The new movie "State of Play" is a political murder mystery. Ben Affleck plays a congressman whose assistant -- and lover -- is killed. Russell Crowe investigates her murder. Does he play a Washington police officer, a federal agent, a private investigator? 新电影“国家游乐园”《政局密云》是一起政治谋杀案。本阿弗莱克扮演一个国会议员，他的助手和情人被杀害。罗素克罗调查这起谋杀案。他扮演华盛顿警察吗？联邦调查员？还是私家侦探？
No, a newspaper reporter -- a reminder, in this age of new media and social media, not to forget the importance of the old media. 不，是一个记者-----一个提醒，在这个新媒体和全民媒体的时代，不要忘了传统媒体的重要性。
VOICE TWO:
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The empty newsroom of the Philadelphia Inquirer whose owner sought bankruptcy protection this February |
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American newspapers are reporting what some fear is the slow death of their own industry. 美国报纸正在报道对他们自己产业的逐渐消亡的担心。
Newspapers in the United States earn most of their money from selling space for advertising. The rates they charge are tied to the number of readers. But the number of people who buy newspapers has been falling for years. And this traditional business model has not worked very well on the Internet, especially not in a bad economy. 报纸业靠卖版面给广告商来赚钱。收费标准和读者数量直接相关。但是卖报纸的人数多年来一直在下降。而且这种传统的商业模式在互联网上也收效不好，尤其是在这经济低迷的时候。
VOICE ONE:
Industry profits are shrinking, and many newspaper companies have large debts from buying other papers. Some papers have recently closed or declared bankruptcy or reduced their operations. 产业效益在收缩，很多报业公司因购买其他报纸而欠下大笔债务。一些报纸最近关闭或申请破产，或减少了发行量。
Newspapers are looking for new ways to reinvent themselves, new ways to earn money. That includes giving new consideration to an old idea -- charging for at least some of the material that most papers now publish online for free. 报纸业在寻找重塑自我的新途径，也是赚钱的新途径。这包括重新考虑那些老思路-----对一些现在多数报纸在网上免费发布的资料进行收费。
Internet access to newspapers means that more people may read the news, which is good for society. But good reporting costs money. The question is how much are people willing to pay for news that they have gotten used to receiving for free? 报纸接入互联网意味着更多人可以看新闻，这对社会有利。但是新闻报道是要花钱的。问题是，对于已经习惯于免费新闻的读者来说，他们愿意为此花多少钱？
Another suggestion is for newspapers to become nonprofit organizations. That way they could seek tax-free donations. But the industry has never worked that way. 另一个对报纸的建议是，成为非盈利机构。那样的话他们可以寻求免税的捐赠。但没有过先例。
VOICE TWO:
The first newspaper published in Britain's North American colonies appeared in Boston, Massachusetts, in sixteen ninety. It was called. It began with this news: 第一份报纸是在英国的北美殖民地发行的，在1690年，马赛柱塞的波士顿。以这条新闻开始:
READER: "The Christianized Indians in some parts of Plimouth, have newly appointed a day of Thanksgiving to God for his Mercy in supplying their extreme and pinching Necessities under their late want of Corn, & for His giving them now a prospect of a very Comfortable Harvest. Their Example may be worth Mentioning."普利茅斯的一些印第安基督教徒，最近指定了一个日子作为感恩节，来感谢上帝的仁慈，这个不知怎么译了。
VOICE ONE:
Publick Occurrences appeared only once. The National Humanities Center in North Carolina explains on its Web site that the newspaper was banned for three reasons. 公开发行只出现一次。北卡莱罗纳的国家人文中心在他们的网页上解释到， 报纸之所以被取缔有三个原因。
One was the failure of its editor, Benjamin Harris, to get permission to publish. Another reason was his criticism of the abuse of several French prisoners captured by Indian allies of the English. And the third reason was the publishing of rumors about the moral behavior of the French royal family. 其一是编辑本杰明哈里斯没有得到发行许可。另一个原因是他对英国印第安盟军对一些法国战俘的虐待的批评。第三个原因是发表了一些对法国王室的道德行为的一些传言。
VOICE TWO:
Newspapers that came later reprinted information from papers in Europe so as not to offend colonial officials. Politics and public policy issues were avoided until the New England Courant was published in Boston in seventeen twenty-one. It accused the colonial government, for example, of not doing enough to protect ships from pirates. 后来的报纸重发欧洲报纸的新闻以避免冒犯殖民当局。在1621年波士顿的新英格兰报发行前，政治和政策问题都是被回避的。例如，指责殖民政府在打击海盗方面的不力。
