US Civilisation – Media

1. MEDIA: plural of medium: a method or way of expressing something)

Media: The main means or method of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the Internet) regarded collectively (Oxford
Dictionaries). The internet, newspapers, magazines, television, etc., considered as a group (Cambridge Dictionary).

2. MEDIA LITERACY: a skill, the ability to access, analyse, evaluate, create and act using all forms of communication.

1. What kind of content were you absorbing and how did you get to it?
2. Were you making sense of its messages?
3. Were you aware that each message was created by someone with their own goals and opinions?
4. When you create media, what is your responsibility to those who view it?
5. What do you do with all that you received?

+ understanding the difference between media messages (values, ideas) and media effects
(influences, consequences)
 encoding and decoding messages
 What information can we truly trust? – the problem of fake news

3. THE HISTORY OF THE MEDIA IN THE US

1) Mass media: PRINT (books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, etc.) from the late 15th century

Read the first three paragraphs of history of printing and decide if the following statements are true or false.

1. “Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick”, was the very first colonial newspaper in the USA.
2. “Free press” means the same as “the freedom of speech”.
3. Zenger was part of the jury and he was convinced that the publishers were innocent of the crime.
4. The education system in itself changed the readership of American newspapers.
5. Newspapers spread political content, news and transmitted values of national identity through their articles.

On September 25, 1690, the first colonial newspaper in America, Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, was published.
Although some English newspapers and single-page broadsides had been available to read before, this was the first true multi-page
colonial newspaper. However, it was suppressed after its first edition. Early American newspapers, often printed by small-town printers,
documented the daily life of hundreds of diverse American communities, supported different political parties and recorded both majority
and minority views.

Historians consider the birth of America's free-press tradition to have begun with the 1734 trial of John Peter Zenger for seditious
libel, the crime of making public statements that threaten to undermine respect for the government, laws, or public officials. In the trial he
was found innocent as the jury couldn’t prove him wrong concerning the content of the articles.
After the Independence War (1775-1783), the concept of freedom of speech found a home in the Bill of Rights, in the US Constitution in
1789 (1st Amendment): "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech or of the press..."

By the early 1800s, the United States had entered a period of swift technological progress. The expansion of the educational system taught
more Americans to read. Publishers realized that a profitable future belonged to cheap newspapers with large readerships and
increased advertising. The press went from a small upper class readership to mass readership in just a few years.

It was a time that shaped a breed of editors who set the standard for generations of American journalists. They combined idealism with
national pride, and their papers became the means by which great masses of new immigrants were taught the American way of life. The
1830s was the era of the __________________________________________. Each paper cost only one penny, and it revolutionized journalism. It relied on
mass circulation as it was the first type of paper which covered its expenses by having a lot of _____________________________________ so that it
could be sold for a low price to a great audience. By the mid-1800 the penny press made so much money from advertising that people were
worried about journalists choosing ________________________________ over truth.

The 1880s saw the emergence of _______________________________________. It emphasized sensational and shocking (because
involving violence, sex, or immoral activity) news coverage, such as scary or misleading headlines,
___________________________________________ or exaggerated stories. Its leading representatives were Hungarian born
__________________________ Pulitzer (whose Pulitzer Prize is one of the highest honours in the USA today) and William
Randolph Hearst. The expression ‘yellow journalism’ stems from the popular Yellow Kid _______________-_________________
that first ran in Pulitzer’s New York World.

