这几天忙着采访美国报业编辑协会(ASNE)访华代表团的几位成员。周六晚9点，我干脆跑到他们的驻地——金融街洲际酒店蹲点。第二天一早，他们就要离开北京去上海了。
原ASNE主席、波因特传媒学院研究员格里高利·法弗里（Gregory Favre）是我希望采访的对象之一。两次打电话到法弗里的房间，他都没在，接电话的都是他太太。晚10点，我打算最后给他拨一次电话（事先征求过他太太的意见，晚10点前还可以打电话）。电话那端终于响起了法弗里先生的声音。他已经上床，问了我一些情况后，让我发电邮给他，他会在我的截稿日期之前回复。
法弗里先生信守了诺言。
这里摘录他对报纸未来的一些见解：
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每天早上，我打开家门，门口就躺着4份报纸。如果可能的话，我期望这样的场景会尽量久地持续下去。这些报纸的尺寸可能会发生变化，从宽报到窄报，到小报，甚至变成杂志大小；这些报纸将来可能会免费，我只需要为投递员的劳动付钱；这些报纸的内容可能满是从网上扒下来的插科打诨的文章，只有很小一部分是真正重要的报道……
未来的报纸会怎样？我不知道。我只知道，高素质的新闻，不管以多少种不同的媒介为载体，都会像以往一样，发出让人信任的声音。媒体服务公众的承诺、从读者那里获得的令我们荣光的信任，这些必将薪火相传。否则，我们将被我们自己唾弃。
如果你没有看过影片《晚安，好运》，一定得去看看，然后仔细聆听爱德华·莫洛(影片主人公、原CBS著名新闻主播)演讲中的一段话，那是影片最精华的部分。
莫洛针对的是电视这种媒体，但我们也可以用他这段话来看待电脑：
“电视是一种可以教育、启迪甚至激励公众的工具，但前提是人们抱有达成这些目标的坚定信念。否则，它不过是罩在盒子里的电线和光管而已。”
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附原文：
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I have written and spoken extensively on this subject (see Poynter.org). I am an admitted optimist as far as newspapers are concerned, but I also recognize the rapid technological changes taking place in the information world. But newspapers have the brand in their communities and they have the staffs and the institutional knowledge to provide more news and information than any competitor.
I don't know, and I don't think anyone really does know, how many different ways news and information will be delivered to consumers as we go forward. I get four newspapers at my doorsteps every morning. I believe that will continue for as many years as I am granted. They may change in size from a 50-inch web to 48 inches or to a tabloid or Berliner size, perhaps even the format of a magazine. They may be free and I might just pay for the delivery service. They may be filled with a handful of key stories and lots of teasers to longer pieces on the web. They may be customized to fill my desires for more news and analysis and more sports.
I don't know, but I do know that quality journalism, regardless of the multiplication of the delivery platforms, will stand as the voice of credibility as never before. And the commitment to public service, to honoring the sacred trust we have with our readers, must be preserved and passed on or we will become something most of us will despise.
If you haven't seen the movie Good Night and Good Luck, go see it. And listen carefully to what Edward R. Murrow has to say in the speech that is the centerpiece of the movie. I had heard it before and I listened carefully again. And then I printed it out so I could read it again.
He was speaking about his medium, television. But substitute, if you would, computers for television in these sentences from his speech:
"This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box."
We have been granted a great gift, the gift to be a journalist. I hope you and all of your colleagues use that gift well and with all of the values it deserves and that you always care about it deeply. |
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