Language for comparing and contrasting

Unit 1

MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY

Ø Core reading:

· Democracy

· Why Democracy Needs Investigative Journalism

· The US Behaves Nothing Like a Democracy

· Martin Luther King: I Have a Dream

Ø Additional reading:

· Why Democracies Need Unlovable Press

Ø Grammar: Relative clauses; defining, non-defining and connective

Ø Word-Building: Negative prefixes, suffixes -ism, -gate; adjectival suffixes

Ø Writing:

· Summary

· Essay

Famous quotes on

MEDIA AND DEMOCRACY

Journalism is what maintains democracy. It’s the force for progressive social changes. Andrew Vachss

Democracies succeed or fail based on their journalism. America is strong because its journalism’s strong. That is how democracies work. They’re only as good as the quality of information that the public possesses…

Scott Pelley, SBC jouranalist

The media is absolutely essential to the functioning of a democracy. It's not our job to cozy up to power. We're supposed to be the check and balance on government.

Amy Goodman

Journalism’s functions in a democracyare 1) inform­ing the public; 2) invest­ig­a­tion; 3) ana­lysis; 4) social sur­veil­lance; 5) pub­lic forum; 6) mobil­iz­a­tion.

Michael Schud­son

CORE READING 1

PRE-READING TASKS

Thinking about the topic:

a) What is democracy? Can you think of any definition of democracy? Write it down.

b) Make a list of words related to democracy.

Democracy

by Carl Becker

(Carl Becker is a distinguished American historian who taught history at several American universities and wrote a number of books on history.)

Democracy, like liberty or science or progress, is a word with which we are all so familiar that we rarely take the trouble to ask what we mean by it. It is a term, as the devotees of semantics say, which has no “referent” – there is no precise or palpable thing or object which we all think of when the word is pronounced. On the contrary, it is a word which connotes different things to different people, a kind of conceptual Gladstone bag, which, with a little manipulation, can be made to accommodate almost any collection of social facts we may wish to carry about in it. In it we can as easily pack a dictatorship as any other form of government. We have only to stretch the concept to include any form of government supported by a majority of the people, for whatever reasons and by whatever means of expressing assent, and before we know it the empire of Napoleon, the Soviet regime of Stalin, and the Fascist systems of Mussolini and Hitler are all safely in the bag. But if this is what we mean by democracy, then virtually all forms of government are democratic, since virtually all governments, except in time of revolution, rest upon the explicit or implicit consent of the people. In order to discuss democracy intelligently it will be necessary, therefore, to define it, to attach to the word a sufficiently precise meaning to avoid the confusion which is not infrequently the chief result of such discussions.

All human institutions, we are told, have their ideal forms laid away in heaven, and we do not need to be told that the actual institutions conform but indifferently to these ideal counterparts. It would be possible then to define democracy either in terms of the ideal or in terms of the real form – to define it as government of the people, by the people, for the people, or to define it as government of the people, by the politicians, for whatever pressure groups can get their interests taken care of. But as a historian I am naturally disposed to be satisfied with the meaning which, in the history of politics, men have commonly attributed to the word – a meaning, needless to say, which derives partly from experience and partly from the aspirations of mankind. So regarded, the term democracy refers primarily to a form of government, and it has always meant government by the many as opposed to government by the one – government by the people as opposed to government by a tyrant, a dictator, or an absolute monarch. This is the most general meaning of the word as men have commonly understood it.

In this antithesis there are however certain implications, always tacitly understood, which give a more precise meaning to the term. Peisistratus, for example, was supported by a majority of the people, but his government was never regarded as a democracy for all that. Caesar’s power derived from a popular mandate, conveyed through established republican forms, but that did not make his government any less a dictatorship. Napoleon called his government a democratic empire, but no one, least of all Napoleon himself, doubted that he had destroyed the last vestiges of the democratic republic. Since the Greeks first used the term, the essential test of democratic government has always been this: the source of political authority must be and remain in the people and not in the ruler. A democratic government has always meant one in which the citizens, or a sufficient number of them to represent more or less effectively the common will, freely act from time to time, and according to established forms, to appoint or recall the magistrates and to enact or revoke the laws by which the community is governed. This I take to be the meaning which history has impressed upon the term democracy as a form of government.

Essential vocabulary:

