VOA常速英语:Virtual Convention Offers New Opportunities for Political Parties to Connect

What a difference four-years a pandemic makes,
新冠疫情深刻的影响了一个新的四年，
democrats are holding the first virtual convention,
民主党举行了第一次虚拟大会，
instead of bringing tens of thousands of people to one city to nominate and celebrate a presidential candidate.
而不是把成千上万的人带到一个城市来提名和庆祝一位总统候选人。
They appear to be bringing the convention to the people,
他们似乎把大会带给了人民，
Their two-hour prime time convention show is using short videos to create an atmosphere of watching a social media feed,
他们两小时的黄金时段会议节目是用短视频来营造一种观看社交媒体新闻的氛围，
The democrats understand the ways that in communication we would say the message has to meet the media and vice versa.
民主党人理解沟通的方式，我们会说信息必须与媒体接触，反之亦然。
Vanessa Beasley is a communications professor at vanderbilt university.
Vanessa Beasley是范德比尔特大学的传播学教授。
She says eliminating the crowded arena created an aura of intimacy for viewers.
她说，消除拥挤的竞技场为观众创造了一种亲密的气氛。
I think they made some really strategic decisions about what it meant to go virtual in television as a particular medium,
我认为他们做出了一些真正具有战略意义的决定--作为一种特殊的媒介--在电视上虚拟化意味着什么，
but also thinking about the way the rest of the media would pick up particular clips,
但同时也考虑到其他媒体接收特定片段的方式，
and sound bites to circulate on social media and news channels today.
以及今天在社交媒体和新闻频道上传播的声音片段。
Viewers noticed the difference right away,
观众们立刻注意到了这种差异，
with dozens of choir members singing the national anthem from their homes across the country,
数十名合唱团成员在全国各地唱国歌，
on what appeared to be a giant zoom call.
似乎是一次巨大的变焦。
Democrats are also taking advantage of user-generated content,
民主党人还利用了用户生成的内容，
dropping in videos from ordinary people at strategic spots in the program.
在节目中的战略地点，从普通人那里下载视频。
One of the real advantages of a virtual convention is that you could bring together partisans in small groups around the country,
虚拟会议的真正好处之一是，你可以把全国各地的游击队聚集在一起，
and essentially have a nationwide meet up.
在全国范围内聚会。
Another difference from previous conventions shorter speeches,
与以前的大会相比，演讲时间更短，
even former president Bill Clinton known for his lengthy convention speeches was limited to just five minutes.
就连以冗长的大会演讲而闻名的前总统比尔·克林顿也仅限于5分钟。
You have to actually have very few words in the speech,
你必须在演讲中少说几句话，
because if it goes well you need to leave a lot of time for the audience to respond,
因为如果进展顺利的话，你需要留出很多时间让观众做出反应，
so if you think about the amount of time a speaker has,
所以如果你想想一个演讲者有多少时间，
youre going youre thinking about really short sentence constructions leaving a lot of room for pause.
你正在考虑的是非常短的句子结构，留下了很大的停顿空间。
One of the hallmarks of any convention is the roll call vote of states to officially select the partys presidential nominee.
任何一次大会的特点之一就是州的点名投票，正式选举该党的总统候选人。
but instead of a state delegation leader straining to be heard over the crowd noise,
但是，政府代表团团长并没有在人群的喧闹声中竭力让人听到，
Viewers who have been mostly home bound during the pandemic,
在大流行期间，大部分的观众都是在家观看的，
were treated to a virtual trip across the country as delegations cast their votes in visually appealing locations,
当代表团在视觉上吸引人的地方投票时，他们被送到了一个虚拟的全国旅行，
A big concern is whether the virtual convention can generate the kind of enthusiasm and zeal that a live convention can bring.
一个很大的问题是，虚拟会议能否激发出一种活生生的惯例所能带来的热情和热情。
I think the most important thing for the parties at the conventions is to get their nominee,
我认为最重要的是获得提名人，
in front of a an arena-sized crowd that is cheering and screaming and applauding,
在竞技场的人群面前欢呼，尖叫，鼓掌，
and there has always been as in the television era,
在电视时代，
theres always been pressure to do that.
一直都有压力要这么做。
According to Nielsen media research,
根据尼尔森的媒体研究，
18.6 million viewers watched the first night of the 2020 virtual convention on broadcast and cable networks,
1860万观众观看了2020年广播和有线电视网虚拟大会的第一晚，
that is down 27 percent from the 2016 conventions first night,
这比2016年大会的第一晚下降了百分之27，
but the Biden campaign says more than 10 million people watched it on various internet platforms.
但拜登竞选团队表示，有1,000多万人在各种互联网平台上观看了这一视频。
Steve Reddish VOA news Washington.
史蒂夫雷迪什美国之音华盛顿新闻。