewicz characterize ex-Soviet TV anchors? Do you agree?2. What was the usual way for presenting news on ex-Soviet television? Is it acceptable on Western TV channels?3. What part of the audience did Soviet television reach at those times?4. What was the length of the main news program ‘Vremia’?5. What kinds of stories were usually covered in ex-Soviet television newscasts? Compare them to Western TV chan-nels.6. Compare the order of appearance of TV news items in ex-Soviet and Western newscasts.7. What were the main principles of producing ex-Soviet TV news? How different are they from American ‘sensational-ism’?

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Assignment: Content Analysis of Ex-Soviet and Western Newscasts Set I.1. What is your subjective opinion about ex-Soviet television and television newscast? 2. Was it a powerful means of influencing people’s minds?3. How can you characterise the level of professionalism of ex-Soviet TV news crews?4. Do you agree with a statement that Soviet TV fully served the ideology of state officials of that time?5. Does your local TV have any traces of ex-Soviet television?

Set II.1. Watch a pre-taped ‘Vremia’ (or other) ex-Soviet news program. 2. What types of stories were presented in this newscast?3. How many topics were covered in the newscast? 4. How much time was devoted to each of the topics?5. What were the criteria for selection of events included into the newscast?6. How did ideology affect the newsworthiness? 7. Which news item came first? Why?8. What was the specific order of the news items in the ex-Soviet TV news broadcast?9. How can you evaluate the quality of the program (taking into consideration modern approaches)?10. Which standards (ex-Soviet, European or American) are higher to your mind?

Set III.1. Compare ex-Soviet, American and present day Russian TV newscasts. Say which merits of ex-Soviet television are worthy being introduced into nowadays television news broadcasts.

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PART II

Unit 1.

TV Stereotypes

1. How would you define a stereotype? 2. What examples can you think of to support your definition?3. Can you give any examples of stereotyping in the media?

Because most television programs are quite short, the identities of characters must be established as quickly as possible. To do this, television writers often use stereotypes. A stereotype is a fixed or conventional image of a person or group of people. Stereotypes generally conform to a pattern of dress and behavior that is easily recognized and un-derstood. Often, a judgment is made about the person or group being stereotyped. That judgment may be positive or negative. People on TV are stereotyped in many different ways. They are stereotyped because of their:

age (old people, young people, teenagers,...) gender (women and men, boys and girls,...) job (spokesman, model, truck driver, doctor, lawyer,...) culture (Arab, French, American, Russian,...) race (black, white, Chinese, Hispanic,...) appearance (beautiful, ugly, 'nerdy', smart,...) social status (housewife, unemployed...)

All of these categories lead to pre-conceived notions about how people behave. Generally, stereotypes are less real, more perfect, (or imperfect) and more predictable than their real-life counterparts. A typical male stereotype, for example, is of a "real man" who is adventurous, masterful, intelligent, and unshakable. Such sex-role stereotypes are in-tended to present viewers with a character they can easily recognize and relate to. Their danger, however, is that, if seen often, they can affect the way a viewer perceives men in general. Male stereotyping can narrow one's notion of what men can be and do; it can affect women's and children's expectations of men; it can even shape men's and boys' own views of themselves and of how they should behave.

While commercial television has improved in its portrayal of females, many of the women featured on TV con-tinue to be depicted as someone's wife (apron-clad) or girlfriend (barely-clad). Television children are generally cast in gender-related roles - the girls playing with dolls while the boys play at sports - and all are "cutesy" and talk as though they were insightful adults. Similarly, the characterization of mothers-in-law, the elderly, gays, police officers, and truck drivers tends toward the stereotypical.

Culture and class stereotypes are also prevalent in television. Traditionally, blacks were portrayed as either happy-go-lucky servants or dangerous criminals, and while these stereotypes linger, we are now seeing what might be described as upright, intelligent, middle-class black characters. Similarly, North American native peoples are now being portrayed as something other than buckskin-wearing teepee dwellers. Too often, however, minorities are portrayed ste-reotypically and almost never as powerful or rich as the white majority. Television tends to be dominated by white tal-ent, despite the fact that we live in a society made up of many ethnic groups and cultures.

Television stereotypes are used because they enable a viewer to understand a character's role quickly and eas-ily. In a half hour show, you only have about twenty-three minutes of the actual program, so there isn't much time to de -velop a character in a more well-rounded manner. Stereotypes are a kind of television "shorthand" with stock characters creating easily understood plots, but they often present a one-sided and negative image. All viewers, then, must be care-ful about forming opinions about groups or individuals based on what they see on TV.

Because stereotyping can lead to forming false impressions of various societal groups, it is important to recog-nize stereotypes and understand the role they play in television's portrayal of life. To become television-wise, then, it takes to tune in to the ways television treats people, recognize how they themselves relate to TV characters, and under -stand how these characters can influence ideas about the real people in communities.

(adapted from: TVOntario, Let's Play TV: Resource Kit For Television Literacy, © 1995.)

1. What are the ways people stereotyped on TV?2. Are stereotypes more predictable than their real-life counterparts?3. What are the dangers of stereotyping?4. What stereotypes are prevalent on television?5. Why are stereotypes used on television?

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6. Is there a way to get rid of TV stereotyping and what would be the positive and negative effects of this for the news industry?

Assignment: TV Stereotypes

Set I.1. Why do they use stereotypes on TV?2. There are many characters stereotyped on TV. Do you agree to the following definitions of stereotypes created by TV?

A terrorist (is of Asian origin, malicious, most often mean, always male) A villain (looks funny, or scary, or ugly; is always outwitted by the hero, nobody likes him or her) A cop (is most likely male, always chasing criminals, involved in lots of car chases and shoot-outs) Kids (are usually cute, smarter than their parents, in need of protection) A politician (male, self confident, smart, middle-aged or older; accustomed to being in focus of attention)

3. Suggest and describe other stereotypes which exist on television.

Set II.1. Watch segments from three or four news programs. After each segment answer these questions:

What stereotype did you define? (e.g. rebellion, striker,...) What words or phrases best describe him or her? What factual information (if any) was given about him/her? Did the character's actions tell you something about him or her? How was the character dressed? Did the clothing help to suggest what kind of person this might be? Is the character unrealistic or true to life?

2. While watching a 10-15 minutes news program note down whether there are any age, gender, job, culture, race, ap-pearance, social status stereotypes.

Set III.1. Do you agree that stereotyping might be dangerous? 2. What are the dangers of stereotyping?3. Divide into groups; have each group list the dangers of stereotyping, then have a spokesperson for each group share their ideas with the class. 4. Cigarette packages warn people of the dangers of smoking. Write a warning to tell people of the dangers of believing everything they see on TV. List five programs that you think should give this warning.

Unit 2.

Summing-up: what can you do?

Below we have listed seven recommendations, with accompanying commentaries, which you may find useful in adjusting your relation to TV news shows, or in helping others to do so.

1. In encountering a news show, you must come with a firm idea of what is important. Even an "open mind" has to have boundaries, and you will be endlessly manipulated if you have no clear basis for evaluating the significance of "news." TV news is not always what happened. It is what a journalist or correspondent thinks is worth reporting. You may agree or not but it is up to you to judge the importance of what is reported. If you form your own notions of what is worth reporting, you will not be so easily manipulated by the choices of TV news broadcasters.

2. In preparing to watch a TV news show, keep in mind that it is called a "show." In addition to being a public service and a public utility TV news show is an enormously successful business enterprise. This does not mean that it is of no value. It means, first, that the "news" is a commodity used to gather an audience which will be sold to advertisers; second, that the "news" is delivered as a form of entertainment (or at least, theater) because audiences find this palat -able; and third, that the whole package is put together in the way that any theatrical producer would proceed, that is, by giving priority to show business values. In the case of most news shows the package includes attractive anchors, an ex -citing musical theme, comic relief (usually from the weather people, especially the men), stories placed to hold the audi-ence, the creation of the illusion of intimacy, and so on.

3. Never underestimate the power of commercials. As we have emphasized, commercials are not fluff. They are a serious form of popular literature, some would even say a serious form of news. Upon being asked if TV news is always bad news, Marshall McLuhan once remarked that it is not; the commercials, he said, are the good news. How -ever we may label them, commercials tell as much about our society as "straight" news does, probably more. In any case, it is always of special interest for a viewer to observe the contradictions between the messages of commercials and the messages of the news. In these contradictions the social and psychic dilemmas of our culture find their reflection.

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4. Learn something about the economic and political interests of those who run TV stations. This is not easy to do since it requires one to read industry publications, the Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age, and other related sources of information. Keep in mind that other professionals-doctors, dentists, and lawyers, for example-commonly display their diplomas on their office walls to assure their clients that someone judged them to be competent. But diplo-mas tell more than station "owners" and news directors and journalists tell. Wouldn't it be useful to know who these people are? Where they come from? What their angle is? And, especially, where they stand in relation to you? One doesn't have to be a Marxist to assume that people making a million dollars a year will see things differently from people struggling to make ends meet.

Our intention is not to encourage paranoia. We only wish to stress the point that the background of those who deliver the news to us is relevant to how we will judge what they say. At the very least you ought to give some thought to who owns the networks and some of the more important cable stations.

5. Pay special attention to the language of newscasts. Because film footage and other visual imagery are so engaging on TV news shows, viewers are apt to allow language to go unexamined. This is a mistake for several reasons, the most important of which is that a TV newscaster's language frames the pictures. As we have previously pointed out, a picture is by its nature a specific representation. However, what we are to make of the picture is often determined by the commentary made about it. Therefore, what is said requires careful attention. Since there are very few images that are self-explanatory, the viewer's attitude toward an image will be formed by words. There are limits, of course. A pic -ture of a starving child cannot be converted into anything pleasant no matter how many words are used. But what the picture means must await commentary. Does the picture reflect the neglect of parents? The incompetence of politicians? The breakdown of an economic system? The callousness of the rich? These and other questions will be answered by the reporter's language. But this does not mean the explanation he or she gives is correct.

Another reason for attending to language is that reporters ask a lot of questions. A question is, after all, only a sentence. But it is a sentence that may reveal the biases and assumptions of the questioner as much as those of the per -son answering the question.

6. Reduce by at least one-third the amount of TV news you watch. Most news on television is bad news. Stud-ies indicate that heavy viewing of TV news makes people think the world is much more dangerous than it actually is. The Kubey study, for example, indicates that watching television (including news shows) makes people somewhat more depressed than they would otherwise be. While habitual viewing of TV news may not make you insane, some believe it could turn you into a chronically depressed and constantly alarmed person.

7. Don't stop learning. Be thoughtful viewer.

Section III

EXTENSIVE READING

Media Studies analyses the central role played in society and culture by traditional media such as newspapers and broadcasting, and contemporary media such as the Internet. With rapid globalisation, understanding of the media is in-creasingly important as media systems bring individuals and nations closer together. They become the major source of everyday and specialised information, and shape perceptions and values.

Why Study the Mass Media?Katherine Hamley

Media studies in schools and colleges was initially only ‘film studies’ and concerned with the study and consequent ap-preciation of films deemed to be of ‘high culture’. Nowadays, media studies can be seen as the study of all media in -cluding films, television, radio, music, newspapers, magazines and the Internet. Media education first appeared in the school curriculum in the 1960s and its value to the curriculum has been recognised and increased ever since for reasons offered by various theorists and practitioners. The contemporary National Curriculum does not recognise media studies as a compulsory subject at the time of writing but it can be seen to be included as aspects of other core subjects such as English, or other mother tongue lessons, and even in the study of information technology. Several approaches to the teaching of media have been thought up during the last forty years by theorists and practitioners ranging from the ‘in-noculation’ approach to ‘demystification’, to studying the importance of the institutions behind the media. All of the ar-guments put forward are strong and persuasive but it is important to consider each in turn and to decide which are the most convincing and why.

