Means of communication: Television and radio

Types of Programmes

• News are programmes which deliver information about current events. They can be divided into local news which covers events from the small area like a certain city, national news which covers events from home country and international or world news which cover events from all over the world. They provide information about politics, wars, economy, environment, health, natural disasters and much more. Information about sports is delivered by sports news.
• Cooking shows are programmes that centre around showing different food preparation. They are mostly centred about delivering instructions and some interesting information about prepared food. Some of them can be in the form of reality shows. One of the first cooking shows in the world was created in The United Kingdom, it was called Cook’s Night Out.
• Interviews can be a part of the News, morning shows or stand-alone shows. They centre around one person, usually a journalist, asking questions to a person that is being interviewed to provide some information to publicity. Traditionally they are handled face to face at the studio or some other prepared room, but today they can be also handled by telephone or video conference programmes.
• A talk show is a programme where the show’s guests talk about various topics that are provided by the show host. Guests are usually some professionals linked to the topics or celebrities.
• Game shows are a type of programmes in which participants solve puzzles, answer questions alone or in teams to win a prize. Participants in some of them can also compete with each other.
• Reality shows are programmes that focus on people who usually did not have any relation to television and put them in a usually arranged but extreme situation. They often have a competitive nature.
• Sitcoms are situational comedies. They centre around one set of characters and follow them on their day to day life. They are characterized by a laugh track that plays during funny moments, this action refers to times when most of the sitcoms used to be recorded in front of a live audience.
• Soap Opera is a television series which mainly centres around the domestic life of the characters. It is characterized by an open-ended narrative which causes them to usually have many episodes. They are one of the most popular genres in the United Kingdom.
• Sports are programmes featuring sports and events connected to it.
• Kid shows are shows directed toward children, some of them can also have an educational value.
• Cartoons are animated shows in most cases directed towards children.
• Makeover shows are shows in which people are helped to change their lifestyle, appearance, etc. by one or a group of specialists.

Times with the maximum amount of people watching a programme

• The maximum number of people watch television during evening hours.
• Main sports events can also bring many people in front of the TV.

Exercises

External link to Means of communication: Television and radio exercises (537).