The English Language

Magazines

Magazine is one of the major mass media. Magazine is a collection of articles and stories. Usually magazines also contain illustrations. The earliest magazines developed from newspapers and bookseller’s catalogs. Such catalogs first appeared during the1600's in France. In the 1700's pamphlets published at regular intervals appeared in England and America. They were literary publications. One of the first British magazines "The Gentleman's Magazine" was published from 1731 to 1914. The first American magazine was called the "American Magazine", or "A Monthly View". Magazines provide information on a wide range of topics such as business, culture, hobbies, medicine, religion, science, and sports. Some magazines entertain their readers with fiction, poetry, photography or articles about TV, or movie stars. Magazines are designed to be kept for a longer time in comparison to newspapers and that is why they are printed on a better paper and have covers. Magayines, unlike newspapers, do not focus on daily, rapidly changing events. There are specialized magazines intended for special business, industrial and professional groups, and consumer magazines intended for general public. There are several kinds of consumer magazines. Children's magazines contain stories, jokes, articles on subjects especially interesting for children and instructions for making games or useful items. Hobby magazines are intended for collectors of coins, stamps, and other items; people interested in certain sports or games; photography enthusiasts. Intellectual magazines provide analysis of current cultural and political events. Many of them publish fiction and poetry as well. Men's magazines focus on such topics as adventure, entertainment, men's fashion and sports. Women's magazines deal with child-raising, fashion trends, romance. They offer ideas on cooking and home decorating. Many of the monthlies with big circulations are women's magazines.

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    Television
    

Television, also called TV, is one of our most important means of communication. It brings moving pictures and sounds from around the world into millions of homes. The name "Television" comes from Greek word meaning "far", and a Latin word meaning "to see", so the word "television" means "to see far". About three-fourths of the 1 500 TV stations in the US are commercial stations. They sell advertising time to pay for their operating costs and to make profit. The rest are public stations, which are nonprofit organizations. Commercial TV stations broadcast mostly entertainment programs because they must attract larger numbers of viewers in order to sell advertising time at high prices. These programs include light dramas called situation comedies; action-packed dramas about life of detectives, police officers, lawyers and doctors; shows featuring comedians, dancers and singers; movies; quiz shows; soap operas; cartoons. Commercial TV broadcasts also documentaries and talk shows. Documentary is dramatic, but nonfictional presentation of information. It can be programs about people, animals in faraway places or programs on such issues as alcoholism, drug abuse, racial prejudice. On talk shows a host interviews politicians, TV and movie stars, athlets, authors. There are also sport programs and brief summaries of local, national and international news. Advertising is an important part of commercial TV. Commercials appear between and during most programs. They urge viewers to buy different kinds of products — from dog food to hair spray, and from cars to insurance policies. Public television focuses mainly on education and culture. There are programs on wide range of subjects — from physic and literature to cooking and yoga. Public TV also broadcasts plays, ballets, symphonies as well as programs about art and history. Public TV attracts less viewer than commercial TV.

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