There are many differing reasons offered by various theorists and practitioners as to why media education should be studied in schools. One of the most obvious yet powerful reasons is offered by Alvarado (1992:94) when he says we must study media because it ‘is there’. I believe this to be an important element in the argument for media education as

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nowadays the world in which we live is completely media saturated and there is no way anyone can grow up or develop in a world devoid of any media. It is also important as media is actively involved in processes of constructing or repre -senting (re-presenting) reality in our everyday world. Children have to understand this simple fact or they may believe that what they see on the television is all true i.e. a soap. They may also believe news stories to be completely unbiased and true to life which of course can never be wholly true. There will always be an element of bias in news stories de -pending on whom the stories are reported by. This can be seen if you watch a news report on one television channel and then compare the report with a different channel. Manuel Alvarado asserts that: …in studying television…we are not only studying a particular set of representations of the world and the language adopted to make those representations ‘acceptable’ and ‘normal’ but also a set of institutions, how they function, and how they manage to function ideologi -cally… (Alvarado: 1992: 94).

As television is not a separate part of our existence then surely it is fair to argue that media studies should be taught in schools and colleges.

Not only should media be taught as it surrounds us but leading on from this, children spend most of their time learning from the media, even before they reach school age. In their homes children will have been influenced by the books they are read, the ones they use themselves and even the specially designed children’s programmes on the televi -sion. This is reflected in the following: By the time they arrive in school, almost all children will have experienced sev-eral years of television and probably other media as well, such as radio, films on video and picture books. They will probably know what newspapers and magazines are, even if they can’t read them. (Bazalgette: 1991: 49).

This is such a great amount of time that David Buckingham claims ‘children today spend more time watching tele -vision than they spend in school’ (Buckingham: 1991: 12). Surely then if young people spend so much time involved in media there should be some education in schools on how this media should be used in a manner most beneficial to a child’s learning. Many practitioners believe that media literacy ought to be taught as part of a more general literacy as they believe the act of deconstructing a film for example is as useful as pulling apart a literary novel. By doing this a child would be taught how to open their minds to the world outside what they first see. They can learn to become criti -cal which is an important element to media education, and one to which I shall return later.

Many parents, government officials and some theorists assume that the media is in some way out to ‘get’ people. They worry that there are underlying meaning shown on television for example, and that somehow the youth of today have to be protected against these ‘poisonous’ messages. This is perhaps why it is important to teach media education in schools and colleges. If it were not taught then children would still be ‘exploited’ by the media outside of school time. Consequently, it was thought important to introduce media into school curricula in order to protect children from such exploitation. This is known as the ‘innoculation’ or moral approach and it is said to have arisen: …from a deep concern among educators and literary critics that young people needed to be protected against what was considered to be the very harmful and powerful influence of the mass media.(Alvarado et al: 1992: 10).

This is one of the earliest attempts at recognising the importance of teaching media education in schools and col-leges. It is stated in the Newsom Report of 1963, which goes to show just for how long the media has played an impor -tant role in education. Furthermore, this approach assumes that in teaching media, teachers and lecturers would some-how be ‘battling’ against an evil force. Their task, therefore, would be to protect young people from its harmful effects. This is reflected in the following: Teachers need to arm their students, to help them resist the negative influence of the media, and to see through the falsehoods and pseudo-satisfactions they provide. (Buckingham: 1991: 18. My italics).However, this seems to be touching on the idea that children need to be taught to question what they see, rather than just accept everything on face value. This, in my view, can be considered to be a fundamental element in all education, and not just with media studies.

The teaching of discrimination leads on to a second approach known as ‘demystification’. This approach allows teachers and their pupils to learn how to decode the media, consequently exposing the purposely-constructed elements of the media. This process will: …reveal the selective practices by which images reach the television screen, emphasise the constructed nature of the representations projected, and make explicit their surpressed ideological function. (Master-man: 1992: 47).

By using this approach, teachers would be illustrating to their pupils that people involved in media are selective with images, sounds and the ideas which they use as they are after a particular effect. Masterman asserts that television messages are ‘constructed’ and ‘mediated’. It is thought that by exposing the ‘false’ ideologies behind media, both teachers and pupils alike would be able to replace them with a ‘true’ account of how things really are. This would en -able them to watch television programmes such as the news and perhaps gain a more un-biased view of what is going on in the world.

Each theorist or practitioner has their own underlying assumptions or agendas when it comes to the reasons why media education should be taught in schools and colleges. For example, both the innoculation and the demystification approaches assume that the media is essentially ‘bad’ and that young people need to be protected from it by learning just what makes it so ‘bad’. This idea was also identified in the Newsom Report (1963): We need to train children to look critically and to discriminate between what is good and bad in what they see. They must learn to realise that many makers of films and of television programmes present false or distorted views of people, relationships, and experience in general, besides producing much trivial and worthless stuff made according to stock patterns. (The Newsom Report: 1963: Paragraph 475).

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So from studying the varying approaches to the reasons behind teaching media in schools in can be seen that they all rely on the idea that children should be taught the ‘right’ and wrongs’ of the media in general. The approach put for -ward nowadays is based solely on that idea- that children should be taught to be critical and hence make their own criti -cal judgements on the value of a specific medium.

To be critical towards media education is to understand something of the institutions behind the media. Young peo-ple need to know this in order to better understand the ideologies and practices put forward by such institutions. Then they will not only be able to reproduce certain effective ideas that are used in media in all its forms but they will also be able to manipulate these ideas and use them for their own purposes. This means taking their carefully developed critical judgement a step further. I believe that this critical discrimination and a person’s own ideas can be used to supplement their education in general, like, for example, film studies can complement work done on literary texts. It can be consid-ered 'a quite good idea to see a Shakespeare adaptation on video or film now and again, or to watch the serialisation of a classic novel on television' (Bazalgette: 1991: 20).

By watching an adaptation of a classic novel children may be able to further aid their understanding of aspects of the text, such as plot for example. This could then be taken further by seeing how far the novel differs from the televi -sion adaptation, why they thought this was the case and how it showed the media re-presenting ideas from a primary source, hence, illustrating how media works on an everyday level.

So far, the arguments we have been presented with are all concerned with protecting youngsters against the evil that is the media. However, in contemporary education, although media studies is not a compulsory subject, its worth is being recognised more and more often. The approaches put forward all contain certain ideas, which can be used in a contemporary curriculum. By admitting the importance and influence of media a step has been taken in rethinking the way in which ‘culture’ is taught in schools. Again, this links back to the original reason as to why media studies should be taught in schools and colleges- because it ‘is there’. It has been said that without the assistance of the media we would all soak up every stereotypical and biased view of the world that we are ever presented with. Therefore, it is fair to say that the media certainly is NOT all ‘bad’. An education aimed at allowing young people to have greater access to the meanings in the media can only be beneficial to their overall learning. Such an education allows children to make their own individual decisions as to what is worth taking notice of and what is not. Len Masterman considers such an education to be one of ‘responsible citizenship’ (1992: 50).

Being able to distinguish important evidence from something that is inconsequential is a fundamental aspect of any education and general good judgement. This is certainly the case, and, I believe, a reason to study media studies in schools and colleges. Cary Bazalgette asserts that learning about mediating processes 'gives us more power over the texts we read and the texts we produce' (1990: 3).

Surely anything that can be seen to enrich a child’s education can be seen as beneficial? Michael Morland substan-tiates this idea when he comments: It can be said with confidence… that no middle school English course would be complete today without the integration of the newer media into the classroom consideration. Last night’s television play and today’s newspaper must take their place in a continuum that ranges from the most trivial of reading matter to the most major literature. (In Alvarado et al: 1992: 16)

Saying that the media ‘must take their place’ in a curriculum is an important point. I believe that media studies should definitely have its place alongside other studies in the school curriculum. Children should not be ‘innoculated’ against its effects but they should be equipped with the knowledge to decide for themselves what they believe to be im-portant to them. Only by such study will young people be able to open their minds to the world outside of their existing knowledge and to enter, and hopefully understand, the media ‘saturated’ world.

By studying the prominence of media studies in the curriculum over the last forty years it is clear to see that there are many assumptions and agendas underlying the reasons put forward by various theorists and practitioners for the study of media in schools and colleges. Media studies should not be taught in schools solely because it is there, nor merely for the fact that parents are worried as to the effects the media may have on the minds of young people. Media studies should be taught in schools and colleges because it has such a profound and positive effect on mankind in gen -eral. We live in a media saturated world, a world in which the media are actively involved in processes of constructing and representing reality. I believe that, to an extent, children should be made aware of the potentially ‘harmful’ effects of the media (innoculation) but they should be taught a means of critically evaluating the media they encounter (demys -tification). If children are equipped with a more critical mind they should be able to avoid the supposed necessity of be-ing ‘innoculated’ against the media and instead enjoy it, especially as more of our time is spent engaged in media than it is in education. Furthermore, children should be able to study factors affecting our lives and to find interest in them. Af -ter all, it has been argued that the only education that is benefited from is that which interests the individual. Teaching a subject such as media empowers a child to be more critical, not just with media studies but across the curriculum. This encourages innovation and is particularly important in our developing world, as the children of today will be the media producers of tomorrow.

The Black BoxThe year was 1897. Alfred Nobel's will set aside an endowed fund for what was to become the Nobel Prize. In

Athens, Greece, the first modern renewal of the ancient Olympic games took place. All over the world people waited to read the results, for there was no radio or television to cover them. Meanwhile, across the English Channel, a young Italian, transplanted to England, received his first patent. It covered the workings of a curious black box he had brought

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with him. The man was Guglieimo Marconi, an extraordinary inventor who had finally perfected the first commercially practicable wireless radio. Young Marconi had come to England because his own government did not seem interested in the new medium. But the British were interested, and before long Marconi was conducting a series of experiments to demonstrate the viability of his new invention.

Marconi cannot be given complete credit for the wireless. His experiments were made possible by the theoretical works of a number of scientists, including James Clerk-Maxwell and Heinrich Hertz. Hertz's work revolved around those invisible electrical impulses that would eventually be harnessed to transmit sound without wires. Today they are still measured in megahertz (millions of cycles per second) or kilohertz (thousands of cycles per second). But it was the young Marconi who combined inventive genius and commercial flair. He seemed to have a sixth sense for the financial possibilities of his wireless. By the time he got his patent Marconi had formed a company to exploit the new invention. Of all the inventors and engineers of radio he would become the most widely known and commercially successful.To the astonishment of British citizens, Marconi succeeded in sending a wireless message across the English Channel within three years. In 1901, he was able to send a signal across the Atlantic Ocean. The following year the transatlantic signal was strong enough to allow an exchange of information via Morse code. This was the final blow for Marconi's skeptics; the young Italian had proven that wireless was to be a significant part of the new century. While Marconi was receiving all the credit and most of the money, the "forgotten genius" of radio, Yugoslavian emigrant Nikola Tesia, was pursuing his own vision of radio in the United States. According to Judy S. Lockwood in Mobile Times, Tesla devel-oped a version of the electronic tube in 1894, predating the work of De Forest and Armstrong by some 20 years. Addi -tional evidence indicates he also built a transmitting and receiving station in 1894, several years before Marconi.In 1897 he conducted transmission experiments along the Hudson River, and U.S. patents describing the process were re-ceived that same year. The year was 1949. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) created with 12 member nations signing the initial pact. In China, a new government, the People's Republic of China, was proclaimed. A grow-ing number of Americans watched pictures of these events on their televisions. Indeed, the first television season of 1948-49 was |led as a success and a sign of things to come. All over the country, radio station owners and programmers were clearly worried. What was to become of them if television was successful in wooing the American public they had captivated for so long? In 1949, radio stations had brought in more revenue than ever, but now the picture was cloudy. Already TV had begun to lure some radio stars. CBS had a huge jump [on the competition; its big stable of radio stars was converting to TV. AS radio profits dwindled and the networks provided less and less programming, it was clear something had to be done. The answer ca me in the form of an old friend: the disc jockey. Early radio expert-enters had been DJs playing phonograph records over the air. Some early DJs, such as Los Angeles's Al Jarvis and New York's Martin Block, had gathered huge audiences for their make-believe ballroom SHOWS as early as the 1930s. By 1949, DJs with their recorded music seemed the only financially practical alternative.

