学术英语(社科)Unit7原文及翻译

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学术英语（社科）Unit7原文及翻译

Introduction: Understanding the Impact of New Media on

Journalism

1 Journalism is undergoing a fundamental transformation,

perhaps the most fundamental since the rise of the penny press

of the mid-nineteenth century. In the twilight of the twentieth

century and the dawn of the twenty-first, there is emerging a new

form of journalism whose distinguishing qualities include

ubiquitous news, global information access, instantaneous

reporting, interactivity, multimedia content, and extreme content

customization. In many ways this represents a potentially better

form of journalism because it can reengage an increasingly

distrusting and alienated audience. At the same time, it presents

many threats to the most cherished values and standards of

journalism. Authenticity of content, source verification, accuracy,

and truth are all suspect in a medium where anyone with a

computer and a modem can become a global publisher.

2 Although the easy answer is to point to the Internet, the

reasons for the transformation of journalism are neither simple

nor one-dimensional. Rather, a set of economic, regulatory, and

cultural forces, driven by technological change, are converging

to bring about a massive shift in the nature of journalism at the

millennium.

3 The growth of a global economic system, made up of

regional economies, all interrelated (witness the volatility in the

world?s financial markets in August 1998, when drops in Asian

and Russian markets triggered drops in European and U.S.

markets) and increasingly controlled by multinational corporate

behemoths, has rewritten the financial basis for journalism and

the media in general. Deregulation, as outlined in the U.S.

Telecommunications Act of 1996 and 简介：了解新媒体对新闻的影

响

1新闻业正在发生根本性的变革，或许

最根本的变革是十九世纪中叶的便士报的崛起。在二十世纪末和

二十一初，新闻业出现了一种新的形式，显着的特点包括，

ubiquitous news，全球信息获取，即时报告，交互性，多媒体内容，

和极端内容定制等。在许多方面，这表示新闻业有一个潜在的更好的

形式，因为它可以重新接入数量渐增的不信任和已经疏远了的观众。

同时，那也意味着给最珍贵的价值观和新闻标准带来了许多威胁。任

何人通过一台电脑和一个调制解调器就可以怀疑信息内容的真实性，

来源的可靠性，准确性和真理性，就像可以成为一个全球性的出版商

一样。

2尽管可以将答案简单地指向互联网，

但是新闻业转变的原因既不简单，也不是单一的。相反，在千禧

之年，被技术变革驱动的经济，管理和文化的力量，正在融合并将给

新闻的性质带来一个巨大的转变。

3由区域经济组成的全球经济体系的增

长已经改写了新闻业和大众媒体的财政基础。它与跨国公司巨头

相互关联（1998年8月，见证了世界金融市场

的波动性，当亚洲和俄罗斯市场的下降诱发欧洲和美国市场下降

的时候），并且越来越受跨国公司巨头的控制。放宽管制已经催生了

新闻通信业日益强大的竞争力（其中电信私有化一直是驱动力），

1996年美国电信法概述了放宽

管制的内容，并在世界上的其他许多地方上演着类似的方式。

played out in like fashion in many other parts of the world

(where privatization of telecommunications

has been a driving force), has spawned increasingly powerful

competitive forces in journalism and communications. The end

of the cold war has unleashed a variety of pent-up cultural and

political forces that have yet to stabilize. Together, these forces

have created an environment of uncertainty for journalism as it

enters this new age in which the alignment of superpowers has

been fundamentally altered, shareholders are the most

important stakeholders, and competition is more likely to come

from a software company based in Redmond, Washington, than

from the cross-town newspaper or broadcaster.

4 Fueling this changing environment has been the

emergence of the first and perhaps most powerful medium of

global interactive communications. As James Carey writes, “The

Internet should be understood as the first instance of a global

communication system. That system, in turn, is displacing a

national system of communications which came into existence at

the end of the nineteenth century as a result of the railroad and

telegraph, and was …perfected? in subsequent innovations

through television in the network era.”

