Russian and Britain Mass Media

   Television is the most popular leisure pastime in Russia too. Several television channels are in operation: “Ostankino”. “Russian Channel”, “Independent TV Channel – NTV”. Besides them there are local TV channels and local commercial TV channels in big cities and republics of Russia. TV services provide programmes of general interest such as light entertainment, sport, current affairs, serious drama, and music. There are programmes on arts, children’s and family programmes, interview with outstanding personalities, news reports covering international, national and local events. Much attention is paid to foreign films, American in particular, foreign TV programmes and soap operas [5].

   First Russian channels appeared in Soviet Union. It is called satellite. The first Soviet communication satellite, called Molniya, was launched in 1965. By November, 1967 the national system of satellite television, called Orbita was deployed. The system consisted of 3 highly elliptical Molniya satellites, Moscow-based ground uplink facilities and about 20 downlink stations, located in cities and towns of remote regions of Siberia and Far East. Each station had a 12-meter receiving parabolic antenna and transmitters for re-broadcasting TV signal to local householders.

   However, a large part of Soviet central regions were still not covered by transponders of Molniya satellites. By 1976 Soviet engineers developed a relatively simple and inexpensive system of satellite television (especially for Central and Northern Siberia). It included geostationary satellites called Ekran equipped with powerful 300 W UHF transponders, a broadcasting uplink station and various simple receiving stations located in various towns and villages of Siberian region. The typical receiving station, also called Ekran, represented itself as a home-use analog satellite receiver equipped with simple Yagi-Uda antenna. Later, Ekran satellites were replaced by more advanced Ekran-M series satellites.

   In 1979 Soviet engineers developed Moskva (or Moscow) system of broadcasting and delivering of TV signal via satellites. New type of geostationary communication satellites, called Gorizont, were launched. They were equipped by powerful onboard transponders, so the size of receiving parabolic antennas of downlink stations was reduced to 4 and 2.5 meters (in comparison of early 12- meter dishes of standard orbital downlink stations).

   By 1989 an improved version of Moskva system of satellite television has been called Moskva Global'naya (or Moscow Global). The system included a few geostationary Gorizont and Express type of communication satellites. TV signal from Moscow Global’s satellites could be received in any country of planet except Canada and North-West of the USA.

   Modern Russian satellite broadcasting services based on powerful geostationary buses such as Gals (satellite), Express, Yamal and Eutelsat which provide a large quantity of free-to-air television channels to millions of householders. Pay-TV is growing in popularity amongst Russian TV viewers. The NTV Russia news company, owned by Gazprom, broadcasts the NTV Plus package to 560,000 households, reaching over 1.5 million viewers.

   Six out of these seven satellites are new vehicles: four belong to the “Express-AM” family (set into orbit in 2003-2005), and two to the family “Express-A” (set to the orbit in 2000-2002). SESC has also the centre for TV/Radio signal compression, and the formation of transport flows as per the MPEG-2/DVB standard, which ensures the formation of packages from federal TV/ radio channels [9].

   So, Mass media are one of the most characteristic features of modern civilization. People are united into one global community with the help of mass media. People can learn about what is happening in the world very fast using mass media. The mass media include newspapers, magazines, radio and television. The earliest kind of mass media was newspaper. The first newspaper was Roman handwritten newssheet called "Acta Diurna" started in 59 B.C. Magazines appeared in 1700's. They developed from newspapers and booksellers' catalogs. Radio and TV appeared only in this century.

    1.3 Press in Russia and Britain

   In this paragraph we will find out more about press in Russia and Britain and we will know what newspapers read in Russia and Britain.

   Newspapers and magazines play a great and very important role in the life of a modern man. Reading a newspaper you can get information about the events that have taken or are going to have place in this country and abroad. You can also read articles about historical events and public figures of the past. The pages of newspapers carry articles on our economy, industry, agriculture and social life. Practically all newspapers also give radio and TV programmes, weather forecasts. Today Russia can be proud of the variety of newspapers circulating throughout the country. One can find newspapers of all kinds: national and local, official and private, quality and popular, newspapers issued for children, teenagers, for all kind of fans: sport-fans, car-fans, music fans, etc. The freedom of press has become actual and real today. Most of the newspapers can boast their independence, their individual styles, their peculiarities. Usually there are four or eight pages in a newspaper, but some newspapers have a twelve or sixteen pages. There is no need to read all of the articles. People can look through the newspapers and read the columns they are interested in. Every newspaper has its readers [3].