RADIO: THE MAGIC MEDIUM

Also in 1949, a young, eager entrepreneur named Todd Storz persuaded his father to advance him enough money to buy an ailing radio station in Omaha, Nebraska: KOHW. Storz had very little background in radio, but he knew what he liked, and more important, he had a flair for knowing what listeners wanted. His idea was simple: Make radio like a jukebox that plays popular music. More music, less talk, that's what the people wanted, and that's what KOHW gave them.

For years it had been thought that DJs should be like traditional radio entertainers: witty, chatty, well-rounded indi-viduals who could talk for hours. The music? Well, that existed to give them a break now and then. Storz turned it all around by putting the music first, and it worked. KOHW quickly became Omaha's number-one radio station. Storz real -ized that radio could no longer be foreground entertainment, for it would then compete with TV. Instead, radio had to move to the background, to become a constant companion for listeners in their cars or at home. Storz's top 40 formula filled the bill. Soon he had a station in New Orleans. Then Storz had a chain of stations, each playing the same records, each running on a formula aptly described by comedian and former Storz disc jockey, George Carlin, as "shut up and play the music!"

It is significant that Todd Storz and his imitators were not discriminatory about the music they played. They were not interested in aesthetic or moral considerations. They simply played what was popular. So when a new kind of music arrived in 1955, one that was criticized in some quarters as being of dubious moral and social value, top 40 stations put it on anyway. The new kind of music was called rock and roll.

Since it first came to national attention, rock and roll has been the largest single force in the recording industry. The marriage between rock and radio has lasted through the decades and shows no signs of ending. How this came to be, and how it continues, is fundamental to an understanding of how radio has functioned in America since the mid-1950s.

The first rock and roll record ever to hit the top of the charts was actually released in 1954; initially it received scant publicity and was given little air play. DJs felt that "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets was too raucous for a radio audience that was up to its ears in the soft, lush, romantic music of Patti Page and Perry Como.

But the insistent beat and carefree lyrics were just what the producers of a new film, Blackboard Jungle, needed to mirror the rebellious youth depicted in their movie.

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RADIO TODAYModern radio is indeed life in the fast lane: a nonstop, jet stream of music, news, and information. It has been

called everything from the "constant companion" (Donald Pember) to the "invisible environment" (Marshall McLuhan). It is with us wherever we go, yet we hardly notice it. Like so many other modern conveniences, radio has become a necessity, an integral component of twentieth-century American culture. Modem radio is more than formats and formulas; it is a guidepost, a gadget, a lifeline, and a luminary. We can learn much about ourselves by listening to the radio. Yet we tend to view radio as insignificant, or at best, a pleasant diversion from the realities of everyday life. If you are in the 18- to 25-year-old age group it may not surprise you to learn that you and your peers spend more time listening to radio.

We listen because radio (like all media) provides with an alternate reality, one that differs in many ways from our lives. This alternate reality can be labeled mediated reality is mediated because it passes through a medium before ex-perience it. This process, and our involvement in it, has been explored through oral communication theories. One is the cone effect. Figure 3-1 lines the cone effect. We begin in the middle with real life. Real existed long before radio or any other electronic medium. Real is all of those everyday experiences that do not directly involve in media; Real-life ex -periences such as talking with a friend about new song, eating lunch, or simply lying on the grass and watching clouds by and not directly involve a mass medium. Bits and pieces of real life are chosen to form the constructed dialed reality (CBTO) of radio programming. For example, the pure tunes we listen to are often about real-life experiences: romance, dancing, love affairs gone wrong. CMR is often composed of real-life experiences changed into mediated form.

How and why does CMR differ from real life? Individual stations later their sound to a target audience, and this means providing a CMR that will be far more alluring than real life. Popular tunes that make their way to radio are about only the most intense love affairs. All news formats offer up-to-the-second views of important political events and major crime stories. An ordinary parking ticket or other minor offense is rarely grist for radio news.

All-news and news/talk stations generally derive their program material from a number of sources, including the AP and UPI broadcast wires, and local reporters, some of whom report live by phone or two-way radio from the news scene. Network feeds of regular, national, and international newscasts, and prerecorded news and sports commentaries by network correspondents provide additional supporting material.The all-news format highlights radio's ability to command foreground attention. Listeners find they can use ra-dio news in many ways. Conversations at the plant or office may revolve around late breaking events or even the ever-present traffic reports. All-news formats allow listeners to become involved in the news in an all encom-passing and instantaneous fashion.

Of course, radio as well as newspapers, magazines, television, and other mass media alter and affect our lives. Ra -dio provides just one of the many mediated realities that we take for granted in twentieth century America. Our ability to understand, interpret, and direct these processes has barely begun.

Radio is a particularly fascinating case. Its various formats are changeable and its audience so unpredictable that virtually anything .can happen. Today hot hit can be forgotten tomorrow. Radio has a way of quickly "burning up" hits, groups, and musical movements. Similarly, the social and political issues that dominate discussion on news/talk formats are constantly changing and involving.

Many lasting changes in radio over the next several decade will come not only from musical and political sources, but also from the impact of the new technologies on every phase of radio programming and program distribution.

The most profound effects of new technologies on commercial radio currently comes from satellite and cable distri-bution. Communications satellites now distribute radio and television networks. Bon-neville Corporation currently pro-grams it's beautiful music stations from a central location in Utah. The signal is beamed by satellite to local outlets across the country and aired instantaneously. The RKO "network" does not own local outlets, but rents its programming service to independent stations who receive it via satellite and choose whether to air it instantaneously or tape and broadcast it at a later time.

The Construction of Reality in Television News

Mark PeaceAlthough televisual news is generally regarded as the most objective, unmediated method of delivering information

it, like any other programming, has its own agenda, stylistics, requirements and objectives. As Fiske points out, 'the ba-sic definition of news as factual information that its viewers need in order to be able to participate in their society gives us only half the story' (Fiske 1987: p281).

It is relevant to start by looking at the general context under which news in presented through television. Every news bulletin or programme is produced by an organisation, be it commercially funded or otherwise, and because of this it must meet its own particular aims for continuation. For the commercial channels, the news must build an audience of a particular size and social consistency to sell to advertisers. For non-commercial channels, such as the BBC, this requirement seems initially to be redundant, but a more detailed analysis shows that the public accountability of the corporation necessitates a similar need. The importance of the news in building an audience exophorically for television companies is emphasised by Fiske: All television channels or networks use an early evening news program to

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lead into their prime-time schedules...designed to draw the male...into the TV audience...it often ends with a 'softer' item...intended to bring the female back into the audience.(Fiske 1987: p281)

In this way, television companies use their evening news to build a substantial audience for what follows, the 'prime-time, prime profit advertisements that are to be wedged apart by programmes' (ibid.).

Furthermore, the companies producing television news exist within the construct of a particular society. This soci-ety has its own ethos or set of moral codes and (avoiding digression into moral philosophy) it is inevitable, and indeed unavoidable, that these ingrained values will be projected upon the representation of reality. In other words the news does not just reflect society it exists within it, and this must influence its interpretation of reality. Though it may be ar-gued that the diversity of viewpoints within the society negotiates a way out of this, common sense insists that the large amount of consensus view necessitates a presentation that in some way corresponds to the social ethos. An example of this is 'the mistreatment of women by Islamic cultures'. Imagine for a moment a prime-slot television news programme saying, 'our culture sees Islamic women as mistreated, but...'. We must question how long this programme would con-tinue running amid the public and political outcry resulting from its objective assertion.

In these ways we see, before actually analysing news programmes themselves, a clear trend of constructed reality within the contextual framework of televisual news.

Hartley (1982: p20) roughly divides the methods in which televisual news constructs reality in two groups. The first is the paradigmatic; relating to selection and inclusion, and the seconds is syntagmatic, regarding the way in which the selection is presented.

The general concept of televisual news, particularly within the newsroom, is that it offers 'a window on the world'. This idea, defined by Fiske as 'The Transparency Fallacy' (Fiske 1987: p282), is obviously not true: the news cannot cover every event that happens in the world, and so must select which of the events can be deemed newsworthy.

Despite the terminology of journalism suggesting that items are universally salient and define themselves as news-worthy (a story is 'uncovered' or 'exposed'), studies have shown that news is paradigmatic, and that there is a very defi -nite set of defining rules which govern inclusion. As Hartley says:

Events don't get into the news simply by happening... they... must fit in with what is already there...be known and recognised...To win inclusion in any particular news, they must fulfil a certain number of criteria...Finally, newsworthy events themselves must jostle for inclusion in the limited number of slots avail-able. (Hartley 1982: p75)

There is a general consensus of ideas held by analysts and researchers, such as Galtang and Ruge (1973), over the categories that an event must fulfil to become viable news. For example, the duration of time between a story 'breaking' and its coverage is obviously a key factor which help to produce the illusion of television news being up to the minute. Viewers tend to consider television as more 'up to the minute' than other forms of news circulation because access is in -stant - one can simply turn on a television rather than going to a newsagent. For this reason, broadcasters must endeav -our to break stories at least as fast as newspapers to maintain the illusion. Fiske points out that 'A newsworthy event should have occurred within the last twenty-four hours, and during that time things should have happened that can be seen as an origin and as a point of...closure' (Fiske 1987: p284)

As well as recency, negativity plays a large part in the selection of events to classify as news. The seemingly cyni -cal statement that all of the news on television is bad news is quite true and accurate. News is represented as that which breaks the norm and disrupts harmony. This is a telltale sign of construction of reality by news broadcasters in two ways: firstly all the events of the world are obviously not bad (if the news is to be believed, the world is complete hell); the second indicator is the way in which broadcasters structure around the ideological rather than the concrete. Fiske says:

These norms are of course prescriptive...they embody the sense of what our social life ought to be rather than what is...This singular category of 'The Abnormal' means, for example, that murder and an industrial dis-pute can be seen as similarly disruptive (Fiske 1987: p284)

Bound together with this idea of negativity in the news is that of dramatic conflict. An event which is inherently dramatic, such as a murder, is more likely to be covered (hence the disproportion of murders in the news in comparison with the concrete world). Such conflict is inherently negative; thus negativity is increased in the news. The desire for a

dramatic item can provoke extreme measures from journalists; Chandler (1995: www) cites the following (quite enlightening) example that shows a blatant construction of reality: 'On landing in the (Belgian) Congo during it's evacu-ation, an American journalist rushed over to group of white women asking, 'has anyone here been raped, and speaks English?' (Chandler 1995: www document)

Further, Hartley points out that '...once reported, there is a further threshold of drama: the bigger the story, the more added drama is needed to keep it going' (Hartley 1982: p76). A good example of this is the death of Princess Diana, where we saw almost twenty-four television news coverage which was 'filled-out' with items which would not normally reach national television - such primary schools commemorating her life. 'Events which in themselves would normally not reach the threshold of newsworthiness were made into dramatic stories in order to keep the pot boiling' (ibid.).

