第二集：

前情提要：

National trend

It turned out that other giant print media institutions are grappling with the same questions. They were responding in ways that are hurting many in the journalism profession.

美國許多大的印刷媒體也面對同樣困境，大家採取的方法，不知有沒有效，倒是先傷害了新聞專業。

Six days after Mosher’s candid revelations, the business section of Washington Post ran a story about the plans of the New York Times (one million circulation) and Philadelphia Inquirer (388,000 circulation) to cut off hundreds of jobs, a significant percentage of which are newsroom employees. New York Times will shed off four percent of its workforce while Philadelphia Inquirer will retire 15 percent of it employees. The Time’s New England Media Group that includes the Boston Globe (454,000 daily circulation) has also announced 160 job cuts. The main reason cited for the job cuts is the need to reduce operating costs as an antidote to the falling circulation and ad revenue.

華郵報導紐時和費城詢問報都要裁員，比率不低，而且都是新聞室裡的成員，也就是不是印務部不是業務部不是行政，而是裁記者和編輯，是這行業的生產主力。

紐時裁4%，費詢15%要退休，波士頓地球報也裁160人，理由都是削減支出，以對抗發行和廣告收入的節節敗退。

“National daily newspaper circulation has declined every year since 1987; the same is true of the Sunday papers since 1990,” wrote Frank Ahrens, Washington Post’s staffwriter in September 21. “Newspapers once the only source of news, now compete not only with radio and network television, but also with numerous cable television networks and Internet news sources. In addition, other media—satellite radio, computer games, DVDs, Ipods and so forth—sap time required for reading daily newspaper. The death of evening newspapers across the country over the past three decades foretold the current slump.”

 打從1987日報發行量就衰退，周日報從1990衰減，原本報紙是唯一的新聞來源，現在，眾聲喧嘩。過去卅年來，美國各家晚報逐一死亡，就宣告了報紙的蕭條時代來臨。哇，台灣的晚報，近日不也正在dying....

Multitasking is in

Media experts from the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism training center that owns the St. Petersburg Time, say multi-tasking is now the name of the game. Citing a recent study by Middleton Media Studies Project by the Indiana-based Ball University, Howard Finberg, Poynter’s director for interactive learning said that 30 percent of American’s observed waking day is spent with media as a sole activity while 39 percent of the day is spent with media while being involved.

Finberg, citing the same Middletown media report, says the breakdown of media minutes spent by Americans are broken down as follows: television, 240.9 minutes; any computer use: 135.8 minutes; all internet: 93.4 minutes; radio, 80 minutes; music (including MP3 players): 65 minutes; phone (including cellular), 42.2 minutes; all print media: 32.8 minutes; all video (VCR and DVD), 32.6 minutes; newspapers, 12.2 minutes; and game console, 11.6 minutes.

(以上都是解釋，美國人在各種媒體上的時間分配，總之，就是看報時間變少，媒體種類變那麼多，很多是不須識字就能懂的，誰還那麼麻煩看報？) 

Ken Auletta, a New York-based media critic who writes incisive analytical pieces on media and communications for the New Yorker magazine said all these new forms of media are displacing the newspaper in significant numbers. In 1960, all daily newspapers in the US sent out 59 million copies each day in an effort to reach 180 Americans. In 2004, he observed that the newspapers daily circulation went down to 54 million even though the US population doubled.

Critical audience

This trend, he said, came at a time when Americans were increasingly getting cynical of the US media. He said two-thirds of Americans think media in general are “biased” thus contributing to the shrinking of the print media market. He thinks that media organizations, many of them affiliated with big business organizations are increasingly being perceived as representing powerful “special interests groups.”  Hence, many in the younger generation tend to look at the new sources of information as an alternative source of “empowerment.”

 我的偶像ken說，三分之二的美國人認為媒體都是偏頗的，不再信任媒體，這也讓報紙萎縮；愈來愈多大報被大集團收購，也被人視為是代表某利益團體，公正性受到質疑。

Auletta thinks this situation could be dangerous. “Every one seems to think their audience is shrinking so media, both print and broadcast, tries to shout louder to get attention,” said Auletta, noting that this approach could risk alienating the audience even further. According to Auletta, this situation largely explains the trend towards “silly journalism” focused on inane stories, sensationalism and gossip.

ken auletta認為，當報紙和廣電都覺得觀眾在流失時，就拚命拉開嗓子大聲叫賣，這很危險，這就導致了"愚蠢新聞學"，八卦，八卦，八卦，還有口水。對，這些真是叫人受夠了。還有人在用腦子嗎？