III. In the newspaper the headlines play the most important role in the absorbing readers’ attention. Below you can see 7 ways to write a good headline. Read through them.

Effective Ways To Writing Headlines That Will Be Read

1. Filter

Having a bad flu? Learning how to drive? Drivers! Singles!

This approach of writing headlines acts as a filter that only appeals to people who fall under the category you are calling out to.

2. Attention Grabbers

Introducing! Finally! Warning! Caution! Danger!

This approach of writing headlines is known to make eyeballs turn simply because of their power to grab our attention. Writing headlines using this approach works best by leading with words that suggests danger.

3. Truth

The Big Fat Truth Behind The Slimming Industry... Discover The Truth Behind The Dog Food Industry... The Truth Behind Commercialized Foods...

Writing headlines this way offers a sense of curiosity and draws the reader into a story of mystery.

4. How-To

How To Be A Millionaire In 10 Days

5. Reasons

10 Reasons Why Just An Apple A Day Won’t Keep The Doctor Away

6. Ask

When Is The Last Time You Brushed Your Teeth Like This? Why Pay More When It’s So Cheap? What’s Your Take On This?

7. Suggest

Use This The Next Time You Get A Backache Stop Headaches With This New Drug!

CASE-STUDY

You are working on a yellow press newspaper. Your editor gives you the task to write an article about a celebrity (you should choose yourself). Moreover you should make up intriguing photos.

Present your article and photos in class.

 

 

Unit 3. TV AND RADIO PROGRAMMES

Lead-in:

Look at the list of quotations devoted to television. Are there any contradictory ideas expressed in them? Comment upon them:

Ø All television is educational television. The question is: what is it teaching? Nicholas Johnson

Ø I wish there were a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence. There’s a knob called “brightness”, but that doesn’t work. Author Unknown

Ø How can you put on a meaningful drama when, every fifteen minutes, proceedings are interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits with toilet paper? Rod Serling, quoted in Submitted for Your Approval, Public Broadcasting Station, 1995

Ø I find television to be very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go in the other room and read a book. Groucho Marx

Ø Television: A medium – so called because it is neither rare nor well done. Ernie Kovacs

 

I. Read the text, search for the main ideas and make up a brief plan.

TV and Radio Programmes

Programmes on radio and television may be referred to formally as broadcasts; and they may be referred to informally as shows, especially in American English.

Programmes or shows on radio and television are often presented or hosted by a programme host. Popular music programmes are presented by disc jockeys or DJs.

News programmes may be hosted, fronted, or anchored by anchors famous in their own right, sometimes more famous than the people in the news.

In more traditional news programmes, the news is read by a newsreader or newscaster (newscaster is now a rather old-fashioned word).

Reporters and correspondents, or television journalists, make reports. They and the camera operators who go with them are news gatherers. Together they form TV crews.

Broadcasters are TV and radio organizations, the people working for them, or, more specifically, the professional media people who actually participate in programmes.

Programmes and reports are transmitted or broadcast live in a live broadcast, with events seen or heard as they happen, or recorded for broadcast later. A recording of an event can be referred to as footage of that event.

A news programme might include:

dramatic footage of events such as war or disasters

interviews and studio discussions: pictures of people participating in these are often referred to as talking heads (an informal expression used to show disapproval of what can be a boring form of television)

vox-pop interviews, or vox-pops getting the reactions of ordinary people, often in the street

clips, or extracts, of any of these things.

People sometimes say that today’s news programmes are infotainment, a mixture of information, and entertainment, something that people watch or listen to for pleasure. Another example of infotainment is docudrama where real events are dramatised and reenacted by actors. This is a combination of documentary and drama: a documentary is a serious factual radio or TV programme.

There is, of course, a lot of competition between broadcasting organizations. Most TV and radio networks want to increase the size of their audience, or their ratings, at the expense of other networks.

Good ratings are especially important during prime time or peak-time, the time of day, or slot, when most people watch TV. Slot also means any short period in broadcasting reserved for a specific purpose.

High audience figures attract more advertising or commercials to be shown in commercial breaks between programmes. Commercials are also known as spots.

The media often talk about rating battles or ratings wars between networks when discussing competition in the industry (И.В. Миголатьева Международная журналистика. – РУДН, 2008).

Unit 4. ADVERTISING

Lead-in: