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  3. Three hundred years ago news travelled by word of mouth or letter, and circu

Three hundred years ago news travelled by word of mouth or letter, and circu

游客2023-12-10  23
问题     Three hundred years ago news travelled by word of mouth or letter, and circulated in taverns and coffee houses in the form of pamphlets and newsletters. "The coffee houses particularly are very roomy for a free conversation, and for reading at an easier rate all manner of printed news," noted one observer. Everything changed in 1833 when the first mass-audience newspaper, The New York Sun , pioneered the use of advertising to reduce the cost of news, thus giving advertisers access to a wider audience. The penny press, followed by radio and television, turned news from a two-way conversation into a one-way broadcast, with a relatively small number of firms controlling the media.
    Now, the news industry is returning to something closer to the coffee house. The internet is making news more participatory, social and diverse, reviving the discursive characteristics of the era before the mass media. That will have profound effects on society and politics. In much of the world, the mass media are flourishing. Newspaper circulation rose globally by 6% between 2005 and 2009. But those global figures mask a sharp decline in readership in rich countries.
    Over the past decade, throughout the Western world, people have been giving up newspapers and TV news and keeping up with events in profoundly different ways. Most strikingly, ordinary people are increasingly involved in compiling, sharing, filtering, discussing and distributing news. Twitter lets people anywhere report what they are seeing. Classified documents are published in their thousands online. Mobile-phone footage of Arab uprisings and American tornadoes is posted on social-networking sites and shown on television newscasts. Social-networking sites help people find, discuss and share news with their friends.
    And it is not just readers who are challenging the media elite. Technology firms including Google, Facebook and Twitter have become important conduits of news. Celebrities and world leaders publish updates directly via social networks; many countries now make raw data available through "open government" initiatives. The internet lets people read newspapers or watch television channels from around the world. The web has allowed new providers of news, from individual bloggers to sites, to rise to prominence in a very short space of time. And it has made possible entirely new approaches to journalism, such as that practiced by WikiLeaks, which provides an anonymous way for whistleblowers to publish documents. The news agenda is no longer controlled by a few press barons and state outlets.
    In principle, every liberal should celebrate this. A more participatory and social news environment, with a remarkable diversity and range of news sources, is a good thing. The transformation of the news business is unstoppable, and attempts to reverse it are doomed to failure. As producers of new journalism, individuals can be scrupulous with facts and transparent with their sources. As consumers, they can be general in their tastes and demanding in their standards. And although this transformation does raise concerns, there is much to celebrate in the noisy, diverse, vociferous, argumentative and stridently alive environment of the news business in the ages of the internet. The coffee house is back. Enjoy it. [br] Which of the following statements best supports "Now, the news industry is returning to something closer to the coffee house"?
选项 A、Newspaper circulation rose globally by 6% between 2005 and 2009.
B、People in the Western world are giving up newspapers and TV news.
C、Classified documents are published in their thousands online.
D、More people are involved in finding, discussing and distributing news.
答案 D
解析 推理判断题。由题干定位至第二段首句，这是作者观点，也是第二段和第三段主题句。第二段第二句对该句作出说明“The internet is making news more participatory，social and diverse…mass media”，结合第三段第二句提到的“Most strikingly…distributing news．”，这与首段第二句描述咖啡馆新闻时提到的free conversation也最为相似，故[D]为答案。[A]是第二段第五句内容，是对其前一句“In much of the world，the mass media are flourishing”的说明，不是支持该段首句的细节，排除；第三段首句的“Over the past decade…people have been giving up newspapers and TV news…”是用来说明第二段末句的“But those global figures…rich countries．”，排除[B]；第三段第四句提到“Classified documents are published in their thousands on—line．”，这是具体阐述人们传播、讨论新闻的方式，排除[C]。
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