TEXT 2. THE BRITISH PRESS

A. The British press consists of several kinds of newspapers.

The national papers are the ones sold all over the country, with a large circulation, giving general news. There are two main types of national paper – the “popular” papers and the “quality” papers. The popular papers are smaller in size (they are tabloid size), with lots of pictures, big headlines and short articles: they are easy to read and often contain little real information. They give much space to opinions. They usually have “human interest” stories – stories about ordinary people and events. Examples of this type of newspapers are The Daily Mail and The Sun.

“Quality” papers appeal to the more serious reader, who wants to read about politics and foreign affairs. These papers such as The Daily Telegraph The Guardian are bigger in size (they are called “broad-sheets”), with longer articles and a wider coverage of events. They have different pages for home news, foreign affairs, features articles, fashion, business, sport and so on.

People in Britain buy more papers on Sunday than on weekdays. The Sunday papers have a higher circulation than the dailies. As with the dailies, there are both popular and quality Sunday newspapers. The quality ones have different sections and a colour magazine (usually full of advertisements)

The Moscow News is a national weekly newspaper. The first issue of it came out in October 5, 1930. Its circulation is about 50,000 copies. The newspaper is printed both in Russian and in English. It informs the readers of the life in our country, the most important events in foreign states.

On the first page one may find the major home news and some items of foreign news. The second and the third pages are taken by home affairs. On the fourth and the fifth pages there are reports from various countries on world news. On the last pages you will find the articles which are sometimes called features. The term “features” covers a wide range of subjects: review of books, criticisms on theatre, on music, art, films, television, articles on science, travel, sport events, etc. The newspaper is also full of advertisements.

B. The British are voracious newspaper readers, reading more newspapers than any other European country, and some of our “quality” papers are among the best in the world. However, the gap between “quality” papers like The Times and “tabloids” like The Sun is wide and getting wider. This gap reflects the immense social and educational differences that still persist in British society. While quality papers like The Independent and The Guardian give their readers an in-depth background to crucial issues of the day, tabloids like The Sun and The Mirror provide a steady diet of gossip and trivia. In-between papers like The Daily Mail cover a good deal of news in a popular way.

The quality papers sell from 300,000 to 1 million copies each a day, the middle-of-the-road papers sell around 2 million copies each a day, while the tabloids have circulations of up to 4 million copies a day. Why is there this division between the quality and the popular press? What does it tell us about the British press? What does it tell us about Britain today?

VOCABULARY

tabloid – таблоид, бульварная газета
tabloid TV– таблоидное ТВ (ТВ для невзыскательных зрителей)
 feature – сенсационный материал, “гвоздь программы”
broadsheet – газета большого формата (обычно солидное, респектабельное издание)
weekly newspaper (weekly) – еженедельник
 issue – издание печатной продукции
the first issue was released (саmе оut) – первый выпуск увидел свет…
ору – экземпляр
circulation – распространение
сartoon – карикатура
voracious жадный, прожорливый
review – 1) обозрение 2) рецензия, критическая статья
headline – заголовок
advertisement – реклама
want ads (classified advertisements, classified) – рекламные объявления, классифицированные по рубрикам (“требуются”, “куплю” и т. д.)
editorial – редакционная передовица
section – колонка, рубрика
trivia – обыденная информация
couch potato – лентяй, который всё свободное время проводит лёжа у телевизора и ест тяжёлую и малополезную пищу
gossip column – отдел светской хроники

ASSIGNMENTS

I. Read text A and answer the questions.

1. What newspapers and magazines are called “popular”? 2. What newspapers are “quality” ones? 3. What newspapers do you prefer? 4. What newspapers do you and your family subscribe to? 5. Do you buy newspapers at the kiosks? 6. What articles do you like reading? 7. How often do you read newspapers and magazines? What news do they cover? 8. Do you read the page with sport news? 9. Have you ever read any English or American newspapers? 10. Do you discuss the most interesting articles with parents and friends?

II. Read text B and tell why the British are such keen readers of ewspapers.

III. Match the names of the newspapers in the photograph with the descriptions below.

a) quality b) tabloid c) middle-of-the-road


IV. Work with a partner. Discuss possible answers to the three questions asked in the last paragraph of text B.

V. Find the expressions in the article that mean: very keen; show; very important; unimportant news

VI. In pairs write three sentences summarising the most important points of text B.

VII. Write a headline for text B. Choose the best headline in the group.

VIII. Choose the correct answer.

I like reading newspapers, especially on Sundays. I get a big cup of coffee, buy (1) New York Times and sit down for a long (2) through the various (3) . Of course, I tend to head right to the (4) sometimes called the “funnies”. By looking at the first page, I see what the principal stories are by looking at the (5) . One of my favourite sections is where various (6) are expressed in the (7) Some of these opinions are (8), but they are not nearly as bad as the (9), which usually make me laugh! Written in bold witty (10) are designed to provoke reader’s (11) to what is written below. I would always like a better job, so I go to the (12) and take a look at the (13) The New York Times has wonderful (14) who do an excellent job getting the facts right. Unfortunately, the weather (15) is often quite wrong. One last thing, do you know why The New York Times is so large? Because of (16) which sometimes takes up several pages!
 

IX. Find words in this word search grid to match the following definitions.

1. humorous drawing often dealing with something in the news in an amusing way. 2 . the part of the newspaper giving the opinion of the person in charge of the newspaper on a problem or event. 3. the title printed in large letters above a story in a newspaper. 4 . informal talk or writing about other people’s private lives. 5 . a person whose job consists of collecting information and writing things for newspapers and magazines. 6. a printed word game which you do by fitting words guessed from questions and information into a pattern of numbered squares going down and across.