Fill in the gaps in the sentences with the words from the text

1. I am sure that common sense will …………in the end and we shall find a solution.

2. The expedition had had to……….. many difficulties before it reached the North Pole.

3. James…………. the problem of homeless people when he worked as a reporter for a local newspaper.

4. She took ………..radio journalism when she was 16. Now she is a well-known anchor.

5. I have never been…………. with him. In fact, we barely knew each other.

6. The new government has taken a range of measures to ………..tourism in this country.

7. Beware of this man! He is not the person he……….. to be!

8. They are…………. against my idea, that’s why they don’t want to discuss it.

9. It was quite a slight wound, just a ………….of the arm, but it scared him out of his senses.

10. Cheese is often used to ………..a mouse into a trap.

Sharing the ideas

1. Does the life of a war photo correspondent seem attractive to you? Why? Why not?

2. Would you call Capa’s life typical for the time when he lived?

3. Do you see any difference between Robert Capa and modern photo correspondents?

Rendering from Russian

ü Read the text.

ü Decide what words and expressions you will need for your rendering. Consult your dictionary.

ü Discuss with your partner what details you will use in your rendering and what details can be omitted.

ü Render the text.

Должен ли репортер вмешиваться в события или только снимать их. Вот человек кровью истекает — ему жгут накладывать или фотографировать его? Вот дети раненые — фотографировать их или грузить в свою машину и везти в госпиталь? А в районах эпидемий детям ли больным отдать свои лекарства или себе колоть, чтобы живым и здоровым вернуться оттуда и написать, как они там помирают?

На самом деле, любой профессиональный репортер знает ответы. Жгутов никому не накладывать. В машину никого не сажать. Вакцину колоть себе. И фотографировать все время, и записывать в блокнот. Так профессионально. Без этого нет журналистики, нет репортерства.

Но правда и то, что лучшие профессиональные репортеры не могут выдержать своего профессионального репортерства.

Про себя я хорошо помню, когда впервые изменил профессии. В Генуе. Во время саммита Большой восьмерки. Тогда полиция с применением слезоточивого газа, дубинок и водометов разгоняла стотысячную демонстрацию антиглобалистов. А я сидел над бегущей толпой на камне, на скале, возвышавшейся над набережной, закрыл нос мокрым платком и писал в блокнот. Слезы, сопли и пот градом текли, конечно, но ничего было, терпимо. А потом я увидел, как совсем рядом со скалой, на которой я сидел, споткнулась и упала в бегущей толпе девчонка лет шестнадцати. Девчонка была белокожая, с рыжими дредами на голове и одета была в некоторое подобие индийского сари. Она упала и не могла встать. Толпа бежала прямо по ней. И я знал, что должен был сидеть на своей скале и записывать в блокнот подробности. Но я спустился со скалы, растолкал бегущих и затащил девчонку на скалу. Она была без сознания, но дышала, и сердце билось. И я держал ее на руках, а блокнот потерял. И когда полицейская цепь прошла мимо нас, я отнес эту девчонку к машинам скорой помощи. А сам вернулся искать блокнот. И не нашел.

С этого дня, в сущности, я больше не репортер. Один раз позволив себе соучастие, я стал позволять и впредь. Начальство не сразу догадалось. Но я сочувствовал и соучаствовал в украинской «оранжевой революции», в лондонских антивоенных маршах, в московских маршах несогласных…

Слава Богу, я вовремя успел прекратить репортерскую деятельность официально. Теперь я там, в кадре. Я не освещаю событий, они со мной происходят — веселые, грустные, печальные, трагические… Печальных больше. Иногда кто-то из репортеров наводит на меня камеру и щелкает затвором. И уезжает. И я понимаю, почему. Репортерам нужно сдать репортаж. И мне, кстати, тоже нужно, чтобы они его сдали.

Валерий Панюшкин, журналист, писатель.

ü Do you agree with the ideas expressed by the journalist?

ü Discuss the story in class.

Reading
Before you read

ü Look at the title of the article. What could the author mean by ‘a dying field’ of journalism? Is there more than one field in journalism that seems endangered nowadays?

Lament for a Dying Field

When photojournalists and their admirers gather in southern France at the end of August for Visa pour l’Image, the annual celebration of their craft, many practitioners may well be wondering how much longer they can scrape by.

