8.American newspapers

Why do so many Americans distrust不相信 what they read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper Editors is trying to answer this painful痛苦 question. The organization组织 is deep into a long self-analysis known as the journalism新闻业 credibility可信度 project.

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

But the sources of distrust不信任 go way deeper深人. Most journalists记者 learn to see the world through a set of standard templates(patterns)模板 into which they plug插入 each day’s events. In other words, there is a conventional约定俗成 story line in the newsroom culture文化 that provides a backbone主干 and a ready-made现成的 narrative叙事 structure for otherwise原本 confusing令人困惑的 news.

There exists a social and cultural文化 disconnect between journalists and their readers, which helps explain解释 why the“standard templates”of the newsroom seem alien陌生的 to many readers. In a recent survey调查, questionnaires问卷 were sent to reporters记者 in five middle size cities around the country, plus one large metropolitan大都市 area. Then residents居民 in these communities were phoned at random and asked the same questions.

Replies回答 show that compared with other Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale高档 neighborhoods, have maids女佣, own Mercedeses梅赛德斯, and trade交易 stocks股票, and they’re less likely to go to church教堂, do volunteer志愿者 work, or put down roots in a community.

Reporters记者 tend to be part of a broadly defined广义 social and cultural文化 elite精英, so their work tends to reflect反映 the conventional传统的 values of this elite精英. The astonishing惊人的 distrust不信任 of the news media isn’t rooted in inaccuracy错误 or poor reportorial skills but in the daily clash碰撞 of world views between reporters and their readers.

This is an explosive爆炸性 situation情况 for any industry行业, particularly特别是 a declining衰退 one. Here is a troubled陷入困境的 business that keeps hiring招聘 employees员工 whose attitudes态度 vastly极大的 annoy惹怒 the customers. Then it sponsors赞助 lots of symposiums研讨会 and a credibility信誉 project dedicated致力于 to wondering研究 why customers are annoyed and fleeing逃离 in large numbers. But it never seems to get around to noticing注意到 the cultural文化 and class阶级 biases偏见 that so many former buyers are complaining抱怨 about. If it did, it would open up its diversity多元化 program进程, now focused narrowly狭隘 on race种族 and gender性别, and look for reporters记者 who differ broadly差异大 by outlook展望,
values, education教育, and class.

为什么这么多美国人不相信他们在报纸上读到的东西？美国报纸编辑协会正试图回答这个痛苦的问题。该组织正在进行一项名为“新闻可信度项目”的长期自我分析。

遗憾地讲，这次新闻机构可信度调查计划结果只获得了一些十分肤浅的发现，比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挠头的困惑，譬如读者到底想读些什么。

但不信任的根源要深得多。大多数记者学习通过一套标准模板（模式）来看世界，他们将每天的事件插入其中。换句话说，在新闻编辑室文化中有一条约定俗成的故事线，它为原本令人困惑的新闻提供了主干和现成的叙事结构。

记者和他们的读者之间存在着社会和文化的脱节，这有助于解释为什么新闻编辑室的“标准模板”对许多读者来说似乎是陌生的。在最近的一次调查中，向全国五个中等城市和一个大都市地区的记者发出了调查问卷。然后随机给这些社区的居民打电话，问他们同样的问题。

回答显示，与其他美国人相比，记者更有可能住在高档社区，有女佣，拥有奔驰车，交易股票，他们不太可能去教堂，做志愿者工作，或在社区扎根。

记者往往是广义的社会和文化精英的一部分，因此他们的工作往往反映了这些精英的传统价值观。读者对新闻媒体令人震惊的不信任，其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。

这对任何行业，尤其是衰退的行业来说，都是一个爆炸性的局面。这是一家陷入困境的企业，它不断雇佣员工，而这些员工的态度极大地惹恼了客户。然后，它赞助了许多研讨会和一个信誉项目，致力于研究为什么客户会感到烦恼并大量逃离。但它似乎从未注意到如此多的前买家所抱怨的文化和阶级偏见。如果是这样的话，它将开放其多元化计划，现在只关注种族和性别，并寻找在观点、价值观、教育和阶级方面差异很大的记者。