Студопедия

КАТЕГОРИИ:


Архитектура-(3434)Астрономия-(809)Биология-(7483)Биотехнологии-(1457)Военное дело-(14632)Высокие технологии-(1363)География-(913)Геология-(1438)Государство-(451)Демография-(1065)Дом-(47672)Журналистика и СМИ-(912)Изобретательство-(14524)Иностранные языки-(4268)Информатика-(17799)Искусство-(1338)История-(13644)Компьютеры-(11121)Косметика-(55)Кулинария-(373)Культура-(8427)Лингвистика-(374)Литература-(1642)Маркетинг-(23702)Математика-(16968)Машиностроение-(1700)Медицина-(12668)Менеджмент-(24684)Механика-(15423)Науковедение-(506)Образование-(11852)Охрана труда-(3308)Педагогика-(5571)Полиграфия-(1312)Политика-(7869)Право-(5454)Приборостроение-(1369)Программирование-(2801)Производство-(97182)Промышленность-(8706)Психология-(18388)Религия-(3217)Связь-(10668)Сельское хозяйство-(299)Социология-(6455)Спорт-(42831)Строительство-(4793)Торговля-(5050)Транспорт-(2929)Туризм-(1568)Физика-(3942)Философия-(17015)Финансы-(26596)Химия-(22929)Экология-(12095)Экономика-(9961)Электроника-(8441)Электротехника-(4623)Энергетика-(12629)Юриспруденция-(1492)Ядерная техника-(1748)

The two types of national newspaper




British press

BRITISH MEDIA

Britain’s first newspapers appeared over 300 years ago. Now, as then, newspapers receive no government subsidy, unlike in many European countries today. Advertising has always been a vital source of income.

Today more newspapers are sold in Great Britain than almost any other country. But, as in many other European countries, Britain's main newspapers and main TV channels are both in long-term decline; fewer and fewer people are reading the former or watching the latter. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, people became richer, so that they were able to pursue alternative forms of leisure activity. In addition, cheaper means of production and distribution meant that the main papers and the main channels found themselves with more rivals. More recently, there is the internet, which gives people not only a further form of leisure activity but also an alternative source for news. Nevertheless, the main papers and channels remain a central part of everyday national life.

Newspaper publication in the country is dominated by the national press. There are more than seventy local and regional daily papers, but the total circulation of all of them together is less than the combined circulation of the handful of national 'dailies'.

The way politics is presented in the national newspapers is an example of the fact that British political parties are essentially parliamentary organizations, not countrywide ones. Although different papers have differing political outlooks, none of the large newspapers is an organ of a political party. Many are often obviously in favour of the policies of this or that party (and even more obviously against the policies of another party) but none of them would ever use 'we' or 'us' to refer to a certain party.

Conventionally, the national papers are divided into two distinct types. The quality papers cater for the better educated readers. The popular papers sell to a much larger readership. They contain far less print than the 'qualities' and far more pictures. They use larger headlines and write in a simpler style of English. While the qualities devote much space to politics and other 'serious' news, the popular papers concentrate on 'human interest' stories, which often means sex and scandal.

In the words of one ex-editor of The Times: “The values of mass journalism are the traditional romantic values of energy, intuition, personality, sexuality, excitement and myth. The romantic element in the mass mind responds instinctively to the energy in the mass newspaper. Readers are presented with an exciting world of demons and temptresses, a flickering and exotic fairy tale… By contrast the values of the serious press are those of analysis, rationality, truth, lucidity, balance, reality and, I would hope, compassion.”

The two types have also been known by other names: the broadsheets and the tabloids. Not so long ago in Britain, if you saw someone reading a newspaper, you could tell what kind it was without even checking the title. This was because the quality newspapers were all printed on terribly large-sized paper known as broadsheet. The popular papers, on the other hand, were all tabloids; that is, they were printed on much smaller pages (which were therefore much easier to turn). But in 2004, two quality newspapers, The Times and The Independent, successfully adopted the tabloid format. And then, a year later, another quality, The Guardian, broke with tradition even more radically by adopting the Berliner format, which is halfway between broadsheet and tabloid and often used in continental Europe but never before in Britain. Again, the move was a success. And so, the tabloid/broadsheet distinction no longer fits the facts. However, it is still often used, in order to avoid the snobbery of the other method of distinction.

In any case, the differences between the two types can be exaggerated. The 'qualities' do not completely ignore sex and scandal or any other aspect of public life. Both types of paper devote equal amounts of attention to sport. Moreover, some people make a three-way distinction (The Daily Mail and The Express being in the middle). The differences are in the treatments of the topics covered and in which topics are given the most prominence.

 

How many do they sell?


As you can see, the ‘popular’ papers sell about four times as many copies as the ‘qualities’. The gap, however, is much narrower than in past decades. In 1950, for example, they sold twenty times as many. But their sales have fallen greatly since that time. Overall, newspaper circulation has declined by a third. It has declined especially sharply in the twenty-first century, probably, because of the internet, as well as the increasing number of free newspapers (which get their money from advertising).





Поделиться с друзьями:


Дата добавления: 2014-12-16; Просмотров: 3254; Нарушение авторских прав?; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы!


Нам важно ваше мнение! Был ли полезен опубликованный материал? Да | Нет



studopedia.su - Студопедия (2013 - 2024) год. Все материалы представленные на сайте исключительно с целью ознакомления читателями и не преследуют коммерческих целей или нарушение авторских прав! Последнее добавление




Генерация страницы за: 0.011 сек.