The future of news資訊產業的未來

　　THREE hundred years ago news travelled by word of mouth or letter, and circulated in tavernsand coffee houses in the form of pamphlets, newsletters and broadsides. The Coffee housesparticularly are very commodious for a free Conversation, and for reading at an easie Rate allmanner of printed News, noted one observer. Everything changed in 1833 when the firstmass-audience newspaper, the New York Sun, pioneered the use of advertising to reduce thecost of news, thus giving advertisers access to a wider audience. At the time of the launchAmericas bestselling paper sold just 4,500 copies a day; the Sun, with its steam press, soonreached 15,000. The penny press, followed by radio and television, turned news from a two-way conversation into a one-way broadcast, with a relatively small number of firms controllingthe media.

　　三百年前，資訊以口頭或書面形式傳播，并且以小冊子、簡報的形式在小餐館或咖啡屋中流傳。據一名觀察員說，咖啡屋是進行自由交談的不二選擇，并且也是休閑閱讀的理想場所。但是事情在1883年發生重大轉變，第一個面向大眾的報紙，紐約太陽報誕生，并且首次引入廣告來降低資訊成本，一舉兩得地為贊助商尋到更多的觀眾。當紐約報面世時，美國銷量最好的雜志每天可以賣4，500份; 但是太陽報卻很快達到15，000的銷量。報紙以及隨后而來的廣播、電視將資訊傳播方式從兩方面的交流變為一方面的由少數公司控制的傳播。

　　Now, as our special report explains, the news industry is returning to something closer to thecoffee house. The internet is making news more participatory, social, diverse and partisan,reviving the discursive ethos of the era before mass media. That will have profound effectson society and politics.

　　現在，正如我們的特別報道所言，資訊產業正在向之前咖啡屋相近轉變。互聯網使資訊變得更易參與，更具有社會性，更容易聽到不同的聲音，讓資訊從大眾傳媒時代重回百家爭鳴的盛況。這對社會及政治將產生重大影響。

　　Going West

　　In much of the world, the mass media areflourishing. Newspaper circulation rose globally by6% between 2005 and 2009, helped by particularlystrong demand in places like India, where 110mpapers are now sold daily. But those global figuresmask a sharp decline in readership in rich countries.

　　在世界大部分地區，大眾傳媒都在蓬勃發展。世界范圍內的報紙銷量從2005年到2009年增長了6%，特別是有巨大需求的印度地區，每天就有1億1千萬的銷量。但在富裕國家讀者人數卻大幅下降。

　　Over the past decade, throughout the Western world, people have been giving up newspapersand TV news and keeping up with events in profoundly different ways. Most strikingly, ordinarypeople are increasingly involved in compiling, sharing, filtering, discussing and distributing news.Twitter lets people anywhere report what they are seeing. Classified documents are published intheir thousands online. Mobile-phone footage of Arab uprisings and American tornadoes isposted on social-networking sites and shown on television newscasts. An amateur video takenduring the Japanese earthquake has been watched 15m times on YouTube. Crowdsourcingprojects bring readers and journalists together to sift through troves of documents, from theexpense claims of British politicians to Sarah Palins e-mails. Social-networking sites help peoplefind, discuss and share news with their friends.

　　過去十年整個西方世界中，人們逐漸放棄報紙和電視，而是通過其它的方式與時俱進。更引人著目的是更多的普通民眾參與到資訊的收集、分享、篩選和討論中。推特使人們可以隨時隨地將他們的所見所聞相互分享。各種各樣的文件被無數在線用戶上傳。手機拍客們拍攝的阿拉伯暴亂以及美國龍卷風的視頻和照片在社交網絡中廣泛傳播并且為電視報道所引用。YouTube上一部攝于日本地震期間的相關視頻被瀏覽一千五百萬次。眾包將讀者與記者緊密聯系在了一起，共同處理各種資訊文件，從英國政客的消費聲明到Sarah Palin的郵件。社交網絡為人們與好友之間尋找、討論和分享資訊提供了平臺。

　　And it is not just readers who are challenging the media elite. Technology firms includingGoogle, Facebook and Twitter have become important conduits ofnews. Celebrities and world leaders, including Barack Obama and Hugo Chvez, publish updatesdirectly via social networks; many countries now make raw data available through opengovernment initiatives. The internet lets people read newspapers or watch television channelsfrom around the world: the Guardian, a British newspaper, now has more online readers abroadthan at home. The web has allowed new providers of news, from individual bloggers to sitessuch as the Huffington Post, to rise to prominence in a very short space of time. And it hasmade possible entirely new approaches to journalism, such as that practised by WikiLeaks,which provides an anonymous way for whistleblowers to publish documents. The newsagenda is no longer controlled by a few press barons and state outlets, like the BBC.

