补充阅读 Newspapers in English Speaking Countries

Newspapers in English Speaking CountriesIn the West, newspapers, together with books, magazines, radio, television, films and sound-recording, are generally referred to as the mass media. They are so called because they serve the broad masses in acquiring and exchanging information either for knowledge or for entertainment. They are something most people cannot do without though they do not weigh the sane in significance. While radio and television are the most popular forms of the mass media, the press, mainly newspapers and magazines, still plays an important role in their life.Some people had predicted in the 1950s that radio and television would sooner or later replace newspapers. Whether this will eventually take place or not, it has not yet happened as predicted. On the contrary, newspapers have gained as much found as they should. In the United States, for example, the newspaper industry is still one of the top ten enterprises. It is the third largest industry, ranked behind only the automobile and steel, as far as employment is concerned. One out of two Americans still reads newspapers regularly and depend more or less on newspapers to provide timely and useful information, and to help plan the day, make effective decisions, and cope with the complexities of modern living. It is still a profitable industry. In 1978, for example, it made as much money as that by radio and television put together.Why do people attach so much importance to the newspaper? One obvious reason is that it has some advantages over other forms of the mass media, including radio and television. It is not limited by time and space. A reader can pick up a newspaper whenever he has time, and read or re-read whatever he is interested in. But he cannot, however, do this with either radio or television, he has to tune to the right station and wait for the right thing to come up. What is even worse is that he can’t review the news the sane time it is said. There is little or no coming back until hours later. What is more, the news service provided by radio or television is usually brief and sketchy, for they can never exceed the limit of twenty-four hours a day. There is no such problem with newspapers, which can be as long as need, from a few pages to four or five hundred pages a day. The longest newspaper is said to have exceed 1,000pages a day.Newspapers on English speaking countries, as they do in China or else where in the world, vary from kind to kind. Those that are published on every weekday are called dailies; those that are published once a week, or twice a week or sometimes once every two weeks, are called weeklies. Morning papers and evening papers are but different varieties of dailies meant to be read in the morning and evening respectively, while supplements are additional publications for readers of special interest. Besides the weekday publication, most big newspapers in English speaking countries have a Sunday edition, which provides the reader with information of broader interest. In the past, if anything special happened, gig papers always published a special edition in the form of an extra. Now extras have given way to radio and television, which can transmit news far more quickly than newspapers.Apart from the types of newspapers mentioned above, there is one called chain newspapers which are smaller newspapers derived from or attached to some big newspapers. They are popular newspapers as opposed to serious newspapers, and are meant for the lower working class people. This does not mean, however, that all the popular newspapers are chain newspapers. Some of them are quite independent, and can outnumber many big serious newspapers in circulation. For example, the Sun in Britain, a popular newspaper of relatively low quality, sells almost twice as many copies a day as the Times- one of the most prominent newspapers both in Britain and the world over.Nowadays, more and more people, especially the young people, in the west are drawn away from newspapers by radio and television, but the newspaper by radio and television, but the newspaper has not yet passed its prime. It is still evolving and becoming more and more sophisticated.Questions on the text:1. What is mass media in the West?2. Will radio and TV take the place of newspaper? Why?3. What is the advantage of newspaper?4. Do you often read newspapers? Which one is your favorite?。