经济学人138:生活在环球小报中

 　　Life in the global gutter 1

　　生活在环球小报中
　　The popular press
　　广受欢迎的报刊
　　Tabloids 3 are a phenomenon worldwide, but they come in different varieties
　　小报是世界范围内的一种现象，但是他们以不同的种类方式存在着
　　Jul 14th 2011 | from the print edition
　　AS AN example of bullying 4 journalism 5, it takes some beating. Atabloid buys a surreptitiously filmed sex-video of an actor in his 50s suffering from Parkinson's disease. It demands an exclusive. At first he collaborates 6, even writing the interview himself; later he sues for blackmail 7.
　　作为恐吓性新闻业的一个例子，它很难被超越。一家小报购买了一部秘密拍摄的性爱录像，主人公是一名患有帕金森综合征的50多岁的演员。这家小报要求独家报道。开始这名演员配合了，甚至亲自写访谈；后来，他以敲诈勒索为由，将这家小报告上了法庭。
　　This is not another story emanating 8 from the now-shuttered newsroom of the News of the World, where journalistic shenanigans have deeply embarrassed News Corporation, its owner. The tabloid 2 in question is Bild Zeitung, Germany's biggest paper. Last year a court ruled that Bild's reporter had coerced 9 theactor, Ottfried Fischer. In May a higher court overturned the verdict. Afurther appeal is pending 10.
　　这并不是从已经关闭的世界新闻报（其新闻工作者的诡计深深羞辱了它的所有者，新闻集团）的新闻编辑室里传出的另外一个故事。这家被谈及的小报是《图片报》，德国最大的报纸。去年，一家法庭判定《图片报》的记者胁迫了一名演员：奥德弗里德·费舍尔（Ottfried Fischer）。五月份更高一级法庭驳回了这一判决，更进一步的上诉正在进行中。
　　Mr Fischer's fate shows that Britainhas no monopoly on aggressive tabloids—a word initially 11 used for compressed tablets in the late 19th century, but which then came to mean"compact" journalism. They are ubiquitous in developed countries and many developing ones, particularly in Brazil, where they have grown rapidly in recent years. Britain,with half-a-dozen national tabloids, probably has the most. France boasts no tabloid newspapers, though it has magazines (Closer and Gala)and the satirical weekly Canard 12 Encha?né that doa similar job (as far as that country's strict privacy laws allow). In America papers are mostly broadsheets, but tabloid-style television was invented there. Italy, Spainand Japanhave tabloids focusing on sport with huge readerships: each copy goes through many hands.
　　费舍尔的命运表明英国在侵犯性小报上没有形成垄断。Tabloid，这个单词在19世纪末起初用来表示压缩药片，但是后来又涉及到了“紧凑的”报纸的意思。小报在发达国家和许多发展中国家是普遍存在的，尤其是在巴西，小报在近年发展迅猛。英国拥有6家国家范围内的小报，或许是最多的。法国自诩没有小报类的报纸，然而其杂志（《Closer》和《Gala》）和讽刺周刊《鸭鸣报》（Canard Encha?né）却做着相似的工作（在法国严格的隐私法的允许范围内）。在美国，大部分的报纸都是大报，但是“小报风格”的电视节目却是源于美国。意大利、西班牙和日本都有以体育为重点的小报，这些报纸具有庞大的读者群体——每份报纸都会经手多人。
　　With circulation comes clout 13. British politicians may be afraid of the tabloids, butthe papers themselves see their role more as providing entertainment. The German tabloid is more political than its British counterpart, with three times more political coverage 14, says Susanne H?ke, who has written a book comparing the Sun with Bild. In both countries tabloids help set the toneof political debate, but Bild's stunts 15 are more imaginative and upmarket. Early in the euro crisis, Bild sent a reporter to hand out drachmas in Athens,allowing the paper to boast that it was giving "the bankrupt Greeks their drachmas back". It also mischievously 16 suggested that the Greeks sell some islands and the Acropolis to pay their debt.