News also tends to concentrate on elite people - those who are in the public eye. In some cases, this is individually (such as pop stars), in others it is by role (such as union representatives). As Chandler points out, 'News often reports

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what prominent people say about events rather than the events themselves' (Chandler 1995: www). A recent example of this is a four-minute article on the Iraq crisis, during which three minutes were dedicated to the houses of parliament, EU representatives and Military chiefs. Fiske explains broadcasters’ use of elites thus The elite, who appear repeatedly, bear the accumulated meaning of their past appearances. Because these are embodied in an individual they carry greater semiotic weight in our individualistic society...The social power of elite persons is underscored by the narrative power that familiarity confers (Fiske 1987: p284)

To introduce schema theory, the broadcaster plays on the fact we develop mental constructs that encompass the in -dividuals contained within the elite. These frames of expectation, developed and reinforced each time the individual ap-pears in the news, allow us to predict the 'purpose' of the individual and so interpret the story. Simply put, the individu -als comprising the elite are highly symbolic, almost archetypal, of the views held by a section of society, so by utilising them, the broadcaster has almost a system of notation to use within their programming (see discussion on language be -low). During recent Clinton 'scandal', for example, broadcasters used the fact that the public would instantly associate him with a certain set of terms ('sexual scandal', 'corruption', 'impeachment', etc).

Remembering that 'experts' and 'special correspondents' also fall into the category by role, we see a gross dispro -portion of elites in comparison with 'real people'. As we have already arrived at the conclusion that these people repre-sent large sections of society, this 'purely stylistic feature...tends to reinforce faith in the status quo' (Chandler 1995: www).

The news is also ethnocentric in that it is concerned with elite nations. There is a tendency for broadcasters to con-centrate on events that are close to home, in countries with a close proximity politically, socially and geographically. Furthermore, a greater amount of drama is required for a 'foreign' event to be covered, this is summarised in what is known as McLurg's Law, that '1 dead Briton is worth 5 dead Frenchmen, 20 dead Egyptians, 500 dead Indians and 1000 dead Chinese' (cited from Chandler 1995: www).

Once a foreign story has been selected for coverage, there is also a habit for the television news to present it in a way that reaffirms our idea that a western democracy is the fairest system to live within.

These criteria for selection signal a construction of reality on an ideological basis. Hall et al. (1978) point out that the content of the news constructs 'social maps' which assume that society is fragmented into definite areas (such as pol-itics, economy and sport) and concerned with individuals who have control of their destiny. The broadcaster's social map also assumes that society is hierarchical, with some events more 'newsworthy' than others are, and 'that this hierar -chy is centralised both socially and regionally' (Hartley 1982: p82). Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the maps as -sume that society is consensual, with all in agreement that the current society is the best possible.

Television news, however, is not comprised solely of the selection of events to appear as items, there is also Hart -ley's idea of syntagm; the items themselves must be vocalised by a journalist and finally presented on a news pro -gramme to become a story. This is the point where the majority of the construction of reality occurs. This is betrayed by the very fact that items are referred to as stories, Tuchman points out that 'to say that a report is a story...alerts us that news, like all public documents, is a constructed reality possessing its own internal validity' (cited from Chandler 1995: www).

Let us first deal with the language of televisual news, for there is no way of avoiding the usage of words. Broadly speaking, all language is inherently subjective and thus projects the values of an individual or institution upon its sub -ject matter. But specific conventions of journalism reduce the apparancy of this because, as conventions, we absorb them into our schemata. This allows us to ignore them, as they are our basic expectations of the genre (indeed, we would probably notice more if they were absent). Fiske identifies the framing concept for such linguistic conventions as that of metaphor: 'News, as a form of realism, is generally considered to work through metonymy, that is, by a careful selection of people and incident's that stand for a more complex and fuller version of reality' (Fiske 1987: p291). This point summarises a great deal about the 'reality' of the news broadcaster; what Fiske describes here is ridiculously con-structed reality, a 'concrete' world composed exclusively of concept and archetype.

Furthermore, each issue or subject area can have any number of metaphors assigned to it. One study, by Mumby and Spitzack (1985 and cited in Fiske 1987: p291) looked at the association of six main news stories concerning politics and found 30% items represented politics as a game, 60% represented it as war, and the remaining 10% represented it as a drama. This shows the broadcasters use of metaphor to forge differing realities in different circumstances (it takes a massive leap of imagination to consider politics as a dramatic war game!).

News programmes also draw heavily on another form of metaphor - the stereotype. By keeping a stock of terminol-ogy to represent individuals and events, for example 'the black gang member, with a history of street violence', the jour-nalist makes the story easier to tell, but creates wider implications. One example of this is determining the difference between 'freedom fighters' and 'terrorists'; a reporter is forced to make this decision ethnocentrically, in terms of the po -litical structures within which the individuals operate. Those living in democracies are normally termed 'terrorists' and those under other political structures, such as dictatorships (which itself is a stereotype), are called 'freedom fighters'. This also illustrates news programmes promoting the status of the society under which they exist.

Another usage of the metaphor is to sanitise; for example referring to 'ethnic cleansing' rather than 'genocide' al -lows the audience to dismiss the actual event and so the programme is not too intensive. Again, ethnocentrism is at work throughout this, and the result is a dampening of mass murder in distant nations (such as 'the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia') in comparison with proximate ones ('Hitler's genocide').

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The vocabulary employed by journalists and the way in which it is used also plays a part in constructing the reality that we are presented with in news programmes. The most common example of this is union disputes, Fiske says that in capitalist societies, such as ours, 'Trade unionist('s)...actions are always represented as 'demands' whereas employers are said to 'offer'' (Fiske 1987: p281). It is very rare that these verbs are the reversed or the sentence is structured in any other way; consider for a moment the connotations of the following, 'The trade union offer to work for a 5% wage in-crease but the management demand they take 2%'. Fiske explains the effect thus: 'The word 'offer' suggests its agents...are generous...and are comfortably in control, whereas 'demand' suggests that it's agents are greedy...and having to struggle to gain control of the situation.' (Fiske 1987: p285).

Furthermore, he adds that 'demand is a disruptive word which places 'demanders' with the negative forces that make news' (ibid.). By presenting people in this way, the audience is placed in a polar 'us/them' situation and, because unions are presented in such a negative way; we must side with the management. Considering factor such as these, it is difficult to assert that the news can present an issue without commenting on it.

The linguistic factors are not just relevant to televisual news programmes, but are common in all types of popular medium. The presentation of televised news is, though, unique in that it is both verbal/aural and visual. It is in the pre-sentation that a great deal of construction is administered.

The camera work of a report is a very strong method in which television news builds an interpretation. Hartley notes that

The conventionalised distinction between p.o.v. shots and neutral shots does not stand up to close inspec -tion. All shots have a point of view, whether...by the placing of a character, or...by the positioning of the imag -inary observer (viewer)...the news...constructs an imaginary viewer, positioned as it were behind the camera. (Hartley 1992: p78)

The fact that the viewer is positioned behind the camera has a great deal of influence on the representation of real-ity by

broadcasters. It means that we assume the point of view of the camera; so if it is positioned looking, for example, from a factory towards a picket line, we can, at least literally, see only the perspective of the employers. This means that, photographically, news will always favour a particular group, side or perspective at any one point. Furthermore, to enable coverage of every perspective a confusingly large number of shots would be required, and the associated report -ing must tie in exactly with them - in other words, it would be impossible. Hartley concludes 'News has to be impar -tial...(but) there is a contradiction between (required) impartiality and (unavoidable) point of view. The construction of an imaginary viewer...actually makes things worse' (Hartley 1992: p78).

The broadcaster has now selected an item from the multitude of events of the day, passed it too a journalist and news team for filming and reporting, and ended up with the basis of a story, a raw report which will now goes into edit -ing.

At this point it may be a good idea to look at the dictionary definition of 'editing', which gives us a good clue to the processes involved: 'Assemble, prepare, or modify...take extracts from and collate to form a unified sequence' (From the Concise Oxford Dictionary 1992). The very definition of the word implies a construction of reality: the editors are tak-ing pieces of the story, already constructed in its selection, reporting and camerawork, and rearranging it to form a co -herent whole.

During editing, the news team will begin to blend some of the sharp cuts and obvious televisual techniques and cre -ate a seamless illusion of realism. An example of this is the diffusion of location interviews with what the industry calls 'noddies' (reactions, smiles, nods, etc. by the interviewer).

When a section of... speech is edited out, the cut is disguised by inserting a 'noddy', thus hiding the fact that any editing of the speaker's words has occurred. Without the 'noddy', the visuals would show an obvious 'jump' that would reveal the edit. (Fiske 1987: p29)

The interesting thing about this is not the fact that cuts are disguised (though this may reveal a great deal about the ethos of broadcasters), but that any editing of an interviewees speech has occurred. This implies information given by the individual being interviewed has been omitted, and that we are not receiving a full representation of their views. In effect the interviewee's perspectives have been mediated by not only the cameraman, but also the news editor (and in turn the television company).

During the editing of a story, library footage is also added. This shows research into the history, though little actual account is usual given of the historical and social context under which of the particular event occurs, and this reinforces its 'authenticity'. Chandler also notes that during editing 'stories are repackaged from secondary sources such as news agencies, press conferences, spokespeople, often with biases intact' (Chandler 1995: www)

The broadcaster now has a complete product, the story, ready for consumption - the method of which is, of course, a news programme. The actual presentation of the news item on television brings with it a new set of constructions, yet enhances the appearance of reality.

Our first point of contact with the item is the newsreader, epitomising authority with formal dress and sober look. They are almost invariably seated behind a desk that not only emphasises the ('man-behind-the-desk' type) of authority, but also reduces their body language and, thus, increases the illusion of objectivity. Even in the more progressive news

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programmes, such as those appearing on Channel Five, which do not seat their presenters behind desks, keep their body language to a minimum (Channel Five do this by seating their presenters on terrifyingly high stools). The orderly sur-roundings also support the image of formal and objective authority.

Perhaps the most important method of instilling the illusion that news portrays reality employed by newsreaders is that of eye contact. Although it seems simple, this factor creates an idea that the newsreader is the viewer’s 'friend'. Consequently:

Without verbalising it, television news operates on a first person (I) to second person (you) axis...In addi-tion...there is a textual relation between viewer and news story...Television news activates a full circuit be-tween first (narrator), second (viewer) and third (depicted) persons, being able to align the viewer to the news -worthy people represented... (Hartley 1992: p76)

In this way, it appears that we are in direct and unmediated contact with the subject of the story 'without, appar-ently, any unwanted editorializing interventions' (ibid: p 77)

It is also interesting to look the BBC’s high tech 'virtual studio', within which there is nothing concrete existing outside of a computer other than the newsreader. This is quite a poignant symbol of the construction of reality in the news

In many ways, televisual news is not 'the window on the world' that the majority of the populace considers it to be. It would be technically and philosophically impossible to create a news programme devoid of all construction and pro -jection of ethos, and so we must accept that it does. If we look historically, news programmes evolved during the war, when the bulletin (in cinemas) was generally used for the purpose of propaganda. The conventions established at this time, which enabled reality to be reconstructed, are still present today and evident in modern news broadcast.

News FormEvery now and then, television will cut away from normal programming to show an event that is deemed to be of

public significance or dramatic value, unfolding live on the screen. At times, during these exercises in reality, the televi-sion journalists are silent, watching along with the rest of us, rather than expressing what they have to say. At other times, they "frame" the events with spontaneous descriptions, sometimes explaining with great drama and moment what we are watching or what it might mean.