Newspapers and magazines are cutting back sharply on picture budgets or going out of business altogether, and television stations have cut back on news coverage in favor of less-costly fare. Pictures and video snapped by amateurs on cellphones are posted to Web sites minutes after events have occurred. Photographers trying to make a living from shooting the news call it a crisis.

Photojournalism, often said to have begun with the American Civil War photographer Mathew Brady, experienced a golden age lasting from before World War II through the 1970s. Magazines like Time, Life and Paris Match – and virtually all of the world’s major newspapers – had the budgets to put legions of shooters on the ground in competition for the best pictures.

Today, from the point of view of the news image buyer in a magazine or newspaper, it comes down to a calculation for the photo editor: At a time of shrinking advertising revenue and layoffs, can an editor afford to send a photographer at a cost of $250 a day or more plus expenses? If not, he may be able to illustrate the story adequately with a “live” photo from one of the newswires or with an archival photo, both options available for a fixed monthly subscription.

“This is not a new trend; it’s the continuation of an old one,” said John Morris, a former photo editor whose résumé includes years at The New York Times, Life magazine and The Washington Post. “I’m 92 years old, and I’ve survived a lot of crises in photojournalism,” he said. “I find the present situation depressing, but I’m crazy enough to be hopeful. There have never been more images out there, and we need more help in sorting out all the information.”

Jean-François Leroy, organizer of the Visa pour l’Image photojournalism festival, pointed to a declining emphasis in the media on serious subjects – what he called the “disease of the press” – as another problem.

“Photographers are producing plenty of great stuff, but now the media seem interested only in celebrities,” he said. When Michael Jackson died, it wasn’t part of the news, it was The News. How many photographs of his funeral did we really need?”

Mr. Leroy said he would advise budding photojournalists to think very carefully about their commitment to the calling. Twenty years ago, a photojournalist made enough money to live on, he said. “I’m not pretending you would get rich, but you were able to live decently,” he said. “That is not the case now.”

Some photographers have taken to working for nongovernmental organizations, large institutions or companies to continue doing what they love. But that arrangement is ultimately unsatisfactory, he said, because “as a journalist you have a professional ethic, and by working for them you risk compromising your neutrality, you lose your independence.”

Ten years ago, Dirck Halstead, who spent 29 years as a White House photographer for Time magazine, wrote: “When I speak of photojournalism as being dead, I am talking only about the concept of capturing a single image on a nitrate film plane, for publication in mass media.” Visual storytelling has itself been around since the Stone Age, he noted, and “will only be enhanced” by the changes now taking place.

“Those people who will do anything to come back with a story will be out there shooting for a long time,” Dirck Halstead concluded.

By DAVID JOLLY

The New York Times

Having read the story

ü Make a summary of the article. Begin with the plan of your summary. What facts will you mention? What facts will you omit in your summary? Whom will you quote?

ü What will you start your summary with? What conclusion will you make?

ü Answer the following questions:

1. What situation do professional photographers call ‘a crisis’?

2. What time does the author describe as ‘golden age of photojournalism’?

3. What problem do the photo editors face nowadays?

4. What makes John Morris feel both pessimistic and optimistic about the current situation?

5. What does Jean-François Leroy call “disease of the press”?

6. What advice does Jean-François Leroy give to budding photojournalists?

7. What does Dirck Halstead think about the future of photojournalism?

Focus on vocabulary

ü Match the words (expressions) from the second column with the definitions from the first one.

To earn just enough money to live on with difficulty	to snap
To reduce expenditures, to save money on smth	to put somebody on the ground
To send a reporter (a photographer) to the site where something newsworthy is happening	to come down to smth
To come to the most important factor	to scrape by
To do smth with a sudden, sharp cracking sound (to make a photo)	to cut back on smth
To develop an ability for smth, especially quickly or easily; to start doing something	to be around
To exist	to take to doing something

Sharing the ideas

ü Nowadays every person with a modern cellphone in his pocket can become a photo correspondent. Moreover, modern hand-held cameras have become so smart, that every child can make a good shot. Does it mean that amateur photographers will replace professionals? Justify your viewpoint.

ü Make a report about one of the most famous photo correspondents of the 20^th century.