NEWSPAPERS IN GREAT BRITAIN

LONDON

We can say that it is one of the largest cities and ports in the world, that it is one of the most important world’s business, industrial and cultural centres and that it is the capital of Great Britain.

But these answers don’t give a full idea of London.

London is the oldest city in the country. The London underground is the longest in Europe. The population of London is over 9 million people.

Although London is a noisy and crowded city you can find green squares, gardens and parks there. The largest and the most popular park is Hyde park – a favourite place for many people on hot summer days.

The City of London is one of the most important commercial centres of the world. There are banks, the Stosk Exchange, the Lloyd’s building and many offices of international companies. The are places of interest in the City too among which is the London Tower and the beautiful Tower Bridge.

The most pleasant part of London is the West End. Where you can find most famous places of interest, such as Buskingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, The Houses of Parlament, Hyde park, the madam Tussaud Museum, Paccadilly circus and many, many others. Westminster, the political centre of Great Britain, is in the West End too.

For many centuries the East End, the industrial part of London, with its port, docks and factories was the least pleasant part of London. The houses there were poor, the streets were narrow and dirty, it was a home of working-class people. Now the East End has changed. The old docks closed between the 1960s and the 1980s. Now we can find there entertainment centres with shops and restaurants, new comfortable blocks of flats. There are also theatres and concert halls.

London is a very English city, but it is the least typical of Britaib, as it is very cosmopolitan. In the capital there are goods, food, entertainment and people from many countries of the world.

There is so much to see in London that even Lodoners can always find new sights. They like to say: “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”.

A TOUCH OF FLU

NEWSPAPERS IN GREAT BRITAIN

More daily newspapers are sold per person in the UK than in almost any other country: there are twelve national daily newspapers and eleven national Sunday ones. While the more serious newspapers have a lot of home and international news, some of the more popular 'tabloids' concentrate on the more spectacular and scandalous aspects of life in Britain.

Quality newspapers appealing mainly to the upper and middle classes are "Financial Times", "The Times", "The Guardian", "The Daily Telegraph". "The Daily Telegraph" contains reports on national and international news, gives a full covering of sports and other topics. "Financial Times" is read mainly by professional and business people as it contains a comprehensive coverage of industry, commerce and public affairs. "The Guardian" gives a wide coverage of news events and reports on social issues, the arts, education, etc. "The Times" is the most famous newspaper. It is not actually the oldest newspaper in Britain, but some years ago it celebrated its two hundredth birthday. "The Times" represents the views of the establishment and is well-known for its correspondence column.

Popular, tabloid newspapers are smaller in size and contain many photographs. Unlike quality newspapers popular newspapers are not so serious and their stories tend to be sensational. "Daily Express", "Daily Mirror". “Daily Mail", "Daily Star", 'The Sun' are popular newspapers. They have a national daily circulation and appeal mainly to the working and middle classes. "Daily Mirror" supports the Labour party. 'The Sun' has a larger circulation than any other daily newspaper.

Although newspaper sales have fallen slightly over the past few years, newspapers have an important effect on public opinion. Most British newspapers are owned by big businesses and although they are not directly linked to political parties, there are strong connections. The majority of newspapers -even those which carry little serious news -are conservative in outlook.

The old image of London's Fleet Street as the centre of the newspaper printing and publishing world has changed, and in fact all the big newspapers have moved from Fleet Street to more modern premises. New technology has altered the whole shape of the industry, with changes in the production process and a reduction in the number of employees.

One of the beneficial results of computerised production has been improved graphics and photographs, a development first seen in The Independent, founded in 1986 and Britain's first new quality newspaper since the last century. The tendency has been for newspapers to become smaller but to contain more pages. Sunday papers have colour magazines and several of the dailies have weekend supplements, perhaps because people now have more time to read them. Competition for circulation is intense and newspapers have tried several methods to increase the number of people who read them, including the use of colour, competitions and national bingo games. Running a newspaper is an expensive and competitive business and several new papers started and failed during the 1980s. Overall, the number of people reading newspapers has declined in recent years.

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