经济学人下载:新闻产业的未来,重回咖啡屋时代

But old-style journalism was never quite as morally upstanding as journalists like to think. Indeed, the News of the World, a British newspaper which has been caught hacking into people’s mobile phones, is a very traditional sort of scandal sheet (see article). Meantime, the internet is spawning new forms of accountability. A growing band of non-profit outfits such as ProPublica, the Sunlight Foundation and WikiLeaks are helping to fill the gap left by the decline of watchdog media. This is still a work in progress, but the degree of activity and experimentation provides cause for optimism.

但传统传媒却并不总是像记者所想像的一样高尚。世界新闻报，一份英国报纸，被指证窃听人们的手机，这是非常普遍的丑闻之一。同时，互联网正在传播一种新的责任形式。一些个还在增加的非盈利组织，像Propublica, the Sunlight Foundation and wikiLeaks，正在帮助减小由于watchdog media下降带来的断带。这是一项仍未完成的任务，但是活动和实验的程度为乐观主义者提供了信心。

The second concern has to do with partisanship. In the mass-media era local monopolies often had to be relatively impartial to maximise their appeal to readers and advertisers. In a more competitive world the money seems to be in creating an echo chamber for people’s prejudices: thus Fox News, a conservative American cable-news channel, makes more profits than its less strident rivals, cnn and MSNBC, combined.

第二个值得关注的就是党派性。在大众传媒时代，地方寡头必须保持相对的公正性以吸引读者和赞助商。在一个更具有竞争性的世界中，金钱似乎正在为偏见提供肥沃的土壤：就像Fox News，一家美国保守派有线新闻电视台，比没有它言语犀利的两家cnn和MSNBC合起来赚得还要多。

In one way the increasing availability of partisan news is to be welcomed. In the past many people—especially right-wing Americans, since most American television was left-leaning—had nothing to watch that reflected their views. But as news is becoming more opinionated, both politics and the facts are suffering: witness some American conservatives’ insistence that Barack Obama was born outside America, and others’ refusal to accept that taxes must rise (see article).

在某种情况下，大量政党新闻的涌入是会被欢迎的。在过去，许多人－特别是右翼人士，因为大多数美国电视是左倾的－在电视上找不到反应他们政治立场的节目。政治与事实都在忍受固执己见的新闻的打击：有人坚称奥巴马是在国外出生的，也有人拒绝接受税收必须上调。

What is to be done? At a societal level, not much. The transformation of the news business is unstoppable, and attempts to reverse it are doomed to failure. But there are steps individuals can take to mitigate these worries. As producers of new journalism, they can be scrupulous with facts and transparent with their sources. As consumers, they can be catholic in their tastes and demanding in their standards. And although this transformation does raise concerns, there is much to celebrate in the noisy, diverse, vociferous, argumentative and stridently alive environment of the news business in the age of the internet. The coffee house is back. Enjoy it.

有什么需要做的呢？在社会层面需要我们做的并不多。新闻产业的转型势不可挡，任何意图阻止转型的行为都注定失败。但个人确实可以采取有效措施来减轻前面提到的几种担心。大众作为新式传媒的缔造者，可以自己对所谓事实的真实性把关并公开信息来源。而作为新闻受众的时候，大众可以接触更多领域的信息并且降低需求的标准。虽然转型确实带来了一些麻烦，但更值得庆祝的是在互联网时代有这样一个集思广益、百家争鸣的新闻平台。咖啡屋时代即将回归。与它共舞吧！