Virtuous English AcademyMedia & News — B1 English Vocabulary
This B1 vocabulary list gathers 40 intermediate English words about media & news — journalism, the press and going online. Every word comes with a simple definition, its British-English pronunciation and a natural example sentence, so you learn each one in real context. When you are ready, open the flashcards to practise and remember them for good.
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Using media & news words in English
Media vocabulary carries a grammatical curiosity worth knowing about: media is historically the plural of medium, which is why some writers still insist on the media are. It also contains one uncountable noun that learners regularly pluralise — coverage — and a pair of near-synonyms, journalist and reporter, that describe overlapping but distinguishable jobs.
What to watch out for
The media are or the media is?
Media began as the plural of medium, so careful writing still uses The media are reporting… In modern usage the singular is extremely common and no longer treated as an error, especially when the press is thought of as one entity. In exams, the plural is the safer choice. Note that medium survives in its own right meaning a means of expression: oil is her favourite medium.
Coverage and publicity take no plural
Say The story received extensive coverage — uncountable, no -s. Publicity behaves the same way. But a publication is countable, and so are an article, a column and a report. The verb pattern is worth noting too: a newspaper covers a story, runs a story or publishes an article.
Journalist, reporter, editor, source
A journalist is anyone who writes or produces news professionally. A reporter specifically gathers and reports facts, often on the ground. An editor decides what is published and shapes the text. A source is the person or document the information came from, and the phrase protect a source is a fixed one. In British English, the press means newspapers collectively and takes a plural verb.
Words learners mix up
Three tables: four words for one piece of writing, four nouns in this field that refuse a plural, and the four words a reader needs in order to judge whether a story can be trusted.
Four words for one piece of writing
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| article | The general word for a single piece in a paper or magazine. Countable, and it takes on or about. | She wrote an article about the flooding. |
| report | A factual account of what happened, with no opinion attached. Also a verb, taking on. | The report ran on the front page. |
| column | A regular piece by the same named writer, usually opinion. The person is a columnist. | He writes a weekly column on food. |
| caption | The short line of text under a photograph explaining what it shows. | The caption named everybody in the picture. |
The distinction between report and column is the one that matters for reading critically, because a report is meant to be neutral and a column is meant not to be. Column also keeps its architectural sense and its meaning of a vertical block of text on a page, which is where the journalistic use came from.
Four nouns in this field that refuse a plural
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| press | Newspapers and journalists taken together. Always the press, and it takes a singular or plural verb. | The press was waiting outside. |
| advertising | Uncountable — the whole industry and activity. One item is an advert or an ad. | They spend a fortune on advertising. |
| propaganda | Uncountable, always negative in English, and it names information spread to push a political view. | The broadcasts were pure propaganda. |
| footage | Uncountable film or video material. The countable unit is a clip. | Security cameras captured the footage. |
Footage is worth noticing because it comes from measuring film in feet, and it has survived into an era with no film at all. Propaganda is the one to handle carefully: it is not a neutral word for publicity in English, so describing a company advertisement as propaganda accuses it of something.
Can this story be trusted? Four words
| Word | What it actually means | In a sentence |
|---|---|---|
| source | The person or document the information came from. Countable, and journalism speaks of a reliable source. | Two sources confirmed the account. |
| rumour | Countable, and British English keeps the u. The verb is nearly always passive: it is rumoured that. | There are rumours of a takeover. |
| biased | Unfairly favouring one side. It takes towards or against, and the noun is bias. | The coverage was clearly biased. |
| censor | To remove parts of something before it is published. The person doing it has the same name. | The footage had been heavily censored. |
Censor sits inside a set of near-identical words that mean nothing like each other: censor removes material, censure formally criticises somebody, and a sensor is a device that detects something. All three sound similar, and only the first belongs to this topic. Note too that biased carries a single s and one e, which learners often double.