　　伴随发行量而来的便是报纸的影响力。英国政客们可能会害怕小报，但是这些报纸把更多的把自己定位为提供娱乐的报纸。“德国小报与其英国同行相比显得更加的政治化，拥有超过其三倍的政治报道量，”曾写过一本书来对比《太阳报》和《图片报》的苏珊娜·胡克（Susanne H?ke）说道。在两国，小报帮助政治讨论奠定基调，但是《图片报》的技巧更加的富于想象力和高级。在早先的欧元区危机中，《图片报》派出一名记者去雅典散发德拉克马（希腊货币），然后这家报纸就吹嘘它正向“破产的希腊归还他们的钱”。它也戏谑地暗示：希腊卖出一些小岛和雅典卫城来还债。
　　The political coverage helps hacks 17 at the German paper take themselves seriously. Many see their paper as a pillar of democracy in the "midst of society", according to Kai Diekmann, its editor. It also makes them more hypocritical. "They know what they are doing, but don't admit it,"says Ms H?ke. Regulation also plays a role. Germany'spress watchdog is less toothless than Britain's PressComplaints Commission. Better legal protection for journalists makes themless reliant on tough investigative methods. British tabloids spend a lot more on reporting and research than Bild, which relies more on freelancers 18 and agencies, notes Ms H?ke.
　　政治新闻报道使得这家德国报纸的从业者更加重视他们自己。《图片报》主编卡伊·迪克曼（Kai Diekmann）指出，许多人将他们的报纸视为民主的一个支柱。同时，政治新闻报道也使得从业者更加的伪善。“他们了解他们在做什么，但是却从不承认”，胡克说道。规章管理也发挥着作用。德国的新闻监管机构比英国的新闻投诉委员会（PPC）更有权势。更好的法律保护可以使新闻工作者们更少的依赖艰苦的调查方式。胡克指出，英国小报要比《图片报》花费更多的时间和精力在汇报和调查中，《图片报》则更多的依靠自由撰稿者和公众服务机构。
　　Scoops 19 are one thing, skulduggery another. In the dark arts of journalism—hacking into voicemail, bribing 20 the police for tips, or obtaining private financial and health information—British tabloids have stooped lower than anyone. Despite its treatment of Mr Fischer, Bild's behaviour is "clearly lessdestructive", says Lukas Heinser, who writes for BILDblog, which chronicles the paper's failings.
　　独家报道是一回事，作假欺诈又是另外一回事。在新闻业黑暗手腕使用中——侵入他人语音信箱、收买警方消息或者获得私人财务和健康信息——英国小报比其他任何同行都娴熟。尽管如此对待费舍尔，《图片报》的行为“显然破坏力较低”，卢卡斯·海因斯说道，他为图片报博客撰文，这个博客记录了这家报纸的失败。
　　Farther east, the dirtiest tactics in the ex-communist world involve"Kompromat"—embarrassing information from government files,particularly involving corruption 21 or ties with the former communist secret police.But this is leaked, not bought or stolen. Politicians' private lives arelargely taboo 22, even in countries with lively tabloids such as Poland.
　　再往东去，在前共产主义世界，最肮脏的手腕还包括“Kompromat——来自政府文件的令人尴尬的消息，特别是包括腐败或者与前共产主义秘密警察的关系。但这些消息是出去泄露的，不是购买或者偷的。政治家的私人生活在很大程度上是禁忌，即使是在拥有活跃小报的国家，比如波兰。
　　Historyand political culture explain some differences. In post-war France manyeditors had ties to former resistance networks. Papers are still seen as a means to further political aims, not to make money, says Jean-Clément Texier, an investment banker specialising in media. The French press has always catered 23 to elites 24, notes Olivier Fleurot, former chief executive of the Financial Times Group: Le Figaro is for the wealthy, Libération for the cultured left, Le Monde for intellectuals. "They have not properly understood what a mass audience wants to see in a newspaper."
　　历史和政治文化解释了一些区别。在二战后的法国，许多编辑与前抵抗组织都有联系。报纸仍然被看做是实现更深远的政治目标一种手段，而不是为了赚钱，珍克莱门特·特希尔（Jean-Clément Texier），一名专注于媒体的投资银行家说道。前金融时报集团首席执行官奥利维尔·弗雷洛特指出，法国报业一直是为精英服务：《费加罗报》为富人，《解放报》为左翼，《世界报》为知识分子。“他们还没有正确地理解大众读者想要在报纸中看到什么。”
　　Tabloids have an edge when the rest of the media is conformist. Japan's media landscape is dominated by conglomerates 25, which see themselves as peers of industry and government rather than insurgents 26. Coverage is dominated by"Press Clubs", groups of reporters from big papers, who often have offices in the ministries 27 they cover. That gives tabloids a special role in investigative reporting, even if they include much hearsay 28 and error. They usually air dirty laundry before the tamer mainstream 29 press dares touch it. In2007 the tabloids broke the allegations of match-fixingin sumo wrestling, the national sport.
　　当其他媒体都墨守成规时，小报就有了优势。综合性大企业掌控者日本的媒体格局，这些企业把媒体看做是工业和政府的伙伴，而不是叛乱者的。由来自大报纸的一些记者组成的“新闻俱乐部”掌控者新闻报道，他们在所报道范围的各个部门都有办公室。这为小报们在调查性报道中提供了一个特殊的角色，即使这些报道包括大量的传言和错误。他们通常在温顺的主流媒体敢接触丑闻之前，将这些丑闻公之于众。2007年，小报披露了日本国家运动——相扑的操纵比赛丑闻。
　　But themost important reason for the variation in tabloid cultures is economic. If theSun and its rivals are more aggressive than Bild, it is because competition in Britain is more intense than it is in Germany,or anywhere else. Whereas British tabloids are sold on newsstands, which makes sensationalist headlines even more important, Bild is a quasi-monopoly.
　　但是，造成小报文化多元化最重要的原因是经济因素。如果《太阳报》和他的竞争对手们表现得比《图片报》更加富有侵略性，那就是因为英国的竞争比德国，或者其他任何地方，都要激烈。《图片报》的销售处于半垄断状态中，然而英国小报是在报摊上出售的，这就使得轰动效应的大标题更加重要。
　　In America most papers are subscription-based regional monopolies, which leads them to be more balanced in their coverage,says Richard Edmonds of the Poynter Institute, a media think-tank that owns amajority stake in the (Florida)St Petersburg Times. And the few remaining strands 30 of tabloid journalism are being cut, as slimmed-down newspapers focus onlocal fare. What is more, good American tabloid journalists seem in scarce supply, probably a result of sharply varyingethics (think puritanical 31 American professionalism versus 32 anything-goes Britishruthlessness). The New York Post and the National Enquirermore than once felt the need to import British hacks.
　　理查德·埃德蒙德说道，在美国，大部分的报纸都是以订阅为基础的地域性垄断的，这使得这些报纸在新闻报道更加的均衡。他来自一家名叫Poynter Institute的媒体智囊团，这家智囊团拥有《圣彼德斯堡时报》（佛罗里达州）的大部分股权。因为“瘦身”后的报纸聚焦本地经营，仅存的少数几个小报正在被裁撤。更重要的是，优秀的美国小报新闻从业者从供给上来看变得稀少，这可能是伦理道德急剧变化的结果（想象一下将清教徒式的美国专业化与随心所欲的英国式冷酷无情对比）。《华盛顿邮报》和《国家询问者》不只一次的体会到了引入英国小报从业者的需要。
　　For all their differences, tabloids in most rich countries have one common feature:shrinking circulation. Although the News of the World was Britain's second biggest paper, with a circulation of 2.6m, this was a far cry from the more than 9m it sometimes sold in the 1950s. Bild has lost more than 1.5m buyers since 2001.
　　尽管他们存在这么多的不同，大多数富有国家的小报中存在着一个共同的特点：萎缩的发行量。尽管《世界新闻报》是英国第二大报纸，发行量达260万份，这与19世纪50年代900万份的发行量相差甚远。2001年至今，《图片报》已经失去了超过150W读者。
　　Yet it would be premature 33 to see the closure of the News of the World as the beginning of the end of tabloid journalism. Although tabloid news is in declinein print, it is staging a revival 34 online, where sensationalist headlines attract most clicks. With 40m unique visitors, according to comScore, the website of the Daily Mail, another British tabloid, is the world's second biggest newspaper website after the New York Times. And Bild has found success online. These two join a lively set of tabloid blogs,including the Drudge 35 Report and even the Huffington Post (which launched its British edition on July 6th). After all, as Oscar Wilde reported:"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
　　然而，将《世界新闻报》的停刊堪称是小报业走向深渊的开端还为时尚早。尽管小报的印刷量正在下降，网络上它却表现出复活的状态，爆炸性的标题会吸引最多的点击量。据康姆斯科（Comscore，美国网络趋势调查公司）称，拥有4000万独立访问者的另一家英国小报《每日邮刊》网站，是仅次于《纽约时报》网站的全球第二大报纸网站。《图片报》也在互联网上行得到了成功。这两家加入到了一系列活跃的小报博客之中，包括《德拉吉报道》，甚至《哈芬顿邮报》（7月6号发生了其英国版）。毕竟，正像奥斯卡·王尔德所写：“我们都处境艰难，但是我们当中的一些人仍很乐观。”