Материал: 1989

radical or minority issue editorial cartoonists who would previously have been obscure have found large audiences on the Internet.

Editorial cartoons can be very diverse, but there is a certain established style among most of them. Most use visual metaphors and caricatures to explain complicated political situations, and thus sum up a current event with a humorous or emotional picture. Their purpose is to bring across a message to people and try to make them think the same way.

In modern political cartooning two styles have begun to emerge. The traditional style, involving symbols like Uncle Sam, the Democratic donkey and Republican elephant, visual metaphors and labels, is described as the “nast-y” style (named after Thomas Nast), and the more text heavy “altie” style that tells a linear story, usually in comic strip format. Although their style, technique or viewpoints may differ, editorial cartoonists draw attention to important social and political issues.

Although most western editorial cartoonists by necessity occupy the middle political ground, this is by no means true of all cartoonists and there is a spectrum of political commentary in cartoons which runs from the extreme right through the centre to the extreme left. Political cartoons, can be whatever would reach the chosen age target.

There is a Pulitzer Prize awarded every year for America’s top editorial cartoonist – as decided by a panel of senior media industry professionals and media academics. Other major awards given each year to editorial cartoonists include the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Thomas Nast Award from the Overseas Press Club, and the Herblock Prize.

ANDY BURNHAM: THE BBC CAN HELP SAVE LOCAL

NEWSPAPERS

From The Times, March 30, 2009

By Philip Webster, Political Editor

The BBC should come to the aid of struggling local newspapers rather than compete against them, the Culture Secretary has told “The Times”.

As more newspapers go to the wall, and thousands of regional media jobs are lost, Andy Burnham is calling for radical measures to save a pillar of local democracy.

Rules restricting mergers of local newspapers could be eased, more government and local authority advertising could be pushed their way, and new models of ownership will be examined.

The Government will also study how the industry can modernise and become part of the digital communications age.

Ministers are looking at council-funded newspapers that are taking business away from the traditional press. Mr. Burnham has called a oneday conference of industry representatives at the Commons next month, and is planning to raise the future of the industry at Cabinet level. He told The Times: “Local newspapers have long been part of the fabric of life in our towns and rural areas. But as most MPs can see with their own eyes, they are facing very dire times.

“Some of it is cyclical because of the downturn, but some of it is structural as readers and advertisers have turned to the Internet. We cannot allow this vital source of local information to disappear.”

He said: “We have to plot a path for local papers to move into the digital age.”

Mr. Burnham suggested that rather than compete against each

work together. “We should be looking at public-private partnerships. The BBC could provide sound and images to the website of the local paper. Newspapers can provide information for BBC websites. All of them could work together providing a service under the trusted banner of the local paper. As we said in the White Paper Digital Britain, the BBC should become an enabling force in the media world.”

Mr. Burnham envisages different business models, with local papers becoming part of media trusts or mutuals, sometimes helped by the local councils. He is not in favour of government subsidies. Money is tight and his contacts with editors have suggested they are also uneasy about it, fearing that their independence could be compromised.

The Office of Fair Trading and Ofcom have begun a full consultation on local media ownership after appeals from regional groups for restrictions to be relaxed. The OFT plans to complete the review by the middle of next month, in time for the final Digital Britain report by Mr. Burnham and Lord Carter of Barnes, chairman of Sport England, which is due in early summer.

Ministers are also worried about the fall in revenue from local advertising, and are likely to raise with councils their growing practice of advertising jobs internally in their own papers rather than in the local press.

THE PARTY’S OVER AND MAGAZINES SUFFER A

CIRCULATION HANGOVER

From The Times, February 13, 2009

By Patrick Foster, Media Correspondent

Geri Halliwell has been on holiday in Mexico. Not many people know that – or care, it seems. In fact, the dearth of exciting gossip surrounding celebrities, possibly reining-in their lavish lifestyles in these straitened times, has been blamed for a plunge in the circulation of women’s weekly magazines.

Only two of them bucked the downward trend last year – Bella, published by H Bauer, up 16.9 per cent in the second half, and Hello!, owned by Eduardo Sánchez Junco, the Spanish media magnate, reporting a year-on-year rise of 7.1 per cent. The sector was down 8 per cent on the year.

Hello!, down slightly in the second half of 2008, now sells 432,649 copies a week, according to half-yearly figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, closing the gap on OK! Magazine, its Northern and Shell rival, whose circulation plunged by a disastrous 25.6 per cent last year.

