Characteristic features of the modern US press

ХАРАКТЕРНЫЕ ЧЕРТЫ СОВРЕМЕННОЙ ПРЕССЫ США

Прокопенко Мария Геннадьевна

студент Белгородский государственный национальный исследовательский университет, РФ, г. Белгород

Шемаева Елена Викторовна

научный руководитель, доцент, Белгородский государственный национальный исследовательский университет, РФ, г. Белгород

Nowadays, the United States of America leads the way in the field of information. The American media landscape is very diverse. Nevertheless, a number of common features can be identified.

The first and important feature is that the American press, both print and electronic, is primarily a business. There are no state-owned media in the country, except for those which only broadcast to foreign countries, such as «Voice of America», «Radio Marti» and «Doc Martin». There is public television and radio, but their audience is very small.

All the other press outlets are commercial, with the aim of making a profit. When a newspaper or television station stops making money, it is usually shut down or sold.

At the same time, the United States considers itself a state where freedom of speech, and therefore of the media, is an important condition for the normalcy of society. It is no coincidence that it is called the «fourth estate». As the Americans themselves say, the legislature watches over the executive, the judiciary watches over both, and the press watches over all [2].

The American press has traditionally focused on local audiences. Most newspapers are distributed within the city or state where they are published.

In fact, only one newspaper «USA Today» was created as a national newspaper. «The Wall Street Journal» and «The New York Times» can also be considered national, with some assumptions. The rest have a regional or local character [1].

Another characteristic feature of the American press is the process of its monopolisation. The number of cities where competing newspapers are published is decreasing. The number of daily newspapers itself is also decreasing.

There are now several major publishing corporations in the US; they tend to be divided mainly into newspaper and magazine corporations. However, many of them do not specialize in any one type of product, but publish newspapers as well as magazines, books, and have cable television and radio stations.

It is also characteristic of American media that the main income of American newspapers comes from advertising. The annual revenue from advertising is more than twice that from sales and subscriptions.

Many people point out the particularity of paying special attention to the Sunday circulation of newspapers. The Sunday editions are usually larger in volume than those published on weekdays.

Another characteristic feature of the American press is the existence of press syndicates. These are private agencies that specialize in producing individual newspaper pages or sections. They may be devoted to women's issues, sports, educational or entertainment material, comics, etc. Many publications are keen to buy these individual pages [3].

In the United States, free newspapers that exist solely through advertising are popular. There are about three and a half thousand such newspapers in the country. An important feature of American media, but not only American media, is that most editors and journalists agree that there should be a separation between news and commentary. Newcomers are taught that the opinion of editorial offices on events should, as a rule, be placed on the editorial page. Most of the readers as well as the television viewers prefer unbiased materials that do not impose a particular point of view. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult to establish whether a newspaper supports the Democratic or Republican party.

Quality publications strive to present news objectively, in a very balanced way, especially during election campaigns, so that they are not accused of supporting one candidate or another. Perhaps the exception was the 2008 presidential election campaign, when some outlets openly declared their support for Barack Obama. Among them, for example, was «The Los Angeles Times», which had previously taken a neutral stance during the election. At the same time, the «FOXN» broadcaster has been outspoken in its support for the Republican Party and its candidates.

Thus, the characteristic features of the US press are:

- lack of state-owned media;

- a large number of commercial organizations;

- monopolization of the American press;

- main income from advertising;

- the output circulation is several times more than the weekday one;

- existence of press syndicates;

- separation of news statements and their comments.