Mass Media In The USA

Question 1

Cinema

Answer 1

• Invented by the Lumiere brothers in Paris but developed in USA
• the earliest cinemas were called Nickelodeons because people had to pay a nickel (five cents) to get in
• soon film producers moved to California, and a suburb of Los Angeles called Hollywood became the centre of the film industry
• 1920 - companies: production, distribution
• paramount, twentieth century fox, metro Goldwyn Mayer, Warner Bros, Columbia
• silent movies till 1927
• gone with the wind -the greatest succes (until E.T - Steven Spielberg) of the American cinema (1939) - 235 min

Question 2

The press

Answer 2

• local newspapers, no national
• NY times (Sunday edition - very heavy, 200 pages)
• the Washington Post (famous - 1972 presidential campaign, the Watergate scandal, Nixon)
• weekly or monthly magazines: Newsweek, Time, Life, The New Yorker, Look, National Geographic

Question 3

Television

Answer 3

• 600 TV stations in the US
• ABC (American broadcasting company)
• CBS (Columbia broadcasting company)
• NBC (national broadcasting company)
• no tax
• new system: if you pay you can be connected to the cable TV channel you like
• CNN - news channel
• Walt Disney Channel