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VOA标准英语2009年-Pentagon Tweets, Blogs, Posts, and 'Friend

时间:2009-09-08 01:22:01

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The U.S. Defense1 Department has become the latest establishment organization to venture into the Internet world of social networking. Officials from the generation of regular old mail, and maybe email, are trying to tweet, blog, post and "friend."
 
Defense Department web site - www.defense.gov

It was just a few years ago, it seems, that email was a new, even exciting, way to communicate. Nowadays it is old hat. Send an email. Wait for a response. Usually it only involves two people.

The new way of communicating, known as social media or social networking, involves a potentially huge audience observing the conversation, and joining in. "They're for having dialogue and real-time conversations," said social media expert Geoff Livingston, a fellow at the Society for New Communications Research and author of a book on new media called "Now is Gone." He says the new concept behind such popular websites as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter creates both a challenge and an opportunity for any organization, like a government department, that wants to get a message out to the people it cares about.

"The issue that most organizations, military, government or just a plain old corporation, seem to have with social media is actually engaging people," he said.

It is that idea of engaging, interacting with, an audience that is new to organizations accustomed to one-way public communication, like putting out news releases. And on social media websites the engagement is very public, and may include audio and video.

U.S. Navy Petty Officer William Selby is on one of the Pentagon's YouTube channels, inviting2 anyone, and everyone, to post a video question for the senior U.S. military officer, the Chairman of the Joint3 Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen. Social networking has been largely a young people's domain4, but the 62-year-old admiral has embraced it.

"For leaders - I mean, I'll take myself in particular - I think, it's really important to be connected to that and understand it, certainly not be as facile as they [young people] are on it, but to understand because I think communicating that way and moving information around that way, whether it's administrative5 information or information in warfare6, is absolutely critical," Mullen said.

In addition to his plans for a YouTube Town Hall meeting, the admiral has Twitter and Facebook feeds.

He even posted a short video podcast about one of the most controversial issues facing the U.S. military, whether to allow homosexuals to serve openly. "There's a lot of focus with respect to this right now, and certainly when the law changes, we get to that point, we'll carry out the law," he said.

Surprisingly, when the admiral posted his comments to his more than 2,000 Facebook fans, he received only one comment, and that was greetings from an old friend.
 
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Admiral Mullen's 65-year-old boss, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, admits the admiral is "more technologically7 advanced" than he is, but he's trying to change that. Gates says he wants to use social media to reach young people, especially the two million members of the U.S. military - average age about 22.

"How do we communicate better with them? How do we - how do we get reactions from them to things that we're doing? How do we get better plugged in with what they're thinking? Also, in terms of our strategic communications, that's the age, or if not younger, of many of the people around the world we are trying to reach. And how do we reach them in a way that they understand?," he said.

And Gates noted8 the impact of communicating by Twitter during the recent unrest in Iran. "You know, if you can't text, then you Twitter. And you know, my guess is, in some of these countries, that the leadership is kind of like me. They don't have a clue what it's about," he said.

But Gates' effort to use social media to reach the troops is being slowed by computer networking specialists in his own department. They're worried about malicious9 hackers10 using social networking sites to get into the unclassified part of the Pentagon's network. A new policy on troops and defense department civilians11 accessing such websites while at work is expected soon.

The man Gates wants to move the Defense Department into the realm of social media is his new public affairs chief, Price Floyd. "It's not the same message in a different bottle. The kind of communication, the back-and-forth, the engagement, the dialogue that happens is substantially different. Not only do we get to hear back from people whom our policies may affect, but that engagement may, in essence, change our policies," he said.

Floyd launched the new Pentagon public affairs website this week, www.defense.gov. It has links to the department's feeds on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other sites, and Floyd is inviting people to submit questions for Secretary Gates to answer, and also to list their top U.S. defense policy concerns.

