Fluency News #3 – Is TikTok just a social media platform?

Hello everyone!‍

Welcome to another episode of Fluency News! Here, you’ll practice your listening and get informed on all that’s happening in the world; all the major headlines of the week, all in English! During the episode, we make sure to explain the things that we believe need extra attention, so you don’t miss any details!
In this episode we’ll talk about entertainment news! Streaming’s new milestone, TikTok is the fastest growing source of news for adults in the UK, ‘The Last of Us’ teaser has arrived.

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We’ll have a new episode of Fluency News every week, don’t forget to listen! See you!

‍Episode Transcript‍

Hey guys, what’s up? Welcome back to one more episode of Fluency News. This is the perfect podcast to practice your listening skills while you get updated about what’s going on around the world with the most important news. I’m Adam Collins, your host, and it’s a pleasure to have you here today.

Many people think: “learning English is so boring. It’s always the same classes, the same method, and I will never be able to speak confidently”. But, no. Learning English can be fun, interesting and it will take your English skills to the next level. And we can totally help you with that, of course. Did you know that Fluency Academy has a complete online course for you to unlock your English? To sign up for our waitlist, just click on the link in the description of this episode.

Well, now it’s time to start! Today’s topic is really fascinating and everybody likes it. Social media and television lovers will…[dramatic pause] love!

Streaming made up one-third of television consumption among people in the U.S. last month, the highest percentage since the media measurement firm began its monthly report in June 2021. Time spent streaming jumped 23.5% in the past year, a sign that consumers are still migrating to digital TV in droves even after the pandemic-driven lockdowns have subsided. Not all platforms are winners in the streaming war. Only Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and YouTube increased their share of viewing time last month. Netflix remains the top streaming platform, accounting for 7.7% of total TV consumption in April.

That’s crazy huh? So let’s take a look at some interesting vocabulary here. Streaming, consumption, platforms… Do you know what all these words mean? Don’t worry, I’ll explain them to you. Streaming refers to any media content, live or recorded, delivered to computers and mobile devices via the internet and played back in real time. Like movies, videos, TV shows, music or this podcast you’re listening to right now. Consumption is the amount of goods and services used.

They said that “streaming made up one-third of television consumption last month”, so that means the amount of people watching stream videos is pretty high right now and that the top streaming platform is Netflix. Platform is an on-demand online entertainment source for TV shows, movies and other streaming media. So Netflix is a platform, YouTube is another platform and we have a lot of others… Which platforms do you use most?

I told you we were going to talk about Social Media too, right? Well, this topic surprised me a lot because I didn’t imagine that coming. And I bet neither did you!

A survey of news consumption habits has found that TikTok is the fastest growing news source among adults in the UK. Can you believe that? TIK TOK! According to a report from the UK regulator Ofcom, the app is currently used by 7 percent of UK adults as a news source, compared to 1 percent in 2020. In the US, for example, it was recently estimated that 40 percent of Gen Z (individuals born 1997 to 2012) use either TikTok or Instagram for everyday searches to find things like where to eat. The interesting thing is that they use neither Google Search nor Google Maps, like they used to.

That’s really crazy, right? How social media is changing consumption habits!

Ok so let’s talk about two essential words we saw in this news: either and neither. These two words can be used in various ways but when we use the conjunction “either… or” it means that we want to emphasize a choice. For example: you can either stay here or come with me. Or you could say: You can either call me at home or at the office. In this case, “either…or” is used to refer to the one or the other of two alternatives. Got it?

You can also use neither as a conjunction with nor. It means the same thing, it’ll also refer to the one or the other of two alternatives, but it gives a negative meaning to verbs. For example: He likes neither apples nor oranges. Or you could say: I neither speak Japanese nor understand it.

Easy, right? Now that you know the difference between them, let’s move on to our next news.

And for those who love games, this is the best news ever!

HBO Max just released some of its upcoming projects teasers, and guess what is included? That’s right, “The Last of Us”. It’s been over two years since HBO first announced it was making a TV show based on this game and now, they will finally make it! The show is reported to be the largest TV production to have ever been filmed in Canada. “The Last of Us” is scheduled to be released sometime in 2023 (yeah, we still don’t have the date settled), but, at least, we will have a nice season to watch!

Guys, it’s finally happening! How cool is that?

Ok, so let’s take a look at this sentence again: It’s been over two years since HBO first announced… The phrase “it’s been” is the short version of “it has been” and is used to emphasize the length of time that has passed since a past event. You can always use the structure “it’s been” + the day, the week, the month or the year + the word “since” to say something has passed. For example, “it’s been a long time since I met him” or “it’s been over a year since I last traveled abroad”. How about you? How long has it been since you wanted to watch The Last of Us series?

And this is how we end today’s episode, guys. Don’t be sad because next week we’ll come back with more news for you!

You don’t want to get stuck in your English level, right? Neither do I! So, join our waitlist for our full English course! Go to en.fluencytv.com and join now! The link is also in the description for this episode. See you next time!

‍Stories

Streaming’s new milestone
‍https://www.axios.com/2022/07/26/streaming-third-us-tv-consumption?utm_source=thenewscc&utm_medium=e-mail&utm_campaign=referral‍

‍TikTok is the fastest growing source of news for adults in the UK
‍https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/21/23272503/tiktok-news-source-uk-ofcom-report-disinformation?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=thenewscc&utm_id=referral

‘The Last of Us’ teaser has arrived
‍https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/22/entertainment/last-of-us-teaser/index.html