5But in many ways the Internet is merely a product, or

symptom, of a more fundamental technological change that has

been under way for the past half-century and only now is

beginning to crystallize: the convergence of telecommunications,

computing, and traditional media. Together, this new media

system embraces all forms of human communication in a digital

format where the rules and constraints of the analog world no

longer apply. Some would question whether this convergence is

actually occurring. They would point to the fact that most 冷战的

结束释放了还没有稳定下来的各种被压抑的文化和政治力量。同时，

这些势力已经创造了不确定性新闻业的环境，因为它进入了一个超级

大国调整发生根本变化的时代。股东是最重要的利益相关者，并且竞

争比之从跨镇的报纸或广播来讲，更可能来自总部设在华盛顿雷德蒙

市的软件公司。

4这种环境改变的加速促使了第一个也可能是最强大的媒体——

交互式通讯媒体的出现。正如詹姆斯凯里写道，“互联网应该被理解

为一个全球通信系统的第一个实例。反过来，这一系统取代了自十九

世纪末以来的以铁路和电报为结果的国家通讯系统，并通过网络时代

的电视等随后的革新得以完善。“

5但在很多方面互联网仅仅是过去半个世纪中根本技术变革的一个

产品，或症状，而现在正开始具体化：通讯，计算和传统媒体的融合。

同时，这个新媒体系统包括人们通过数字格式交流的所有形式，其中

模拟世界的规则和约束不再适用。有些人会质疑这种融合是否真正发

生。

people around the world in 2000 still do not have a computer

in the home and that in most homes that do have a

computer, the TV set and the computer are still separate

devices. They would note that even in the United States in 2000

most TV sets do not connect to a telephone line or any other

medium of “upstream” communication capability (i.e., the

ability for the audience member to send information as well as

receive it). 6The trend toward convergence is undeniable,

however, if not yet complete. By 2000 more than eight million U.S.

households as well as millions more in Japan and many other

parts of the world had subscribed to digital broadcasting services

such as DirecTV, which links TV sets to a system of digital video

(i.e., computerized) and a telephone line (which is required for

the DBS to operate) for ordering pay-per-view programs and the

like. Moreover, more than twenty million individuals subscribe to

America Online (AOL) and more than seven times that number

are connected to the Internet through home, work, or school,

reflecting a growing connectivity between computer and

telecommunications.

7Not only is the technology coming together, but

convergence is also occurring in the realm of media ownership.

Hundreds of billions of dollars worth of mergers and acquisitions

occurred in the Internet and digital networks domain during the

final three years of the twentieth century. AT&T purchased TCI,

which is the parent of @Home, a primary broadband service

provider (i.e., cable modem). America Online purchased

Netscape, a leading Internet Web browser, and is merging with

Time Warner. And the list is growing every day.

8If there is no denying that convergence is occurring, other

他们会指出一个事实，即2000年全球各地的大多数人家里还没有一台

电脑，而且在大多数确实有一台电脑的家庭，电视机和电脑都还是单

独的设备。他们会注意到，即使在美国，2000年大部分电视机没有连

接到电话线或具有“上游”通信能力（即观众发送信息，以及接受它

的能力）的任何其他媒体。

6融合的趋势是不可否认的，然而，是否没有完成。到2000年，

超过800万个美国家庭，以及数百万日本和世界其他国家的家庭已订

购数字广播服务，如DirecTV，它将电视机接入数字视频系

统（即电脑化）以及电话线（这需要DBS操作）以提供按次付费

的节目或类似物。此外，超过两千多万个人订阅美国在线（AOL）和

超过那七倍的人数通过家庭，工作或学校上网，这反映出计算机和通

讯之间日益连通性。

7不仅是技术正在趋同，而且媒体本身领域也正在趋同。在二十世

纪的最后三年期间，数千亿美元的兼并收购发生在互联网和数字网络

领域。 AT＆T收购TCI， TCI是@Home的母公司，主要

宽带服务提供商（即电缆调制解调器）。美国在线收购网景（领

先的互联网浏览器），并与时代华纳合并。并且并购榜单每天都在增

长。

assumptions about convergence are worth addressing.

Paramount is the frequently held, techno-utopian

assumption that convergence is a good thing and inevitable.

If this were so, there would be little need for a book or any other

analysis of convergence and its effects. In this book, however, I

propose that although convergence is happening, it is neither

inevitable nor necessarily good. I do not offer a technologically

deterministic view of new media. Rather, I assert that

convergence merely holds the promise of a better, more efficient,

more democratic medium for journalism and the public in the

twenty-first century. But serious problems also plague civilization

in the digital age, among them, enormous threats to privacy,

increasing concentration of ownership, a shrinking diversity of

voices, an ever-escalating race to report the news more rapidly,

and inequitable access to information technology and digital

journalism. 8如果不否认融合正在发生，那么有关融合的其他假设就

值得提出。派拉蒙时常提出，技术乌托邦假设，即融合是一件好事，

而且是不可避免的。如果是这样的话，就没有必要用一本书来分析融

合以及它的影响了。然而，在这本书中，我认为，尽管融合正在发生，

它并不是不可避免的，也不一定是绝对利好的。我并不赞成新媒体的

技术决定论。相反，我断言，对新闻业和公众来讲，融合仅仅是信守

在二十一世纪里拥有一个更好，更有效，更民主的新闻媒体的承诺。

但严重的问题也困扰着数字化时代的文明，这其中有，受到威胁巨大

的隐私问题，增大集中所有权，呼声多样性的收缩，快速报道新闻的

竞争，以及不公平获得信息技术和数字新闻等。

本文标签： 融合新闻业媒体发生新闻