Look at the following headlines and expand them into proper sentences.
1.Queens lost jewels found
2.Collision kills five
3.Manchester wins cup
4.Explosion destroys factory
5.Prince to wed
6.Dustmens strike over
7.Election called by PM
8.7.5 quake kills 5000
9.Scandal threatens government
10.Hospital to be closed
11.War declared
12.Storm destroys corn crop
13.Terrorist drama ends peacefully
14.Clinton, Pope to meet
15.UN Warning: starvation n Africa
Headline news
Discussion 1 Work with a partner. Complete the headlines below using the words in the box.
Do you believe them? divide them into facts, half-truths and myths.
World failure countries crime warming species deforestation toll
a
CO emissions to blame for global____________
b
Its official 83% of company mergers end in________________
c
G7 __________ account for 67% of global GDP
d
Cost of __________ - 120 million km of trees disappear every year
e
Latest police figures show rise in violent _______ amongst under-25s
f
f Free market economics bring prosperity to developing ________
g
110 ___________ become extinct every day
h
Spread of famine annual death __________ climbs to 40m
2 7.1 Listen to the surprising facts behind the headlines. Take notes and discuss your reactions after listening to each one.
Its good news that Its reassuring to hear that
Im astonished that I had no idea that Its debatable whether I can hardly believe that Its not what Ive heard.
Im appalled that I think its scandalous that
The language of statistics
3 Match the words and phrases below to summarise the information in 2. All the expressions were in the recording.
a Contrary to popular
b Nor is there
c Its impossible
d But there does seem
e Its a sobering
f Its simply
g Statistically
h Surveys
I The truth of
j Estimates
k The shocking
I To put that in
not the case that,
to be some truth
opinion
thougt
any real evidence
to quote
the matter
vary widely
truth is
perspective,
speaking,
show that
in a recent study, which puts the figure at 83%.
that the G7 earn 67% of global GDP.
the planet is not getting significantly warmer.
that global warming is caused by heavy industry
as some claim, the number of trees has halved.
an exact figure for the number of mergers that fall.
90% of them are happy, self-confident individuals
todays teenagers are committing fewer crimes
is that IMF loans have not helped a single country
that 40 million people die from hunger every year.
as to exactly how many species there are.
its the equivalent of 300 jets crashing every day.
& 1. Media Matters
Scan the extracts and decide which of the headlines Control, Censorship, Equality, and Balance corresponds to each passage.
TV News looked at some of the dilemmas in television journalism. Here, we examine four issues of vital importance to the entire information industry. But theyre not just crucial debates for people who work in TV, radio, and the press. They concern media consumers, too and that means EVERYBODY.
1
News is often about conflict just think of the situations in Russia, Northern Ireland, South Africa or the Middle East. Then there are less dramatic conflicts. Examples of these include the battles between strikers and their employers or the police and angry demonstrators.
But whether a news story is global or local, it usually involves an argument. The question is do the media report both sides of the problem in a balanced way?
In many cases the answer is yes. TV, radio and broad sheet newspapers generally focus on the facts and try to be fair. But when it comes to tabloid papers, the picture is very different. Their reports can contain strong opinions. They support one side of the conflict and attack the other. This approach is popular with millions of tabloid readers because its fun to read about heroes and villains.
Unfortunately, though, the truth is rarely black and white its usually grey.
2 .
How free are the media? Well it varies from country to country. In some cases (e. g. Sweden and America) there are very few limits on what journalists can report. Other governments are slightly less liberal. In Britain, for example, there is an Official Secrets Act. This means that its against the law to report certain sensitive information about defence and intelligence matters.
And then theres a third group of countries which control their media very strictly. In cases like this, broadcasters and journalists who break the law are frequently sent to prison or sometimes even killed.
Lack of freedom is a serious journalistic issue, but its not the only one in the censorship debate. On the other side of the coin, some people believe journalists have too much freedom. The argument here is that newspapers often invade peoples private lives and print sensational stories which are untrue. Should this be allowed to happen?
3 .
Newspapers and TV stations are expensive only the very rich can afford to buy and run them. Even fewer can afford to manage a media empire but two men who can are Rupert Murdoch (the USA) and Silvio Berlusconi (Italy). Some people believe that media moguls like these have too much power and are only interested in profit, not good quality papers or programmes. Others claim the opposite that rich owners are good for the information industry. Why? Because they invest in new technology and create more choice for the consumer.
4 .
How do the media represent women fairly or unfairly? And what about ethnic or religious minorities, children, old people or the disabled? How much time and space are their views given by the media?
These days it is a very important issue. We live in complex societies with lots of different groups a fact which cant be ignored. The problem is that for a long time the media did ignore it.
Things have improved a lot in the last ten years for example, there are more women in top media jobs these days and more programmes and papers for ethnic viewers and readers. But even so, many minority groups think theres still a long way to go.
& 1. a) Read the text, translate it into Ukrainian. Retell the text.