Besides yellow journalism, the turn of the century saw the rise of a type of investigating journalism called muckraking, the activity of trying
to find out unpleasant information about people or organizations in order to make it public. It was Theodore Roosevelt who gave them this
name because he claimed that muckrakers exposed the negative aspects of government and business. Neither muckrakers nor the yellow
press were objective. The need for objective journalism, facts and trustworthy information increased more and more. Therefore, in the
1920s the principles of objective journalism were laid down. Its main principle is that journalists should keep their opinion out of the
reports. The very first representative of objective journalism was actually The New York Times (1851) that created an alternative to
sensationalism, yellow journalism and muckraking.
 At the end of the 18th and at the beginning of the 19th centuries, media did not play an important role in the everyday
life of the American people. However, the industrial revolution and the new inventions marked the beginning of the
modern media.
The development of linotype made it possible to produce inexpensively and in large quantities. The linotype was a type
of 19th century printing machine that produced entire lines of words as single strips instead of separate characters on
the printing surface.
At the end of the 19th century wire services also appeared exploiting the invention of the telegraph (a method of
sending and receiving messages by electrical or radio signals). In 1914 Associated Press introduced the teleprinter,
which transmitted directly to printers over telegraph wires.

In spite of the serious competition from television after World War II, more than two-thirds of American adults read a
daily newspaper on an average weekday. The top five daily newspapers by circulation are: the Wall Street Journal, USA
Today, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post.

The same developments marked the beginning of mass appeal magazines. The largest readerships were
won by magazines that catered to Americans' increasing leisure time and appetite for consumer goods, magazines such as
Cosmopolitan, the Ladies Home Journal, and the Saturday Evening Post. Because newspapers reached only local audiences,
popular magazines attracted advertisers’ eager to reach a national audience for their products. By the early 1900s,
magazines had become major marketing devices.

Most important US newspapers and magazines nowadays

The US has one of the largest number of newspaper readers in the world with the majority of the readers averaging 40 years of age. There
are over 1,300 daily newspapers in circulation in the US today. Weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly newspapers are also popular in the country.

Read the descriptions and match the names of the three most significant newspapers: The New York Times, USA Today and The
Wall Street Journal.
_________________________________ has been in circulation since September 1982. The daily newspaper operated from Virginia is printed at 37
locations in the US and five additional locations internationally. It has the widest circulation in the US, reaching over seven million readers
daily.
__________________________________ was founded in September 1851. The daily newspaper is the second-largest in circulation and the largest
circulating metropolitan newspapers. It is divided into three main sections, namely the news section (which includes both international and
national news), opinion section (including editorials), and a features section (which includes art, fashion, movies, and food).
_________________________________ is based in New York. The newspaper also has both Asian and European editions and focuses mainly on
business related news. It has been in circulation since July 1889. Because of its wide audience and coverage of wide areas of interest, the
newspaper has won 40 Pulitzer Prizes to date.

+ The rest of the top 10 (by subscription) include: The Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, the
Newsday, the Daily News and the am New York.

1. ESPN The Magazine, the biweekly sports magazine published by the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network has the largest
mobile audience in the United States.
2. Time, American weekly newsmagazine was first published in New York City on March 3, 1923. Time's most famous feature throughout its
history has been the annual "Person of the Year" (formerly "Man of the Year") cover story, in which Time recognizes the individual or
group of individuals who have had the biggest impact on news headlines. During its history, for five occasions, Time has released a
special issue with a cover showing an X scrawled over the face of a man or a national symbol. The first Time magazine with a red X cover
was released on May 7, 1945, showing a red X over Adolf Hitler's face.
3. People magazine got its start back in 1974, as a celebrity magazine that focused on the true, personal lives of celebrities. The magazine
covers the lives, and gossip, of everyone from celebrities to the President with dignity and respect. The annual features the "Sexiest Man
Alive" and the “Sexiest Woman Alive” are great success.
4. AARP The Magazine, the bi-monthly magazine published by the American Association of Retired People, had the largest subscription
circulation in the United States as it sold over 23.4 million copies through its subscription service in 2015.

2) Mass media: RECORDINGS (gramophone records, magnetic tapes, cassettes, cartridges, CDs, DVDs) from the late 19th century; cinema from
about 1900

Complete the following two paragraphs with the words and expressions below.

artistic contemporary ill influence film news newsreels silent stars

The emergence of ______________________ appeared together with films. A newsreel is a short film that consists of _________________ reports, such
as the "Showdown in Vietnam", a February 8, 1965 war propaganda newsreel.

