学术英语(社科)Unit7原文及翻译.doc

Introduction: Understanding the Impact of New Media on Journalism1 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 worlds 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.”5 But 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).6 The 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.7 Not 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.8 If 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。 ATT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 vie