首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
In the Information Age, the mass media have been playing an ever more important role in shaping our society. In the following ex
In the Information Age, the mass media have been playing an ever more important role in shaping our society. In the following ex
admin
2020-09-01
72
问题
In the Information Age, the mass media have been playing an ever more important role in shaping our society. In the following excerpt, the author lists the benefits as well as the setbacks brought about by the mass media. Read the excerpt carefully and write your response in NO LESS THAN 300 WORDS, in which you should:
1. summarize briefly the author’s opinion about the mass media;
2. give your comment.
Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
Write your article on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
Excerpt
We are told that the mass media are the greatest organs for enlightenment that the world has yet seen, and in Britain, for instance, several million people see each issue of the current affairs program, Panorama. It is true that never in human history were so many people so often and so much exposed to so many intimations about societies, forms of life and attitudes other than those obtained in their local societies. This kind of exposure may well be a point of departure for acquiring certain important intellectual and imaginative qualities, width of judgment, and a sense of the variety of possible attitudes. Yet in itself such exposure does not bring intellectual or imaginative development. It is no more than the masses of stone which lie around in a quarry and which may, conceivably, go to the making of a cathedral. The mass media cannot build the cathedral, and their way of showing the stones does not always prompt others to build. For the stones are presented within a self-contained and self-sufficient world in which, it is implied, simply to look at them, to observe—fleetingly—individually interesting points of difference between them, is sufficient in itself.
Life is indeed full of problems on which we have to—or feel we should try to—make decisions as citizens or as private individuals. But neither the real difficulty of these decisions nor their true and disturbing challenge to each individual can be communicated through the mass media. The disinclination to suggest the real choice, the individual decision, which is to be found in the mass media, is not simply the product of a commercial desire to keep the customers happy. It is within the grain of mass communication. The organs of the Establishment, however well-intentioned they may be and whatever their form (the State, the Church, voluntary societies, political parties), have a vested interest in ensuring that the public boat is not violently rocked, and will so affect those who work within the mass media that they will be led insensibly towards forms of production which, though they go through the dispute and enquiry, do not break through the skin to where such enquiries might really hurt. They will tend to move, when exposing problems, well within the accepted cliche assumptions of the society and will tend neither radically to question these cliches nor to make a disturbing application of them to the features of contemporary life. They will stress the "stimulation" the programs give, but this soon becomes an agitation of problems for the sake of the interest of that agitation itself; they will therefore, again, assist a form of acceptance of the status quo. There are exceptions to this tendency, but they are uncharacteristic.
The result can be seen in a hundred radio and television programs as plainly as in the normal treatment of public issues in the popular press. Different levels of background of the readers or viewers may be assumed, but what usually takes place is a substitute for the process of arriving at judgment. Programs such as this are noteworthy less for the " stimulation" they offer than for the fact that that stimulation (repeated at regular intervals) may become a substitute for, and so a hindrance to, judgments arrived at and tested in the mind and on the pulse. Mass communication, then, does not ignore intellectual matters; it tend to castrate them, to allow them to sit on the side of the fireplace, sleek and useless, a family plaything.
选项
答案
My View on the Mass Media Undeniably, the mass media have been greatly influencing our life. However, in essence, they don’t prompt intellectual development for the sake of their poor power of offering solutions to our real troubles in real life. This inability lies in the grain of mass communication which has been invented to pacify rather than agitate the masses. So with few exceptions, the mass media, instead of stirring intellect among their users, choose to castrate it, making themselves useless pastimes. A century or so ago, a book named The Crowd written by Gustave Le Bon shocked the world into a new recognition about the role the controlling power played in influencing the masses. A century later, that controlling power puts on a new vest and calls itself the mass media. While we hail the juggernaut of information thanks to its ubiquity, more sober minds worry about the suffocating whiff the mass media puff. More often than before, we witness several reversals of the same story publicized by the media, which is so twisting that it can rank a Hollywood movie. Due to their haste to catch the public attention, many mass media lose their professionalism of accuracy to rash reports. For example, some irresponsible editors base their reports on unreliable sources to cry wolf to cater to the prying eyes, only to make themselves subject to later mockery. Worse still, owing to the strict censorship, the so-called visceral truth-telling may turn out to be a thinly or thickly veiled lie to serve some purposes. " So wicked it looks loyal; so fake it looks real" speaks true of some if not many pieces of the information the mass media presented. All in all, bad omens though these may sound to doom-mongers, the mass media, as the most powerful mouthpiece of one group or another, cannot withdraw themselves from us. It is us, who are equipped with better-nurtured minds, that should choose to digest the news they offer.