The American _______________________industry, often referred to as Hollywood (from the place name of its birth), is the industry leader in the
form of _________________________ expression. The immediacy of the medium created a system of ________________________ with the powerful ability
to ___________________________________ the rest of the culture, for good or for ______________. The history of American cinema is sometimes separated
into four main periods: the _________________________ era (1893-1929), Classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood and the
______________________________ period (after 1980).
3) Mass media: RADIO from about 1910

What two types of programmes attracted the listeners of the radio?

The 1920s also saw the birth of the radio. By 1928, the United States had three national radio networks - two owned by NBC (the National
Broadcasting Company), and one by CBS (the Columbia Broadcasting System). Though mostly listened to for entertainment, radio's instant,
on-the-spot reports of dramatic events drew huge audiences throughout the Great Depression of the 1930s and World War II. In the 1950s,
automobile manufacturers began offering car radios as standard accessories, and radio received a big boost.

4) Mass media: TELEVISION from about 1950

Complete the following paragraph with the appropriate form of the words.

After World War II. there was a _______________________________ (decline) in reading newspapers. This happened because of the
__________________________________ (emerge) of television which created a new American lifestyle. At the ______________________ (begin) of the
television era broadcast television was very popular. It distributed content over the airwaves and it was without charge.
Virtually every American household -- 98% in 1999 -- has at _________________________ (little) one TV set. Seven in ten Americans in 1991
reported ________________ (get) most of their news from TV. Three large privately-owned networks -- ABC (American Broadcasting
Company), NBC (National Broadcasting Company) and CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) -- claimed 90 percent of the TV market
from the 1950s through the 1970s with free broadcasts. The three major networks _____________________________ (attract) many Americans with
their ___________________________ (entertain) programs soap-operas, quiz-shows, evening news.
However, the rise of cable television opened a new era. Although people have to pay ________________________ (month) fees, Americans now
have a wider variety of _______________________ (choose). There are channels which focus on movies e.g. HBO (Home Box Office since 1975) –
first to distribute its signal via satellite; sports e.g. ESPN (Entertainment and Sports Programming Network); cartoons e.g. Cartoon Network;
music e.g. MTV (Music Television since 1993); home shopping, pornographic movies, traveling…

Even in the recent times, the television is one of the most effective media of communication. Perhaps, this
is the reason why it is still the daily dose of happiness for many with the help of talk shows (The Ellen Show,
The Oprah Winfrey Show), late night shows (Jimmy Kimmel Live!), reality shows (Keeping up with the
Kardashians), talent shows (American Idol, The X Factor) and sports. In 2018 only two shows without a sports
tie-in made the top 10 most watched programs. Number one is the Super Bowl, while the 2018 Oscars (No.
8) turned out to be the awards show's least-watched edition in recent history. And "Roseanne," the year's top-
rated series, was cancelled in May after its star's racist tweets.

Read the following two paragraphs and decide if they are about CNN or Fox News Channel.

1. an American cable television news and political commentary channel billing itself as the “fair and balanced”
2. “the Chicken Noodle Network” because of its poor financial resources at the beginning of its history which was followed by a struggle to
earn respect in the broadcast world

The most popular is the CNN (Cable News Network) which has been providing news 24 hours a day since 1980. CNN played an important
role in the Gulf War (American-led coalition forces against Iraq, 1990-1991) as well. At the start of the war, some government officials
admitted that they had got more information by watching CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily
broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers. CNN International can be watched all over the world.

Founded in 1996, Fox News Channel (FNC) is an American basic cable and satellite news television channel that is owned by the Fox
Entertainment Group, a part of 21st Century Fox.

As technology changes very rapidly digital media has been gaining popularity. Newspapers, magazines, television and radio stations
provide their digitized content that can be transmitted over internet or computer networks and made available for a larger audience.

