MASS MEDIA; WAYS OF COMMUNICATION

 
Communication is sending and receiving information.
 We can communicate with our hands, faces and voice. Blind people use a special kind of script: Braill script. In fact, blind people
have to read with their fingertips. Deaf people can’t hear, so they use a special speech: sign language.
 
 Animals can communicate too. Dogs bark, bees dance, whales sing songs, bats emit ultrasound etc.
 People can use a variety of means of communication.
 
1. PRESS:
a) NEWSPAPERS
 
Newspapers are dailies or weeklies. We can buy them at the newsagent’s or at the news stand. We divide them into:
a) quality papers (broadsheets)
b) tabloids.
Quality papers bring more serious information about politics, economics, culture or important events in political, cultural or
economic life. In papers, there are also: interviews with famous personalitis, advertisements, sports events in the sport section,
essays columns and sad news about road accidents, robberies, murderers.
Tabloids content more photos than text, and mostly they are of poor quality.
 
b) MAGAZINES
We can find entertainment, advice or gossip in them. There are magazines for women, focused on cosmetics, fashion, family
problems, relationship problems etc. Magazines for men write about cars, motorbikes, computers, technical news etc.
Magazines for children content puzzles, stories, fairy tales, pictures, colouring pages etc.
There are also some magazines for children and teenagers interested in science.
 
2. TELEVISION AND RADIO
TELEVISION:
 
It plays a very important role in our lives. It brings us relaxation, entertainment, education.
There are some public service stations: ČT 1, ČT 2, ČT 4 sport, ČT 24 (about news), and commercial stations: Nova, Prima.
Public stations don’t interrupt films and shows with advertising. But you have to pay concessionary charge for public stations. For
this charge they guarantee high quality programmes.
 
RADIO
It can broadcast 24 hours a day; it has no screen, but a lot of people turn on their radios when working, cooking, driving a car or
simply want to relax.
There are music stations or informative stations.
 
3. INTERNET
You can join discussions, browse the web, send and receive email, read newspapers, do your shopping, book your journey. You
can even find some friends or a new partner on advertising sites.
Lots of people chat with their friends or with unknown people in „chats“. There are some very popular websites for young people.
You can find a lot of information on the internet. On the other hand, it also has its negative sides. For example criminals can find
their victims via internet, or some illegal items may circulate on the internet.
Another negative aspect of the internet is that there are often lots of mistakes.
 
4. POST
A few years ago, more people used to write letters than they do today. It is slowlier than sending e-mail, and it is quite expensive
nowadays. You have to go to the post office box or to the post office to send a letter.
Nevertheless, the post plays an important role in internet sale and catalogue sale. You choose the goods on the internet, in the
convenience of your home, and the goods are delivered to your door. You have to pay the postal charge (about 90 or 100 crowns).
 
5. TELEPHONE, MOBILE PHONES
The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell at the end of the 19th century. Since that it has changed a lot. A few years
ago, many families used to have their phone lines in their homes. In the last decades, mobile phones started to be popular.
 For some people it is a kind of fashion – they boast with their modern mobiles. Old mobiles had black and white screen and you
could only make phone calls or text.
Modern mobiles are multifunctional. You can not only make phones calls and send short messages with your mobile, but you can
also take a photo, shoot a video, get connected to the internet, find vocabulary in foreign language, you can use it as an alarm
clock, play games etc.
 
 Lots of people are addicted to the internet or to their mobile phones nowadays, which seems to be a problem, because some of
them forget to live and spend their free time in a normal way.