Collocations that sound natural
Six words from news and publishing English. Four of them are also ordinary everyday words, and the frame is what signals which sense is meant.
issue
the latest issuea key issueraise an issueissue a statement
Three uses in one word: a single edition of a magazine, a subject people argue about, and a formal verb meaning to send out. British English also says I have issues with it to mean objections, which is informal and mildly critical.
subscription
take out a subscriptiona monthly subscriptioncancel your subscriptionsubscribe to
Countable, and the verb before it is take out. The related verb subscribe always needs to, so subscribe the channel is impossible however often video sites shorten it.
live
live coveragego livewatch it livea live broadcast
Here it rhymes with five, unlike the ordinary verb, and it works as both adjective and adverb with no -ly. Go live means a broadcast or a website starts, and live before a noun tells you nothing was recorded in advance.
fame
rise to famefifteen minutes of famefame and fortuneshot to fame
Uncountable, so it never takes an article. The verbs are all about speed of arrival — rise to, shoot to — and fifteen minutes of fame is a fixed borrowed phrase for brief attention.
publish
publish an articlepublished in the Guardiana published authora publishing house
The place of publication takes in. British English says a publishing house for the company, and published before author means somebody who has actually had a book brought out, which is a real professional distinction.
trailer
watch the trailera film trailerrelease a trailerthe trailer gives it away
Countable, and it names the short advertisement for a film. British English also uses the same word for a vehicle pulled behind a car, which is the older sense, and neither has anything to do with the other.
Where each word belongs
Seven words with a country, a date or a second sense attached. Media vocabulary changes faster than most, so some of these already sound of their decade.
- bulletinBritish · broadcastingA short summary of the news read at a fixed time, and the standard British word on radio and television: the six o’clock bulletin. It also names a short official notice from an institution. American English tends to say newscast for the broadcast sense.
- criticA job, not an insultSomebody paid to review films, books or restaurants — a neutral job title. Keep it apart from criticism, which is the activity, and from critical, which means either finding fault or extremely important, as in a critical moment.
- influencerNew · neutral to faintly mockingSomebody with a large online following who is paid to promote things. It entered general English in the 2010s and is still slightly ironic in British usage, so an essay is safer with online personality unless the commercial sense is the point.
- broadcasterTwo senses · person and organisationIt names both the individual who presents programmes and the whole company that transmits them, so a veteran broadcaster and the national broadcaster are different kinds of thing. The verb broadcast is irregular: the past is broadcast, not broadcasted.
- currentA false friend in most languagesIt means happening now, as in current affairs and the current situation. It does not mean real or actual, which is the trap, because the lookalike word in several European languages does. The English word for that is simply actual.
- popularTwo senses · one about numbersLiked by many people, but also simply belonging to ordinary people, which is the sense in popular culture, the popular press and popular opinion. The second sense carries no approval, and the noun popularity is uncountable.
- viewerCountable · and the word for all of themOne person watching television, counted individually: three million viewers. The whole group is the audience, which is singular in form, and the measurement is the ratings, which is plural and takes a plural verb.
Sentences to try
Four frames from writing about the news. Note which nouns can take a plural and which cannot.
- The story received extensive coverage in the national press.
- The journalist refused to reveal her source.
- The newspaper published a long article about the decision.
- He writes a weekly column for a Sunday publication.
Questions about media & news vocabulary
Is "media" singular or plural?
Historically plural — media is the Latin plural of medium — so traditional usage is The media are biased. In modern English the singular has become very widespread, particularly when the press is treated as a single institution: The media is obsessed with the story. Neither is now considered wrong in general writing, but the plural is the safer choice in exams and formal work. The singular medium is still fully alive in its other sense: Television is a powerful medium.
Can I say "coverages"?
No — coverage is uncountable, so it never takes a plural and never takes a: The election received wide coverage, There was little coverage of the strike. The same is true of publicity, news, information and advertising. Where you need a countable word, use reports, articles, stories or pieces: Three articles covered the story. Note that a publication is countable and means either the act of publishing or the printed thing itself.
What is the difference between a journalist and a reporter?
A journalist is the broad professional category: anyone who researches, writes, edits or produces news for a living, including columnists and editors. A reporter is a journalist whose specific job is to gather facts and report events, often from the location — which is why you hear our reporter on the ground. All reporters are journalists, but not all journalists are reporters. A correspondent is a reporter assigned to a particular region or subject, as in our political correspondent.