首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Where Is the News Leading Us? Not long ago I was asked to join in a public symposium on the role of the American press. Two
Where Is the News Leading Us? Not long ago I was asked to join in a public symposium on the role of the American press. Two
admin
2010-05-26
57
问题
Where Is the News Leading Us?
Not long ago I was asked to join in a public symposium on the role of the American press. Two other speakers were included on the program. The first was a distinguished TV anchorman. The other was the editor of one of the nation’s leading papers, a newsman to the core -- tough, aggressive, and savvy in the ways and means of solid reporting.
The purpose of the symposium, as I understood it, was to scrutinize the obligations of the media and to suggest the best ways to meet those obligations.
During the open-discussion period, a gentleman in the audience addressed a question to my two colleagues. Why, he asked, are the newspapers and the television news programs so disaster-prone? Why are newsmen and women so attracted to tragedy, violence, failure?
The anchorman and editor reacted as though they had been blamed for the existence of bad news. Newsmen and newswomen, they said, are only responsible for reporting the news, not for creating it or modifying it.
It didn’t seem to me that the newsmen had answered the question. The gentleman who had asked it was not blaming them for the distortions in the world. He was just wondering why distortions are most reported. The news media seem to operate on the philosophy that all news is bad news. Why? Could it be that the emphasis on downside news is largely the result of tradition -- the way newsmen had newswomen are accustomed to respond to daily events?
Perhaps it would be useful here to examine the way we define the word news, for this is where the problem begins. News is Supposed to deal with happenings of the past 12 hours -- 24 hours almost. Anything that happens so suddenly, however, is apt to be eruptive. A sniper kills some pedestrians; a terrorist holds 250 people hostage in a plane; OPEC announces a 25 percent increase in petroleum prices; Great Britain devalues by another 10 percent; a truck conveying radioactive wastes collides with a mobile cement mixer.
Focusing solely on these details, however, produces a misshapen picture, Civilization is a lot more than the sum total of its catastrophes. The most important ingredient in any civilization is progress. But progress doesn’t happen all at once. It is not eruptive. Generally, it comes in bits and pieces, very little of it clearly visible at any given moment, but all of it involved in the making of historical change for the better.
It is this aspect of living history that most news reporting reflects inadequately. The result is that we are underinformed about positive developments and overinformed about disasters. This, in turn, leads to a public mood of defeatism and despair, which in themselves tend to be inhibitors of progress. An unrelieved diet of eruptive news depletes the essential human energies a free society needs. A mood of hopelessness and cynicism is hardly likely to furnish the energy needed m meet serious challenges.
I am not suggesting that "positive" news be contrived as an antidote to the disasters on page one. Nor do I define positive news as in-depth reportage of functions of the local YMCA(基督教男青年会). What I am trying to get across is the notion that the responsibility of the news media is to search out and report on important events -- whether or not they come under the heading of conflict, confrontation, or catastrophe. The world is a splendid combination of heaven and hell, and both sectors’ call for attention and scrutiny.
My hope is that the profession of journalism will soon see its responsibility in a wider perspective. The time has come to consider the existence of a large area of human happenings that legitimately qualify as news. For example, how many news articles have been written about nitrogen-fixation(固氮作用) -- the process by which plants can be made to "Fix" their own nitrogen, thus reducing the need for fertilizer? Scientists all over the world are now pursuing this prospect in the hope of combating famine. How much is known about the revolutionary changes being made in increasing the rice harvest in the Far East? There are literally dozens of similar important developments in the world that are worthy of inclusion in any roundup of major news stories.
The anchorman and the editor were right in saying that newsmen and women are not responsible for shaping the world. But they are responsible for affecting our attitudes. We are only what we think we are; we can achieve only those goals we dare to envision. News people provide us with the only picture we have of ourselves and of the world. It had better be a true portrait -- and not a caricature -- for it is this picture on which we will base our decisions and around which we will plan our future.
The journalist, to paraphrase Walter Lipprnann, is the public’s philosopher. "The acquired culture, "Lippmann wrote, "is not transmitted in our genes. The good life in the good society, though attainable, is never attained and possessed once arid for all. What has been attained will again be lost if the wisdom of the good life in a good society is not transmitted."
With an accurate report of the good life in the good society, we can begin to use the news as Bernard de Charters suggested we use history -- boosting ourselves up on our experiences, "like dwarfs seated on the shoulders of giants, ’ enabled, thus, "to see more things than the Ancients and things more distant".
The world is a splendid combination of heaven and hell, and any events, whether blessing or disastrous, call for attention and scrutiny as long as they are important.
选项
A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案
A
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/NZLFFFFM
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
A、AllAmericanwomenarenowworkingortryingtofindajob.B、Divorcerateishigh.C、Societyismakingprogress.D、Unemployme
Successdoesnotcomeeasilytoasmallbusiness.TheUnitedStatesSmallBusinessAdministrationsaysfiftypercentofsmallbu
A、Everytenminutes.B、Attwentytoone.C、Everyhalfhour.D、Onceaday.C
WhowontheWorldCup1994footballgame?WhathappenedattheUnitedNations?Howdidthecriticslikethenewplay?【C1】______a
A、Passhismathclass.B、Getagoodjob.C、Gethisdegree.D、Changehisfieldofstudy.D
Themanagersuggeststhatalltheemployees____________(争分夺秒以争取提前完成项目).
Oneinfourfamiliesarehurtbyalcoholism.Drinkingplaysa【B1】______in80percentofdeathsbyfire,65percentof【B2】____
RodneyMace,35,ismarriedwithtwoyoungchildren,andisapart-timeteacherofarchitecturalhistory."Iamconstantlysurpr
MedicareinAmericaWhenDrugPricesAreoutofReachTrueStory.ElderlyanduninsuredAmericanspaythehighestpric
A、Intheafternoon.B、Inthemorning.C、Intheevening.D、Atnight.B
随机试题
A.盐酸美沙酮B.盐酸吗啡C.盐酸布桂嗪D.盐酸哌替啶E.枸橼酸芬太尼临床使用左旋体
药学职业道德规范的基本内容之一是()
砌筑普通黏土砖墙时,如留斜槎,斜槎长度一般不应小于高度的()。砖墙的转角处和交接处应同时砌筑,严禁无可靠措施的内外墙()。
【背景资料】某总承包单位A将一医院的通风空调工程分包给某安装单位B,工作内容有风系统、水系统、热泵机组。设备有7台风冷式热泵机组、9台水泵、123台吸顶式新风空调机组、1237台风机盘管、42台排风机,均由业主采购。通风空调工程的电气系统由总承包
某电视机厂采用分期收款结算方式于4月份售出彩电100台,每台成本2000元,售价2500元(不含增值税)。合同约定产品发出后先收货款一半,余款以后分三次收回,4月份如期收回货款146250元,则4月份应确认此笔业务的销售额( )元。
对于固定资产重置引起的融资需求,银行可以通过评估()来预测。
简述南京国民政府法律制度的主要特点。(2011年简答66)
恩格斯在总结和概括了近代哲学发展的基础上,提出了哲学的基本问题。哲学的重大的基本问题是()
Inthispartyouarerequiredtowriteacompositionentitled"MyViewonTerroristExplosionsInSomeCountries"innolesstha
A、Thebossisoftenlateforwork.B、Thebosswillprobablydisciplinethewoman.C、Thebossmaydisregardthewoman’slateness.
最新回复
(
0
)