Choose the one that fits best according to the information
given in the passage you have just read.
Why do so many Americans distrust what they
read in their newspapers? The American Society of Newspaper Editors is trying
to answer this painful question. The organization is deep into a long
self-analysis known as the journalism credibility project.
Sad to say, this project has turned out to
be mostly low-level findings about factual errors and spelling and grammar
mistakes, combined with lots of head-scratching puzzlement about what in the
world those readers really want.
But the sources of distrust go way deeper.
Most journalists learn to see the world through a set of standard patterns into
which they report each day's events. In other words, there is a traditional
story line in the newsroom culture that provides a backbone and a ready-made
narrative structure for otherwise confusing news.
There exists a social and cultural
disconnect between journalists and their readers, which helps explain why the "standard
patterns" of the newsroom seem foreign to many readers. In a recent
survey, questionnaires were sent to reporters in five middle-size cities around
the country, plus one large metropolitan area. Then residents in these
communities were phoned at random and asked the same questions.
Replies show that compared with other
Americans, journalists are more likely to live in upscale neighborhoods, have
maids, own Mercedeses, and trade stocks, and they're less likely to go to
church, do volunteer work, or put down roots in a community.
Reporters tend to be part of a broadly
defined social and cultural elite (精英), so their work tends to reflect the
traditional values of this elite. The alarming distrust of the news media isn't
rooted in inaccuracy or poor reportorial skills but in the daily conflict of
world views between reporters and their readers.
This is an explosive situation for any
industry, particularly a declining one. Here is a troubled business that keeps
hiring employees whose attitudes vastly annoy the customers. Then it sponsors
lots of symposiums (讨论会) and a credibility project devoted to
wondering why customers are annoyed and fleeing in large numbers. But it never seems
to get around to noticing the cultural and class prejudices that so many former
buyers are complaining about. If it did, it would open up its diversity
program, now focused narrowly on race and gender, and look for reporters who
differ broadly by outlook, values, education, and class.