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Mind Over Mass Media

×èòàéòå òàêæå:
  1. Commons.wikimedia.org
  2. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of three of the following as media for communicating information. State which you consider to be the most effective.
  3. Electronic Media
  4. Electronic Media (The Internet)
  5. Http://www.mediafire.com/file/jymyzwdjuzz/sunrise_avenue_-_fairytale_gone_bad.mp3
  6. Lesson 7. UNDERSTANDING OF THE NEWS MEDIA
  7. Mass Media
  8. Mass Media
  9. Mass Media
  10. MASS MEDIA

New forms of media have always caused moral panics: the printing press, newspapers, paperbacks and television were all once denounced as threats to their consumers’ brainpower and moral fiber.

So too with electronic technologies. PowerPoint, we’re told, is reducing discourse to bullet points. (1) … Twitter is shrinking our attention spans.

But such panics often fail basic reality checks. When comic books were accused of turning juveniles into delinquents in the 1950s, crime was falling to record lows, just as the denunciations of video games in the 1990s coincided with the great American crime decline. (2) …

For a reality check today, take the state of science, which demands high levels of brainwork and is measured by clear benchmarks of discovery. These days scientists are never far from their e-mail, rarely touch paper and cannot lecture without PowerPoint. (3) … Yet discoveries are multiplying like fruit flies, and progress is dizzying. Other activities in the life of the mind, like philosophy, history and cultural criticism, are likewise flourishing, as anyone who has lost a morning of work to the Web site Arts & Letters Daily can attest.

Critics of new media sometimes use science itself to press their case, citing research that shows how “experience can change the brain.” (4) … Yes, every time we learn a fact or skill the wiring of the brain changes; it’s not as if the information is stored in the pancreas. But the existence of neural plasticity does not mean the brain is a blob of clay pounded into shape by experience.

Experience does not revamp the basic information-processing capacities of the brain. Speed-reading programs have long claimed to do just that, but the verdict was rendered by Woody Allen after he read “War and Peace” in one sitting: “It was about Russia.” Genuine multitasking, too, has been exposed as a myth, not just by laboratory studies but by the familiar sight of an S.U.V. undulating between lanes as the driver cuts deals on his cellphone.

Moreover, as the psychologists Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons show in their new book “The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us,” the effects of experience are highly specific to the experiences themselves. If you train people to do one thing (recognize shapes, solve math puzzles, find hidden words), they get better at doing that thing, but almost nothing else. Music doesn’t make you better at math, conjugating Latin doesn’t make you more logical, brain-training games don’t make you smarter. Accomplished people don’t bulk up their brains with intellectual calisthenics; they immerse themselves in their fields. (5) …

The effects of consuming electronic media are also likely to be far more limited than the panic implies. Media critics write as if the brain takes on the qualities of whatever it consumes, the informational equivalent of “you are what you eat.” As with primitive peoples who believe that eating fierce animals will make them fierce, they assume that watching quick cuts in rock videos turns your mental life into quick cuts or that reading bullet points and Twitter postings turns your thoughts into bullet points and Twitter postings.

Yes, the constant arrival of information packets can be distracting or addictive, especially to people with attention deficit disorder. But distraction is not a new phenomenon. (6) … Turn off e-mail or Twitter when you work, put away your Blackberry at dinner time, ask your spouse to call you to bed at a designated hour.

And to encourage intellectual depth, don’t rail at PowerPoint or Google. It’s not as if habits of deep reflection, thorough research and rigorous reasoning ever came naturally to people. (7) … They are not granted by propping a heavy encyclopedia on your lap, nor are they taken away by efficient access to information on the Internet.

The new media have caught on for a reason. Knowledge is increasing exponentially; human brainpower and waking hours are not. Fortunately, the Internet and information technologies are helping us manage, search and retrieve our collective intellectual output at different scales, from Twitter and previews to e-books and online encyclopedias. (8) …

(By Steven Pinker. A version of this op-ed appeared in print on June 11, 2010, on page A31 of the New York edition. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/opinion/11Pinker.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1)

8. Comment on the popular quotation by Henry Luce, founder of the magazine “Time”: “Good news isn’t news. Bad news is news.” Read through the following list of factors that are generally believed to constitute news value. Illustrate them by examples of news events covered in various mass media and state which of them seem to be of primary importance to you.

