ACADEMIC LISTENING AND NOTE TAKING: Dangers of the Mass Media

In this section you will hear and Lake notes on a two-part lecture given by Dedra Smith, a media expert who conducts workshops about media and society. The title of the lecture is Dangers of the Mass Media. Ms. Smith will describe what she believes are some harmful effects of the media today.

BEFORE THE LECTURE

PERSONALIZING THE TOPIC

1 Read the following information from the New York Times 2002 Almanac.

A great majority of American households have two or more televisions. According to the A. C. Nielsen Company, which monitors television viewership, at least one of these televisions was on in each household for 7 hours and 37 minutes per day during the 1998-99 television season. That’s 1 hour and 18 minutes more than in 1971, when the average was just over 6 hours and 19 minutes, but 3 minutes less than in 1997-98.

Average daily viewing per person is still much higher than the 1970s levels, but down slightly from the year before. Women over the age of 18 watched longest: they averaged 4 hours and 51 minutes per day, while men over 18 watched for 4 hours and 16 minutes. Children aged 12-17 watched an average of 2 hours and 54 minutes.

For each of the forms of media in the following chart, write how many hours you spend using it per day and per week. Then compare vour chart with a partner.

Discuss the following questions with your partner.

1 For what purposes do you use each of the forms of media in the chart?

2 Do you think you spend too much time using any of these forms of media? Why or why not?

One way of taking notes is called mapping. In this method, you write the main idea on your paper and draw lines out to related points. As you take notes, you can show connections between different parts of the lecture by adding lines.

Look at the following map of excerpts from Part One of Ms. Smith’s lecture.

LECTURE, PART ONE: Issues of Violence, Passivity, and Addiction

GUESSING VOCABULARY FROM CONTEXT

1 The following items contain important vocabulary from Part One of the lecture. Work with a partner. Using the context and your knowledge of related words, take turns trying to guess the meanings of the words in bold.

1 These new advances bring us dangers that we should be aware of.

2 Many people are afraid that children and adolescents are especially susceptible to this violence.

3 Kids set a subway booth on fire.

4 Tragically, the man working at the booth died.

5 TV can make us passive.

6 Using the media can become very addictive.

7 Most of us wander through cyberspace. . . wasting a lot of time.

Work with your partner. Match the vocabulary terms with their definitions by writing the letter of each definition below in the blank next to the sentence containing the correct term in step 1. Check your answers in a dictionary if necessary.

a hard to stop or give up b office that sells metro cards or tokens c informed about d likely to be affected by e sadly

f move with no clear direction or purpose g not wanting to do anything; inactive