Nouns: devotee [ˏdevǝuʹti:] ‒ приверженец, фанатик assent [ǝʹsent] – согласие regime [reɪʹʒi:m] – режим pressure [ʹpreʃǝ] – давление aspiration [ˏæspǝʹreɪʃn] – стремление, сильное желание достичь чего-то, вдохновение implication [ˏɪmplɪʹkeɪʃn] – то, что подразумевается, подтекст authority [ɔʹθɔrɪtɪ] – власть, авторитет vestige [ʹvestɪdʒ] – остаток, след ruler [ʹru:lǝ] – правитель magistrate [ʹmædʒɪstreɪt] – должностное лицо, чиновник, мировой судья majority [mǝʹdʒɔrǝtɪ] – большинство doubt [ʹdaut] – сомнение Adjectives: palpable [ʹpælpǝbl] – ощутимый, осязаемый precise [prɪʹsaɪs ] – точный sufficient [sǝʹfɪʃǝnt] – достаточный conceptual [kǝnʹsepʧuǝl] – концептуальный, абстрактный Adverbs: virtually [ʹvǝ:ʧuǝlɪ] – фактически, практически infrequently [ɪnʹfrɪ:kwǝntlɪ] – нечасто, редко tacitly [ʹtæsɪtlɪ] – молчаливо, подразумеваемым образом primarily [praɪʹmerɪlɪ] – в первую очередь commonly – обычно, в большинстве случаев	Verbs: connote [kǝʹnǝut]] – иметь ассоциативную связь; дополнительно что-то обозначать accommodate [ǝʹkɔmǝdeɪt] – подгонять, приспосабливать(ся); обеспечивать enact [ɪʹnækt] – вводить закон, устанавливать, определять revoke [rɪʹvǝuk] – отменять, аннулировать govern [ʹgʌvǝn] – управлять, править convey [kǝnʹveɪ] – передавать, перевозить regard as – рассматривать как, в качестве Phrasal and prepositional verbs: rest upon –опираться на be familiar with – быть знакомым с lay away – сберегать, запасать conform to – приводить в соответствие с, согласовывать(ся) с derive from – выводить, происходить от be opposed to – быть против impress upon – печатать, штамповать Phrases: on the contrary – наоборот in terms of – в терминах needless to say – не говоря уже according to – согласно take the trouble –утруждаться least of all – меньше всего
	Pronunciation guide: empire [ʹempaɪǝ] Napoleon [nǝʹpǝulɪǝn] fascist [ʹfæʃɪst] Mussolini [ˏmusǝʹlɪnɪ] tyrant [ʹtaɪrǝnt] Caesar [ʹsi:zǝ] monarch [ʹmɔnǝk] antithesis [ˏæntɪʹθi:zǝs] mandate [ʹmændeɪt]

POST-READING TASKS

I. FOCUS ON CONTENT:

1. Answer the questions:

a) What is a “referent”? What does the author mean when he says that democracy does not have a ”referent”?

b) The author says it is not enough to define democracy simply as any form of government supported by a majority of the people. Why?

c) The author says that it is possible to define democracy in terms of either its ideal or its real form. How do these definitions of democracy differ?

d) What is the most general meaning of democracy as men have commonly understood it?

e) How did the dictator Caesar derive his powers?

f) What did Napoleon call his government?

g) What is the essential test of a democracy?

h) What has the term democratic government always meant?

2. Compare the definitions:

a) Write out the definitions of democracy/democratic government from the text. Which one is the most accurate? How close is it to the one that you wrote before reading the text?

Definition A: ________________________________________________________

____

____

Definition B: __________________________________________________________ ______

_____

Definition C: ____________________________________________________________

_______

_______

b) Now read this opinion by Walter Lippmann, an American writer and reporter:

Definition D:“The public are ignorant and meddlesome outsiders. Decisions must be in the hands of an intelligent minority of responsible men, who have to be protected from the trampling roar of the bewildered herd. The herd has a function. They’re supposed to lend their weight every few years, to a choice among the responsible men. But apart from that, their function is to be “spectators, not participants in action”.

c) Compare the definitions above, using the language for comparing and contrasting as suggested below:

Language for comparing and contrasting

both similarly in the same way likewise like whereas in contrast differently from as opposed to unlike

Model answer:

e.g. Unlike definitions A and B, definition D shows ultimate disrespect to the citizens, calls them “the herd” and mocks their participation in the elections.

Like definition A, definition B contains the phrase “democracy by people”.

3. Discuss:

a) Which country can be regarded as the best illustration of a democratic state? Which country/countries is/are known for their long-lasting democratic traditions?

b) Which definition of democracy would be applicable to Russia? What needs changing in order to strengthen democracy in Russia?

II. FOCUS ON VOCABULARY

1. Match the synonyms:

1) devotee	a) power
2) assent	b) consent
3) revoke	c) cancel
4) derive from	d) enough
5) tacitly	e) implicitly
6) virtually	f) precise
7) sufficient	g) supporter
8) accurate	h) tyranny
9) authority	i) preserve
10) regime	j) in fact
11) dictatorship	k) originate from
12) lay away	l) rule

2. Match the opposites:

1) democracy	a) explicitly
2) be opposed to	b) vital
3) enact	c) artificial
4) support	d) support
5) unessential	e) tyranny
6) majority	f) oppose
7) natural	g) revoke
8) tacitly	h) minority

Adjectives: true genuine political constitutional parliamentary multi-party western

3. COLLOCATIONS:DEMOCRACY

democracy

Verbs: support establish fight for restore believe in

Phrases: the road to democracy the spread of democracy pro-democracy

SPECIAL NOTE: The word democracy can be used in two senses: as an abstract concept and as a concrete noun. As an abstract concept, the word is uncountable and is used without an article. e.g. Democracy first developed in rich countries. As a concrete form of government, the word is countable and requires an article in the singular. e.g. The United States is a democracy.