The editor, James Franklin, was arrested and barred from publishing the paper. So he appointed a new publisher -- his younger brother Benjamin. And that was how one of America's founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, came into public life.报纸的编辑，吉姆富兰克林因发行这份报纸被捕。所以他任命了新的发行人---他的弟弟本杰明。由此美国的开国者之一，本杰明富兰克林，进入公共生活。
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VOICE ONE:
Freedom of the press is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Historians say a trial in the colony of New York in seventeen thirty-five went a long way toward establishing this freedom. 第一宪法修正案保证新闻自由。历史学家说，1735年纽约的殖民地为了争取这个自由走了很长的路。
The trial involved, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal. The newspaper had criticized the colonial governor. Zenger was arrested and charged with seditious libel. English law defined seditious libel as criticizing the government in such a way as to reduce public confidence. It made no difference whether the criticism was true or not. 这些努力包括，纽约周刊的发行人，曾格。报纸批评了殖民当局。曾格被捕并被控煽动诽谤。英国法律对煽动罪的解释是批评政府以降低公众信心。不管批评是对还是错。
Zenger admitted criticizing the governor. But his defense lawyer asked the jury to decide if citizens have the right to criticize public officials. The jury found Zenger not guilty. Historians say the trial formed the beginning of the legal idea that a statement is not libelous if it can be proven true. 曾格承认了批评政府。但他的辩护律师要求陪审团决定公众是否有权利批评官员。陪审团认定曾格无罪。历史学家说，这次尝试奠定了一个法律观念的基础，可以证明真实性的陈述不是诽谤。
VOICE TWO:
Some newspapers in colonial America supported British rule. But historians say the criticisms of other newspapers helped lead to the American Revolution. After the war, newspapers supported different political parties and felt free to express opposition to the government. 一些美国殖民地报纸支持英国统治。但一些历史学家说其他报纸的批评导致美国的革命。战后，报纸支持不同的党派，也可以自由发表对政府的反对意见。
Yet the government of the new nation did not always accept freedom of the press. The Sedition Act of Seventeen Ninety-eight made it a crime to criticize the government with the aim to damage it in the eyes of the public. 但是这个新国家的政府并不总是允许新闻自由的。1798年的煽动叛乱法使破坏政府公共形象的批评成为罪行。
Three years later Thomas Jefferson became president. He permitted the act to end. Jefferson spoke about the importance of a free press. He said "were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."三年后，托马斯杰弗森成为美国总统。他终止了这个法案。杰弗森发表了他对新闻自由的重要性的讲话，他说：如果让我选择，是要没有报纸的政府，还是要没有政府的报纸，我会毫不犹豫的选择后者。
VOICE ONE:
Newspapers in the early eighteen hundreds cost about six cents -- too much for many immigrants and working people. Then in the eighteen thirties came the "penny press." These newspapers cost just one cent, a penny. Also, they published a lot of crime and court stories to get more attention than other papers.报纸在十八世纪早期卖六美分--对很多移民和工人来说太贵了。在十八世纪三十年代便士报出现了。这些报纸只卖一美分，他们也是发表很多犯罪和法庭故事来吸引更多读者。
The penny press cost so little because businesses paid to advertise in the newspapers. The idea spread. 便士报之所以便宜是因为商业机构为做广告付钱给报纸。这种模式流行开来。
The Newspaper Association of America says advertising sales today provide about eighty percent of the money for newspapers. Advertising sales dropped sixteen percent last year, and the group expects another ten percent drop this year. 美国报业协会说广告为报纸提供百分之八十的收入。去年广告收入下降了百分之十六，预计今年还会降百分之十。
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VOICE TWO:
In eighteen forty-six a group of New York newspapers agreed to share news. That alliance became known as The Associated Press. By that time, the use of the telegraph meant that newspapers could report on recent events. 1846年纽约报业组织同意分享新闻资源。那个联盟以美联社闻名。到那时，照相术让报纸已经可以报道最新事件了。
