The main sources of information for modern people are mass media and the Internet. Do you always rely on them?

17. The main sources of information for modern people are mass media and the Internet. Do you always rely on them?

First of all some words about the British people as great newspaper readers. If you ask an Englishman about the Press in his country, he will almost certainly begin talking about the morning daily and Sunday, national newspapers, all of which now have their head offices in London. The country is small, so every large town in England and Wales able to be reached by train in less than five hours from London. A paper printed in London around midnight can be at any breakfast table in England the next morning. All over the country most people read the same newspapers. The national dailies are generally classed as either quality (The Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph) or popular. The Quality papers give more comprehensive coverage of all aspects of news, while the popular papers aim for a more general readership. They cost less. The Times is the most famous of all British newspapers. It has always been the paper of the Establishment. The advertisement in the personal column on the back page are always fascinating and cover the whole range of human interests. Politically The Times is independent, though it is traditionally inclined to be more sympathetic to the Conservative Party. It is not an organ of the Government , but sometimes its leading articles may be written after private consultation with people in. The quality of the paper and printing is very good.

The Guardian. In quality, style and reporting it is equal with the Times. It is favorable to the Liberal Party. Daily Telegraph. Theoretically independent but in practice very close to be an organ of the Conservative Party. It is always full of real information. Daily Express. It appeals mainly to the working and middle classes. To complete the list we should mention the Communist Party’s Morning Star and the Financial Times. The name of the Financial Times indicates its character. The popular papers Daily Mirror and Sun. they are tabloids. It is printed on paper half the normal size for a newspaper. There are Sunday Papers (Sunday Mirror), Evening and Provincial Papers (Evening News, Glasgow Herald). Some words about periodicals. The most important are The Economist, The Spectator, and Private Eye. Punch is the best-known outside Britain, its cartoons and articles are typical examples of English humour, all sound broadcasting is done by the British Broadcasting Corporation, which puts out two television programmes The B.B.C. All B.B.C. programmes for each week are announced in the BBC magazine. For sound broadcasting there are four BBC channels. The first provides pop music; the second is a light programme. The third network is serious music; the fourth includes the main news broadcasts. For television the BBC has two channels. One of the main broadcasting company is the Independent Television. So BBC-one, BBC-two, ITV, TV4, Sky Television. Today Russia can be proud of the variety of newspapers circulating throughout the country. On the new stalls one can find newspapers of all kinds: national and local, official and private, quality and popular, newspapers issued for children, teenagers, people of different trends, for fans: sport-fans, car-fans. Today there are a lot of local and professional newspapers in Russia. Now it is almost impossible to classify all the Russian newspapers into two bid groups: quality and popular. It is possible to name the newspapers to illustrate the variety of the modern Russian press. Moscovsky Komsomolets is a social and political newspaper of the Russian youth, Arguments and Facts is an independent newspaper. Evening Moscow is an independent people’s newspaper. The Red Star is the newspaper of the Defense Ministry. As for the magazines, today they are numerous. They cover all topics and interests from painting and architecture to tennis. Radio lost its importance with the appearance of TV and the Internet. I like talk shows and music programmes. Television channels easily go into people’s home taking in their time and life. As for me, I prefer watching Let them speak. Russian television has between 10 and 15 channels, which show all kinds of programmes.