VOA慢速英语 THIS IS AMERICA - How the Web Could Save Newspapers,

VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program, we talk about the newspaper industry in the United States and its history.

(SOUND)

VOICE ONE:

The new movie "State of Play" is a political murder mystery. Ben Affleck plays a congressman¹ whose assistant -- and lover -- is killed. Russell Crowe investigates her murder. Does he play a Washington police officer, a federal agent, a private investigator²?

No, a newspaper reporter -- a reminder³, in this age of new media and social media, not to forget the importance of the old media.

VOICE TWO:
　
Newsroom of the Philadelphia Inquirer, which continues to publish though its owner sought bankruptcy⁴ protection in February

American newspapers are reporting what some fear is the slow death of their own industry.

Newspapers in the United States earn most of their money from selling space for advertising⁵. The rates they charge are tied to the number of readers. But the number of people who buy newspapers has been falling for years. And this traditional business model has not worked very well on the Internet, especially not in a bad economy.

VOICE ONE:

Industry profits are shrinking, and many newspaper companies have large debts from buying other papers. Some papers have recently closed or declared bankruptcy or reduced their operations.

Newspapers are looking for new ways to reinvent themselves, new ways to earn money. That includes giving new consideration to an old idea -- charging for at least some of the material that most papers now publish online for free.

Internet access to newspapers means that more people may read the news, which is good for society. But good reporting costs money. The question is how much are people willing to pay for news that they have gotten used to receiving for free?

Another suggestion is for newspapers to become nonprofit organizations. That way they could seek tax-free donations. But the industry has never worked that way.

VOICE TWO:

The first newspaper published in Britain's North American colonies appeared in Boston, Massachusetts, in sixteen ninety. It was called Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick. It began with this news:

READER: "The Christianized Indians in some parts of Plimouth, have newly appointed a day of Thanksgiving to God for his Mercy in supplying their extreme and pinching Necessities under their late want of Corn, & for His giving them now a prospect⁶ of a very Comfortable Harvest. Their Example may be worth Mentioning."

VOICE ONE:

Publick Occurrences appeared only once. The National Humanities Center in North Carolina explains on its Web site that the newspaper was banned for three reasons.

One was the failure of its editor, Benjamin Harris, to get permission to publish. Another reason was his criticism of the abuse of several French prisoners captured by Indian allies of the English. And the third reason was the publishing of rumors⁷ about the moral behavior of the French royal family.

VOICE TWO:

Newspapers that came later reprinted information from papers in Europe so as not to offend colonial officials. Politics and public policy issues were avoided until the New England Courant was published in Boston in seventeen twenty-one. It accused the colonial government, for example, of not doing enough to protect ships from pirates.

The editor, James Franklin, was arrested and barred from publishing the paper. So he appointed a new publisher -- his younger brother Benjamin. And that was how one of America's founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, came into public life.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Freedom of the press is guaranteed by the First Amendment⁸ to the Constitution. Historians say a trial in the colony of New York in seventeen thirty-five went a long way toward establishing this freedom.
　
Trial of John Peter Zenger

The trial involved, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal. The newspaper had criticized the colonial governor. Zenger was arrested and charged with seditious libel. English law defined seditious libel as criticizing the government in such a way as to reduce public confidence. It made no difference whether the criticism was true or not.

Zenger admitted criticizing the governor. But his defense⁹ lawyer asked the jury to decide if citizens have the right to criticize public officials. The jury found Zenger not guilty. Historians say the trial formed the beginning of the legal idea that a statement is not libelous¹⁰ if it can be proven true.

VOICE TWO:

Some newspapers in colonial America supported British rule. But historians say the criticisms of other newspapers helped lead to the American Revolution. After the war, newspapers supported different political parties and felt free to express opposition¹¹ to the government.

Yet the government of the new nation did not always accept freedom of the press. The Sedition¹² Act of Seventeen Ninety-eight made it a crime to criticize the government with the aim to damage it in the eyes of the public.

Three years later Thomas Jefferson became president. He permitted the act to end. Jefferson spoke¹³ about the importance of a free press. He said "were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

VOICE ONE:

Newspapers in the early eighteen hundreds cost about six cents -- too much for many immigrants and working people. Then in the eighteen thirties came the "penny press." These newspapers cost just one cent, a penny. Also, they published a lot of crime and court stories to get more attention than other papers.

The penny press cost so little because businesses paid to advertise in the newspapers. The idea spread.

