Text c Journalism: Historical Survey (from the beginning to the 18th century)

I. Прочтите текст и укажите, какие утверждения соответствуют тексту т (True), а какие нет – f (False):

1. At first, the term journalism implied only newspapers and radio.

2. The first printed newspaper appeared in China.

3. The first newspapers in Europe contained no home news.

4. The first English news-sheets had very short names.

5. The first known journalistic production was published in ancient Rome.

Originally journalism included only such printed matter as newspapers and periodicals. In the 20^th century, however, it includes other media used to broadcast news, such as radio, television, and documentary or newsreel films. The earliest known journalistic production was the Acta Diurna (Daily Events) of ancient Rome; in the 1^st century BC Julius Caesar ordered these hand-written news bulleting to be posted each day in the Forum. It contained coverage of social and political events: elections, public appointments, government edicts, treaties, trials and executions, military news, births, marriages and deaths. The Acta Diurna was written in manuscripts. A similar approach to publishing news was undertaken in China from the 6^th to the 20^th century. The first printed newspaper, produced from wood blocks, appeared in Beijing in the 7^th or 8^th century AD. In China during the Tang dynasty a court circular called a pao, or “report”, was issued to government officials. This gazette appeared in various forms and under various names more or less continually to the end of the Ch’ing dynasty in 1911. In the mid-15^th century, wider and faster circulation of news was made possible by the invention in Europe of moveable type.

Germany, the Netherlands, and England produced newsletters of various sizes in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, and in France the magazine or literary journal developed in the late 17^th century. The first newspapers consisted of foreign news reports, because home news was forbidden. The first English news-sheet, published by Nicholas Bourne and Thomas Archer on May 23, 1622, was called the “Weekly News from Italy, Germany, Hungaria, translated out of the low Dutch copy”. It was not until the abolition of the Star Chamber in England in 1641 that journalists were allowed to report the proceedings of Parliament. However parliamentary reporting was forbidden again in 1660, and when the first daily newspaper was introduced in the United Kingdom, the Daily Courant in 1702, it contained no home news. It was not until the introduction of the Daily Post in 1719 and the Daily Journal in 1720 that journalists were again permitted to report on home news stories. By the early 18^th century politicians had begun to realize the enormous potential of newspapers in shaping public opinion. Consequently the journalism of the period was largely political in nature; each political group had its newspaper. It was during this period that the great English journalists flourished, among them Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele. At this time the long struggle for freedom of the press began.

II. Какое слово не является синонимом слова, стоящим в начале строчки:

1. bulletin

a) account b) news flash c) report d) sick list

2. journal

a) magazine b) shop c) periodical d) tabloid

3. to publish

a) to issue b) to publicize c) to register d) to distribute

4. invention

a) creation b) development c) inversion d) discovery

5. various

a) different b) fabulous c) diverse d) variegated