The following two excerpts are about ethics of today’s mass media, which, des

游客2023-11-26  26

问题    The following two excerpts are about ethics of today’s mass media, which, despite their huge influence, offer the readers more and more mindless mistakes. From the excerpts, you can find how such errors undermine media credibility, but there have been excuses and explanation of this phenomenon.
   Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 WORDS, in which you should:
   1.   summarize the different opinions about the ethics of today’s mass media, and then
   2.   express your opinion towards the ethics of today’s mass media, especially whether we should have a stricter inspection on both the ethics and professionalism of them.
   Marks will be awarded for content relevance, content sufficiency, organization and language quality. Failure to follow the above instructions may result in a loss of marks.
   Write your article on ANSWER SHEET FOUR.
   Excerpt 1
                             Errors Will Undermine Media Credibility
   Many Chinese media outlets, old and new, are in the spotlight not for some praiseworthy cause, but for some unbelievable mistakes they have made in their reports. A Xinhua News Agency report on the meeting between President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama on Nov. 30 ended up with a typo in its headline—using " Omaba" instead of Obama.
   Although it was corrected half an hour later, the damage had already been done, as a slew of news websites, including the central government’s gov. cn, reposted the original report without noticing the typo. Worse, some local newspapers carried the same mistake the next day even though they had enough time to correct it.
   Another slap in the face of Chinese media was the use by some main stream media outlets of some photographs that had been " photoshopped". The same mistake has been evident in the reports on the tricky online verification procedure to buy railway tickets.    The only website in the country allowed to sell train tickets, 12306. cn, has received many complaints against the verification code test designed to prevent auto logins or malicious software from purchasing tickets.   The test usually comprises questions with multiple answers requiring customers to match some images with descriptions, but many people have struggled to choose the correct answers because of the low resolution of the tiny pictures and ambiguous questions.
   Some frustrated Internet users edited the verification pictures to mock the system, creating fake questions, such as clicking on "all the pictures of handsome men" , and "all cartoon characters that are short" to show how absurd the questions could be. Many media reports assumed these pictures to be real.
   Excerpt 2
                           Ethics of the Mass Media
   The recent inaccuracies in media reports, even the governmental ones have a lot to do with the lack of proper checking of facts and Internet-based epidemic of mindless mistakes. Yet the use of new media is not to blame, because similar mistakes were being committed before the Internet era. But by quickening the pace of communication, the Internet has allowed more people to notice the mistakes and comment on what is wrong with the reports.
   Of course, media outlets that follow professional ethics and cross-check facts should be trusted and respected, but even the strictest fact-checking system can only reduce, not eliminate mistakes in publications.
   The flawed reports send a rather dangerous message—that some reporters and editors seem to have lost their sense of independence. In other words, they are not sure of or have forgotten the core values of the mass media, the kind of service they are obliged to offer and, more importantly, the uniqueness of their service. The trend of homogenizing topics and contents is a result of the convenient Internet-oriented communication as well as the insufficient protection of the copyright of news stories.
   In the notorious case of misspelling the name of the American President by the Xinhua News Agency, the editors failed to fulfill their duty of checking facts. The pursuit of authenticity, a crucial element of journalism, should be based on rational judgment and firsthand information, rather than blindly copying from "authoritative" sources. But in the age of "Internet Plus" and big data, news production has to be faster and more integrated than what it used to be, therefore it is really hard to be accurate and efficient at the same time. Besides, readers pay more attention to the general contents of die news rather than the detailed bits of information which is being updated almost every five or ten minutes. So it is understandable to make small errors like misspelling.

选项

答案    On the Ethics of the Mass Media
   The typo of American President’s name and the photoshopped photographs widespread online are the recent representations of the mindless Chinese mass media, added to which is the notoriously indistinguishable verification code for buying train tickets. Some contribute such errors to the inevitability of mistakes in publication by pointing out that homogenizing topics and contents is the culprit behind. In my opinion, however, the mass media, with their soaring influential power, should have a stricter inspection on both the ethics and professionalism of themselves.
   These days, reading news gives us a similar experience as riding a roller-coaster whose journey undergoes several twists and turns before the finale comes to light. Greedy to grab public attention, many mass media outlets, including some official ones, yield their professionalism of accuracy and reliable sources to rash reports, only to subject themselves to later mockery. Worse still, the mouthpieces of the governments, be they local or central, lamentably house careless lapses either in spelling or in typo, which, instead of being maddeningly difficult to detect, can be easily dwindled to the minimum through strict checks. Last but not least, to cater to the prying masses, quite a few mass media outlets condescend themselves to third-class tabloids, sticking their nose in tidbits only to gain a wider audience. Therefore, they dwarf themselves to very low ethics.
   In this new information age when the mass media, the avatar of the dictator of public attention and social tones, plays an increasingly important role, we should leave little room for eyesores in terms of both mindless errors and reckless patches of news pieces without crosschecks. Rather than acquiesce or acquit the carnival of confusion, obfuscation and fibbing, we should put this epidemic of mistakes to an end or else the image of the mass media is doomed to be blotted.

解析    本题讨论的话题是现代媒体的职业精神。选段1以新华社写错美国总统名字为例,讲述了媒体当前存在的问题,接着又提到一些主流媒体以加工的图片作为报道素材,然后又列举了火车购票网站荒唐的验证手段。通过这三个例子说明当今媒体在职业精神和伦理道德方面都存在问题。选段2为以上这些问题进行了辩解,同时深刻地剖析了这些问题背后的原因,即除了编辑没有做到双重检查之外,最重要的原因是大多数网络媒体都blindly copying from“authoritative”sources。本题写作重点在于首先要概括上述要点,其次针对是否应该对现代媒体的职业精神和伦理道德进行严格的规范进行论证。
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