Topic 14 Television

Television is one of the most popular media nowadays. People have TV sets
and sometimes even more than one in every apartment. Some people watch
TV all day long using it as a background entertainer. Other people watch TV
selectively; they just choose their favourite programmes or interesting films to
watch.

There are a lot of channels in our country. TV viewers can watch different kinds
of programmes: the news, documentaries, sports programmes, quiz shows,
chat shows, cookery programmes, comedy shows, weather forecasts, cartoons,
soap operas and others. Television can entertain and amuse, educate and
inform. It gives us insight into other people and culture around the world and
this helps us to break down stereotypes. It is also a great source of knowledge
about nature, history and modern problems.

However, not all the programmes are really good. Many of them are not even
worth watching. The problem is that a lot of programmes are repeated many
times. For example, the same films are shown many times in one year, and
most of them are very old. Many people complain that there is too much
violence in some films and TV programmes and there are too many
commercials on TV.

What is more, people become addicted to television. They spend long hours in
front of TV screens wasting time and learning nothing, watching boring soap
operas or different chat shows instead of doing sports or socializing with other
people. They are more interested in characters from soap operas than in real
people.

My favourite programme is the news. It is a daily news programme about

recent events in our country and abroad. It usually lasts half an hour and this
time is hardly enough to learn about the main events in the world. I like it when
I am well-informed and keep up-to-date with the rest of the world. From my
point of view, I do not watch much TV, just a few hours a day. I usually watch
"Inter" and "1+1" channels. "Discovery" is one of my favourite channels too,
because it is interesting and informative.