2019经济学人考研英文文章阅读三

Should the government determine what counts as quality journalism?

优质新闻应该由政府来确定吗?

Or should the job be left to private companies?

或是让私人公司来确定?

The news is not what it used to be.These days most consumers get most of their bulletins online.Since online publishing is cheap,a profusion of new sources have sprung up.

新闻已经不是过去的样子了。如今，大多数人都从网上看新闻。由于在线出版的成本低廉，大量新的媒体如雨后春笋般涌现。

Websites run by established newspapers compete with newer,online-only outlets and professional(or amateur)blogs,not to mention the mix of articles,digital chain-letters and comments curated by the algorithms of social-media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

老牌新闻媒体运营的网站正在与更新的、仅提供在线资讯的网站以及专业（或业余）的博客相互竞争，更不用说由Facebook和Twitter等社交媒体网站基于算法的文章、用户间连续转发和评论的组合拳了。

Established media have struggled.Much of the advertising that used to pay journalists’salaries has gone to Facebook and Google,the two big technology firms that dominate the market for online advertising.

老牌媒体一直在苦苦挣扎。过去用于付给记者们薪水的广告大部分都流向了Facebook和谷歌，这两大科技公司主导着在线广告市场。

Print circulation has collapsed.Local papers have been particularly hard hit,with many going bust.

报刊印刷量大幅下降。地方小报受到的打击尤为严重，许多甚至都破产了。

Social-media algorithms prioritise attention-grabbing clickbait over boring truth,which helps propel nonsense around the world.Collins,a dictionary-publisher,declared“fake news”its2017neologism of the year.

社交媒体的算法会优先考虑吸引眼球的标题党新闻，而非无聊的真新闻，这导致世界各个角落都充斥着假新闻。词典出版商柯林斯甚至把“假新闻”一词评为2017年的年度新词。

In2018the government asked Dame Frances Cairncross,an economist (and former journalist on this newspaper)to ponder what,if anything,it should do about all this.On February12th her report was published.It mostly rejects the idea that journalism deserves a bail-out.

2018年，英国政府向（本报前记者）弗朗西丝·凯恩克罗斯请教，如果可以的话，政府应该为此做些什么呢。2月12日，她发表了一份报告，报告在很大程度上反对新闻业应该得到纾困这一观点。

Mostly,but not entirely.Dame Frances argues that public-interest journalism is undersupplied by the market,and that the government should support it via tax breaks or direct funding.Two types of journalism in particular deserve support.

但也并非完全反对。弗朗西丝认为，公共利益新闻在市场上供不应求，政府应该通过减税或直接资助来予以支持。尤其是两类新闻应该得到支持。

One is that which investigates corruption and the abuse of power.Despite its cachet,such work is expensive,difficult and—from a commercial point of view—generally not worth it.

一类是调查腐败和滥用权力的新闻。这类新闻颇具威望，但其所需做的工作也是昂贵和困难的，而且从商业角度来看通常是不值得的。

The other is the sort of thing local newspapers used to provide:writing up planning meetings,trials in local courts and the like.

另一类过去常常出现在地方小报上：刊登计划会议、地方法院的案件审判等等。