Such televised events are as close as news comes to anything resembling "reality" - unedited, unpackaged, with all the loose ends dangling. Television has the capacity to do a great deal of this but with the partial exception of C-Span, it doesn't and for a good reason - most events in their raw form aren't all that interesting to most people, and can't hold the attention of most audiences. They hold our attention when we live them mostly because they are happening to us and because they are something we have to go through to reach goals we have set or to find out what will happen in the un -folding of events that will affect our lives.

When we turn on the television or open a newspaper, it is precisely to avoid this mundane world of unpackaged life – of waiting for the water to boil or waiting on hold, trying to figure out directions or filing our bills. And so, instead of life, what the news media gives us is what fiction gives us -- stories, packaging, orchestration. It takes raw events (and a great many events staged for its benefit) and coverts them into narratives, brief and fast-moving narratives, that use techniques of literature, poetry, rhetoric, theater and film to create a sense of drama and excitement for audiences.

These stories typically have one or more narrators who may or may not be directly represented themselves inside the story. In most print stories, the narrator is the reporter who introduces him or herself with a byline and then politely disappears from the text, which may, however, still betray hints of his participation in the events described. In the case of television, the news is spoken by narrators who usually appear on screen at various points, and who are, themselves, very obviously narrator-characters in the story, although they may or may not have originated the words in the story they tell and rarely have taken or edited the pictures.

News, than, is something that is told to us, by journalist-narrators, like stories repeated around the proverbial dying embers of the campfire, and like most works of fiction, but unlike most television dramas, films and plays, which are made to appear to unfold before our eyes, without extraneous comment, as if we were looking in, unannounced, on life. It is this explicit narration or telling that ties the parts of news narratives or stories together, and gives them their mean -ing. Even when events do unfold before our eyes, as in the televising of live events, the journalists will, as noted, frame what we see and hear, at one point or another, with this same kind of narration.

There are also other elements that appear as part of news stories, of course – spoken or written quotes, photographs, videotapes, illustrations, recordings. Typically, these are intended to create a sense that the story contains "windows," which allow the audience to directly see into the events described, instead of merely being told about them. To create such a window, a written news story will typically refer to some situation, and to those involved, and then include a quote from the various parties or from other observers, to create a sense that the reader has now heard directly from the parties to the dispute or from others with some special knowledge. Similarly, a photograph accompanying a news story will create a sense that the reader has a visual porthole to some element referred to in the story - the scene of conflict, the prize being fought over, one or more of the players involved, and so forth.

This sense of peering directly at events has some truth to it, at least to the degree that quotes and photographs and videotapes are unretouched and unimproved, by the story's creators. But, in the end, these elements are really only more

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narrative - they are embedded in the verbal narration, explicitly or implicitly referred to by the narration, given their meaning by the narration, and used to illustrate and support the claims of the narration. Like the narration, they are ab -stracted from the stream of events, cropped and cut; and as with any narrative element, they can be given a different meaning, when other parts of the story are changed. Thus, the same quote can be made to seem to be a lie, a confession, or a disinterested observation, depending on how it is framed or referred to by other parts of the story. And the same se-ries of events can provide very different photographs and quotes, depending on what the journalist chooses to abstract from events, to fit the news account.

In the case of print stories, narration and quotes seem to unfold along a single track, alternating with each other in a linear sequence. If there is a second track, of photographs or illustrations, it is usually spare and consists of one or a few visual elements, next to the verbal narrative.

In the case of television news, things are more complicated. Like print stories, television news is dominated by ver -bal narration - with journalist narrators, speaking to us directly, so the story unfolds in time as we listen to it, rather than being laid out on a page that we can take in, as a whole, in one or a few glances. When the journalist-narrator appears in video, which alternates with other videos that show elements of the story, it feels as if we are seeing the story unfold on a single track, not unlike print stories, in which narration alternates with quotes.

But here, the narration can also overlap the video, in which case the sound on the video may be reduced or sup -pressed, so the two elements are presented at the same time, or two pictures can be shown on the same screen, perhaps even with a spoken narration, moving us, so to speak, along two or more tracks at once, which weave around each other and overlap in interesting ways.

There is a far greater sense here than in print stories that the news is providing windows onto the world, allowing us to peer in on events and situations. As in the case of photographs in the print media, this has some truth to it. But, for the most part, once again, all these pictures and words are just more narrative. Whether the videos overlap with the nar-ration or alternate with it, or any combination therein, there is still a constant crossover: it is the spoken narration that gives the pictures and sounds their meaning and these exist to illustrate what is being told in the spoken narration.

So, despite their differences, print and television news have certain similarities in form, although television has more possibilities to play with.* Both narrate a story that unfolds in a sequence, and that sequence often conveys infor -mation about one or more other sequences of events, some of which may be shown. Both use quotes from participants, witnesses and experts, any of whom may act as additional narrators, commenting on the story and saying things or adding believability in ways the journalistic narrator can't, not unlike the way an author telling a story will have charac -ters tell parts of the story about other characters, inside the narrative. And both use pictures, although print stories will mostly use verbal descriptions.

In telling their stories, news stories also make use of an important form of point of view, which defines much of what they are. In essence, they allow audiences to see events as a whole, even if it is a whole partly constructed by jour -nalists. News stories are a summary, a synthesis; they convey an illusory sense of omniscience, as if we see some seg -ment of events in their totality, with all the parts brought together, so we can perceive the total pattern, including its meaning.

They create these wholes by describing and showing us events separated from us by time and space - events that are far away; that are blocked by physical barriers; that are too large or small, to slow or fast, for us to see, or that hap-pened in the past. These same objects, places and events are, often, also separated from each other, so the story brings them together and weaves them into a single narrative. News stories similarly use speculation and illustrations, includ-ing fabricated computer images, to show us events as they have happened in the past or might be happening elsewhere or might happen in the future, to fulfill this same function of bringing information to us that we could not get otherwise.

And they allow us to understand events separated from us by differences of culture and language. They may even claim to give us a sense of what goes on in the minds of participants, through quotes, paraphrases and speculation. Thus, news allows audiences to peer into places that otherwise would be blocked from view, taking audiences to many locations, on a kind of journey through time and space, as they perpetually explain what events have to do with us and each other.

Putting these characteristics together, it is obvious that news offers a kind of mundane transcendence, allowing us to escape, at least in our thoughts and perceptions, from our physical limits, and surpass the normal obstacles of life. But it does so only to bring all these disparate elements together into the unity of the story. Everything serves the story and it is the story that ultimately conveys this sense of omniscience, by giving what is shown and described a meaning.

Thus, events will be abstracted from the flow of time and arranged in sequences, in and out of actual chronology, in ways designed to tell the story. A television news story, for example, may begin by showing the reporter-performer live, in "real" time. He or she may then introduce a video of a past event; then an illustration of an event in the more distant past and then a video of a more recent event in another part of the world. We are taken for a ride, but, as in roller coaster rides, it is very well orchestrated, and much of the experience is in the interrelation of the different moments.

Similarly, the news story weaves together scenes separated from each other by space; it globe trots, but always re -veals how these scenes relate to each other. It shows us these scenes with a number of different kinds of physical per -spectives, showing us events from a great distance, so we take it all in in a single gaze; and showing us events at close range or showing us what it is like to be immersed in the events in question. News stories constantly tack back and forth between these perspectives, with a great many gradations in between.

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Each time the perspective jumps to a higher level, we lose a degree of detail. The ultimate overview, presumably, is of the known (or possible) universe, which can be provided not only by descriptions but by simulations. Of course, it is almost never provided to audiences, in part, because we have so little detail on it and because it seems to have so little relevance to our lives, given that the details we are centrally concerned with can be found at a level many scales down in magnitude. Views of the earth are similarly uncommon. Relatively common are views of events taken from the air or as if they are taken from the air, showing us events from a certain height, so that much or all of the event can be encom -passed in a single scan or gaze. Television does this all the time, giving audiences an aerial view of the disaster or some part of the war, and print does it using photographs. Print and television can also provide maps, models and other ren -derings, which display the layout and setting of events. And print and television can also provide a description of scenes and settings with words.

In any case, news stories often tack back and forth between overviews and closer range views of events, frequently switching back and forth a number of times in the course of the story, providing audiences with a sense of great free -dom and power, as they vicariously sweep in and out of events and gather their meaning. At close range, we are given what the war looks like on the ground: the crumbling cities; the people fleeing on the road; the soldiers dug in to their positions . At times, we seem to see things through the eyes of participants, not unlike the Humphrey Bogart movie that created the illusion audiences were seeing everything through the eyes of the protagonist.

But even here, there is a sense, often conveyed in accompanying narrative, that we are outside looking in, coming in for a sample only so we can appreciate the larger view, like the mythological Greek Gods who appeared in Earthly form but remained in another, higher dimension.

But, ultimately, the ability to offer us a sense of mundane transcendence is made possible by the story. It is the story that gives everything else presented and described its meaning shows the connection between the things. The story creates a framework of meaning, a model, that allows us, to perceive (or believe we perceive) larger situations, and not merely scenes and actions.

This ability to tack back and forth between near and far perspectives, to show the links connecting events across time and space, and to reveal events at great distances, is by no means something limited to news, nor is it something new. Television, film and literature tell their stories the same way, but with fictional events, settings, characters. This ability is ultimately based on basic faculties of cognition and imagination, which do the same things with the ghostlike pictures of the mind. Indeed, an historical study might well trace the emergence of our ability to think in this mode, in texts and pictures. Of course, in all previous ages, story-tellers who were describing actual events were limited by their own lack of mobility. Today, forms of transportation, communications, long distance sensing devices and recording technologies provide a technological infrastructure for our ever-expanding ability to engage in mundane transcendence.

In fact, this ability to engage in mundane transcendence is increasingly becoming a basic mode of everyday exis-tence. Today, it relies on the news media and entertainment, which is to say it relies mostly on television, as well as film, and secondarily on newspapers, magazines and radio. It is also an important feature of computers which will in -creasingly gives us the ability to choose what we watch, and manipulate the images and perspectives, even as we are connected to a vast network of information. It seems likely that in the not-too-distant future, we will choose our per -spective on computer screens as we look at our own homes and property, look at other locations, and view events through new forms of computer news.

It should also be noted that news stories don’t bring together all these elements merely by putting them together in a single story. Rather, they must be artfully woven together into a story, a goal that journalists (and other story tellers) achieve through the use of "connectives." Connectives are devices of both form and medium and content, that are used, as the name implies, to turn various parts into a whole. One kind of connective that is in the realm of content, are all the statements made explaining to audiences and readers what the subject of the story is, that ties all the information to -gether. Some will typically appear at the beginning, which are used to define and delimit the story -- it is about this, but not that -- but stories may have various explanations like this sprinkled throughout. These may also be used to explain the connection of a quote or photograph or illustration to a text. Thus, a caption may be used to explain the connection of a photo to a story. Just before a quote, a transitional sentence may explain that we are about to hear the view of Sena -tor So and So, who represents one side in the ongoing litigation just described. Here, we are viewing efforts to weave a story together, to create a coherent whole, by ensuring that audiences understand the connection between elements.

Another "connective" that provides this sense of continuity for the reader, is simply the use of the same elements - the same events, characters, and so on, this being the actual continuity of the story itself, at least as perceived by the journalist. But, in addition, journalists (and other communicators) also use a degree of verbal artifice to smooth transi -tions and create a constant bridge. They may start off a sentence with all kinds of "linking" words and phrases, whose primary purpose is to appear to join it to the sentence above it, as in the use of such phrases as: "In any case...," "But...," or "Then again..." The journalist may use same key word in two sequential sentences or use parallel structure in sen -tences, to create a sense of unity. Quotes may also be chosen (and altered) so that they link up with the earlier narrative, through the repetition of words and subject, without explicitly announcing to the reader that a relevant quote is about to be provided.

