Understanding the impact of new media on journalism
1、Journalism is undergoing a fundamental transformation, perhaps the most fundamental since the rise of the penny press of the mid-19th century. In the twilight of the 20th century and the dawn of the 21st, there is emerging a new form of journalism whose distinguishing qualities include ubiquitous news, global information access, instantaneous reporting , interactivity, multimedia content, and extreme content customization. In many ways this represents a potentially better form of journalism because it can reengage an increasingly distrusting and alienated audience. At the same time, it presents many threats to the most cherished values and standards of journalism. Authenticity of content, source verification, accuracy, and truth are all suspect in a medium where anyone with a computer and a modem can become a global publisher. 新闻业正在发生根本性的转变，也许最根本的自19世纪中期的便士报的兴起。在第二十个世纪的黄昏和黎明的第二十一，有新的新的新闻形式的特性包括无处不在的消息，全球信息访问，即时报告，交互性，多媒体内容，和极端的内容定制。在许多方面，这是一个潜在的更好的形式，因为它可以重新进入新闻越来越不信任和疏远观众。同时，提出了最珍视的价值观和标准的新闻多的威胁。内容的真实性，源验证，精度，和真理都怀疑在介质中用一台电脑和调制解调器，任何人都可以成为全球出版商。
2、Although the easy answer is to point to the Internet, the reasons for the transformation of journalism are neither simple nor one-dimensional. Rather, a set of economic, regulatory, and cultural forces, driven by technological change, are converging to bring about a massive shift in the nature of journalism at the millennium. 虽然最简单的答案是指互联网，新闻媒体的转型的原因既不简单也不一。相反，一系列的经济，管理，和文化的力量，通过技术变革的驱动，会导致在千年在新闻事业的性质发生了巨大变化。
3、The growth of a global economic system, made up of regional 1
economies, all interrelated (witness the volatility in the word?s financial markets in August 1998, when drops in Asian and Russian markets triggered drops in European and U.S. markets) and increasingly controlled by multinational corporate behemoths, has rewritten the financial basis for journalism and the media in general. Deregulation, as outlined in the U.S. Telecommunications Act of 1996 and played out in like fashion in many other parts of the world (where privatization of telecommunications has been a driving force), has spawned increasingly powerful competitive forces in journalism and communications. The end of the Cold War has unleashed a variety of pent-up cultural and political forces that have yet to stabilize. Together, these forces have created an environment of uncertainty for journalism as it enters this new age in which the alignment of superpowers has been fundamentally altered, shareholders are the most important stakeholders, and competition is more likely to come from a software company based in Redmond, Washington, than from the cross-town newspaper or broadcaster. 一个全球经济系统的增长，由区域经济，各相关（见证1998八月，当滴在亚洲和俄罗斯市场引发了欧洲及美国市场滴在世界金融市场的波动）和跨国企业巨头越来越控制，改写了新闻媒体和一般金融依据。违反规定的，按照1996美国电信法中发挥出像在世界各地的许多其他方式（如电信私有化一直是动力），催生了新闻传播日益强大的竞争力量。冷战的结束释放各种压抑的文化和政治力量已经稳定。在一起，这些力量创造了一个不确定性的新闻环境作为进入这所超级大国对准已经从根本上改变新时代，股东是最重要的利益相关者，竞争是更可能来自一个位于华盛顿，软件公司，不是从报纸或电视台跨镇。
4、Fueling this changing environment has been the emergence of the first and perhaps most powerful medium of global interactive communications. As James Carey writes, ”The Internet should be 2
understood as the first instance of a global communication system. That system, in turn, is displacing a national system of communications which came into existence at the end of the 19th century as a result of the railroad and telegraph, and was ?perfected? in subsequent innovations through television in the network era.” 推动这个变化的环境一直是第一个也是全球互动沟通的最有力的媒介的出现。杰姆斯卡蕾写道，“互联网应该被理解为一个全球通讯系统的第一个实例。反过来，系统，移动通信，是国家产生在第十九世纪末，由于铁路和电报系统，并完善后续创新通过电视在网络时代。”