Publishers often used their papers for political causes. Anti-slavery activist William Lloyd Garrison started a paper in eighteen thirty-one with the purpose of ending slavery. Historians say the first paper published by blacks in the United States was Freedom's Journal. It appeared in eighteen twenty-seven. And immigrant groups created newspapers in their native languages.发行者经常利用报纸搞政治。反奴隶的威廉劳埃德驻军在1831年味结束奴隶制度发行了一份报纸。历史学家说美国第一份黑人发行的报纸是自由周刊。在1827年出现。移民也用自己的语言发行报纸。
VOICE ONE:
The hunger for news of the Civil War in the eighteen sixties increased the need for reporters. After the war, the purpose of newspapers slowly changed. They began to consider that their job was mainly to provide information. Still, they helped to influence events.内战期间对新闻的强烈需求促进了对记者的需求。战后，报纸的目的性改变了。他们开始考虑他们的工作主要目的是提供信息，当然他们也影响事件。
Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World in eighteen eighty-three and used it to improve the lives of workers and the poor. He helped start the practice known as investigative journalism. For example, the reporter Nellie Bly was working for him when she investigated the cruel treatment of patients at a mental hospital. 普利策在1883年购买了纽约世界报，用以促进穷人阶级的生活。他首创了著名的协助性调查。例如，记者内尔布莱协助他调查了精神病医院的虐待事件。
In eighteen eighty-nine, Pulitzer sent Nellie Bly on a trip around the world. He wanted to see if she could do it in under eighty days. She did it in seventy-two days.1889年，普利策派内尔布莱环游世界，他想看她能否在八十天内完成，她用了72天。
VOICE TWO:
Joseph Pulitzer competed with another powerful newspaper publisher -- William Randolph Hearst. Hearst published the New York Journal. At times, both of them seemed more interested in selling newspapers than in respectable reporting. 普利策和另一个有力的发行者竞争---威廉鲁道夫赫斯特。他发行了纽约周刊。有时他们都更注重销量而不是高尚的报道。
VOICE ONE:
No history of journalism is complete without discussing the work of two young reporters from the Washington Post. They wrote a series of stories after a break-in at Democratic Party offices in the Watergate Office Building in nineteen seventy-two. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein discovered wrongdoing that led President Richard Nixon to resign.
Robert Redford played Bob Woodward and Dustin Hoffman was Carl Bernstein in the movie based on their book "All the President's Men." In this scene, their editors are trying to decide if the paper has enough to support a story that the reporters want to print.
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Dustin Hoffman, left, and Robert Redford in "All the President's Men" |
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EDITOR: "We're about to accuse Haldeman -- who only happens to be the second most important man in this country -- of conducting a criminal conspiracy from inside the White House. It would be nice if we were right."
OTHER EDITOR: "You double-checked your sources?"
EDITOR: "Bernstein, are you sure on this story?"
BERNSTEIN: "Absolutely."
EDITOR: "Woodward?"
WOODWARD: "I'm sure."
EDITOR: "I'm not. It still seems thin."
OTHER EDITOR: "Get another source."
VOICE TWO:
The look of American newspapers changed after USA Today arrived in nineteen eighty-two. Most of the stories were short. There was heavy use of color and images and things like opinion polls. People who compared it to television did not necessarily mean that as praise. But the new design succeeded and influenced many other papers.
Now newspapers are looking to redesign themselves for an increasingly online world. Millions more people read papers like USA Today and the New York Times for free on the Web than pay for a printed version. Publishers who chose that business plan might regret it now, but they might not have had much choice.
VOICE ONE:
Survival means changing as conditions change. Like any other business, newspapers have to balance their needs with the needs of their customers -- the readers they need to keep.
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VOICE TWO:
Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for
[此贴被系统于2009-5-6 14:28:48编辑过]
[此贴被系统于2009-5-6 21:15:56编辑过]
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