Criteria of Newsworthiness

a) timeliness;

b) proximity;

c) exceptional quality;

d) known immediate consequences or unknown possible future impact;

e) involvement of prominent people;

f) conflict (“people against people”, “person against prejudices”; overt versus covert; external versus internal).

g) number of people affected;

h) human interest;

i) pathos;

j) shock value.

 

9. Read the following article on the issue of Internet privacy policies and use the words in brackets in their appropriate forms. For more information on various Internet-related issues consult the following websites: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/; http://www.wi-fiplanet.com, etc.

 

Why is Information Privacy an Issue?

Privacy is a (1) ……………… (fundament) human right and a cornerstone of a democratic society. It lies at the foundation of the rule of law, the secret ballot, doctor-patient (2) …………. (confidential), lawyer-client privilege, the notion of private property, and the value our society places on the autonomy of the individual.

So why is privacy one of the most contentious issues of the early 21st century?

With the development of new (3) ……………(inform) and (4) ……………(communicate) technologies, the ability of the state and the private sector to collect, record and "mine" personal information has grown (5) ……………(exponent). As early as 1996, Bruce Phillips, then Privacy Commissioner of Canada, warned, "We are in fact buying and selling large elements of our human personae. The traffic in human information now is immense. There is almost nothing the (6) ………….. (commerce) and governmental world is not (7) ……………. (anxiety) to find out about us as individuals."

Since then, stories about the unintended consequences of this traffic have been legion:

· A Canadian funeral home obtained the names and addresses of people diagnosed with cancer, and contacted a Montreal woman on the list about buying a (8) ………….. (bury) plot and pre-paid funeral services.

· A candy company got hold of the names of people in a weight watchers program, and sent them chocolate bars in the mail.

· Part of a Toronto woman's medical record was printed on the back of real estate (9) ………. (fly) which were delivered to hundreds of mailboxes.

· Participants in a medical research study on sickle cell anemia reported an increase in difficulties getting employment and (10) ……………. (insure) after they gave genetic samples to the researchers.

· Phone Busters National Call Centre reports that over 7,600 Canadians had their (11) …………. (identify) stolen in 2002, with total losses of more than $8.5 million.

The (12) ………….. (humiliate), economic harm and discrimination suffered by these people raise serious questions about the impact of information technologies on personal autonomy, social relationships, and democracy.

Sociologist David Lyon argues that (13) ………… (survey) enables a type of "social sorting" where computer code is used to classify groups of people in "ways that tend to reinforce social divisions." Parliamentarian John Godfrey reminds us that a loss of privacy chills the exercise of other human rights, like freedom of speech or freedom of (14) ………….. (assemble).

Alan Westin contends that, if privacy is going to survive in the technological age, individuals, groups and institutions must be able to determine for themselves, when, how and to what extent information about them is communicated to others.

Especially in a post-9/11 world, where (15) …………. (legal) struggle to balance security against civil liberties, privacy is likely to remain an important social and political issue.

 

(Media Awareness Network, 2010)

 

10. Study the following notes on a news program(me) (also known as: news show, newscast, news bulletin) and make sure you can illustrate the main points with your own relevant examples. Complete the missing information concerning the major stages of putting together a news bulletin.

 

Definition:

(a) a regularly scheduled short programme on television (or radio) that reports current events (less often television/radio shows are interrupted or totally replaced by breaking news (=news flashes) to provide news updates on current events of great importance or on sudden highly important events)

(b) a short newspaper printed by and organization

 

Major stages of preparing a news bulletin:

First stage = ……………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

Second stage = ……………………………………………………………………………….....

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

Third stage = ……………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

……………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Notes (in random order):

1.Sometimes only professionalism stands between tension and panic as the news crew struggles to dovetail late breaking news into an already complex programme.

