英語(yǔ)專業(yè)八級(jí) Mini Lecture 3

[00:00.00]MINI-LECTURE 3 [00:30.66]In this section, you will hear a mini-lecture. [00:36.13]You will hear the lecture ONCE ONLY. [00:38.86]While listening, take notes on the important points. [00:43.24]Your notes will not be marked, [00:45.64]but you will need them to complete a gap-filling task after the mini-lecture. [00:51.23]When the lecture is over, you’ll be given two minutes to check your notes, [00:56.48]and another 10 minutes to complete the gap-filling task. [01:00.74]Now listen to the mini-lecture. [01:03.81]Good morning, everyone, [01:06.98]today my topic is mass media in America. [01:10.48]By media, we refer to the variety of means by which technology transmits information and entertainment to us. [01:17.80]Thus, in its broadest sense, [01:20.21]the term media includes newspaper, television, movies, radio, books, and magazines. [01:25.79]Mass media specifically refer to those publications and programs [01:30.16]that attempt to serve most or all of the people in a given market. [01:33.78]Here I would like to introduce the mass media in America by dividing them into three groups: [01:39.25]newspaper; magazines; radio and television. [01:43.50]First, let’s have a look at newspapers. [01:46.13]For a long time, newspapers have been the chief means by which people get themselves informed. [01:51.93]While television has replaced newspapers as the primary source of news for most Americans, [01:57.83]and while computer network is increasingly becoming a faster and easier way of obtaining news for many Americans, [02:04.73]newspapers still remain as one of the most powerful means of communications in the United States. [02:10.53]For one thing, reading newspapers is different from watching TV. [02:15.12]It gives detailed coverage of news items, [02:18.73]and tends to provide substantial treatment of news events. [02:21.79]And, sometimes it offers interesting and stimulating opinions [02:25.18]as well as analysis over important events at home and abroad. [02:29.23]For another, unlike watching TV, [02:32.07]reading newspapers does not require one to be confined to his sitting-room. [02:36.01]He can do it virtually anywhere he likes: in his car, at the breakfast table, sitting in the sun, [02:43.44]waiting at the subway station, and believe it or not, in the restroom. [02:47.71]So, for these and many other reasons, newspapers in the United States are still a big business. [02:54.61]And, this is borne out by two facts: [02:57.23](1) the large circulation of a number of important newspapers such as USA Today and The Wall Street Journal; [03:04.66](2) the great variety of newspapers available in the United States, [03:08.82]big and small, local and national, special and general, radical and conservative, and so on. [03:14.73]The top 3 daily newspapers in the United States are: Wall Street Journal, USA Today and New York Times. [03:23.37]Second, we’ll move to magazines. [03:26.11]According to a statistical record in 1990, [03:30.15]there were over 12,205 magazines being published in the United States. [03:35.74]More than 4,000 of them appear monthly, and over 1,300 are published each week. [03:42.09]They cover all topics and interests, from art and architecture to sports, [03:46.90]from aviation and gardening to computers and book reviews, [03:50.51]from fashion design and cooking to homemaking. [03:53.79]Quite a few have international editors, are translated into other languages, [03:58.49]or have “daughter” editions in foreign countries. [04:00.90]Among the many internationals are National Geographic, [04:05.06]Reader’s Digest, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Time, Newsweek, Scientific American and Psychology Today. [04:12.72]The weekly newsmagazines — the best known are Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report — [04:19.50]serve as a type of national press. [04:21.58]Unlike newspapers, however, weekly newsmagazines tend to give extensive coverage and provide detailed, [04:29.13]and sometimes in-depth, analysis. Also unlike newspapers, [04:33.06]which usually have the lowest common denominator in their appeal to the general reading public, [04:37.43]weekly newsmagazines normally target at the well-educated, well-informed, [04:42.36]and public-conscious people of the society. [04:44.66]Many weekly newsmagazines also have considerable international impact, particularly Time and Newsweek. [04:51.87]The top three magazines in America are: (1) Reader’s Digest; (2) TV Guide; (3) The Conde Nast Select. [05:00.29]Third, I’ll say something about radio and television. [05:04.78]In more than two generations, the two powerful mass media transformed much of American life. [05:10.57]Radio, emerging at the same period when the Great Depression pervaded in America, [05:16.37]provided free entertainment in the comforts of the home. [05:19.65]Families that could no longer afford to go out for entertainment gathered together in their living rooms [05:25.34]to escape reality by laughing, fantasizing and dreaming of happier times. [05:29.93]From then on, radio became a first-class entertainment medium for most Americans. [05:34.97]Up until now, in view of the popularity of radio programs in the United States, [05:40.00]the future of radio as a form of medium continues to look bright. [05:44.26]Then, with the rapid development of science and technology, TV came into being in 1920s. [05:50.60]It primarily serves as a medium of entertainment, [05:53.78]and then also has a big role to play as a news broadcasting agency. [05:57.93]Networks began experimenting with news at locally owned stations as early as January 1940. [06:05.15]But, early-day television news could not begin to compare with radio news. [06:10.73]Only after the invention of portable cameras and videotape recorders [06:15.11]had television been made a much more credible news medium [06:18.72]because viewers saw pictures of the news events on the day they occurred. [06:23.20]Consequently, access to news is made much easier, [06:26.48]and the general public is getting better informed. [06:29.33]Gradually, television’s impact on American society has been more and more profound. [06:35.78]It has changed the life-styles of most Americans and become a major influence on American culture. [06:41.58]It can be seen from 5 aspects. [06:44.09]First and foremost is the socialization effect. [06:48.25]Many studies have shown that TV’s dominance as household activity [06:52.30]often reduces the level of communication among family members and, as a result, [06:57.88]much of the culture being distributed to youngsters today in the United States [07:02.36]comes from the tube rather than the family. [07:05.10]Secondly, television programming has played an important role in shaping and reflecting for the masses [07:12.10]the cultural changes that have been occurring in American Society. [07:15.92]TV functions both as a transmitter of new cultural trends [07:20.96]and as a molder of new attitudes towards these new trends. [07:24.78]Thirdly, television has revolutionized the marketing of goods in the American economy. [07:30.69]With TV marketing, people become vulnerable to the products, or in other words, to the commercials. [07:37.25]Fourthly, the cultural impact of violent TV programs has been quite enormous. [07:42.83]Needless to say, the question of violence on TV has been around nearly as long as the medium. [07:48.41]Many critics claim that TV violence increases violence in American society. [07:53.22]Fifthly, the impact of TV on religion has also been an issue of great concern to many Americans. [08:00.00]So far now, it is still an issue full of disputes. [08:03.17]To sum up, the mass media in America includes so many different forms, [08:07.98]and each of them plays a vital role in American people’s life not only in the past, [08:13.56]but also at present and in the future. [08:15.75]To know much about America, one must have a good knowledge about its mass media.

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