2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：新闻的福克斯化

　　If impartiality is already the exception rather thanthe rule, the internet is now eroding it further. InAmerica it undermines local news monopolies byreducing advertising revenue and providing access toa wide range of alternative sources, thus undoingMr Rosen’s grand bargain. In Britain and othercountries where news broadcasters are required tobe impartial, at least in theory, the convergence oftelevision and the web makes such rules seemoutdated. Mark Thompson, the director-general ofthe BBC, said at a seminar last December that hethought the case for polemical, opinionated news channels was “persuasive”, though theBBC’s own news coverage would remain impartial. The internet has also compressed the newscycle, with headlines delivered instantly by smartphone or Twitter, creating a demand forimmediate analysis and opinion.

　　如果公正已经成为一种例外而非规则，那么因特网更加剧了这种趋势。在美国，因特网正在蚕食地方新闻大亨，不但降低了其广告收入，也提供了更多信息来源，从而破坏了Rosen所提到的大交易。在英国和其他至少在理论上要求新闻媒体具备公正性的国家，电视与媒体的合流让这类规定显得有些过时。BBC的理事长 MarkThompson在去年12月的一次研讨会上指出，能够引起论战并具备自己观点的新闻频道才“有说服力”，尽管BBC本身的新闻报道仍将保持客观中立。因特网也缩短了新闻周期，许多标题新闻都从智能手机或Twitter上即时发出，这也要求媒体进行即时的分析和观点论述。

　　Moreover, the internet makes it easier than ever to find and synthesise different views, saysKrishna Bharat, the creator of Google News. The idea for the site occurred to him in the monthsafter the attacks of September 11th 2001, when he became frustrated by the inefficiency ofvisiting lots of different websites to get a broader picture of the news. When news comes frommultiple sources, a mix of strong opinions becomes more desirable. “It’s time to embrace thefact that certain news sources have a point of view, and that’s why they have the followingthey do,” says Mr Bharat. “I think there’s a place for all of them.” By undermining many of thetraditional arguments for objectivity, the internet may thus cause a wider “Foxification” ofnews and a return to the more opinionated and partisan media landscape of the 18th andearly 19th centuries. “Almost every country that has an open society is going to have somekind of opinion television programming,” says Mr Shine.

　　此外，在因特网上更容易找到并集成不同的观点，google新闻的创始人Krishna Bharat说。在911攻击事件后，他需要访问很多不同的网站来全方位了解关于该事件的消息，这种低效率让他抓狂，从而萌生了创建google新闻的想法。多个新闻来源迫使我们需要对各种有力的观点进行整合。“我们现在应该认识到，不同的新闻来源有着各自的观点，这也是他们接下来行为的原因，”Bharat说，“需要有一个地方把这些新闻集合起来。” 因特网在瓦解传统意义上公正性观念的同时，可能会带来新闻业更为广泛的“福克斯化”，并将媒体带回至18世纪和19世纪早期观点突出党派鲜明的媒体业环境中。Shine认为，“几乎所有社会开放的国家都会出现某种具有观点倾向性的电视节目”。

　　This does not mean that all news organisations should take overtly political positions. Mr Rosenis just one of many media watchers who think it is time to release journalists from thestraitjacket of pretending that they do not have opinions—what he calls the “view fromnowhere”. Journalists signal their impartiality by quoting people on opposing sides of anargument and avoid drawing conclusions, even when the facts are clear. “There have beentimes in the past when CNN has been criticised for being neutral—not only non-partisan, butnot really having positions,” says Mr Whitaker. But lately, he says, “we have been stronger intaking a point of view when we think it is supported by our reporting and by facts.”

　　这并不是说各个新闻组织都要持有鲜明的政治立场。许多媒体观察人者都认为，是时候解除记者必须假装没有观点的紧箍咒了，而Rosen只是其中之一，他称这种观点为“从无处来的观点”。记者们为了表明自己的公正立场，不断引用争论双方的观点，却拒绝得出结论，即便事实已足够清晰。“CNN曾多次因其中立而受到批评——他们的观点不仅是无党派的，而且没有任何立场可言，” Whitaker说。但是最近他说，“如果我们认为报道和事实能够提供支持，我们会给出更为有力的观点。”

　　Transparency is the new objectivity

　　透明性是一种新的客观性

　　One way forward, suggests Mr Rosen, is toabandon the ideology of viewlessness and acceptthat journalists have a range of views; to be openabout them while holding the reporters to a basicstandard of accuracy, fairness and intellectualhonesty; and to use transparency, rather thanobjectivity, as the new foundation on which tobuild trust with the audience. He cites thememorable phrase coined by David Weinberger, atechnology commentator, that “transparency is the new objectivity”. In part, this involvesjournalists providing information about themselves. For example, on AllThingsD, a technology-news site owned by Dow Jones, all the journalists provide an “ethics statement” withinformation about their shareholdings, financial relationships and, in some cases, their personallife (two journalists are married to employees at large technology companies). “People are morelikely to trust you if they know where you are coming from,” says Mr Rosen.

　　Rosen认为，向前推进的一种方式是抛弃无观点这种意识，认识到记者都是观点的，在准确，公平和诚实的基础的标准之上，给记者更多的空间，将透明性，而非客观性作为与受众建立信任的基础。他引用技术评论员David Weinberger令人印象深刻的表述，“透明性是新的客观性”。从某种意义上说，这意味着记者要提供他们本身的信息。在Dow Jones旗下的一家技术新闻网站AllThingsD中，所有记者都要求出示一份“道德声明”，其中包括他们所持有的股票，财务关系，某些情况下要提供其私人生活信息(有两名记者的配偶是大型技术公司的雇员)“如果读者知道你是什么人，就会更加信任你，”Rosen说。

　　Transparency also means linking to sources and data, something the web makes easy. Bloggershave long used the technique to back up their views. Ezra Klein, a blogger at the WashingtonPost, has suggested that news organisations should publish full transcripts of interviews online.WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, a fan of radical transparency if ever there was one, makes a similarargument. “You can’t publish a paper on physics without the full experimental data andresults. That should be the standard in journalism,” he said last year. Mr Weinberger hasobserved on his blog that transparency prospers in a linked medium: “Objectivity is a trustmechanism you rely on when your medium can’t do links. Now our medium can.”

　　透明性也意味着要给出信息来源和数据的的链接，这在网络时代并非难事。博主们早已采用这种技巧来支持其观点。华盛顿邮报的一名博主 Ezra Klein建议新闻媒体在网上发布完整的采访记录。维基解密的JulianAssange是完全透明性的狂热支持者，尽管这一目标难以达到。他也提出了类似的观点，他在去年指出，“如果没有完整的实验数据和结果，你不可能发表一篇物理学论文。这也应当成为新闻报道的标准。”Weinberger在他的博客上观察到，透明性来自于媒体的链接：“在媒体无法给出链接的情况下，客观性是我们所依赖的信任机制。但现在我们的媒体可以做到。”

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