expansion-湖畔
News and Entertainment Media
Americans spend about five hours each
day on leisure activities. Those who live in or
near
large
cities
spend
some
of
this
time
at
theaters,
opera
houses,
night
clubs,
zoos,
and
museums.
Americans who live
in rural areas do not usually have such places to
visit, but like city residents,
they
can
enjoy
the
most
popular
sources
of
information
and
entertainment
as
well:
radio,
television, movies, books, magazines,
and newspapers.
Radio
Almost every American
family owns at least one radio, and many have
three or four. Years
ago,
families
gathered
around
one
big
living
room
radio.
Today,
people
take
small,
lightweight
radios with them into the bedroom
(clock radios), on the street (transistor radios
[
半导体收音机
],
on the
road (car radios), and into the fields (radios
built into tractors). Radios have even been built
into hair dryers and sunglasses.
With
the
development
of
television,
radio
is
no
longer
the
major
source
of
home
entertainment;
but
Americans
still
turn
to
radio
when
they
want
the
latest
news
quickly.
Many
stations broadcast up-to-the-minute
news every half hour. Americans tend to listen to
radios for
short periods. In an effort
to hold audiences, many radio stations appeal to
special interests. Some
offer only
music or only news; others broadcast professional
sports events. In large cities, some
stations attract immigrants by
presenting foreign-language programs. One New York
City station
broadcasts in thirteen
languages!
There are two
types of radio broadcasting-AM and FM.
FM can produce a wider range of
sounds and can also broadcast in
stereophonic (
立体声的
) sound.
In recent years, FM has become
increasingly popular. Many radios are
equipped to receive both AM and FM.
Television
Television
was
new
in
1946,
but
by
the
1950s
it
was
a
firmly
established
industry.
Today,
there are about 99
million TV sets in the United States; 99 percent
of American households have at
least
one set, and 54 percent have two or more. Color TV
is in 60 percent of American homes. The
average American between his second and
sixty-fifth birthday spends 3,000 entire days
(almost
nine years of his entire life)
watching TV!
In
the
United
States,
there
is
no
government-owned
television
network.
Commercial
television
attempts to please a vast audience of all age
groups and educational levels by presenting
entertainment
that
can
be
understood
by
all.
Many
adults
are
annoyed
by
the
simplicity
and
dullness of most TV shows; they call
the TV set the
傻瓜
)
box
includes
cartoons
and
other
children's
shows,
family
situation
comedies,
news
and
weather,
mysteries, interview shows, sports,
movies, and musical reviews.
Public
without
the
annoying
commercials.
Funds
to
operate
public
TV
come
from
money
given
by
individuals and
industries and, to a small degree, from the
government. Public television has been
highly praised for imaginative,
appealing shows which help children learn basic
reading concepts,
valuable
psychological
insights,
and
languages
like
English
and
Spanish.
Fine
dramatic
and
musical
presentations,
award-winning
movies,
and
intelligent
discussions
of
national
problems
often take up the evening hours on
public TV. For those who seek self-improvement
with the help
of
TV,
there
are
shows
(daytime
and
evening)
which
teach
cooking,
skiing,
sewing,
instrument-playing,
and
dozens
of
other
skills.
Also
offered
are
college
courses
which
give
academic credit to enrolled listeners.
Movies
Most American movies are produced in
Hollywood, California. Hollywood, which is
actually
not
a
separate
city
but
a
part
of
Los
Angeles,
is
an
ideal
spot
for
the
movie
industry.
The
sun
shines most of the time, and the
climate is mild. Almost every kind of natural
scenery is within a
few hour's drive.
Hollywood
becomes
the
center
of
national
attention
on
one
evening
each
year-Academy
Award
night.
At
the
Academy
Award
presentations
held
each
spring,
awards
called
Oscars
are
given
to film industry winners in dozens of categories,
including best actor, best actress, and best
picture. The winners are chosen by
members of the industry before the ceremony, but
their names
are kept secret until the
presentation night, when they are announced in a
long program broadcast
on television.
Motion pictures were
extremely popular in the United States until after
World War II, when
television captured
much of the movie audience. Geared to the masses,
Hollywood movies offered
much the same
type of entertainment as television does. With
free entertainment in their homes,
many
Americans simply stopped going to movies. Between
1946 and 1956, movie attendance was
cut
in half. At the same time, production costs
increased. The movie industry was in trouble.
The industry adjusted
itself in a number of ways. Movie companies rented
sound stages to
TV companies and sold
old movies to TV. To cut costs, Hollywood produced
fewer movies and
filmed
many
of
them
overseas.
To
attract
audiences,
the
industry
started
using
wider
screens.
Studios also began
producing kinds of entertainment that could not be
offered by TV-films with
controversial
or
shocking
themes,
films
with
huge
casts
and
expensive
settings.
As
a
result
of
these
changes, today the American motion picture
industry is prosperous.
Since
industries
prefer
to
advertise
where
they
will
reach
the
largest
number
of
potential
customers,
the
mass
media
do
everything
they
can
to
hold
the
largest
audience
possible.
On
commercial TV, this goal
leads to a great deal of sports and generally
inadequate analyses of the
national
and
international
situations.
It
also
means
very
little
opera,
classical
music,
or
Shakespearean
drama,
and
a
great
deal
of
unsophisticated
comedy.
Generally,
the
mass
communications media
try to please the public by reinforcing popular
and traditional ideas rather
than
helping the public to understand (or at least,
accept) new ideas.
It
would
be
foolish
to
think
that
news
in
the
United
States
is
always
whole
truth
and
nothing
but the truth.
publications
and
broadcasting
stations
can
obtain
a
reasonably
accurate
picture
of
what's
happening in the world. The United
States government cannot control the news and
entertainment
media
except
to
protect
the
public.
It
can
prohibit
misleading
advertising
and
ban
the
sale
of
unhealthy
materials,
but
it
cannot
examine
and
thus
delete
the
news
or
ban
its
release.
Public
officials
sometimes
keep
back
information
concerning
governmental
activities
from
the
news
media.
Attempts to do this, however, are often exposed by
persistent reporters.
The
guarantee of freedom of expression allows writers,
news reporters, and public figures to
state their opinions openly,
without fear of governmental
evaluation. No official power controls
what
is
said
to
the
public.
No
particular
point
of
view
is
forced
upon
the
news
media.
No
American needs be
ignorant about public affairs in this nation where
freedom of speech makes a
wide range of
events and ideas available to the public.
1.
American Rural and city people are the
same in that they can ________d________.