   Still we cannot imagine our life without newspapers. There are dozens of them on every news-stand. So we will know about more in different countries such as Britain and Russia.

   In a democratic country like Great Britain the press, ideally, has three political functions: information, discussion and representation. It is supposed to give the voter reliable and complete information to base his judgement. It should let him know the arguments for and against any policy, and it should reflect and give voice to the desires of the people as a whole.

   Naturally, there is no censorship in Great Britain, but in 1953 the Press Council was set up. It is not an official body but it is composed of the people nominated by journalists, and it receives complaints against particular newspapers. It may make reports, which criticise papers, but they have no direct effects. The British press means, primarily, a group of daily and Sunday newspapers published in London. They are most important and known as national in the sense of circulating throughout the British Isles. All the national newspapers have their central offices in London, but those with big circulations also print editions in Manchester (the second largest press center in Britain) and Glasgow in Scotland.

   Probably in no other country there are such great differences between the various national daily newspapers – in the type of news they report and the way they report it.

   All the newspapers whether daily or Sunday, totalling about twenty, can be divided into two groups: quality papers and popular papers. Quality papers include “The Times’, “The Guardian”, “The Daily Telegraph”, “The Financial Times”, “The Observer”, “The Sunday Times” and “The Sunday Telegraph”. Very thoroughly they report national and international news.

   In addition to the daily and Sunday papers, there is an enormous number of weeklies, some devoted to specialised and professional subjects, others of more general interest. Three of them are of special importance and enjoy a large and influential readership. They are: the “Spectator” (which is non-party but with Conservative views), the “New Statesman” (a radical journal, inclining towards the left wing of the Labour Party) and the largest and most influential – the “Economist” (politically independent). These periodicals resemble one another in subject matter and layout. They contain articles on national and international affairs, current events, the arts, letters to the Editor, extensive book reviews. Their publications often exert a great influence on politics.

   The distinction between the quality and the popular papers is one primarily of educational level. Quality papers are those newspapers which are intended for the well educate. All the rest are generally called popular newspapers. The most important of them are the “News of the World”, “The Sun”, the “Daily Mirror”, the “Daily Express”.

   The two archetypal popular papers, the “Daily Mail” and “Daily Express” were both built by individual tycoons in the early 20^th century. Both had a feeling for the taste of a newly-literate public: if a man bites a dog, that’s news. The “Daily Express” was built up by a man born in Canada. He became a great man in the land, a close friend and associate of Winston Churchill, and a powerful minister in his War Cabinet. The circulation of “The Daily Express” at one time exceeded four million copies a day. Now the first Lord Beaverbrook is dead, and the daily sales are not much more than half of their highest figure. The history of the “Daily Mail”, with its conventional conservatism, is not greatly different.

   The popular newspapers tend to make news sensational. These papers concentrate on more emotive reporting of stories often featuring the Royal Family, film and pop stars, and sport. They publish “personal” articles which shock and excite. Instead of printing factual news reports, these papers write them up in an exciting way, easy to read, playing on people’s emotions. They avoid serious political and social questions or treat them superficially. Trivial events are treated as the most interesting and important happenings. Crime is always given far more space than creative, productive or cultural achievements. Much of their information concerns the private lives of people who are in the news. The popular newspapers are very similar to one another in appearance and general arrangement, with big headlines and the main news on the front page. This press is much more popular than the quality press [8].

     In some countries, newspapers are owned by government or by political parties. This is not the case in Britain. Newspapers here are mostly owned by individuals or by publishing companies and the editors of the papers are usually allowed considerate freedom of expression. This is not to say that newspapers are without political bias. Papers like The Daily Telegraph, The Sun, for example, usually reflect Conservative opinions in their comment and reporting, while the Daily Mirror and The Guardian have a more left-wing bias. In addition to the 12 national daily newspapers there are nine national papers which published on Sundays. The “quality” Sunday papers devote large sections to literature and the arts. They have colour supplements and are in many ways more like magazines than newspapers. They supply quite different world of taste and interest from the “popular” papers. Most of the “Sundays” contain more reading matter than daily papers, and several of them also include “colour-supplements” – separate colour magazines which contain photographically-illustrated feature articles. Reading a Sunday paper, like having a big Sunday lunch, is an important tradition in many British households.