Many "straight" news stories may actually be spare in the use of such connective, compared to some other kinds of rhetoric, because they give the audience a pared down account of events, frequently with an austere style. Often, one of the elements we refer to when we say writing is done with style is precisely the use of these elements to smooth the flow and carry the reader along, effortlessly and without sharp breaks that cause the reader to try to figure out what con-

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nection one element has to those that have gone before, pulling him or her out of the immersion in the story and the world it creates..

In the case of television, in which communications may take place on more than one track, there are all kinds of possibilities for linking parts. Anchors may provide lead-ins that provide an overall frame, defining what the story is about; spoken words may overlap with the images they describe; similar images may follow each other, and so on, cre -ating a more dynamic linkage that fits the more complex story form possible with the interaction of moving pictures, other visual elements, sounds, and words.

New Communities

New communities are being built today. You cannot see them, except on a computer screen. You cannot visit them, except through your keyboard. Their highways are wires and optical fibers; their language a series of ones and zeroes.

Yet these communities of cyberspace are as real and vibrant as any you could find on a globe or in an atlas. Those are real people on the other sides of those monitors. And freed from physical limitations, these people are developing new types of cohesive and effective communities - ones which are defined more by common interest and purpose than by an accident of geography, ones on which what really counts is what you say and think and feel, not how you look or talk or how old you are.

The oldest of these communities is that of the scientists, which actually predates computers. Scientists have long seen themselves as an international community, where ideas were more important than national origin. It is not surprising that the scientists were the first to adopt the new electronic media as their principal means of day-to-day communication.

I look forward to a day in which everybody, not just scientists, can enjoy similar benefits of a global community.

But how exactly does community grow out of a computer network? It does so because the network enables new forms of communication.

The most obvious example of these new digital communications media is electronic mail, but there are many others. We should begin to think of mailing lists, newsgroups, file and document archives, etc. as just the first generation of new forms of information and communications media. The digital media of computer networks, by virtue of their design and the enabling technology upon which they ride, are fundamentally different from the now dominant mass media of television, radio, newspapers and magazines. Digital communications media are inherently capable of being more interactive, more participatory, more egalitarian, more decentralized, and less hierarchical.

As such, the types of social relations and communities which can be built on these media share these characteristics. Computer networks encourage the active participation of individuals rather than the passive non-participation induced by television narcosis.

In mass media, the vast majority of participants are passive recipients of information. In digital communications media, the vast majority of participants are active creators of information as well as recipients. This type of symmetry has previously only been found in media like the telephone. But while the telephone is almost entirely a medium for private one-to-one communication, computer network applications such as electronic mailing lists, conferences, and bulletin boards, serve as a medium of group or "many-to-many" communication.

The new forums atop computer networks are the great levelers and reducers of organizational hierarchy. Each user has, at least in theory, access to every other user, and an equal chance to be heard. Some U.S. high-tech companies, such as Microsoft and Borland, already use this to good advantage: their CEO's -- Bill Gates and Philippe Kahn -- are directly accessible to all employees via electronic mail. This creates a sense that the voice of the individual employee really matters. More generally, when corporate communication is facilitated by electronic mail, decision-making processes can be far more inclusive and participatory.

Computer networks do not require tightly centralized administrative control. In fact, decentralization is necessary to enable rapid growth of the network itself. Tight controls strangle growth. This decentralization promotes inclusiveness, for it lowers barriers to entry for new parties wishing to join the network.

Given these characteristics, networks hold tremendous potential to enrich our collective cultural, political, and social lives and enhance democratic values everywhere.

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And the Internet, and the UUCP and related networks connected to it, represents an outstanding example of a computer network with these qualities. It is an open network of networks, not a single unitary network, but an ensemble of interconnected systems which operate on the basis of multiple implementations of accepted, non-proprietary protocols, standards and interfaces.

One of its important characteristics is that new networks, host systems, and users may readily join the network -- the network is open to all.

The openness (in all senses) of the Internet reflects, I believe, the sensibilities and values of its architects. Had the Internet somehow been developed outside the world of research and education, it's less likely to have had such an open architecture. Future generations will be indebted to this community for the wisdom of building these types of open systems.

Still, the fundamental qualities of the Net, such as its decentralization, also pose problems. How can full connectivity be maintained in the face of an ever-expanding number of connected networks, for example? What of software bugs that bring down computers, or human crackers who try to do the same? But these problems can and will be solved.

Digital media can be the basis of new forms of political discourse, in which citizens form and express their views on the important public issues of the day. There is more than one possible vision of such electronic democracy, however. Let's look at some examples of the potential power, and problems, of the new digital media.

The idea of something called an "electronic town meeting" received considerable attention in 1992 with Ross Perot's presidential campaign (or, at least, its first incarnation).

Perot's original vision, from 20 or so years ago, was that viewers would watch a debate on television and fill out punch cards which would be mailed in and collated. Now we could do it with 800 telephone numbers.

In the current atmosphere of disaffection, alienation and cynicism, anything that promotes greater citizen involvement seems a good idea. People are turned off by politicians in general -- witness the original surge of support for Perot as outsider who would go in and clean up the mess -- and the idea of going right to the people is appealing,

What's wrong with this picture? The individual viewer is a passive recipient of the views of experts. The only action taken by the citizen is in expressing a preference for one of three pre-constructed alternatives. While this might be occasionally useful, it's unsophisticated and falls far short of the real potential of electronic democracy. We've been reduced to forming our judgments on the basis of mass media's portrayal of the personality and character of the candidates.

All this is in contrast to robust political debates already found on various on-line computer systems, from CompuServe to Usenet. Through these new media, the issues of the day, ranging from national security in the post-Cold War era to comparative national health care systems, are fiercely discussed in a wide variety of bulletin boards, conferences, and newsgroups.

What I see in online debate are multiple active participants, not just experts, representing every point of view, in discussions that unfold over extended periods of time. What this shows is that, far from being alienated and disaffected from the political process, people like to talk and discuss -- and take action -- if they have the opportunity to do so. Mass media don't permit that. But these new media are more akin to a gathering around the cracker barrel at the general store -- only extended over hundreds, thousands of miles, in cyberspace, rather than in one physical location.

Recent years have shown the potential power of these new media. We have also seen several examples of where talk translated into action.

In 1987, the Federal Communications Commission proposed changing the way certain online providers paid for access to local phone service. Online, this quickly became known as the "modem tax" and generated a storm of protest. The FCC withdrew the idea, but not quickly enough: the "modem tax" has penetrated so deeply into the crevices of the Net that it has taken up a permanent and ghostly residence as a kind of virtual or cognitive virus, which periodically causes a re-infection of the systems and its users. FCC commissioners continue to receive substantial mail on this even though the original issue is long dead; in fact, it has generated more mail than any other issue in the history of the FCC.

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More recently, Jim Manzi, chairman of Lotus Development Corp., received more than 30,000 e-mail messages when the company was getting ready to sell a database containing records on tens of millions of Americans. The flood of electronic complaints about the threat to privacy helped force the company to abandon the project. Issues of narrow but vital interest to the online community give a hint of the organizing power of the Net.

In August, 1991, the managers of a Soviet computer network known as Relcom stayed online during an abortive coup, relaying eyewitness accounts and news of actions against the coup to the West and to the rest of Russia.

And many public interest non-profit organizations and special interest groups already use bulletin boards heavily as a means of communicating among their members and organizing political activity.

But all is not perfect online. The quality of discourse is often very low. Discussion is often trivial and boring and bereft of persuasive reason. Discourse often sinks to the level of "flaming," of personal attacks, instead of substantive discussion. Flaming. Those with the most time to spend often wind up dominating the debate -- a triumph of quantity of time available over quality of content.

It seems like no place for serious discussion. Information overload is also a problem. There is simply far too much to read to keep up with. It is all without organization. How can this be addressed?

Recent innovations in the design of software used to connect people to the Net and the process of online discussion itself reveal some hope.

Flaming is universal, but different systems handle it in different ways. Both the technology and cultural norms matter.

On Usenet, for instance, most news reader applications support a feature known as a "killfile," which allows an individual to screen out postings by a particular user or on a particular subject. It is also sometimes referred to as "the bozo filter." This spares the user who is sufficiently sophisticated from further flamage, but it does nothing to stop the problem at its source.

Censorship would be one solution. But what else can be done without resorting to unacceptably heavy-handed tactics of censorship? There is a great tradition of respect for free speech on these systems, and to censor public postings or even ban a poster for annoying or offensive content is properly seen as unacceptable, in my opinion.

Some systems use cultural norms, rather than software, to deal with flame wars. These online communities have developed practices which rely more on a shared, internalized sense of appropriate behavior than on censorship, for instance. The WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link) is a relatively small online conferencing system based in the San Francisco Bay area. On the WELL, individuals who get into a fight are encouraged to move the discussion out of the public conference and into e-mail. The encouragement is provided not only by the host of the conference, but also by the users. It is part of the culture, not part of the technology.

WELL hosts are volunteers who facilitate the discussion of a particular subject. While they have the power to censor individual postings, the power is very rarely used and only as a last resort, as it has been found that dispute resolution by talking it out among the parties is a superior method of problem solving in the long run.

It is not an accident that the WELL has a uniquely high quality of conversation. Nor is it coincidental that it developed as a small and originally isolated community (now on the Net) which gave it a chance to develop its own norms or that key management of the system came from "The Farm," a large, successful commune of the 1960's and 1970's led by Stephen Gaskin.

We still know very little about the facilitation of online conversations. It is a subject well worth further formal study and experimentation.

Some problems have to do with the unrefined and immature format and structure of the discussion medium itself. The undifferentiated stream of new messages marching along in 80 columns of ASCII text creates a kind of hypnotic trance. Compare this with the typical multiplicity of type fonts, varied layouts, images, and pictures of the printed page.

New media take time to develop and to be shaped. Reading text on a terminal reminds me of looking at the Gutenberg Bible. The modern book took a century to develop after the invention of printing with movable type and the first Western printed books. Aldus Manutius and the inventions of modern typefaces, pagination, the table of contents, the

47

index, all of which gave the book its modern form, came later, were done by different people, and were of a different order than the invention of printing with movable type itself. The new electronic media are undergoing a similar evolution.

Key inventions are occurring slowly, for example, development of software tools that will allow the dissemination of audio and video across the Net. This type of software has usually been done so far by volunteers who have given away the results. It's a great thing, but it's not sufficient, given how hard it is to develop robust software. Innovation in the application space will also be driven by entrepreneurs and independent software vendors at such point as they perceive a business opportunity to create such products (it would be nice if creators did it for art's sake but this seems unlikely).

There are some requirements to provide incentives to attract additional software development. This requires a competitive free market in network services at all levels to serve the expanding user demand for network services. It requires a technologically mature network able to support these services.

And there must be a user population, current or prospective, interested in paying for better applications -- and not just the current base of technically sophisticated users and students, though they will absolutely benefit.

There are multiple classes of new application opportunities. E-mail is overloaded because there aren't readily available alternatives yet. New and different kinds of tools are needed for collaborative work. Computer conferencing, as it evolves, may be sufficient for discussion and debate. But by itself, it cannot really support collaborative work, in the sense of readily enabling a group to make decisions efficiently, represent and track the status of its work process. Trying to run an organization via e-mail mailing list is very different than trying to have a discussion.

Computer networks can only fully realize their potential as innovative communications media in an environment which encourages free and open expression.

In some countries, legal principles of free speech protect freedom of expression in traditional media such as the printed word. But once communication moves to new digital media and crosses international borders, such legal protections fall away. As John Perry Barlow, the co-founder of EFF puts it: "In Cyberspace, the First Amendment is a local ordinance." There is no international legal authority which protects free expression on trans-national networks. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights calls for the protection of free expression in all media, but the declaration falls far short of being binding.