Richard Desmond’s celebrity offering saw its circulation slide from nearly 700,000 to touching 500,000 over the 12 months, losing its slot as the second most popular women’s weekly to Bauer’s Closer.

Analysts suggested that the £2.95 cover price of OK! was causing it to lose sales in a sector where discounting has become the norm. Circulation of Heat magazine cooled rapidly, losing 11.7 per cent during 2008, but remaining stable in the second half of the year, at 470,000 copies.

Take a Break, the Bauer true-life publication, maintained its № 1 spot in the sector, but slipped below one million sales, down 3.9 per cent on the six months, to 943,000.

Its stablemate, Bella, put on 224,000 copies. Helen Lowe, the magazine’s publisher, said: “Bella has stuck to its core values by providing entertainment through true-life features, celebrity gossip, style and service elements. [It] provides thirtysomething women with somewhere to go when they have outgrown the core celebrity titles.”

At the other end of the market, the high-end titles fared better, with Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair all holding on to sales over 2008, or even marginally increasing circulation. The sector saw growth of 7.4 per cent, although that was largely driven by a 20.7 per cent rise in the distribution of Asos.com, the fashion website’s free monthly glossy magazine. Red, the fashion and beauty offering from Hachette Filipacchi, achieved record sales of 225,000 copies after grinding out a 2.1 per cent

growth in the second half of 2008, but Cosmopolitan lost 10,000 readers over the year, a fall of 2.1 per cent.

In the men’s market, there was similar pain for the downmarket titles, with FHM, Nuts, Zoo and Maxim all reporting double-digit falls in circulation for 2008. Maxim, from Dennis Publishing, took scant consolation in a 5.5 per cent growth on the period, with sales slipping by 41.4 per cent over the year, crashing through the 50,000 barrier from 78,500 to 46,000.

Loaded fell through the 100,000 barrier, dropping 21.7 per cent over the year to 90,000 copies, and Zoo was down nearly 19 per cent.

At the other end of the market, GQ powered to an 11th consecutive circulation increase to 130,000 copies. Condé Nast said the title also achieved a 15 per cent increase in subscriptions for the year, a record for the magazine.

In the music sector, Q magazine continued its lingering decline, recording a 9 per cent drop in sales for the second half of 2008, despite a much-trumpeted relaunch incorporating more lifestyle content. The Bauer monthly is now approaching the 100,000 mark, selling 103,000 copies, and could slip below the psychological benchmark at the next set of results.

Classic Rock and Metal Hammer, both from Future Publishing, were the top performers in the sector, seeing year-on-year growth of 4 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. Metal Hammer overtook New Musical Express, the industry bible, for the first time. NME, which has focused heavily on its web presence, lost nearly a quarter of its readers last year, dropping to 48,500 copies.

PART III

BROADCASTS. THEIR TYPES AND WAYS OF DISTRIBUTION

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcasting

Broadcasting is a major component of the mass media in most of the world’s countries. The term “broadcast” originally referred to the sowing of seeds by scattering them over a wide field. It was adopted by early radio engineers from the Midwestern United States to refer to the analogous dissemination of radio signals.

The first regular television broadcasts began in 1937. Broadcasts can be classified as recorded or live. The former allows correcting errors, and removing superfluous or undesired material, rearranging it, applying slowmotion and repetitions, and other techniques to enhance the program. However some live events like sports telecasts can include some of the aspects including slow motion clips of important goals/hits etc. in between the live telecast.

American radio network broadcasters habitually forbade prerecorded broadcasts in the 1930s and 1940s requiring radio programs played for the Eastern and Central time zones to be repeated three hours later for the Pacific time zone. This restriction was dropped for special occasions, as in the case of the German dirigible airship Hindenburg at Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937. During World War II, prerecorded broadcasts from war correspondents were allowed on U.S. radio. In addition, American radio programs were recorded for playback by Armed Forces Radio stations

with propaganda broadcasts from Germany in the 1940s and with Radio Moscow in the 1980s.

Many events are advertised as being live, although they are often “recorded live” (sometimes called “live-to-tape”). This is particularly

of the distinction between live and recorded media is viewed with chagrin among many music lovers. Similar situations have sometimes appeared in television (“The Cosby Show is recorded in front of a live studio audience”).