5、But in many ways the Internet is merely a product,or symptom, of a more fundamental technological change that has been under way for the past half-century and only now is beginning to crystallize: the convergence of telecommunications, computing, and traditional media. Together, this new media system embraces all forms of human communication in a digital format where the rules and constraints of the analog world no longer apply. Some would question whether this convergence is actually occurring. They would point to the fact that most people around the world in 2000 still do not have a computer in the home and that in most homes that do have a computer, the TV set and the computer are still separate devices. They would note that even in the United States in 2000 most TV sets do not connect to a telephone line or any other medium of “upstream” communication capability (i.e., the ability for the audience member to send informations as well as receive it). 但在许多方面，互联网只是一个产品，或症状，一个更根本的技术变革，已经进行了半个世纪，现在才开始结晶：电信，计算的收敛性，与传统媒体。在一起，这种新的媒体系统包括所有形式的人类通信在数字格式的规则和模拟世界中不再适用的限制。有些人会质疑这是否是真的存在的收敛性。他们会指出，世界上大多数人在2000仍然不在家，大多数家庭有电脑有电脑，电视机和电脑仍然是独立的设备。他们注意到，即使在美国2000 3
大电视不连接电话线或任何其他媒体的“上游”的通信能力（即，为观众发送信息以及接收它的能力）。
6、The trend toward convergence is undeniable,however, if not yet complete. By 2000 more than eight million U.S. households as well as millions more in Japan and many other parts of the world had subscribed to digital broadcasting services such as DirecTV, which links TV sets to a system of digital video(i.e. computerized) and a telephone line for ordering pay-per-view programs and the like. Moreover, more than 20 million individuals subscribe to America Online (AOL) and more than seven times that number are connected to the Internet through home, work, or school, reflecting a growing connectivity between computer and telecommunications. 走向融合的趋势是不可否认的，然而，如果没有完成。2000超过八百万的美国家庭以及数百万在日本和世界其他许多地方已订阅数字广播服务如DirecTV，连接电视机的数字视频系统（如计算机）和订购付费节目和像电话线。此外，超过20000000人订阅美国在线（美国在线）和超过七倍的数量是通过连接到互联网的家庭，工作，或学校，反映了越来越多的连接计算机与电信之间。
7、Not only is the technology coming together, but convergence is also occurring in the realm of media ownership. Hundreds of billions of dollars worth of mergers and acquisitions occurred in the Internet and digital networks domain during the final three years of the 20th century. AT&T purchased TCI, which is the parent of @Home, a primary broadband service provider (i.e. cable modem). America Online purchased Netscape, a leading Internet Web browser, and is merging with Time Warner. And the list is growing every day.
不仅是技术结合到一起，但收敛也在媒体所有权的领域发生。价值数十亿美元的并购上发生在互联网和数字网络领域在第二十世纪的最后三年。AT&T收购TCI，是家里的父母，一个主要的宽带服务提供商（如电缆调制解调器）。美国在线购买网景，领先的互联网浏览器，并与时代华纳合并。这个清单是每天都在增长。 4
8、If there is no denying that convergence is occurring, other assumptions about convergence are worth addressing. Paramount is the frequently held, technoutopian assumption that convergence is a good thing and inevitable. However, some sociologists propose that although convergence is happening, it is neither inevitable nor necessarily good. They assert that convergence merely holds the promise of a better, more efficient, more democratic medium for journalism and the public in the 21st century. But serious problems also plague civilization in the digital age, among them, enormous threats to privacy, increasing concentration of ownership, a shrinking diversity of voices, an ever-escalating race to report the news more rapidly, and inequitable access to information technology and digital journalism. 如果这是不可否认的收敛收敛的发生，其他的假设是值得讨论的。最重要的是经常举行的，技术乌托邦的假设，收敛是一个好东西，必然。然而，一些社会学家认为，虽然收敛的发生，它既不是必然的也不一定好。他们断言，收敛只是拥有更好的，更有效的保证，新闻在第二十一世纪，公众更民主的基。但严重的问题也困扰着文明，在数字时代，其中，隐私权的巨大威胁，股权集中度增加，声音萎缩的多样性，不断升级的种族报告新闻更迅速，且不公平的信息获取技术和数字新闻。
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