Otázka: Communications and media
Jazyk: Angličtina
Přidal(a): KristynaSch
Today’s world offers us many kinds of media and chances to communicate. However it is well known fact, that people talk less and less to each other. We text, chat, call, but we don’t spend so much time talking face to face. Especially young generation is used to sit behind computer and chat with friends instead of hanging out. One deterrent example – in my family, we call each other for free. For me it’s nothing weird that my sister calls me in the evening to turn down the music, because she can’t fall asleep in the other room. I think that’s not normal anymore. We are too lazy to stand up, so we call instead.
Also media are changing, because of modern technologies. It is common now, that people download newspapers and magazines into their tablets and mobiles. I’m pretty sure, that one day there will be no printed press. Today’s people take media as an ordinary thing and we can’t imagine life without them. We would feel cut off from the rest of the world.
Newspapers are today quite old-fashioned. When something happens we can’t read about it until the next day. Publishers are aware of this fact and most of the newspapers have their own online version. In the past were published morning, midday and evening newspapers. Today it’s faster and much cheaper to put it online, so there is only one newspaper a day. For me printed newspapers have its magic. The first newspapers were printed in 17th century. Newspapers are printed on special newsprint and they are not bound, but just put together.
There are three main kinds of newspaper:
1) typical newspaper like Mladá fronda DNES or Hospodářskénoviny in Czech Republic, The Daily Telegraph or The Washington Post. They are printed on very big pages; it’s difficult to hold them together during the reading. Their articles are longer and include more details. Journalists write almost about everything – economy, crime, culture, sport, politics and free time. In December I was on excursion in MF DNES. It was one of the most impressing excursions I have ever been on. Seeing how the newspapers are made and how editors work was incredible!
2) Tabloids are the most read newspapers on the world. People love drama and sensations. Everyone says “I do not read tabloids, it’s full of blabs”, but everyone reads it. It has its online versions too. Their front pages are always the same – huge headline (something like “Britney Spears was driving drunk”), photo taken by paparazzi and small article (often made-up). The most popular tabloid in Czech Republic is Blesk. In the world it’s The Sun and The Mirror. I thing that world’s tabloids have much higher quality that the Czech ones. However they are still tabloids.
3) Special magazines are usually printed on a glossy paper. They are published weekly or monthly and they are focused on something special. I thing magazines for women are the most popular, than magazines about computers and technologies. There are also magazines about animals, garden, food, sport, medicine, etc.
Radio is very popular fellow in a car. We can choose from huge amount of radio stations. There are also online radios – we can listen to them on the internet. I think that the golden age of the radio was during the Second World War and until the year 1989. People listened unofficial radios, where presenters were telling the uncensored information and they warned about possible danger. There radio stations were called The Voice of America and Independent Europe. Today many people call into radio broadcast to warn about traffic jams and car accidents.
TV is probably the most spread and influential media. Commercial televisions are full of advertisement, because they earn a lot of money that way. There are many channels, each one of them is focused on something else. We can choose from news channel, film channel, music channel, children’s channel, fashion channel and many others. These days the most popular TV program are reality shows. I find them stupid, but people love them! Also you can watch on TV soap operas, quiz shows, game shows, action series, news broadcast, weather forecast, sport matches, political discussions, etc.
Since the expansion of internet, there have been boom of users of social networks. The biggest one is the Facebook. It was established in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook has 800 million active users and has been translated into sixty eight languages. Developers are still developing new tricks, so now you can even connect Facebook with Skype and make video calls. Some people damn Facebook, because of the amount of information we share online. I think it’s important to control what kind of information and pictures we share, but for me Facebook is amazing tool thanks to which we stay in contact with people. It doesn’t matter if they are living in the same town, on the other side of republic or the world.
