2006年VOA标准英语-Internet and Satellite TV Change News Media, Ne

By Bill Rodgers
Washington, DC
13 December 2006
 
watch News Media Changes

 
Satellite television and the expanding power of the Internet are not only changing the way news is delivered, but also the perception of what news is and the way journalists do their jobs.  These changes are having a profound impact on the news business while at the same time providing societies with more information that can help strengthen freedom, democracy and human rights.  VOA's Bill Rodgers has more in this report.

When Hurricane Katrina hit the U.S. Gulf¹ coast in 2005, devastating² New Orleans and wrecking³ havoc⁴ elsewhere in Louisiana and Mississippi, the Knight⁵ Ridder news service sprang into action to support one of its subscriber⁶ newspapers.  Now owned by the McClatchy newspaper chain, Knight Ridder's Washington bureau helped the storm-devastated Biloxi Sun Herald⁷ in Mississippi get its content on line. 

 
Jim Van Nostrand
Jim Van Nostrand, who is now senior editor for McClatchy Interactive⁸, describes what happened. "We used audio and video and user-generated content to great effect there.  People were able to upload their photos of their houses, upload photos of their neighborhoods, they were able to use message boards to talk neighbors to ask: 'hey, have you seen my mother or my uncle or my brother?'.  I would say at least half of the content that we posted for Hurricane Katrina was stuff you wouldn't see in print.  Message boards, audio, video that sort of thing."

The power of the Internet is increasingly transforming the way newspapers deliver their product -- the kind of product they deliver -- and their relationship with readers.  

Van Nostrand adds, "It allows our readers to interact with us as they've never interacted before.  It used to be the old model was: 'we publish the story, people read it', that is a one-way communications system.  Now people can participate in our reporting, they can send us questions, they can send us comments, they can help shape our coverage⁹."

 
Jeffrey Dvorkin
But with American newspaper circulation declining by as much as two percent a year, the Internet may be a double-edged sword.  This is posing some tough challenges, according to Jeffrey Dvorkin of the Committee of Concerned Journalists.  "We know that as circulation figures decline, as fewer and fewer people are reading newspapers in the United States and even watching or listening to mainstream¹⁰ television and radio, news organizations are trying to think where is the audience going. A lot of the audience, certainly the younger audience, is going to the internet." 

And content on the internet can sometimes generate news and affect government policies.  The news media last year reported on a Malaysian video clip circulating on the internet showing police mistreatment of a nude¹¹ ethnic¹² Chinese woman under detention¹³ in Kuala Lumpur.  This incident of police abuse had international repercussions¹⁴, causing Malaysia's home minister to launch an investigation¹⁵ as China expressed its displeasure.  

Such rapid spread of information via the internet -- and also by satellite television -- is having a profound impact on societies.  American University journalism¹⁶ professor Christopher Simpson says one effect is to strengthen human rights.

"There are a number of trends associated with this. One of them is, at least, a potentially a greater strength for human rights movements, non-governmental groups that type of thing to use the tools that are available to both capture information about peoples' lives and to broadcast or transmit that information. That means that the silence that surrounds extreme poverty, for example, can be broken more easily than before.  The silence that tends to surround police brutality¹⁷, called by whatever name, tends to be easier to break than previously¹⁸."

This is why the Internet is censored¹⁹ in places like China, and reception of satellite television is banned by repressive countries.  Yet - as the recent launches of Al-Jazeera International and "France 24" demonstrates --  there appears to be a growing global appetite for satellite television services broadcasting news and information. 

This expansion of information delivery is a healthy development, says professor Simpson, because it can help foster democracy. "The raw material of democracy, of freedom, of power is that people understand what is going on around them.  They understand what their society is doing, they understand what their rulers are doing.  So in order for that to happen at all, they must have information and they must have accurate information."

While accurate information is the goal, not everything being broadcast or on the Internet is accurate. There are also concerns also that the quality of the news product may be adversely²⁰ affected²¹ as journalists face growing pressures to rush their material onto websites.  The public editor of the New York Times recently raised this question, wondering whether speed can be balanced with completeness. 

In the end, traditional media such as newspapers are likely to adapt and survive these technological²² changes.  What is not likely to change is the power of the written word, according to McClatchy's Jim Van Nostrand. "For all of the things that the internet offers, it is still a medium of the written word.  That's not going to go away.  You still need reporters to go out and ask questions and interview people and tell stories.  The internet gives us other tools to tell those stories but the written word isn't going to go away."

And as long as this is true, the growing proliferation of ideas and information will continue.

1 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

2 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

3 wrecking   

破坏

参考例句：

• He teed off on his son for wrecking the car. 他严厉训斥他儿子毁坏了汽车。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Instead of wrecking the valley, the waters are put to use making electricity. 现在河水不但不在流域内肆疟，反而被人们用来生产电力。 来自辞典例句

4 havoc   

n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱

参考例句：

• The earthquake wreaked havoc on the city.地震对这个城市造成了大破坏。
• This concentration of airborne firepower wrought havoc with the enemy forces.这次机载火力的集中攻击给敌军造成很大破坏。

5 knight   

n.骑士，武士；爵士

参考例句：

• He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
• A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。

6 subscriber   

n.用户，订户；（慈善机关等的）定期捐款者；预约者；签署者

参考例句：

• The subscriber to a government loan has got higher interest than savings. 公债认购者获得高于储蓄的利息。 来自辞典例句
• Who is the subscriber of that motto? 谁是那条座右铭的签字者？ 来自辞典例句

7 herald   

vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎

参考例句：

• In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
• Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。

8 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。

9 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

10 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

11 nude   

adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品

参考例句：

• It's a painting of the Duchess of Alba in the nude.这是一幅阿尔巴公爵夫人的裸体肖像画。
• She doesn't like nude swimming.她不喜欢裸泳。

12 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

13 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

14 repercussions   

n.后果，反响( repercussion的名词复数 )；余波

参考例句：

• The collapse of the company will have repercussions for the whole industry. 这家公司的垮台将会给整个行业造成间接的负面影响。
• Human acts have repercussions far beyond the frontiers of the human world. 人类行为所产生的影响远远超出人类世界的范围。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

16 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

17 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

18 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

19 censored   

受审查的，被删剪的

参考例句：

• The news reports had been heavily censored . 这些新闻报道已被大幅删剪。
• The military-backed government has heavily censored the news. 有军方撑腰的政府对新闻进行了严格审查。

20 adversely   

ad.有害地

参考例句：

• We commented adversely upon the imbecility of that message of telegraphic style. 我们对着这条电报式的愚蠢的留言发泄了一通不满。
• Widely fluctuating exchange rates may adversely affect international trade. 浮动幅度很大的汇率可能会对国际贸易产生有害的影响。

21 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

22 technological   

adj.技术的；工艺的

参考例句：

• A successful company must keep up with the pace of technological change.一家成功的公司必须得跟上技术变革的步伐。
• Today,the pace of life is increasing with technological advancements.当今， 随着科技进步，生活节奏不断增快。