Compare the advantages and disadvantages of three media

IELTS Writing Task 2 with sample answer.

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Compare the advantages and disadvantages of three of the following as media for communicating information. State which you consider to be the most effective.

• comics
• books
• radio
• television
• film
• theatre

You should write at least 250 words.
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.


Model Answer:
In our daily life we heavily rely on the different media like TV, Film, newspaper, radio, internet books etc. as our main source of communicating information and these media greatly influence our personal and social life. All of those media have their own advantages and drawbacks. Some are easily accessible but are not reliable sources for information while some others are personal favourite for many people but are not widely used. In this essay I will pick three media for comparing their advantages and disadvantages and would explain why books are the best media for communicating information.

First of all, television is a widely used medium that can be found almost all of the houses in the world. It is easy to access and people from all backgrounds and economic conditions can accommodate a TV at their home. With the advancement of satellite technology, the TV viewers have plenty of options to choose from and watch the type of programs they prefer. The high competitions among the TV channels are helping people to get quality news, watch many educational and recreational programs and getting updated about the current events all around the globe all by sitting at their room. The audio-visual presentation of the TV programs make them more appealing compared to the radio and thus it is the most widely accepted medium for communicating information and current events. On the flip side, TV channels do not always broadcast quality programs and if a viewer does not pick quality channels, s/he might waste times watching it. Moreover, people spend their time mostly for entertainment purposes while sitting in front of the TV and very few people can wisely decide what to watch and what to avoid. The news presented on TV is often biased and can create social dilemma by doing so. Watching TV are highly addictive and if teenagers spend a lot of time watching TV channels can often perform poorly in their academic education. Thus TV offers both the tremendous advantages and a numerous disadvantages as a medium of communicating information.

Films are also a very effective media that not only gives recreation to people but also offers meaningful learnings to the viewers.  In this age of technological advancement, people can easily watch films at the cinema hall, home or even in their laptop while on move. Thus the easy access to films has made it one of the prominent medium for learning and entertainment. The films are made by a team of talented people and have often very prominent influence on us. The message and moral of a movie often touch the viewers and can shape their perspective in a positive way. Many movies are based on historical events and true stories and those films are a good source for education. On the contrary, poorly made films and movies made for commercial success only can deterioration the moral perspective of persons.

Finally, books are the best medium for communication as they are the bridge among generations and time. Books written hundreds of years ago still play a vital role to educate people, to teach them history and to open unknown horizon to people. There are plenty of good books to shape the people’s thought in a positive way and the knowledge and experience gathered by people are often passed to the new generation. The books written in ancient period like Greek era are still the inspiration for generations and many of them have made the world the way we see it now. The social structure, political view, the life style, religious belief and many other important aspects of our daily life are still shaped by the books written in earlier ages. The knowledge we know in different fields like Physics, Chemistry, Math, Astronomy, Arts, Business etc. are all the accumulated knowledge of previous generations and those were passed to us through books. There are very few drawbacks of books and it mostly depends on the readers who choose to read it. The disadvantage of books as a medium is that not many people can make the habit of reading books to learn from it.

Thus though all the given media have their own benefits and downsides, book in my opinion, is the best way of communicating information.