Reading Comprehension Test “The changing face of the news”

                                                     Reading Comprehension Test (B2)

Topic Mass media

I. Read the article about news reporting. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A–G the one which fits each gap. There is one extra sentence.

                                                  The changing face of the news

     News reporting has changed considerably in recent years. In the past, news stories from around the world were reported by official correspondents based in different countries or sent to places when newsworthy events happened (1) ……………………… We regularly see reporters on television reporting live from earthquake zones, war-torn towns, sites of bad accidents and so on. They put their own lives at risk in order to bring us the stories of others whose voices might not otherwise be heard. However, in addition to these brave souls, there is a whole army of amateurs or semi-professionals who are used by the news networks worldwide to send in their own coverage of experiences and scenes occurring on their doorsteps. (2) ……………………… The BBC in the UK started a monitoring service a long time ago, in 1939, when 50 ‘monitors’ listened to foreign news broadcasts to pick up useful information. That number rose to over 500 within three years and today it also employs people in other countries to track and translate TV and radio reports from 150 countries in over 100 languages. Many of these overseas monitors are members of the general public who report regularly on what is happening in their particular regions through listening to the local news coverage. (3) ……………………… This continued right up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and events happening in the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011. In addition to these semi-professional reporters, many photos that appear on our screens are also from reports sent in from bystanders who happen to be in a certain place at a certain time and who record what they witness on mobile phones (4) ……………………… Pictures can be taken on a mobile phone and then reproduced on TV screens the world over within minutes or even seconds. People with news to pass on frequently use sites like Twitter®.

   (5) ……………………… The first picture that the world saw of the event was from the phone of this tweeter. And this is not the only example. There is now an almost insatiable demand for pictures that have been taken as close as possible to the news event.

    However, not everyone believes that this immediacy of news is always a good thing. What of the stories where there is no camera present? Will our desire to feel as if we are part of the event mean that some stories never get told any more simply because there aren’t any eyewitness photos? And there is another, perhaps more serious, issue. Some feel that there is potential for misleading the audience. (6) ……………………… But this takes time, and unfortunately the appetite for continued dramatic coverage of events is not easily satisfied.

A We have learned immediate information from them over the years about historical events such as the Second World War, the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

B Photos can be altered, staged or misinterpreted and if news networks accept information and images from unofficial sources, the reliability must be checked.

C But it is also very fast-moving because what is today’s top story will be history tomorrow.

D A famous ‘tweet’ was sent when a plane crashed into the Hudson River in New York from a passenger on the ferry that was on its way to rescue passengers in the water.

E Compiling facts for news reports from around the world is a complex process.

F And to a certain extent this is still the case.

G Such immediacy of images and information from around the world is only made possible by the advanced technology that has given the world social networking sites and websites like YouTube™.

II. Read the article again and choose the best answers A, B, C or D

1 Amateur and semi-professional news reporters …………………..

A are replacing traditional journalists.                 B complement the work of traditional journalists.

C know more than traditional journalists.            D have better networks than traditional journalists.

2 Obtaining details of stories in other countries ………………………….

A can only be done locally.                         B is impossible in some situations.

C requires a variety of methods.                  D will be simpler in future.

3 The advantage of using local reporters to cover a story is their ……………………..

A speed.      B cost.          C reliability.       D knowledge of languages.

4 Many photos that we now see in TV news reports are

A not genuine.                                                        B taken by people involved in the story.     

C taken by people who were there by chance.       D of poor quality.

5 A famous tweet about a plane crash was sent …………………….

A by the pilot.      B from a boat.     C from a passenger on the plane.  

D by someone from the emergency services.

6 Some people believe that amateur coverage of news events …………..

A will probably decline.       B is not satisfying in the long term.         C is too dramatic.

D can be damaging for news organisations.

III.  Complete the summary with one or two words in the gaps.

    The way (1) ……………………… is reported has changed considerably in recent years. As well as stories from official and semi-professional reporters, the media uses stories from (2) ………………………. These are often members of the public who are (3) ……………………… at an event at the right time. The photos they take satisfy  the (4) ……………………… dramatic news.