5) Mass media: INTERNET from about 1990 and MOBILE PHONES from about 2000 (INTERACTIVE MEDIA)

New media is a catch-all term used for various kinds of electronic communications such as websites, online
video/audio streams, email, online social platforms, online communities,
online forums, blogs, Web advertisements, online education and much
more. News can also be viewed via satellite with reporters covering events on site and sending
it via the Internet to broadcasting news networks. New media is above all user-friendly and hi-
tech.

Online media is part of digital media, which includes photos, video and music, distributed over
the Internet, which are either non-copyrighted or copyrighted materials provided either freely or
for a fee.

The dark Web is comprised of websites that are visible to the public, but their IP address details
are intentionally hidden. These websites can be visited by anyone on Internet, but it is not easy to
find the server details on which the corresponding site is running, and it is difficult to track the
one hosting the site.
4. THE ROLE OF MEDIA IN THE US

Complete the summary of the role of media with the key expressions.

commercialism - Federal Communications Commission - fourth estate – freedom of speech – ethics - know – parental advisory

Media is called the ________________________________ because it seems to be as significant as making laws (legislative branch), the implementation
of the laws (executive branch) and the legal system (judicial branch) and the work it does. As media is extremely influential, there’s a great
emphasis on the ______________________________ which grants the expression of information, ideas, and opinions free of government restrictions
based on content. This is why the balance between the right to ______________________________ and the right to privacy is essential. Media
________________________________ has been trying to give guidelines on what is morally good and bad, right and wrong. First journalists felt the
need to create these but a decade later the Congress also introduced its watchdog, _________________________________________________________________ ,
to control the spreading of information in media. To protect younger audiences, the broadcasting and film industries started using
_______________________________________ labels. However, _____________________________ , the practice of trying to make as much profit as possible and
not caring about how this affects other people is a huge issue.

Problems

The US has the most highly-developed mass media in the world, however the problems with the media have been documented in
great detail by researchers, academicians and journalists themselves: inaccuracies; sensationalism; mistakes; poor coverage of important
issues; the media’s short attention span; not serving public; media outlets are investing less in the quality of what they do; the public is
misinformed and uninformed.
Overall, a serious complaint about journalism is that they have a preference on what and how to report, in other words, news
organisations are biased. For example, they prefer not to report news which are disadvantageous or critical of their organization or
advertisers (1). Furthermore, media tries to present news so that the content pleases the consumer (2). However, the consumers are not
a mixed group of people from every layers of society. Certain groups and their issues don’t get much media attention so they are under-
reported. Moreover, politicians (3) provide content for news with their appearance (special events, extraordinary occasions) or with the
help of leaking. The New York Times and Washington Post are more liberal while the Wall Street Journal and Fox News tend to be more
conservative.

Influence

Every day the news is filled with stories about war, terrorism, crime, pollution, inequality, drug abuse and oppression. Whether or not the
world really is getting worse, the nature of news will interact with the nature of cognition to make us think that it is. Therefore, media
influences our way of thought, our attitudes, our actions. This is why critical thinking and media literacy has becoming more and more
important.
A 2016 study found that people tend to seek information that aligns with their views. In late 2016, Oxford Dictionaries selected “post-
truth” as the word of the year, defining it as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping
public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”.
Economics plays a major role in shaping the information served up to the U.S. public. Most of the public’s primary sources of information
are in business to make money as media and communications are one of America’s largest business groups. According to “The Nation”,
the problem with U.S. media is extreme commercialism. To keep the attention, media must entertain the public.

“America’s commercial media system might be great for business, but it’s terrible for democracy.”

The digital ad industry in the US has been growing steadily for years,
primarily thanks to two behemoths: Facebook and Google. Even though digital
advertising was just half the size of the “traditional” ad industry four years ago
in 2015, it was only a matter of time before the two swapped roles.