　　不僅僅是讀者在向傳統傳媒發起挑戰。包括谷歌、臉譜、 Twitter在內的科技公司也逐漸成為資訊傳播的重要渠道。包括奧巴馬在內的許多名流和政要通過社交網絡公布他們的實時動態。互聯網打破了人們閱讀報紙及收看電視頻道的地域限制：the Grardian, 一份英國報紙，現在較其本土讀者有更多的網上讀者。從博客到類似Huffington Post的網站，互聯網使更多人成為資訊的可能提供者，在很短時間內就獲得大量關注。互聯網也為資訊的發布提供了一種全新的可能，正如維基解密所做的那樣，為揭密者提供匿名發布信息的平臺。資訊媒體再也不會為少數傳媒巨頭或部分政府部門所控制，就像BBC。

　　We contort, you deride

　　In principle, every liberal should celebrate this. A more participatory and social newsenvironment, with a remarkable diversity and range of news sources, is a good thing. ATexan who once had to rely on the Houston Chronicle to interpret the world can now collectinformation from myriad different sources. Authoritarian rulers everywhere have more to fear.So what, many will say, if journalists have less stable careers? All the same, two areas ofconcern stand out.

　　原則上來說，每個自由主義人士都應該為此慶祝。一個更具有參與性與社會性的資訊環境，一個更加集思廣益、百家爭鳴的資訊環境是值得慶祝的。德克薩斯人曾經必須依靠Houston Chronicle來與外界保持聯系，但現在卻可以通過無數的渠道得到他們想要的消息。專治統治者憂心忡忡。但也有很多人發問，這會不會對記者這個職業產生沖擊呢?同樣引起關注的還有兩點。

　　The first worry is the loss of accountability journalism, which holds the powerful to account.Shrinking revenues have reduced the amount and quality of investigative and local politicalreporting in the print press.

　　首先就是擔心負責任的媒體會越來越少，這些媒體會對他們報道的內容負責。經費的減少降低了調查研究和本地政治報道的數量和質量。

　　The future of news資訊產業的未來

　　THREE hundred years ago news travelled by word of mouth or letter, and circulated in tavernsand coffee houses in the form of pamphlets, newsletters and broadsides. The Coffee housesparticularly are very commodious for a free Conversation, and for reading at an easie Rate allmanner of printed News, noted one observer. Everything changed in 1833 when the firstmass-audience newspaper, the New York Sun, pioneered the use of advertising to reduce thecost of news, thus giving advertisers access to a wider audience. At the time of the launchAmericas bestselling paper sold just 4,500 copies a day; the Sun, with its steam press, soonreached 15,000. The penny press, followed by radio and television, turned news from a two-way conversation into a one-way broadcast, with a relatively small number of firms controllingthe media.

　　三百年前，資訊以口頭或書面形式傳播，并且以小冊子、簡報的形式在小餐館或咖啡屋中流傳。據一名觀察員說，咖啡屋是進行自由交談的不二選擇，并且也是休閑閱讀的理想場所。但是事情在1883年發生重大轉變，第一個面向大眾的報紙，紐約太陽報誕生，并且首次引入廣告來降低資訊成本，一舉兩得地為贊助商尋到更多的觀眾。當紐約報面世時，美國銷量最好的雜志每天可以賣4，500份; 但是太陽報卻很快達到15，000的銷量。報紙以及隨后而來的廣播、電視將資訊傳播方式從兩方面的交流變為一方面的由少數公司控制的傳播。

　　Now, as our special report explains, the news industry is returning to something closer to thecoffee house. The internet is making news more participatory, social, diverse and partisan,reviving the discursive ethos of the era before mass media. That will have profound effectson society and politics.

　　現在，正如我們的特別報道所言，資訊產業正在向之前咖啡屋相近轉變。互聯網使資訊變得更易參與，更具有社會性，更容易聽到不同的聲音，讓資訊從大眾傳媒時代重回百家爭鳴的盛況。這對社會及政治將產生重大影響。

　　Going West

　　In much of the world, the mass media areflourishing. Newspaper circulation rose globally by6% between 2005 and 2009, helped by particularlystrong demand in places like India, where 110mpapers are now sold daily. But those global figuresmask a sharp decline in readership in rich countries.

