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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA, in VOA Special English. I'm BobDoughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. This week, we begin a two-part look at themedia in the United States.

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VOICE ONE:

Americans get some of their news and entertainment from publictelevision and radio. These public media receive money to operatefrom private citizens, organizations and government. Many of theirprograms are educational.

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But most of the American media arerun by businesses for profit. These privately owned media havechanged greatly in recent years. Newspapers, magazines andtraditional broadcast television organizations have lost some oftheir popularity. At the same time, online, cable and satellitemedia have increased in numbers and strength. So have media thatserve ethnic groups and those communicating in foreign languages.

In general, more media than ever now provide Americans with newsand entertainment. At the same time, fewer owners control them. Hugecompanies have many holdings. In some areas, one company controlsmuch of the media.

VOICE TWO:

One dramatic change in American media is the increased success ofcable television. It comes into most homes over wires. It does notuse the public airwaves, as broadcast television does. Likebroadcast television, most cable television programs include salesmessages. This is true although people must pay to see cabletelevision in their homes.

Thirty years ago, few people had cable. Today, about sixty-eightpercent of American homes have cable television. Television bysatellite also is gaining popularity.

VOICE ONE:

Over the years, traditional broadcast organizations have tried toappeal to as many watchers as possible. Many cable companies,however, present programs for one special group of viewers. Forexample, there are stations for people who like books, cooking,travel, golf or comedy.

Some cable channels also launched programs with sexual materialor language that could not be used on broadcast television. Americanlaw considers that the broadcast airwaves belong to the public. Sobroadcast networks traditionally guarded against offensive content.But the networks have reacted to the popularity of cable by alsoshowing more suggestive material.

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VOICE TWO:

In the past few years, "reality" television programs have becomeextremely popular. They show situations as they happen, without awritten story. They cost less to produce than other kinds ofprograms.

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In the United States, CBSTelevision started reality programs in two-thousand with "Survivor."Sixteen people who did not know each other lived together on anunpopulated island for thirty-nine days. They had few supplies. Theyformed alliances. They also plotted against one another.

The cameras recorded the action as they competed to stay on theisland. Each week the group voted one of the people off the island.The last one to remain took home one million dollars.

VOICE ONE:

The computer has also changed American media. By two thousand,the government said more than half of American homes had computers.At least one person used the Internet in more than eighty percent ofthese homes. Other people use the Internet in schools, at work andat libraries.

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released astudy of Internet use. The center's Internet and American LifeProject found that forty-four percent of Internet users share theirthoughts on the Internet. Some write commentaries about politics andother issues on Web logs, or blogs.

VOICE TWO:

The Pew Center says some young people today learn about politicsin another non-traditional way. Earlier this year, the centerquestioned more than one thousand five hundred people. One in fivewho were younger than thirty said they usually get politicalinformation from television comedy programs. That is two times asmany as four years ago. They watch programs like "The Daily Show"with Jon Stewart and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

VOICE ONE:

The studies also show that thirty-three percent of both young andolder people said they sometimes learn about politics on theInternet. Their answers showed a nine percent increase in Internetuse for this purpose since the last presidential election.

The Internet is also playing a financial part in politicalcampaigns. For example, the candidates for president have receivedmillions of dollars in gifts over the Internet.

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VOICE TWO:

The Project for Excellence in Journalism says almost forty-onemillion Americans watched nightly network news in nineteenninety-four. By last November, that had dropped below thirtymillion.

Tom Brokaw of NBC, Peter Jennings of ABC and Dan Rather of CBSare the main reporters, or anchors, on these shows. Mister Brokaw,however, plans to leave the position after the presidentialelection.

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And just last week, CBS launchedan independent investigation into a report on another news programon which Dan Rather appears. The recent report added to questionsabout President Bush's military service during the time of theVietnam War.

Mister Rather presented some documents given to CBS News. Lastweek, however, he apologized. He said he could no longer trust thatthe documents were real.

VOICE ONE:

The Project for Excellence in Journalism reports that elevenpercent fewer people buy daily newspapers than in nineteen ninety.It also says many people no longer believe what they read in thenewspapers. The project says that in nineteen eighty-five, eightypercent of readers trusted newspapers. In two thousand two, onlyfifty-nine percent said they believed what they read.

VOICE TWO:

In May of last year, a reporter was forced to leave The New YorkTimes. Jayson Blair invented facts in some stories or copied fromother newspapers. And in January of this year, a top reporter at USAToday, Jack Kelly, resigned for similar reasons.

More recently The New York Times apologized for some of itsreporting before the Iraqi war. It said it depended too much oninformation from unidentified officials and Iraqi exiles. Also, theWashington Post found weaknesses in its own reporting.

Another media story recently has involved some newspapers thatlied about their circulation. The Chicago Sun-Times admittedmisrepresenting its number of readers during the past two years. Inaddition, The Tribune Company reported that two of its publicationshad overstated the number of copies they sell.

VOICE ONE:

It is natural for owners and investors to expect to make aprofit, though some media owners say they would be happy just not tolose money. They say they are operating a newspaper or radio stationmainly as a public service. But media organizations usually dependon money from businesses that advertise their products and services.

Reporters often express concern about pressure from media owners.Reporters sometimes say they cannot write some stories for fear ofloss of advertising. But there are also many examples of aggressivereporting that serves the public interest.

Many people, though, say they do not believe they are alwaysgetting fair reporting. They often accuse journalists of supportingonly one set of political beliefs.

The Pew Center reports that about twelve percent of localreporters, editors and media officials questioned say they areconservatives. This compares with thirty-four percent who identifythemselves as liberals. The difference found between conservativesand liberals is even wider on the national level. But mostjournalists say they do not let personal opinion interfere withtheir reporting.

VOICE TWO:

In the United States, newspapers serving ethnic groups andspeakers of foreign languages are doing better than many others.Their popularity demonstrates America's big gains of people offoreign ancestry, especially Hispanics and Asians. These groups arealso watching and listening to an increasing number of televisionand radio stations in their own languages.

VOICE ONE:

Next week, we tell about government and court decisions affectingmedia operators. And we present issues about freedom of expressionin the media.

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VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by CatyWeaver. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for the second partof our report about the media in the United States, on THIS ISAMERICA in VOA Special English.