英语专业八级 Mini Lecture 3

[00:00.00]MINI-LECTURE 3 和谐英语学习网 www.hxen.net
[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.