Read and translate the following text.

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Media Influences The advent of mass media was a breakthrough for the information and technology sector. In the recent years mass media has gained a lot of importance in the day to day life. People have started relying on televisions, radios etc for their daily source of entertainment and information. They have influenced people, old and young, in many ways. To conclude, the mass media has provided a means of entertainment and information. But if they are not perceived rightly then the consequences can be gruesome. The mass media is a big part of our culture in terms of entertainment, yet it can also be a helper, adviser and teacher to our young generation. The mass media affects the lives of our young by acting as a substitute for a number of institutions and social contacts, by providing information and entertainment, by creating and mediating art, etc. In this way, it fulfills a variety of functions in human life. The time spent in front of the television screen is usually at the expense of leisure: there is less time for games, amusement and rest. Most often children look upon television as a certain kind of socially beneficial instrument, an open door into the “world of the imagination". Attracted by what is happening on the screen, children not only imitate what they see but directly identify themselves with different characters. The Surgeon General also states that Americans have been concerned about the prevalence of violence in the media and its potential harm to children and adolescents for at least forty years. During this period, new media emerged, such as video games, cable television, music videos, and the Internet. Current psychological theory suggests that the interactive nature of many of these new media may affect children’s behavior more powerfully than they have thought in the past. As they continue to gain popularity, these media, along with television, prompt public concern and research attention. Another large social concern on our young generation inflicted by the media is body image. External forces can influence body image positively or negatively. For one, social and cultural norms and mass media marketing impact our concepts of beauty. In the mass media, the images of standardized beauty fill magazines and newspapers, beam from our televisions and entertain us at the movies. Even in advertising, the mass media plays upon accepted cultural values of thinness and fitness for commercial gain. Young adults are presented with a narrowly defined standard of attractiveness, an ideal that carries unrealistic physical expectations. Both boys and girls are told that they should look like a model, but only one in forty-thousand people, naturally have a model’s body shape. This is a problem because adolescence is a time when young adults begin to separate from their parents and identify their own identities. Acceptance by their peers is of utmost importance. This can make teens vulnerable to ideals embraced by our culture and reflected in the media. To obtain the fashionable, ultra thin look, many young men and women restrict their food intake. Sometimes, men or women will result to drastic measures to fit the image they want to be, or the image that they feel society will accept them. In doing so, disorders can develop, such as Anorexia nervosa and Bulimia nervosa. Many people can hide their disorder very well, and can result in death. So, the media should be of great concern to our society. What our youth see and view, is what they feel society wants from them. Delivering wrong messages and unrealistic images by the media can only cause problems and trouble for our youth. Although the sole purpose of the media is enjoyment for society, the public should be aware that it could sometimes cause negative effects on its viewers. 2. Make up 10 questions to the text.

Give Russian equivalents to the following phrases.

the advent of mass media;

breakthrough for sth;

to act as a substitute for sth;

socially beneficial instrument;

to be of great concern;

the sole purpose of the media;

body image;

to beam from the TV;

to make teens vulnerable;

drastic measures;

4. Translate sentences into English, using words and word combinations from the text.

1. Средства массовой информации, в частности телевидение, могут оказывать вредное влияние на телезрителей.

2. Большинство молодых людей умело скрывают свою болезнь, что может привести к их смерти.

3. За последние несколько лет средства массовой информации стали основным ежедневным источником информации и развлечений.

4. Средства массовой информации выполняют в человеческой жизни ряд чрезвычайно важных функций.

5. Как показали исследования, насилие и жестокость, активно пропагандируемые средствами массовой информации, могут негативно повлиять на поведение детей.

Although the sole purpose of the media is enjoyment for society, the public should be aware that it could sometimes cause negative effects on its viewers”. What do think of this statement? Do you agree with it? Why/Why not? (write about 300-400 words).

II ВАРІАНТ

Read and translate the following text.

Mass Media

The mass media have an important role in modern democratic society as the main channel of communication. The population relies on the news media as the main source of information and the basis on which they form their opinions and voting decisions. According to cultural selection theory, any selection of messages in the mass media will thus have a profound effect on the entire society. Competition has become increasingly keen in the area of the mass media as they keep fighting for the attention of the readers, listeners, and TV-viewers. The life and death of each newspaper and TV station is at stake here when the income from advertising and sponsoring is proportional to the number of readers or viewers.

The printed media have problems competing with the electronic media as sources of news. In order to survive, they are increasingly turning to other strategies such as entertainment, titillation, scandal mongering, and spreading fear, and spending fewer resources on serious researching of news. This is not only about the survival of the fittest of the news media; it is also about cultural selection and political selection.

The electronic media are first and foremost pacifying. It is a relaxation machine, and the viewer wants to be entertained. The faces on the screen are not chosen for their opinions but for their entertainment value. TV stations do not compete on ideologies but on sense impressions. An extreme example is music videos, satiated with fast changing sense impressions in sound as well as in pictures. Media scientists have often discussed how much influence the media have on people's opinions. People tend to selectively read what they already agree with and to rationalize their preformed opinions in the face of contrary arguments.

The news media are the most important channels for the propagation of culture, ideas, and opinions. Most opinion formation takes place when people sit and watch news and debates on television. Analyzing the cultural selection in the electronic information society, we find that an important part of the selection lies in the choice between TV channels. Millions of lazy viewers sit in their comfortable arm-chairs with remote controls in their hands zapping between action films, revivalist preachers, and commercials for a new fragrance, hardly realizing that by choosing which cultural and political influences they expose themselves to, they also chose the cultural and political evolution of their country. It is very important to analyze which selection criteria are in effect here.

Experimental evidence seems to indicate that the mass media have little power to change people's opinions on issues for which they already have formed a strong opinion, but they have a profound influence when it comes to setting the agenda and priming people on new issues. The way an issue is framed determines how it is discussed, which causes a social problem is blamed on, and which of the possible remedies are entered into the discussion.

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