And if we're to take seriously the idea of the electronic online forum, we have to deal with the access issue. If the only people with access to the medium are well-educated, affluent, techno-literate elite, it won't be sufficiently inclusive to represent all points of view.

We also need, fundamentally, a better infrastructure (the highway system for information). As we move from the high-speed Internet to the even more powerful National Research and Education Network, we need to look at how to bring the power of these new media into the homes of everybody who might want it. Addressing this "last mile" problem (phone networks are now largely digitized, fiber-optic systems, except for the mile between your home and the nearest switching station) should be a priority.

Computer networks will eventually become ubiquitous around the world. We should therefore be concerned with the impact on society that they have, the opportunities to improve society, and the dangers that they pose. Fundamentally, we are optimists who believe in the potential of networks to enhance democratic values of openness, diversity, and innovation.

Because the medium is so new, it is important now to develop policies at the national and international level that help achieve the potential of computer networks for society as a whole. By the time television was recognized as a vast wasteland it was already too late to change. There is a rare opportunity to develop policies in advance of a technologically and economically mature system which would be hard to change.

By Mitchell Kapor <mkapor@eff.org>Co-founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Welcome to the Electronic Frontier Foundation

"Not all German hackers work for the Russian KGB.

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Some even work for the American EFF!"--- Anonymous

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is proud to have sponsored the production of EFF's Guide to the Inter-net. EFF is a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to ensuring that everyone has access to the newly emerging communications technologies vital to active participation in the events of our world. As more and more information is available online, new doors open up for those who have access to that information. Unfortunately, unless access is broadly encouraged, individuals can be disenfranchised and doors can close, as well. EFF's Guide to the Inter-net was written to help open some doors to the vast amounts of information available on the world's largest network, the Internet.

The spark for EFF's Guide to the Internet was ignited in a few informal conversations that included myself and Steve Cisler of Apple Computer, Inc., in June of 1991. With the support of Apple Computer, EFF engaged Adam Gaffin to write the book and actually took on the project in September of 1991.

The idea was to write a guide to the Internet for people who had little or no experience with network communications. We intended to post this guide to the Net in ASCII and HyperCard formats and to give it away on disk, as well as have a print edition available. We have more than realized our goal. Individuals from as geographically far away as Germany, Italy, Canada, South Africa, Japan, Scotland, Norway, and Antarctica have all sent electronic mail to say that they downloaded EFF's Guide to the Internet. The guide is now available in a wide array of formats, including ACSCII text, HyperCard, World Wide Web, PostScript and AmigaGuide.

We invite you to join with EFF in our fight to ensure that equal access to the networks and free speech are protected in newly emerging technologies. We are a membership organization, and through donations like yours, we can continue to sponsor important projects to make communications easier. Information about the Electronic Frontier Foundation and some of the work that we do can be found at the end of this book.

We hope that the EFF's Guide to the Internet helps you learn about whole new worlds, where new friends and experiences are sure to be yours. Enjoy!

Mitch KaporChairman of the BoardElectronic Frontier Foundation

Glossary

AC Adapter: See transformer.Actuality: A radio term meaning the recorded voice of a newsmaker or the sound of the event, usually incorporated in

a "spot" but sometimes used alone with lead-in by the anchor. In television, an actuality is a "sound bite," "bite" or "NAT SOT" (natural sound on tape).

AFTRA: An acronym for American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, a nearly all-inclusive union for people who perform on network and major market television (and radio) - actors, dancers, singers, jugglers, talk show hosts, reporters, anchors.

Ambush Interview: An interview in which the subject is caught by surprise, often after declining formal requests for interviews. The news crew may lie in wait for the subject or burst unannounced into the subject's office. This style was made famous but not originated by "60 Minutes."

Anchor: The person in the radio or television studio who delivers the news and introduces stories from field reporters. Many television news programs use dual anchors, typically a man and a woman. The terms "sports anchor" and even "weather anchor" are also used.

Anchorman (anchorwoman): news broadcast coordinator; a broadcaster (as on a news program) who introduces re-ports by other broadcasters and usu. reads the news; a man (woman) who presents and coordinates a live televi-sion or radio program involving other contributors.

Angle: Editorially, the approach taken by a reporter to a story, the way the reporter "plays" the story.ASCAP: An acronym for American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers; with BMI, it is one of the two ma-

jor music-licensing organizations.Assignment Editor: The person who determines which news and features will be covered and assigns reporters and

photographers to the coverage. Assignment editors can have more influence than anyone in the newsroom in shaping a station's news product, or they can be no more important than a news clerk, all depending on their in-clinations, on how much autonomy the news director gives them, and the extent to which they are empowered to direct the way reporters cover individual stories.

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Audio Perspective (Presence): The impression that the sound a viewer hears is distant or nearby, in keeping with the apparent proximity of the video subject to the camera.

Backtime: The clock time or real time at which you intend to start the "backtime package."Backtime Package: Material at the end of a program, more or less the last segment, that you want to use intact in or -

der to end the program neatly and with a particular, planned feeling. The idea is to make cuts or additions before reaching the backtime package.

Backtiming: The process of timing a news program item by item, backwards from the end to the beginning. This provides a comparison of the program's timetable on paper with what is actually happening as the program is be-ing broadcast, so that adjustments can be made to end the program smoothly and on time.

Beat: A reporter's area of specialization: police beat, city hall beat, financial beat, etc. A reporter or station scores a "beat" by getting a story first. Also, a deliberate pause in narration to create an effect or emphasize natural sound or music.

Beta: The half-inch video format developed and manufactured by Sony.Billboard: A short announcement - in audio, video or both - telling what is coming up on a news program or, some-

times, acknowledging a sponsor.BMI: Broadcast Music Incorporated, with ASCAP, one of the two major music-licensing organizations.Boom: A device for holding a microphone near a speaker but out of sight; usually made of telescoping metal tubing.

Also used to refer to the microphone attached to the boom - a "boom" or "boom mic."Bridge: A reporter or anchor's narration between two sound bites.Briefs: Short news stories, but not as short as headlines. They may average around 10 seconds in radio and a little

longer in television news. Some TV news producers regularly include a package of four or five briefs with video-tape in their shows.

Bumper: A brief item between the end of a news segment and a commercial, used to advertise what is coming up in the program and to clearly distinguish news material from commercials. Most bumpers are pre-taped on video -tape.

Bump Up: To re-record a videotape to a larger format, such as from half-inch to three-quarter.Cans: Headphones worn by the director and studio crew through which the director communicates and commands.

"Split cans" provide two audio systems - for example, production audio (the director, etc), in one ear, and pro -gram audio in the other.

Character Generator: An electronic machine for creating text, primarily lower-third supers ("CGs") to identify people, places, etc. on the television screen.

Close: The close can refer to the final portion of a script but usually it means the final picture or picture sequence. The close, whether picture or script, should be as strong as possible. Many reporters and photographers begin looking for a close as soon as they start coverage.

Closer: The closing item in a program, often chosen for that spot because it is light, amusing, pretty, whimsical, ironic, etc.

Close-Up: A shot in which a single object fills all or most of the frame; close-up of a face, close-up of the nose on the face, etc.

Control Room: The room, effectively a command post, from which the director and other technicians put a program on the air (or commit it to tape). It's usually adjacent to the studio, often separated by a glass panel so the director can see what people in the studio are doing.

Copy: News text for a newspaper or broadcast. Part of a news program script. "Hard copy" refers to the first sheet of a multi-sheet copybook or multi-sheet wire machine paper; it's of heavier stock and easier to read and handle than the copies. "Hand copy" is an anchor's paper script.

Cover: Footage used to "cover" narration or sound bites, it can be generic file footage rather than footage shot for a par-ticular story. Similar to but less specific than "layover" footage, which is usually shot specifically for the story be-ing covered.

Crawl: Words that move horizontally across the screen, usually at the bottom. Used, for example, for weather bulletins while allowing viewers to continue to watch the program on the air.

Cue: To give verbal or hand signals to anchors, telling them when to start something and when to stop. Outcues, the fi -nal words of an audio track, are written to prompt audio-board operators to switch audio sources. Videotapes are "cued" to be ready to play.

Cume Time: The minutes and seconds of air time used to reach a particular point in the program, the "accumulated" time of all the program elements up to this point. Cume time or "running time" is an essential part of most news program routines.

Cut: In editing script or a program, to cut is to shorten. In editing videotape, to cut is to switch from one scene to an-other directly, without a dissolve, wipe or other effect; it can also mean to shorten a tape. Cutting or direct cutting is the preferred picture editing technique. Cut also means to stop, or sometimes to pause.

Cutaway: A cutaway is a scene that cuts away from the basic scene. Most commonly refers to a shot of a reporter listening to an interviewee, or an audience listening to a speaker, inserted so that the audio can be edited without a jump cut.

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Cut-in: In videotape or film editing, an insert scene. In programming, the term usually refers to the five-minute news programs local stations broadcast when they cut into the network morning news programs at 25 minutes past the hour.

Daybook: A list of the day's scheduled news events - meetings, news conferences, speeches, trials, etc.DGA: Directors Guild of America, a union for directors, assistant directors and floor managers.Director: The person who brings together all the technical elements of a program; the one who is in charge and gives

the commands in the control room.Dope Sheet: Usually a photographer's general description and/or notes on what he or she shot. Sometimes an editor's

scene-by-scene breakdown of an edited newstape (also called "shot list" or "spotsheet").Establisher: The opening shot in a news story, or the first shot in a sequence within a story, that establishes what's be -

ing seen and orients the viewer as to location, principal persons, time period, etc.Eyewash: See wallpaper.Field Producer: The person in charge of producing material outside the studio. In news, field producers may develop

stories, do the reporting, oversee the shooting and editing, and write the script for a correspondent, anchor or nar-rator.

Field Production: Production outside the studio. In news, shooting the story.Filler: Second- or third-rank news items written to pad out a program that otherwise might run short, or to have on

hand in case the program unexpectedly runs short. Also called pad.Flash: A news bulletin.Fluff: A mistake made by an anchor or reporter reading copy. Also a light, newsless news item.Footage: the total number of running feet of motion-picture film used (as for a scene or subject); also: the material con-

tained on such footage.Format: A word with many uses in broadcasting. It can refer to the structure of a radio or television news program - the

length, number of commercial breaks, time between commercials, etc., or to material regularly used in the pro-gram, such as the opening video, the listing of headlines, the billboards, etc. It also refers to a type of program - Q & A format, dual-anchor format. It is used to describe the various ENG systems - U-Matic, Betamax, VMS and Super-8 formats, etc.

Futures, Futures File: Information and reminders about stories to be covered in the future, usually kept in chronolo-gical order - anything from a simple list of scheduled events and possible follow-ups to pages of material about a single story.

Gaffer: The member of a studio or field crew who is in charge of lighting. Also called an electrician.Gang Bang: An impromptu and indecorous interview or news conference involving large numbers of reporters and

photographers from all media, often characterized by shouting and shoving.Generation: Each dub or copy away from the original videotape is a "generation." A package created from field tapes

is second generation videotape, although sometimes it is inconsistently referred to as the first generation of the story, or of a one-hour documentary, or a commercial. Video quality is somewhat reduced with each dub.

Gopher, Go-fer: A person whose job is to go get things.Happy Talk: Exchange of pleasantries between anchors or anchors and reporters, often used as a transition from, for

example, news to sports. Defended by some as a way to humanize news-people, criticized by others as wasting valuable air time on inanities.

Headlines: A rundown of the major news or features (most commonly three)in a news program, announced by an-chors at the beginning of the program often as short voice-overs with scenes from the stories.

