Press is very important for people in the UK since they read a lot. It is so-called „tradition"to start a morning with a newspaper in your hands. A great amount of newspapers is issued and sold in Britain daily.
All newspapers can be divided into two groups: quality papers and popular papers. Among quality newspapers such periodicals can be named as the Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times and the Daily Telegraph. The quality papers are called so because they are considered to give information of good quality so to speak. They usually cover different events and problems in different spheres of life: politics, economy, culture and so on. Quality papers give overview of home and foreign affairs in a serious manner. They addressed to educated readers.
The Times is thought to be an authoritative sourse of information for people in the Establishment. The Guardian is oriented on such readers who are well-educated and who are interested in intellectual food for thoughts.
The Daily Telegraph is for middle-class readers.
The Financial Times is a newspaper for businessmen. Traditionally, it is printed on pink paper.
The size of popular papers is smaller. They usually cover events from the lives of celebrities and pop-stars. They contain mostly different kinds of gossips and a lot of pictures showing private life and taken unexpectedly and secretly by paparazzi. The most popular newspapers of this kind are: the Daily Mail,
the Daily Express,
the Daily Star,
the Daily Mirror and the Sun.
There are also newspapers that are published only on Sundays and they are called evening papers. TV and radio Two main companies are organising broadcasting in the UK. They are BBC (Britisch Broadcasting Corporation) and IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority).
The BBC is financed by the government. It presents all kinds of information through numerous TV and radio channals.
The IBA takes control over private companies and gets its income mainly from advertising.
The BBC The BBC is probably the best known non-commercial radio and television system, formed by royal charter in 1927 to "educate and enlighten" the citizens.It is a very large television and radio organization based in the UK. It includes five national radio stations, more than 30 local radio stations, two national television stations, the International BBC World Service and BBC Worldwide Television. The BBC is a public service. It is paid for by taxes, byadvertisers, and all the major political parties have equal rights to give political broadcasts.
There are four radio channels. Radio 1 has mostly pop music; Radio 2 has light music, comedy, sport. Radio 3 has classical and modern music, talks on serious subjects, old and new plays. Radio 4 presents current news reports, talks and discussions.
The BBC also has two television channels BBC 1 and BBC 2. BBC 2 offers more serious programmes than BBC 1. It shows discussions, adaptations of novels into plays and films, operas and concerts. BBC 1 offers lighter plays and series, humour and sport, but there are also some interesting documentaries. BBC documentaries like "Animal Planet", "Discovery", or "Wildlife" are popular in many countries of the world.
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