Compare and Contrast British Media and American Media

COMPARE AND CONTRAST BRITISH MEDIA AND AMERICAN MEDIA

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Date The role of the media has always brought controversy with some people feeling that the media does not perform upto the expected standard when it comes to the delivery of news . There are those that feel it is the media that keeps people in the know of information that would otherwise be out of their reach . Britain and America are two of the most powerful nations in the world and consequently the role played by their

media Differences and similarites between the media in America and Britain is therefore important as it offers an insight on their perspective on issues

News is not an exclusive category of information that journalists search for . Rather , it is the information that journalists collectively decide is worth seeking out . It is what journalists decide is imporatant that becomes news and not what the citizens feel is . In most parts of the world , the news media are becoming more oriented to the markets that is commercial , and also more focused on entertainment . This is as a result of three trends that have rapidly caught on since the 1980s These are , the rapid increase of privately owned television channels and the weakening of programme requirements on commercial broadcasters that is deregulation

From watching commercials on television , it can be seen that the approach of the British media to advertising is different from the American media . Differences occur in the amount of information carried by commercials , the creative approaches employed in terms of soft and hard sell and the use of humours language and imagery (Winski 1990

These differences have not always been there . In the 1950s when television advertising was permitted in Britain , many agencies in Britain hired people with American experience . This was a time when America was seen as being superior in terms of development in all sectors media included . During this period a number of American media agencies were opening offices in London . This was to serve the needs of clients in Britain and the European market . They wanted to exploit the untapped market and hoped to gain from the supposed slumber of British media (Lannon , 1986

Britain has also been influenced by American philosophies and concepts Early television advertising in Britain therefore tended to be dominated by commercials made in the American style and and supported by American research methodologies imported to service the needs of major corporations such as Colgate , Procter Gamble , and General Foods . In this sense , the British media advertising in the media may have taken a longer time . This took place when the British people felt that they needed to have media advertisement that respected their culture and understood their specific needs . The American media was viewed as foreign and therefore not worth trusting in terms of the information it was feeding the British media (Lannon 1986

According to Weinberger and Spotts (1989 , the lower information content in British commercials tends to support the view...