Host: one that receives or entertains guests socially, commercially, or officially; a radio or television emcee.IATSE: International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees, a technical and craft union found in broadcast-

ing and elsewhere.IBEW: International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, similar to IATSE.IFB: Interrupted Feedback, an audio system allowing an anchor or remote reporter (or remote interview guest) to hear

program audio and the director's instructions through an earpiece.Inflate: to expand or increase abnormally or imprudently - in·fla·tor.Insert: A close-up shot of the preceding scene.Intro: See lead-in.Inverted pyramid: structure with a square base and 4 triangular sides meeting at a point, put upside down or in the op-

posite position, order, or arrangement. Kicker: Similar to closer, the term is more common in radio than television.Lead: In a program, the first story. Theoretically, it's the day's most important story, or it's the freshest major story at

the time of broadcast. In a story, the lead is the first sentence or two. Also a verb, to lead (with).Lead-in: An anchor's introduction to a tape package, sound bite, live interview or reporter at a remote location. Usu -

ally not used in reference to the copy preceding an anchor's live voice-over.Liner: See reader.Line-Up: See routine.Lip Flap: When the mouth or lips move but no words are heard.

51

Lip Sync: Sound on tape of a person talking with lips and words synchronized. "Out of sync" means the lips and words noticeably don't match.

Lower Thirds: Supers - names, locations, telephone numbers, logos, etc. - appearing in the lower third of a television picture.

Medium: (pl us. media) a channel or system of communication, information, or entertainment - compare mass medium.Microwave: Transmission of video or audio signals by line of sight from a remote location to the station or to a re -

ceiver which relays the material to the station. Used for live shots and sending raw tape for editing.Minutiae: the small, precise, or trivial details of something.MOS: A series of "man on the street" interviews in a random, unscientific sampling of public opinion.NABET: An acronym for National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, a union primarily composed

of technicians but including writers, editors and producers in some shops. The union is usually found only at the major-market or network level.

Newscaster: a person who reads broadcast news stories.Newsclip: Edited tape of a news event; usually a short VO or VOB.NPPA: National Press Photographers Association, the professional organization for news photographers working with

stills, video and film.NTSC: National Television Systems Committee, sets technical standards for American television.One-man Band: A reporter/photographer/editor who covers a story alone, who does it all. Managements like the

money-saving opportunities offered by one-person coverage. Most reporters and photographers say quality is un-avoidably reduced, especially when attempting to cover fast-moving events under deadline pressure. Some people in the industry look to a day when a one-man band, using a few battery-powered digital devices the size of cigar-ette packages, is able to do a live wraparound from Times Square or the Brazilian rain forest on a moment's no-tice.

Pacing: The rhythm, speed and "feel" of a program, from beginning to end and also within segments, determined by length, visual appeal and type of material. Exciting fire footage, a dull but important speech, a baby contest, a concert rehearsal, a racial confrontation, a recitation of statistics, more readers than voice-overs, etc. - all of these affect pacing.

Package: A reporter's story "packaged" or edited into SOT or sound on tape. In radio, a "spot." Also, a group of stories "packaged" together - today's financial news, today's state capital news, etc.

Paint: Same as wallpaper, eyewash, etc.Paint Box: Brand name of a computerized graphics machine.Pan: Lateral camera movement giving a panoramic view.Paradigmatic: of the nature of a paradigm or model; of or denoting the relationship between a set of linguistic items

that form mutually exclusive choices in particular syntactic roles.Permutation: often major or fundamental change (as in character or condition) based primarily on rearrangement of

existent elements.Pool: In running stories, particularly trials, networks and local stations take turns providing video coverage which is

then shared as a means of cutting expenses and minimizing disruption of the event. Also, in political campaigns and presidential trips one "pool reporter" and one "pool camera" may be allowed to ride on the candidate's or president's plane or be in the car directly behind the president's limousine, etc., and provide coverage for all me -dia. Most of the video from political conventions and space shots is pooled.

Promo: An in-house commercial promoting a station's or network's programs, service, etc. Also the promotion within a program of a part of that program - to promo the weather, to promo the investigative reporter.

Prompter: A system for displaying a script directly in front of studio cameras so that anchors can appear to be in nearly continuous eye contact with viewers while reading the script. Eye contact is lost when anchors refer to hand scripts. In a prompter system, pages of typed script move on a conveyor belt under a camera whose output is displayed directly in front of studio camera lenses on a sort of one-way mirror. The script is not picked up by the cameras. TelePrompTer is a trademark name for this device.

PSA: Public service announcement. A commercial or promo for a non-profit organization that is broadcast without charge.

Reader: A news item delivered by the anchor, with or without an over-the-shoulder visual but without videotape. Also a liner. Used also to refer unflatteringly to an anchor who delivers the news but isn't much of a journalist.

Realm: 1: kingdom; 2: sphere.Reporter: one employed by a newspaper, magazine, or television company to gather and report news.Routine: The "map" of a television news program, a list showing chronologically, page by page, what is seen and what

is heard, at what time and for how long. The routine includes both editorial and production information. Also called line-up, long sheet and rundown.

RTNDA: Radio-Television News Directors Association. It is the major professional organization in broadcast news, with a broad range of membership categories, not just NDs.

Rundown: See routine.Running Time: The length of a tape or story. Also "cume" time.Salient: 1: most noticeable or important; 2: prominent; conspicuous.

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Scoop: A large, old-fashioned "scoop-shaped" or semi-spherical studio light used to illuminate large areas. Editorially, to beat your opposition on a story.

Scrutiny: careful inspection - scru·ti·nize.Segment: Another of television's imprecise terms. Segment refers to the portions of a program between commercials.

Segments are usually assigned designations like opening, first, second, last, closing, sports, weather. It also refers to portions of these segments, as in "the medical segment is in the third segment." It is also used as a synonym for sequence.

Self-Standing: A report by a television or radio reporter containing all five W's and enough additional information that it could be used without a lead-in and still be understood; it stands on its own.

Sequence: A series of scenes with a common theme.Shot: A scene that has been or will be photographed.Shouter: An anchor (or reporter) with a strident delivery. Pejorative.Sidebar: A story that complements, helps explain or elaborates on the main story. The governor picks your town's

mayor for a high state house position. That's the main story. The sidebar is a recap of your mayor's career, or the reaction of townsfolk to his appointment.

Slant: Editorially, sometimes a synonym for "angle" but also a pejorative term indicating bias.Slug: The name given to a story and generally used throughout the day to identify it. The assignment desk would list

"Axe Murder" in the day's coverage, the photographer would label his tape "Axe Murder," the reporter would title his script "Axe Murder," the tape editor would edit the "Axe Murder" package, the writer would order supers for "Axe Murder," and the producer would slot the story in his routine as "Axe Murder." The purpose is to avoid con-fusion and misidentification.

SMPTE: Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. SMPTE time code shows hours, minutes, seconds and frames.

Sound bite: a brief recorded statement (as by a public figure) broadcast esp. on a television news program; also: a brief catchy comment suitable for use as a sound bite.

Spot: In news, this is primarily a radio term meaning the same as "package" in television. TV often refers to commer-cials as spots.

Spot Sheet: A tape editor's scene-by-scene breakdown of a story, giving the time of each shot and a description as an aid for the writer. Sometimes called "dope sheet" or "shot list."

Stacker: A producer who gives little thought to the order and relationship of stories in a news program and instead merely "stacks" the show. Pejorative.

Standupper: A reporter on camera delivering part of the narration of a story. Sometimes the reporter may actually sit down, or walk while delivering the "standupper." Standuppers are often used when the reporter has no pictures for part of a story, or when the reporter is providing analysis or commentary on the story.

Stringer: A reporter or photographer who works by the story rather than receiving a regular paycheck. Some stringers receive small but regular retainers in addition to per-story pay.

S-VHS: Super-VHS, the high end version of the Video Home System video format. S-VHS is used in industrial and educational video and by some broadcasters.

Tag: Additional information added by an anchor, on camera, at the end of a newsclip, package or live report.Tail: The end of a tape or package.Talent: In general, anyone who appears on the air; more often refers to anchors than reporters. Sometimes used sar -

castically.Talking Head: Any person (but usually an interview subject) in sync sound, talking, talking, talking. Regarded by

some producers as dull and therefore to be avoided.Tease: A line or two read by the anchor, sometimes on-camera, sometimes voice-over, promoting an upcoming story.Technical Director (TD): A person responsible for various technical aspects of program production; often refers to the

person who operates the switcher.TelePrompTer: See prompter: trademark, a device used in television and moviemaking to project a speaker's script out

of sight of the audience.Tilt: Motion of a camera, up or down from a pivot point.Update: To report new information about a previously-recorded story.VCR: Video Cassette Recorder.VHS: Video Home System, the half-inch video format used by all manufacturers except Sony.Video: The picture portion of a television signal.Visual(s): Pictures, something other than a "talking head."VOB: A voice-over followed by a (sound) bite. Variations are a bite followed by a voice-over, or a bite between two

voice-overs, etc.Voice-Over (VO): A narration, live or recorded, behind silent or "sound under" news videotape. The term is also used

in reference to commercials.Voicer: A radio reporter's report without actuality. The television equivalent is a "standup report."Wallpaper: Generic file footage used in VOs and as cover and layover. You might "wallpaper" a story about lumber

prices with footage from old spotted owl or home-construction stories, or a story about the Florida economy with 53

sunbathers in bikinis. Wallpapering is a common technique that sometimes misleads viewers because it wasn't shot the day of the story, it isn't necessarily exactly what the story is about, and it may be remembered by some viewers as belonging to a different story. Also called "eyewash," "wash," and "paint."

Warrant: officially affirm or guarantee.WGA: Writers Guild of America, a union primarily for entertainment and documentary writers.Workprint: An exact copy of original video or film, used in place of the original for screening and making editing de -

cisions to avoid damage to the original.Wrap: The end of something - a wrap, it's finished.Wraparound: A news story in which a reporter's narration precedes and follows - or "wraps around" - an actuality or

sound bite. Primarily a radio term.

LITERATURE

Edward Lay Whitwore. American Electric.

Jennings Bryant, Dolf Zollmann. Perspectives on Media Effects.

Essays by Frank Denton Howard Kurtz. Perspectives on the News, Reinventing the Newspaper.

Advanced Course on Mass Media Studies. Minsk Ling. University. 1997.

Alvarado, Manuel (1992): The Question of Media Studies. In Alvarado & Boyd-Barrett 1992, op.cit., pp. 94-135.

Alvarado, Manuel & BOYD-BARRETT, Oliver (1992): Media Education: an Introduction. London: British Film Institute. (Cites Michael Morland, F.R. Leavis and Denys Thompson) pp. 10-135.

Bazalgette, Cary (1991): Media Education. London: Hodder & Stoughton. pp.2-58.

Buckingham, David (1991): Teaching about the Media. In Lusted (1991), op. cit., pp. 12-35.

Hmso (1963): The Newsom Report- ‘Half Our Future’. Central Advisory Council for Education. London. Paragraph 475.

Lusted, David (1991): The Media Studies Book: a guide for teachers. London: Routledge.

Masterman, Len (1985): Teaching the Media. Comedia Publishing Group: London, pp. 20-25.

Masternman, Len (1992): The Case for Television Studies. In Alvarado and Boyd-Barrett (1992) op. cit., pp. 47-92.

Barry, P. (1995): Beginning Theory. Manchester: Manchester University Press

Condry, John (1989) The Psychology of Television. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum

Chandler, Daniel (1994): 'The Construction of Reality in TV News Programmes' (WWW document) URL http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/TF33120/news.html

Fiske, John (1987): Television Culture. London: Routledge

Goodwin, A & Whannel, G (eds.) (1992): Understanding Television. London: Routledge

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