The Newspaper Association of America says advertising sales today provide about eighty percent of the money for newspapers. Advertising sales dropped sixteen percent last year, and the group expects another ten percent drop this year.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In eighteen forty-six a group of New York newspapers agreed to share news. That alliance became known as The Associated Press. By that time, the use of the telegraph meant that newspapers could report on recent events.

Publishers often used their papers for political causes. Anti-slavery activist¹⁴ William Lloyd Garrison¹⁵ started a paper in eighteen thirty-one with the purpose of ending slavery. Historians say the first paper published by blacks in the United States was Freedom's Journal. It appeared in eighteen twenty-seven. And immigrant groups created newspapers in their native languages.

VOICE ONE:
　
Joseph Pulitzer

The hunger for news of the Civil War in the eighteen sixties increased the need for reporters. After the war, the purpose of newspapers slowly changed. They began to consider that their job was mainly to provide information. Still, they helped to influence events.

Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World in eighteen eighty-three and used it to improve the lives of workers and the poor. He helped start the practice known as investigative journalism¹⁶. For example, the reporter Nellie Bly was working for him when she investigated the cruel treatment of patients at a mental hospital.

In eighteen eighty-nine, Pulitzer sent Nellie Bly on a trip around the world. He wanted to see if she could do it in under eighty days. She did it in seventy-two days.

VOICE TWO:

Joseph Pulitzer competed with another powerful newspaper publisher -- William Randolph Hearst. Hearst published the New York Journal. At times, both of them seemed more interested in selling newspapers than in respectable reporting.

VOICE ONE:

No history of journalism is complete without discussing the work of two young reporters from the Washington Post. They wrote a series of stories after a break-in at Democratic Party offices in the Watergate Office Building in nineteen seventy-two. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein discovered wrongdoing that led President Richard Nixon to resign.

Robert Redford played Bob Woodward and Dustin Hoffman was Carl Bernstein in the movie based on their book "All the President's Men." In this scene, their editors are trying to decide if the paper has enough to support a story that the reporters want to print.
　
Dustin Hoffman, left, and Robert Redford

EDITOR: "We're about to accuse Haldeman -- who only happens to be the second most important man in this country -- of conducting a criminal conspiracy¹⁷ from inside the White House. It would be nice if we were right."
OTHER EDITOR: "You double-checked your sources?"
EDITOR: "Bernstein, are you sure on this story?"
BERNSTEIN: "Absolutely."
EDITOR: "Woodward?"
WOODWARD: "I'm sure."
EDITOR: "I'm not. It still seems thin."
OTHER EDITOR: "Get another source."

VOICE TWO:

The look of American newspapers changed after USA Today arrived in nineteen eighty-two. Most of the stories were short. There was heavy use of color and images and things like opinion polls. People who compared it to television did not necessarily mean that as praise. But the new design succeeded and influenced many other papers.

Now newspapers are looking to redesign themselves for an increasingly online world. Millions more people read papers like USA Today and the New York Times for free on the Web than pay for a printed version. Publishers who chose that business plan might regret it now, but they might not have had much choice.

VOICE ONE:

Survival means changing as conditions change. Like any other business, newspapers have to balance their needs with the needs of their customers -- the readers they need to keep.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver¹⁸. I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

1 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

2 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

3 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

4 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

5 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

6 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

7 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

9 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

10 libelous   

adj.败坏名誉的，诽谤性的

参考例句：

• No evidence has been found in the case so far and therefore it is probably a libelous suit.查无实据，恐怕是诬告。
• The book was libelous,so the publishers had to call in all copies of it from the bookshops.这是一本诽谤性的书，所以出版商必须把店里的书全收回去。

11 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

12 sedition   

n.煽动叛乱

参考例句：

• Government officials charged him with sedition.政府官员指控他煽动人们造反。
• His denial of sedition was a denial of violence.他对煽动叛乱的否定又是对暴力的否定。

13 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

14 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

15 garrison   

n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防

参考例句：

• The troops came to the relief of the besieged garrison.军队来援救被围的守备军。
• The German was moving to stiffen up the garrison in Sicily.德军正在加强西西里守军之力量。

16 journalism   

n.新闻工作，报业

参考例句：

• He's a teacher but he does some journalism on the side.他是教师，可还兼职做一些新闻工作。
• He had an aptitude for journalism.他有从事新闻工作的才能。

17 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

18 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。