      The most popular newspapers in Britain:

• “The Guardian” (until 1959-“The Manchester Guardian”) has become a truly national paper rather than one specially connected with Manchester. In quality, style and reporting it is nearly equal with “The Times”. In politics it is described as “radical”. It was favourable to the Liberal Party and tends to be rather closer in sympathy to the Labour party than to the Conservatives. It has made great progress during the past years, particularly among the intelligent people who find “the Times” too uncritical of the Establishment.
• ‘The Daily Telegraph” (1855) is the quality paper with the largest circulation (1.2 million compared with “The Times’s 442 thousand and “The Guardian’s” 500 thousand). In theory it is independent, but in practice it is such caters for the educated and semi-educated business and professional classes. Being well produced and edited it is full of various information and belongs to the same class of journalism as “The Times” and “The Guardian”.
• In popular journalism the “The Daily Mirror” became a serious rival of the “Express” and “Mail” in the 1940s. It was always tabloid, and always devoted more space to picture than to text. It was also a pioneer with strip cartoons. After the Second World War it regularly supported the Labour Party. It soon outdid the “Daily Express” in size of headlines, short sentences and exploration of excitement. It also became the biggest-selling daily newspaper. For many years its sales were about four million; sometimes well above.
• The daily papers have no Sunday editions, but there are Sunday papers, nearly all of which are national: “The Sunday Times” (1822, 1.2 million), “The Sunday Telegraph” (1961, 0.7 million), the “Sunday Express” (1918, 2.2 million), “The Sunday Mirror” (1963, 2.7 million).
• On weekdays there are evening papers, all of which serve their own regions only, and give the latest news. London has two evening newspapers, “The London Standard” and “The Evening News”.
• Traditionally the leading humorous periodical in Britain is “Punch”, best known for its cartoons and articles, which deserve to be regarded as typical examples of English humour. It has in recent years devoted increasing attention to public affairs, often by means of its famous cartoons. This old British satirical weekly magazine, survives, more abrasive than in an earlier generation yet finding it hard to keep the place it once had in a more secure social system. Its attraction, particularly for one intellectual youth, has been surpassed by a new rival, “Private Eye”, founded in 1962 by people who, not long before, had run a pupil’s magazine in Shrewsbury School. Its scandalous material is admirably written on atrocious paper and its circulation rivals that of “The Economist” [8].

   The most popular newspapers in Russia:

• Novaya Gazeta  (“New Newspaper”) – Comes out twice per week. Most critical of Putin’s regime. Published an investigation about FSB (former KGB) involvement in the bombings of dwelling houses in several Russian cities in 1999. Anna Politkovkaya’s articles about Chechnya are especially noteworthy.
• Novyuye Izvestia (“New News”) – This daily split from Izvestia (below) in 1997. In 2003 its managementhas was changed. The orientation is democratic: the paper criticises Putin, Moscow’s mayor Luzhkov, the war in Chechnya, etc. I especially like its interesting reports from Scandinavia. The paper’s target audience is the middle class.
• Ogonyok (“A Little Light”) – A weekly magazine, hugely popular in the late 1980s (with revelations about Soviet history, etc.). Today’s Ogonyok is interesting too.
• Izvestia (“News”) – A leading Russian daily (my father is its long-standing subscriber). This paper is in the centre of the Russian political spectrum. It tries give space to various opinions, but in reality it is pro-Putin and it is a mouthpiece of the Russian establishment/bureaucracy. Owned by             Potanin (one of the so-called oligarchs), it is rather heavy on Russian politics and industry. The average reader over forty.
• Nezavisimaya Gazeta (“Independent Newspaper”) – Orientation: centre. Long articles with a lot of analysis, emphasis on Russia & CIS. The site contains the full version.
• Argumenty i Fakty (“Arguments and Facts”) – Russian weekly with the largest circulation. Its articles are short and concise (which makes it a good reading matter for students of Russian!). During the Soviet times it served as a resource for party propagandists and sometimes published articles and answers to questions on sensitive political and social issues. My father had to obtain a special permission from the local party committee to subscribe to it. During glasnost (openness) it became freely accessible and very popular (its circulation surpassed 20 million copies – a world record!). In the recent years it got worse: it panders to the masses with sex/celeb stories and forgets about real issues. The paper still gives a representative picture of attitudes in Russian society, but the fact is that the quality of this society has also deteriorated.
• Inostranets (“Foreigner”) – It is a paper for people who travel abroad or emigrate and its orientation is pro-Western. It used to be very interesting in the 90s when it published articles about America (universities, etc.), Western mentality, interviews with our emigrants, and gave advice how to travel the world with a few bucks in the pocket. But since then it has directed its attention to turism and expensive education abroad. The paper itself has also become more expensive, but online it is free [10].

