Answer the following questions

1. What is the role of mass media in the life of contemporary society?

2. What kinds of mass media do you know?

3. What was the earliest kind of mass media?

4. What role do newspapers play today?

5. What is the difference between a newspaper and a

6. magazine?

7. When was TV invented?

8. Why is the television so exciting?

9. When did radio appear?

10. Did it take radio long to be a reality?

11. What is the reason for widespread use of radios?

12. What do you know about the Internet?

 

Read and translate the text, learn the italicized word combinations.

The role of mass media in the life of the present society is difficult to overestimate. They have become a daily and essential necessity with contemporary men. Mass media report about various aspects of life, form and affect public opinion. Mass media are one of the most characteristic features of modern civilization. People are united into one global community with the help of mass media. People can learn about what is happening in the world very fast using mass media. The mass media include newspapers, magazines, radio ,television and the Internet.

The earliest kind of mass media was newspaper. Newspapers appeared in many European countries in the 17th century. They developed from newspapers and booksellers' catalogs. Newspaper are usually issued daily, weekly, or at other regular times. They provide news, views, features, and other information of public interest and often carry advertising. Today people have a chance to have full information about political, economic and cultural events in their own country and abroad.

Magazines do not focus on daily, rapidly changing events. They provide more profound analysis of events of proceeding week. Magazines are designed to be kept for a longer time so they have cover and binding and are printed on better paper.

TV experiments to create a workable television system began in the late 19th century by Paul Nipkow, a German scientist. Today almost every family in the civilized world has a TV set. Television plays an important role in our society, not only as an entertainer and informant, but also because of the grip it has on many people. Television channels easily go into people's home taking in their time and life.

Radio appeared earlier then TV. Radio first became a possibility when the English physicist Michael Faraday demonstrated that an electrical current could produce a magnetic field. In 1864 James Clerk Maxwell, a professor of experimental physics at Cambridge, proved mathematically that these electrical disturbances could be detected at considerable distances. Maxwell predicted that this electromagnetic energy could move outward in waves travelling at the speed of light. In 1888 Heinrich Hertz demonstrated that Maxwell's prediction was true for transmissions over short distances. In 1901 an Italian physicist named Guglielrno Marconi received wireless telegraphic messages sent from Cornwall to Newfoundland. It was hailed as a triumph, but few discerned its full meaning: the birth of a communications revolution. Radio is widespread for its portability. It means that radios can easily be carried around. People like listening to the radio on the beach or picnic, while driving a car or just walking down the street. The main kind of radio entertainment is music.

The Internet was created in 1983. Since that time it has grown beyond its largely academic origin into an increasingly commercial and popular medium. The Internet connects many computer net works. It is based on a common addressing system and communications protocol called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). By the mid-1990s the Internet connected millions of computers throughout the world. Many commercial computer network and data services also provided at least indirect connection to the Internet. The World Wide Web, which enables simple and intuitive navigation of Internet sites through a graphical interface, expanded during the 1990s to become the most important component of the Internet. It's impossible to say now what the Internet will be like in the future or how it will change our lives. But we must admit that the World Wide Web offers people great opportunities, and we must try to make the best use of it.

 

 

Practise saying and learn the vocabulary

 

· to overestimate- переоценивать

· contemporary- современный

· feature — черта

· mass media — средства массовой информации

· bookseller — книготорговец

· issue- издание

· advertising- реклама

· entertaining — развлекательный

· portability — портативность

· newcast — обзор новостей

· to focus — сосредоточиваться

· grip -умение овладеть вниманием

· current -ток [эл.]

· profound — глубокий

· magnetic field- магнитное поле

· prediction- предсказание,прогноз

· portability- мобильность, переносимость

· to hail- приветствовать

· to discern- разглядеть,распознавать

· popular medium -популярное средство

· Transmission Control Protocol- протокол управления передачей (интернет-протокол, который отвечает за разбиение данных на пакеты, которые протокол IP передает по сети).

· data services- услуги передачи данных

· graphical interface- графический интерфейс

· admit –признавать

 

Complete the sentences and use them as a plan for your future talk on the Mass media

The role of mass media in the life of the present society is_______________________.

The mass media include_____________________________.

The earliest kind of mass media_____________________________.

Magazines provide more profound analysis_____________________________.

Television plays an important role in our society_____________________________.

Television channels easily go into people's home_____________________________.

Radio first became a possibility when_____________________________.

Radio is widespread for its_____________________________.

Internet is based on a_____________________________.

By the mid-1990s the Internet connected_____________________________.

The World Wide Web offers people_____________________________.