СМИ и новости

When you need it

You need this vocabulary to follow the news in English, to discuss a story you have read, and to write about the role of the media, which is a standard topic in B2 exams and at university. It also helps you read critically: to notice who is speaking, what is a fact and what is a claim, and whether a report is balanced. Headlines in particular use a compressed grammar of their own, and this lesson explains how to decode it.

Core words

Types of media. Media is a plural noun in origin, but in everyday English the media often takes a singular verb: the media is and the media are are both used.

Word	Note	Example
press	newspapers and journalists as a group	The story was reported in the press.
newspaper	often just paper	I read the paper on the train.
tabloid	a popular paper with short, sensational stories	The tabloids love celebrity scandals.
magazine	/ˌmæɡəˈziːn/	a weekly news magazine
broadcast	past form is also broadcast	The debate was broadcast live.
channel	a TV channel; a radio station	Which channel is the match on?
podcast		I listen to a news podcast every morning.

People.

Word	Note	Example
journalist	the general word	She's a freelance journalist.
reporter	goes to events and reports on them	Reporters waited outside the court.
correspondent	reports from a place or on a subject	the paper's foreign correspondent
editor	decides what is published	The editor rejected the article.
presenter	British; American anchor for the news	The presenter introduced the guests.
audience	viewers, listeners or readers	The programme has a young audience.

Content and trust.

Word	Note	Example
headline	the title of a news story	The headline was misleading.
article	a piece of writing in a paper or online	I read an interesting article about sleep.
report	noun and verb	The report was published yesterday.
coverage	the amount of reporting on a topic	The election got huge coverage.
source	where information comes from	The journalist refused to name her source.
bias	adjective biased	The channel is biased in favour of the government.
reliable	can be trusted	Is this website a reliable source?
misinformation	false information, uncountable	Misinformation spreads fast online.
claim	something said to be true but not proved	The minister's claim was never checked.

The language of headlines. To save space, headlines leave out articles and the verb be, use the present simple for events that have already happened, and use to + verb for the future. So Minister resigns means the minister has resigned, Prices to rise means prices are going to rise, and Schools closed after storm means schools have been closed. Headlines also prefer very short words: bid for attempt, row for argument, vow for promise, slam for criticise strongly. Fake news, which is written to look like real reporting, often copies this style.

Useful phrases

• in the news The company has been in the news a lot recently.
• make / hit the headlines Become a major story: The scandal hit the headlines last week.
• breaking news News that is happening now: We interrupt this programme for breaking news.
• according to Introduces a source: According to the report, unemployment has fallen.
• go viral Spread very quickly online: The video went viral overnight.
• report on / cover a story She covered the war for three years.
• front page The story was on the front page of every paper.
• a press conference The police held a press conference this morning.
• follow the news Keep informed: I try to follow the news, but it can be depressing.

Common mistakes

• ✗ The news are very bad today. / I heard an interesting news.
  ✓ The news is very bad today. / I heard an interesting piece of news.
  Ukrainian новини and Russian новости are plural, but English news is uncountable and singular, even though it ends in -s.
• ✗ This is a very actual topic.
  ✓ This is a very topical issue. / This is a current issue.
  Актуальний / актуальный is a false friend: English actual means real or exact, as in the actual figure was higher.
• ✗ The article writes that prices will rise.
  ✓ The article says that prices will rise.
  In Ukrainian у статті пишуть and in Russian в статье пишут; in English a text says, reports or states something, and only a person writes.
• ✗ The journalist told that the minister had lied.
  ✓ The journalist said that the minister had lied.
  Сказав, що / сказал, что is said that; tell needs a person after it: told us that. See reported speech.
• ✗ The article gives many informations.
  ✓ The article gives a lot of information.
  Information is uncountable in English, like advice and evidence; for a single item say a piece of information or a fact.

Try it