普通高中课程标准实验教科书 英语必修5 Unit 4 Making the news-

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SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH
        Collecting and writing news is like researching in history: the best information comes from those who were there at the time. So if we want to study the history of China in the sixth century AD, we look at the writings of the people who lived then. They are called the primary sources because they tell us what it was like to live then. People at a much later date who write about the same. events are called secondary¹ sources. For example, when we read the original writings of Jia Sixie on agriculture, we are reading a primary source; when we read about Jia Sixie in our textbook we are reading a secondary source because the passage was written about him and his ideas many years after he died.
         When we make news we use primary and secondary sources. We can see this most clearly in TV programmes. As we watch the news on TV, the person presenting the programme in the studio is the secondary source (because he tells us about the news) and the reporter in Iraq or the USA is the primary source (because he is telling us about what is actually happening there). Without these reporters acting² as primary sources, you would never find out what really happened in a war, earthquake, sports meeting, concert or festival. These reporters explain what is happening so we have a clearer idea of what is going on there. They often take photographers with them who also act as primary sources by giving us pictures of events.
         In a newspaper the position is different because these two roles are often combined. This means a reporter who investigates a story may be the same person who writes it. If this happens, the reporter is both the primary and the secondary source. But the photographer who works³ with him/her is still a primary source.
         It is important to separate primary and secondary sources because they can help us to decide what is true. A primary source is more likely to be true than a secondary one because he/she can give us facts (what happened) rather than opinions (what he/she thinks happened).