　　在世界大部分地區，大眾傳媒都在蓬勃發展。世界范圍內的報紙銷量從2005年到2009年增長了6%，特別是有巨大需求的印度地區，每天就有1億1千萬的銷量。但在富裕國家讀者人數卻大幅下降。

　　Over the past decade, throughout the Western world, people have been giving up newspapersand TV news and keeping up with events in profoundly different ways. Most strikingly, ordinarypeople are increasingly involved in compiling, sharing, filtering, discussing and distributing news.Twitter lets people anywhere report what they are seeing. Classified documents are published intheir thousands online. Mobile-phone footage of Arab uprisings and American tornadoes isposted on social-networking sites and shown on television newscasts. An amateur video takenduring the Japanese earthquake has been watched 15m times on YouTube. Crowdsourcingprojects bring readers and journalists together to sift through troves of documents, from theexpense claims of British politicians to Sarah Palins e-mails. Social-networking sites help peoplefind, discuss and share news with their friends.

　　過去十年整個西方世界中，人們逐漸放棄報紙和電視，而是通過其它的方式與時俱進。更引人著目的是更多的普通民眾參與到資訊的收集、分享、篩選和討論中。推特使人們可以隨時隨地將他們的所見所聞相互分享。各種各樣的文件被無數在線用戶上傳。手機拍客們拍攝的阿拉伯暴亂以及美國龍卷風的視頻和照片在社交網絡中廣泛傳播并且為電視報道所引用。YouTube上一部攝于日本地震期間的相關視頻被瀏覽一千五百萬次。眾包將讀者與記者緊密聯系在了一起，共同處理各種資訊文件，從英國政客的消費聲明到Sarah Palin的郵件。社交網絡為人們與好友之間尋找、討論和分享資訊提供了平臺。

　　And it is not just readers who are challenging the media elite. Technology firms includingGoogle, Facebook and Twitter have become important conduits ofnews. Celebrities and world leaders, including Barack Obama and Hugo Chvez, publish updatesdirectly via social networks; many countries now make raw data available through opengovernment initiatives. The internet lets people read newspapers or watch television channelsfrom around the world: the Guardian, a British newspaper, now has more online readers abroadthan at home. The web has allowed new providers of news, from individual bloggers to sitessuch as the Huffington Post, to rise to prominence in a very short space of time. And it hasmade possible entirely new approaches to journalism, such as that practised by WikiLeaks,which provides an anonymous way for whistleblowers to publish documents. The newsagenda is no longer controlled by a few press barons and state outlets, like the BBC.

　　不僅僅是讀者在向傳統傳媒發起挑戰。包括谷歌、臉譜、 Twitter在內的科技公司也逐漸成為資訊傳播的重要渠道。包括奧巴馬在內的許多名流和政要通過社交網絡公布他們的實時動態。互聯網打破了人們閱讀報紙及收看電視頻道的地域限制：the Grardian, 一份英國報紙，現在較其本土讀者有更多的網上讀者。從博客到類似Huffington Post的網站，互聯網使更多人成為資訊的可能提供者，在很短時間內就獲得大量關注。互聯網也為資訊的發布提供了一種全新的可能，正如維基解密所做的那樣，為揭密者提供匿名發布信息的平臺。資訊媒體再也不會為少數傳媒巨頭或部分政府部門所控制，就像BBC。

　　We contort, you deride

　　In principle, every liberal should celebrate this. A more participatory and social newsenvironment, with a remarkable diversity and range of news sources, is a good thing. ATexan who once had to rely on the Houston Chronicle to interpret the world can now collectinformation from myriad different sources. Authoritarian rulers everywhere have more to fear.So what, many will say, if journalists have less stable careers? All the same, two areas ofconcern stand out.

　　原則上來說，每個自由主義人士都應該為此慶祝。一個更具有參與性與社會性的資訊環境，一個更加集思廣益、百家爭鳴的資訊環境是值得慶祝的。德克薩斯人曾經必須依靠Houston Chronicle來與外界保持聯系，但現在卻可以通過無數的渠道得到他們想要的消息。專治統治者憂心忡忡。但也有很多人發問，這會不會對記者這個職業產生沖擊呢?同樣引起關注的還有兩點。

　　The first worry is the loss of accountability journalism, which holds the powerful to account.Shrinking revenues have reduced the amount and quality of investigative and local politicalreporting in the print press.

　　首先就是擔心負責任的媒體會越來越少，這些媒體會對他們報道的內容負責。經費的減少降低了調查研究和本地政治報道的數量和質量。