解析
本题探讨的是大众传媒对公众的影响,属于社会生活类话题。题目要求简要概括所给材料中作者的观点,并发表自己的评论。在具体行文方面,考生可以开篇点题,简要概括材料中作者对大众传媒的负面观点;然后提出自己对这一问题的看法,并阐明理由;最后总结全文,重述论点,提出倡议。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/LsIK777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
A、Sheistheleaderofthesorority.B、Sheisalwayshavingherowndramas.C、SheisthebestfriendofKappaD、Sheisapartya
DifferentTypesofLearningI.ThedefinitionoflearningA.AprocessofpeopleexperiencingrelationshipbetweeneventsB.【T1】
WhyWeDon’tLikeEnglishClassesI.People’s【T1】______ofhowtolearnEnglish【T1】______A.Preconception:intention—registrat
Althoughthefirstyearisreallyimportantforlanguagedevelopmentinchildren,majorlearningcontinuesthroughoutachild’s
如果回归自然,各有不同的方式,后人总是尊重前辈的人生最后一次选择。一位朋友偶然讲起一件事,犹如一篇小小说,听者动容。在新开发的丛林里,一条蜿蜒的小径上,一个衣着素色的女子踽踽独行,径直走向林子里的一棵树。这里许多树大小参差不一,不过都长得很快,新生的树叶嫩
中国是文明古国,礼仪之邦,很重礼节。凡来了客人,沏茶、敬茶的礼仪是必不可少的。当有客来访,可征求意见,选用最合来客口味的茶叶和最佳茶具待客。主人在陪伴客人饮茶时,要注意客人杯、壶中的茶水残留量,一般用茶杯泡茶,如已喝去一半,就要添加开水,随喝随添,使茶水浓
我想有必要在这里先谈一谈德国的与博士论文有关的制度。当我在德国学习的时候,德国并没有规定学习的年限,只要你有钱,你可以无限期地学习下去。德国有一个词儿是别的国家没有的,这就是“永恒的大学生”。德国大学没有空洞的“毕业”这个概念,只有博士论文写成,口试通过,
当我在小学毕了业的时候,亲友一致的愿意我去学手艺,好帮助母亲。我晓得我应当去找饭吃,以减轻母亲的勤劳困苦。可是,我也愿意升学。我偷偷地考入了师范学校——制服,饭食,书籍,宿处,都由学校供给。只有这样,我才敢对母亲提升学的话。入学,要交十元的保证会。这是一笔
A、HongKong.B、Japan.C、WestAsia.D、Europe.B对话接近尾声时,Mr.Phelps问到新招聘的员工是否有机会在香港以外的地方工作,例如去东南亚,并表示他最想去日本。因此B项是正确答案。
袁良是一位65岁的退休中学生物教师。从1984年起他开始对天津地区的鸟类资源进行统计。天津是中国北方最大的港口城市,东临渤海湾,北部有燕山山脉,东北部有国家级湿地自然保护区,南部有大面积的水域。丰富的地貌使天津成为众多珍稀鸟类难得的栖息之地。袁良的鸟类观测
随机试题
不适宜支气管哮喘患者康复的住院环境是()。
患者,男性,71岁,大叶性肺炎。患者身体较弱,经抗生素及对症治疗后症状无明显好转。为防止病情恶化,护士重点观察的指标是
安装在楼梯间、走廊墙壁上消防设施是下列哪种?()
建筑安装工程费中的企业管理费包括()
从2007年8月15H起,对个人在中国境内储蓄机构取得的人民币、外币储蓄存款利息,按5%税率征收个人所得税。李某2007年9月1日在我国境内某储蓄机构取得2007年3月1日存入的半年期储蓄存款利息5000元,如果该居民被征收了250元的个人所得税。这样处理
法人信贷业务操作风险的控制措施有()。
简述网络道德中的道德规范。
先生の部屋に入るとき、ドアを________してください。
Susan:I’msogladtoseeyou,David.【K1】______hasbeensuchalongtime.Howareyou?David:I’mfine,andyou?Susan:I’mju
Haiti’sTourismA)LikemanyofitsCaribbeanneighbors,Haitioncedrewmanytourists.Butdecadesofpoliticalinstability,
最新回复
(
0
)