   So, newspapers can present and comment on the news in much detail in comparison to radio and TV newscasts. News- papers can cover much more events and news. Magazines do not focus on daily, rapidly changing events. They provide more profound analysis of events of preceeding week. Magazines are designed to be kept for a longer time so they have cover and binding and are printed on better paper.

1.4 The Internet and its Services

   Here we will know more about such new Mass Media as the Internet. What services does it have, why do we need them and how they can help us. Also we will view some retrieval systems that help us to find the necessary information in the Internet, they are like guides for those people who are not good at the Internet.

   The Internet is a huge network of computers spanning this planet and is now started to bring in the surrounding area like space. Some computers like servers share data, others just surf the web as clients downloading the data. Public Internet began in the late 70’s. In the 70*s web users used an interface called telnet, but now that program is mainly obsolete. Telnet is most widely deployed in accessing college email accounts.

 The Internet is very helpful, because it’s a huge database of knowledge, from the pictures of family trips to an analysis of quantum mechanics. Everyone should have the Internet because of its near instantaneous communication and huge wealth of knowledge. But how to go on the Internet and do a search for information we need. There are two ways to do it.

 The first is when you know an internet address of data you need and the second one is when you try to find information you need by using a search program. In the beginning we have got to enter any browser you like. It could be an Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator or Opera, etc. If we have a broadband connection, we connect to the Internet at once. If not, we have to set up and connect to our dial-up service. Finally, if we want to find some information in the Internet, we are to type an address of this data in the browser we use or simply use the existing search-programs such as the google search program, rambler search program, yandex search program or yahoo search program.

 They are very simple and popular networks of sites. In these programs we can just type the word or name of thing, we would like to find and then press enter. A search program solves this problem. We get our results in the same window. After we get our results, we simply choose whatever site best matches our query or keep searching.

 We can also send and receive e-mail or electronic mail. This internet service is cheaper than ordinary mail and much quicker. It is becoming popular day by day. We can get some news from the Internet, because there are many informational servers in the web.

   Many people use the terms Internet and World Wide Web, or just the Web, interchangeably, but the two terms are not synonymous. The World Wide Web is a global set of documents, images and other resources, logically interrelated by hyperlinks and referenced with Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). URIs allow providers to symbolically identify services and clients to locate and address web servers, file servers, and other databases that store documents and provide resources and access them using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the primary carrier protocol of the Web. HTTP is only one of the hundreds of communication protocols used on the Internet. Web services may also use HTTP to allow software systems to communicate in order to share and exchange business logic and data.

   World Wide Web browser software, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome, let users navigate from one web page to another via hyperlinks embedded in the documents. These documents may also contain any combination of computer data, including graphics, sounds, text, video, multimedia and interactive content including games, office applications and scientific demonstrations. Through keyword-driven Internet research using search engines like Yahoo! and Google, users worldwide have easy, instant access to a vast and diverse amount of online information. Compared to printed encyclopedias and traditional libraries, the World Wide Web has enabled the decentralization of information.

   The Web has also enabled individuals and organizations to publish ideas and information to a potentially large audience online at greatly reduced expense and time delay. Publishing a web page, a blog, or building a website involves little initial cost and many cost-free services are available. Publishing and maintaining large, professional web sites with attractive, diverse and up-to-date information is still a difficult and expensive proposition, however. Many individuals and some companies and groups use web logs or blogs, which are largely used as easily updatable online diaries. Some commercial organizations encourage staff to communicate advice in their areas of specialization in the hope that visitors will be impressed by the expert knowledge and free information, and be attracted to the corporation as a result. One example of this practice is Microsoft, whose product developers publish their personal blogs in order to pique the public's interest in their work. Collections of personal web pages published by large service providers remain popular, and have become increasingly sophisticated. Whereas operations such as Angelfire and GeoCities have existed since the early days of the Web, newer offerings from, for example, Facebook and MySpace currently have large followings. These operations often brand themselves as social network services rather than simply as web page hosts.