Section A

Before reading the text, answer the following questions:

1. How did the Interned change modern mass media?

2.What are the differences between a printed and an online version of a newspaper?

3. What types of news do you know?

Read the following text without a dictionary and select the title for each part:

a) Increasing Competition

b) Hard news and features

c) The Internet

A. ______________

The Internet has changed the nature of news and its delivery. By the late 1990-s more than 3600 newspapers were maintaining online sites, comparing to just 20 in 1994 when the World Wide Web was in its infancy, according to a survey by Eric K. Meyer. His company found that by the late 1990-s a great number of television stations and more than 2000 magazines were also creating online sites. Cable network CNN went online with 24-our coverage featuring audio and video. The Internet has become a major source of news in all forms: text, graphics, video and audio. Archives of information had never before been so readily available to so many people.

The Internet is a vast interconnection of networks created in 1969 as a US Department of Defense project, and the World Wide Web is only the part of it. The Web was developed in 1991 as a system of storing and retrieving documents created in a common coding language called HyperText Markup Language (HTML), which allows users to link to other documents. By 1993 Internet browsers made it possible to view documents with graphics, audio and video. And that is what changed media industry.

B. _______________

One of the major effects of the online news delivery is competition. Initially print newspapers feared that if they posted a story on their online sites, they would be competing with their print editions and might give their competition tip-offs to exclusive news stories. But after a few major news stories broke online in the late 1990-s, newspapers no longer hoarded breaking news stories until their print conduct could be published.

Online news is also changing the nature of reporting. In the late 1990-s most journalists at newspapers and magazines were using online services in some way of reporting. Many were using e-mail and online discussion groups to contact sources and gain story ideas.

Online news imposes additional reporting demands on journalists. The Internet has no space limitations, so when journalists cover a story, they have to gather news in layers: a brief version, a full-text version of a speech or list of winners, tape-recorded material for audio sound-bites and, in some cases, databases that readers can search. Many websites may also offer interactive quizzes, games and discussion groups for readers. All these features have become the part of the changing form of news.

C. ______________

News falls into two basic categories: hard news and soft news. “Hard news” includes stories of a timely nature about events or conflicts that have just happened or are about to happen, such as crimes, fires, meeting, protest rallies, speeches and testimony in court cases. The hard approach is basically an account of what happened, why it happened, and how readers will be affected. These stories have immediacy.

“Soft news” is defined as news that entertains or informs, with an emphasis on human interest and novelty, with less immediacy than hard news. For example, a profile about a man who designs model airplanes or a story about the effectiveness of diets would be considered soft news.

Soft news can also be stories that focus on people, places or issues that affect readers’ lives. These types of stories are called “feature stories”. The story about the growing number of people suffering from AIDS could be considered a soft-news story. It isn’t less important than hard news, but it isn’t news that happened overnight. However, a feature story can be based on a news event. Instead of being just a factual account of an event, it features or focuses on a particular angle, such as human interest reactions.

If the action or event occurred the same day or the day before as publication of a newspaper, the event is called “breaking news”. But many other features in a newspaper don't have a breaking news peg. They simply focus on interesting things or topics.

Guess the meaning of these words and expressions from the text:

Give Russian equivalents to these words and expressions. Use a dictionary if necessary:

Give definitions to the following terms: