PBS高端访谈:竞选班子跟踪选民在线浏览记录

 　　JEFFREY BROWN: And now part of our regular look at the campaign as it plays out in social media and on the Web.

　　Margaret Warner has that.

　　MARGARET WARNER: And we're joined again by Howard Kurtz from the website Daily Download. He's also "Newsweek"'s Washington bureau chief and host of CNN's "Reliable Sources." Daily Download's editor in chief, Lauren Ashburn, could not be with us tonight.

　　And, Howie, welcome back.

　　HOWARD KURTZ, "Newsweek"/CNN: Thank you.

　　MARGARET WARNER: So, in this final week or 10 days of the campaign, we have seen this frantic¹ get-out-the-vote drive, people knocking on doors, making phone calls. What kind of last-minute messages are voters getting on their computers and their mobile devices?

　　HOWARD KURTZ: Campaigns pulling out the stops online.

　　On Twitter, for example, Lauren Ashburn got a direct message signed Barack Obama saying, use your Twitter influence to help us turn out the vote, so, using that media network to try to get people engaged.

　　The e-mails are coming fast and furious to potential supporters. I seem to get an e-mail from Barack Obama, Michelle. Joe Biden has been texting me lately. There's no escape.

　　But another interesting thing, Margaret, is I got an unsolicited anti-Obama text message from an anonymous³ source. And lots of other people in the Washington area got them on their mobile phones.

　　Mine said—there are a couple versions of this—seniors can't afford to have four more years of Obama budget cuts to Medicare. That's arguable. They're not really cuts.

　　But point is you don't know where it's coming from. A Virginia company is behind this. Some of its conservative clients are distancing themselves from having anything to do with these anonymous text messages.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Are the campaigns themselves using these methods to get out negative messages at this stage, or are they all positive?

　　HOWARD KURTZ: They are not all positive, by any means.

　　I mean, the campaigns have websites in which the...

　　MARGARET WARNER: No. Of course, yes.

　　HOWARD KURTZ: ...President Obama's people attack Mitt⁴ Romney and vice² versa.

　　So it's a mix of trying to identify your supporters and get them to register, get them to tell their friends, get them to tell the people on Facebook, and also driving negative messages, sometimes snarky Twitter-type messages against the other guy, and using a technique called data-mining.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Well, tell us about that, because we had a couple interesting pieces this week that Hari did—and we did in conjunction with "Frontline" --about what sorts of information the campaigns collect on potential voters.

　　How extensively are the campaigns—is there any way to quantify how extensively they're using it?

　　HOWARD KURTZ: There is a company that has quantified it, according to a piece in The New York Times, and we can put the graphic⁵ up. It shows the number of tracking programs or surveillance programs that each campaign is using.

　　And here you see President Obama's campaign, 76 different tracking programs to follow what potential voters and supporters are doing online, compared to Best Buy 74—so more than a major retailer⁶. Mitt Romney's campaign also playing at 40 different tracking programs.

　　And these are software programs, Margaret, that look at your browsing⁷ history. They can find out what kind of things you buy, whether you have any financial problems, your dating history. Just about anything you do online is now fair game.

　　We have become accustomed, I think, to seeing retailing⁸ giants do this.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Absolutely.

　　HOWARD KURTZ: But, in political campaigns, this is something new.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Now, does a voter know if they're being tracked?

　　HOWARD KURTZ: The average voter doesn't know. But if you are suspicious or curious, you can go to a free program called Ghostery and you can find out which...

　　MARGARET WARNER: Ghostery?

　　HOWARD KURTZ: Ghostery. Find out which—kind of like Ghostbusters.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Oh.

　　HOWARD KURTZ: Find out which company might be tracking you. But it's hard to avoid these days.

　　And I find it a little unsettling. Like, I understand I get served ads for a shirt company because I bought some shirts recently. But just because I went to Mitt Romney's website to check his position on something, I have now been getting Mitt Romney ads.

　　And in this New York Times story, somebody who's a fervent⁹ Barack Obama supporter, but went to Mitt Romney's site to look at something, is also getting these ads. So it's not always perfect in its targeting.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Do the campaigns have any way of knowing how effective all of this—you have been here now for months, you and Lauren, telling us about how they're using the social media.

　　Do you have any way of knowing how effective it's been?

　　HOWARD KURTZ: They can't know for sure, but there are several rough indications that this is working, which is why the campaigns are pouring so many resources into it.

　　For example, as we know, both campaigns have raised a lot of money online and through text messaging. It becomes easy to donate. You pick up your phone.

　　MARGARET WARNER: And that's easy to see.

　　HOWARD KURTZ: Sure. Registration¹⁰, the Obama campaign in particular has made a major effort to register voters and try to match the turnout if it can of 2008.

　　And I think we were on here once talking about how 25,000 new voters had registered based on some piece of information or website that the campaign had put up.

　　And there are studies showing, Margaret, that people are more likely to be influenced by their friends and their Twitter fans and their Facebook followers¹¹ because these are people they know, they trust, more so than some impersonal¹² e-mail, mass e-mail sent out by a campaign.

　　So there are lots of signs it's working. What we don't know is how that will translate into actual voting behavior next Tuesday.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Yes, we have to hope that whoever is designing the exit poll questions, there's a question. You know, when they say, did you make your decision at the last minute or a week ago, if there's something, what most influenced you?

　　HOWARD KURTZ: That would be a gold mine.

　　MARGARET WARNER: Wouldn't it? It would, definitely.

　　Well, Howard Kurtz, thank you so much.

　　HOWARD KURTZ: Thank you.

1 frantic   

adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的

参考例句：

• I've had a frantic rush to get my work done.我急急忙忙地赶完工作。
• He made frantic dash for the departing train.他发疯似地冲向正开出的火车。

2 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

3 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

4 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。

5 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

6 retailer   

n.零售商(人)

参考例句：

• What are the retailer requirements?零售商会有哪些要求呢？
• The retailer has assembled a team in Shanghai to examine the question.这家零售商在上海组建了一支团队研究这个问题。

7 browsing   

v.吃草( browse的现在分词 )；随意翻阅；（在商店里）随便看看；（在计算机上）浏览信息

参考例句：

• He sits browsing over[through] a book. 他坐着翻阅书籍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Cattle is browsing in the field. 牛正在田里吃草。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 retailing   

n.零售业v.零售(retail的现在分词)

参考例句：

• career opportunities in retailing 零售业的职业机会
• He is fond of retailing the news. 他喜欢传播消息。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 fervent   

adj.热的，热烈的，热情的

参考例句：

• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。
• Austria was among the most fervent supporters of adolf hitler.奥地利是阿道夫希特勒最狂热的支持者之一。

10 registration   

n.登记，注册，挂号

参考例句：

• Marriage without registration is not recognized by law.法律不承认未登记的婚姻。
• What's your registration number?你挂的是几号？

11 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

12 impersonal   

adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的

参考例句：

• Even his children found him strangely distant and impersonal.他的孩子们也认为他跟其他人很疏远，没有人情味。
• His manner seemed rather stiff and impersonal.他的态度似乎很生硬冷淡。