"That knowledge of what's important to people, we may be surprised by. I don't know what the top five questions are going to be. I don't know what the top five policy suggestions, or policies important to people, will be. So that could be exciting. And then the dialogue. We have to get back to them and they can respond to our answers. That dialogue, I think, is important," Floyd said.

The U.S. Defense Department's primary audiences for this effort are the troops, their families and the American public. But with the Internet, it gets an international audience at the same time.

"If those people overseas are seen to have an opportunity to engage, be heard and listen, that even if they may disagree with the policy they will have seen the policy develop in a way that they did have a voice in its development. And therefore I think their support or at least not their active antipathy12 will happen," he said.

Floyd acknowledges this is a new world for officials accustomed to just putting out a message. Ceding13 a measure of control over that message to anyone who happens to click into a website is something no public affairs officer would have done until recently. But social media expert Geoff Livingston says that is exactly what they must do to take full advantage of this new way of communicating.

"DoD's job is to become a great host, and allow a phenomenal networking event to occur online, and allow these people to talk amongst themselves and have real conversations, and be available to answer questions as necessary," he said.

Pentagon official Price Floyd gets that. Using a military analogy, he says the defense department "didn't want to leave the field" of the new social media, and allow it to be a place for other people to talk about defense issues without having any input14 of its own.


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1 defense AxbxB     
n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩
参考例句:
  • The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
  • The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。
2 inviting CqIzNp     
adj.诱人的,引人注目的
参考例句:
  • An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
  • The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人,使人感到亲切温馨。
3 joint m3lx4     
adj.联合的,共同的;n.关节,接合处;v.连接,贴合
参考例句:
  • I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤,肩膀脫臼了。
  • We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。
4 domain ys8xC     
n.(活动等)领域,范围;领地,势力范围
参考例句:
  • This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
  • This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。
5 administrative fzDzkc     
adj.行政的,管理的
参考例句:
  • The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
  • He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。
6 warfare XhVwZ     
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突
参考例句:
  • He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
  • Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。
7 technologically WqpwY     
ad.技术上地
参考例句:
  • Shanghai is a technologically advanced city. 上海是中国的一个技术先进的城市。
  • Many senior managers are technologically illiterate. 许多高级经理都对技术知之甚少。
8 noted 5n4zXc     
adj.著名的,知名的
参考例句:
  • The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
  • Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
9 malicious e8UzX     
adj.有恶意的,心怀恶意的
参考例句:
  • You ought to kick back at such malicious slander. 你应当反击这种恶毒的污蔑。
  • Their talk was slightly malicious.他们的谈话有点儿心怀不轨。
10 hackers dc5d6e5c0ffd6d1cd249286ced098382     
n.计算机迷( hacker的名词复数 );私自存取或篡改电脑资料者,电脑“黑客”
参考例句:
  • They think of viruses that infect an organization from the outside.They envision hackers breaking into their information vaults. 他们考虑来自外部的感染公司的病毒,他们设想黑客侵入到信息宝库中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Arranging a meeting with the hackers took weeks againoff-again email exchanges. 通过几星期电子邮件往来安排见面,他们最终同意了。 来自互联网
11 civilians 2a8bdc87d05da507ff4534c9c974b785     
平民,百姓( civilian的名词复数 ); 老百姓
参考例句:
  • the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
  • At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后,至少有300名平民下落不明。
12 antipathy vM6yb     
n.憎恶;反感,引起反感的人或事物
参考例句:
  • I feel an antipathy against their behaviour.我对他们的行为很反感。
  • Some people have an antipathy to cats.有的人讨厌猫。
13 ceding be4d91be216815a1a3b9db30eff43c53     
v.让给,割让,放弃( cede的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • He was ceding line but more slowly all the time. 他正在放出钓索,然而越来越慢了。 来自英汉文学 - 老人与海
  • Settlement would require ceding some Egyptian territory. 解决办法将要求埃及让出一些领土。 来自辞典例句
14 input X6lxm     
n.输入(物);投入;vt.把(数据等)输入计算机
参考例句:
  • I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
  • All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

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