考研英语阅读命题思路透析和真题揭秘(54)

Why do so many Americans distrust what they read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper Editors is trying to answer this painful question. The organization is deepsintosa long self-analysis known as the journalism credibility project.

Sad to say, this project has turned out to be mostly low-level findings about factual errors and spelling and grammar mistakes, combined with lots of head-scratching puzzlement about what in the world those readers really want.

But the sources of distrust go way deeper. Most journalists learn to see the world through a set of standard templates (patterns)sintoswhich they plug each day's events. In other words, there is a conventional story line in the newsroom culture that provides a backbone and a ready-made narrative structure for otherwise confusing news.

There exists a social and cultural disconnect between journalists and their readers, which helps explain why the "standard templates" of the newsroom seem alien to many readers. In a recent survey, questionnaires were sent to reporters in five middle-size cities around the country, plus one large metropolitan area. Then residents in these communities were phoned at random and asked the same questions.

Replies show that compared with other Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods, have maids, own Mercedeses, and trade stocks, and they're less likely to go to church, do volunteer work, or put down roots in a community.

Reporters tend to be part of a broadly defined social and cultural elite, so their work tends to reflect the conventional values of this elite. The astonishing distrust of the news media isn't rooted in inaccuracy or poor reportorial skills but in the daily clash of world views between reporters and their readers.

This is an explosive situation for any industry, particularly a declining one. Here is a troubled business that keeps hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers. Then it sponsors lots of symposiums and a credibility project dedicated to wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers. But it never seems to get around to noticing the cultural and class biases that so many former buyers are complaining about. If it did, it would open up its diversity program, now focused narrowly on race and gender, and look for reporters who differ broadly by outlook, values, education, and class.

为什么那么多美国人不相信自己在报纸上读到的东西？美国报纸编辑协会正试图回答这个令人苦恼的问题。该组织全力进行一个长期的自我剖析过程，即新闻可信度调查项目。

遗憾的是，这次新闻机构可信度调查项目的结果只获得了一些肤浅的发现，诸如新闻报道中的事实错误，拼写或语法错误，和这些低层次发现交织在一起的还有许多令人困惑的问题，譬如读者到底想读到些什么。

但这种对媒体的不信任有更深层次的根源。多数新闻记者都只学会了用一套标准的模式去看待世界，并把每天发生的事件套入这种模式。换言之，在媒介机构的新闻采编室文化中，存在着一套约定俗成的写作模式，为纷繁复杂的新闻报道提供了一个主干框架和一个现成的叙事结构。

新闻记者和读者之间存在着社会和文化方面的脱节，这就是为什么新闻编辑室的"标准模板"与许多读者的兴趣相差甚远的原因。在最近一次调查中，问卷被送到了全国五座中等城市及一座大城市的记者们手中，然后随机地给这些城市的居民打电话，对他们提出同样的问题。

调查结果表明，与其他美国人相比，记者们更有可能居住在富人区，有女佣、奔驰车和股票，但他们去教堂做礼拜、参加志愿者服务、扎根社区的可能性却很小。

记者们往往属于广义的社会文化精英的一个部分，因此他们的工作往往反映了这些精英传统的价值观。读者对新闻媒体那种震惊的不信任感的根源并非是报道失实或低下的报道技巧，而是记者与读者的世界观每天都发生着碰撞。

这种局面对任何一个行业来说都是极具争议的，对于一个日益衰落的行业来说尤其如此。新闻界是一个棘手的行业，却一直在雇用那些总体上的观点会使客户恼怒的雇员。然后它又出资组织研讨会和可信度调查项目，去探究为什么顾客们恼火了，为什么会有那么多人逃避新闻。但新闻界似乎从来就没回过头来去注意以前那么多顾客所抱怨的文化和阶级偏见。如果它能关注这个问题的话，它就应该进一步开放其多样化方案（这个方案现在还只单纯考虑招收不同种族和性别的员工），要进一步寻找那些世界观、价值观、教育水平和社会阶层各不相同的记者。