ALISA MILLER: THE NEWS ABOUT THE NEWS (00:00 – 04:26)

Alisa Miller is President and CEO of Public Radio International.

As the CEO of Public Radio International, Alisa Miller works to bring the most significant news stories to millions — empowering Americans with the knowledge to make choices in an interconnected world.

PRE-VIEWING TASKS

1.Discuss the questions:

  • In Russia, does home news receive the same share of coverage as foreign news?
  • Which news do you follow more — home news or global news? Why?

2. Predict the message.

The presentation you are going to watch is called “How the News Distorts Our Worldview”. Tick the ideas you think the speaker will get across.

  • Americans don’t receive full coverage of global news.
  • American news outlets cover foreign news more than home news.
  • Americans are not interested in getting extensive coverage of global news.
  • News networks don’t provide full coverage of news because it is too expensive.

3. Study the notes before you watch the video:

The IPCC — The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 

Anna Nicole Smith was an American model, actress, and television personality. Her highly publicized second marriage to 89-year-old billionaire J. Howard Marshall resulted in speculation that she married him for his money, which she denied. Smith died in February 2007 in Hollywood, Florida, of a combined drug intoxication.

Britney  (Britney Spears) is an American singer. Often referred to as the «Princess of Pop», she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

AP (The Associated Press) is an American non-profit news agency.

Reuters /ˈrɔɪtəz/  is one of the largest international news agencies in the world.

VIEWING TASKS

1.Watch the video and jot down the evidence the speaker provides to support the following ideas:

  • Americans get a distorted picture of the world news.
  • The most important global events are neglected by news outlets.
  • Home news receives more coverage than overseas news.
  • The main reason why global news doesn’t receive extensive coverage is reduction of expenses.
  • Americans are interested in foreign news.

2. What does the speaker show on the slides? Name the ideas Alisa Miller illustrates by means of pictures and graphs. (To do the task you may want to play the video again and stop it when a new slide appears.)

3.Use the ideas conveyed by the speaker to prove the following statement:
“Americans don’t receive full coverage of global news”.

In your talk, you may want to use the ideas and evidence from Task 1 (Viewing Section) and the expressions below:

  • distorted worldview
  • to account for …% of news coverage
  • to eclipse the coverage of other news
  • to reduce the number of news bureaus
  • lack of global coverage
  • local news looms large

POST-VIEWING TASKS

In pairs, conduct a study. Open the Internet sites of two or three Russian newspapers to calculate the share of home news and foreign news. Draw a graph to show the results of your study.