2.In its competition with TV, news updates on the radio occur more often – once or twice an hour.

3.Over the last several years news programmes have tended to become less oriented on hard news and often include “feel good stories”; besides, there is a number of “only good news” programmes.

4.News programmes have also tended to host polemic debates between pundits of various ideological philosophies.

5.“Magazine-style” TV shows mix news coverage with topical lifestyle issues, debates and entertainment content.

 

Main constituent parts of a news bulletin:

1.a newscaster may announce the headlines of the bulletin

2.the main body of a news bulletin (political, economic, social issues that are presented according to the digression scale of importance; the following techniques are used: live or recorded interviews by field reporters, expert opinions, opinion poll results, editorial content)

3.news of stock exchanges can be singled out as a separate part

4.sports

5.weather report/forecast

6.traffic report

7.TV commercials are sure to be slotted between the main parts of a bulletin

 

11. Look at the plans for the three basic types of discursive essays and say whether each of them asks for a “for and against” essay, for an opinion essay or for an essay suggesting solutions to the problem(s). Then choose one of the topics and write an essay following the appropriate plan and implementing appropriate topical vocabulary items studied in this unit.

 

“Before graduating high school the average US child will see 360.000 commercials. By age 65, this number will expand to 2 million commercials. The number of commercials in TV programmes per hour has been increasing each year.” Discuss the pros and cons of advertising.   “Viewers who say, “That program is terrible! Why does it stay on TV?” or “That was such a great show! Why isn’t it on any more?”, aren’t taking into consideration the LCD, or Lowest Common Dominator, of this or that network targeted audience.” Point out the flaws to be mended and the traditional features to be maintained in order to improve the image of a TV channel of your choice. “Blogging has created a million eyes watching over the shoulders of journalists.”(Matthew Felling, American journalist and anchorperson) What is your personal attitude to writing and/or reading a blog?  
INTRODUCTION Paragraph 1 State the topic (without stating your opinion). INTRODUCTION Paragraph 1 State the problem and explain its causes. INTRODUCTION Paragraph 1 State the topic and your personal opinion.
MAIN BODY Paragraphs 2-3 Provide arguments for and appropriate justifications and/or examples. Paragraphs 4-5 Provide arguments against and suitable justifications and/or examples. MAIN BODY Paragraphs 2-5 Suggest an array of possible solutions explaining their advantages and disadvantages.   MAIN BODY Paragraphs 2-4 Provide viewpoints and support them with relevant examples. Paragraph 5 Provide an opposing viewpoint and the reasons underlying it.
CONCLUSION Paragraph 6 Conclude with a balanced opinion stating whether the pros outweigh the cons, or vice versa. CONCLUSION Paragraph 6 Summarise your opinion by choosing one (or several) solutions to the problem which will lead to the most beneficial results. CONCLUSION Paragraph 6 Restate your opinion and summarise its exaplnations.

 

In order to successfully accomplish this task students are recommended to use the following Internet sites for background reading:

1.http://news.bbc.co.uk

2.www.thetimes.co.uk

3.www.guardianunlimited.co.uk

4.http://www.turnoffyourtv.com

5.www.breakingnewsenglish.com

6.http://www.cybercollege.com

7.www.InternetCampus.org

8. http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/

 

 

 

 




Äàòà äîáàâëåíèÿ: 2015-09-11; ïðîñìîòðîâ: 43 | Ïîìîæåì íàïèñàòü âàøó ðàáîòó | Íàðóøåíèå àâòîðñêèõ ïðàâ

By P. G. Aldrich | ESSENTIAL VOCABULARY | READING COMPREHENSION EXERCISES | Answer the following questions and do the given assignment. | Study the essential vocabulary and translate the illustrative examples into Russian. | Read through the following phrasal verbs and translate the illustrative sentences into Russian. | Electronic Media (The Internet) | Read the following text on American and British print media and complete the gaps with the suitable words from the list below. | The Story So Far |


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