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The Influence of Mass Culture
大众文化的影响
In centuries past, family and teachers were the dominant, and sometimes the only, influence on children. Today, however, the influence exerted by mass culture (the broadcast media, newspapers, magazines, Internet and popular music) often is greater.
在过去的几百年里，家庭与教师是对孩子最主要的、有时候甚至是唯一的影响源。而如今，大众文化（包括广播媒体、报纸、杂志、网络和流行音乐）对孩子的影响力往往更大。
exert：英[ɪgˈzɜ:t]美[ɪgˈzɜ:rt] vt.发挥;运用;使受（影响等）;用（力）
By age 18 the average teenager has spent 11,000 hours in the classroom and 22,000 hours in front ofthe television set. He or she has had perhaps 13,000 school lessons yet has watched more than 750,000 commercials. By age thirty-five the same person has had fewer than 20,000 school lessons yet has watched approximately 45,000 hours of television and close to 2 million commercials.
到18岁时，多数青少年在教室里平均累计度过了11000小时，而在电视机前却花费了22000小时；他（她）大概花费13000小时学习课程，但看商业广告的时间却超过75万小时。同一个人到35岁时，学习课程的时间少于20000小时，但看电视的时间接近45000小时，看商业广告的时间更是接近200万小时。
What effects does mass culture have on us? To answer, we need only consider the formats and devices commonly used in the media. Modern advertising typically bombards the public with slogans and testimonials by celebrities. This approach is designed to appeal to emotions and create artificial needs for products and services. As a result, many people develop the habit of responding emotionally, impulsively,and gullibly to such appeals. They also tend to acquire values very different from those taught in the home and the school. Ads often portray play as more fulfilling than work, self-gratification as more desirable than self-control, and materialismas more meaningful than idealism.
大众文化对我们产生了什么影响？为了回答这一问题，我们只需考虑媒体通常使用的形式和策略就行。现代广告通常是用标语口号和名人推荐来对公众狂轰滥炸。这种做法的目的是吸引人们的情感关注，创造对产品和服务的人为需求。结果，许多人对这些诉求养成了情绪化地、冲动地、轻信地作出反应的习惯。而且，他们还会形成与家庭和学校教育中大相径庭的价值观。通常，广告在娱乐方面比工作更能让人满足，自满比自制更令人渴望，唯物主义比理想主义更有意义。
bombard：英[bɒmˈbɑ:d]美[bɑ:mˈbɑ:rd] vt.炮击，轰炸;<核>以高能量粒子或放射能冲击; n.射石炮（古代的臼炮）;
testimonial：英[ˌtestɪˈməʊniəl]美[ˌtestɪˈmoʊniəl] n.证明书;纪念品;奖品;纪念品; adj.证明的;表扬的;褒奖的;
impulsively：[ɪm'pʌlsɪvli] adv.冲动地；有推动力地；
gullibly：['ɡʌləbli/] adv.轻信地；易受骗上当地[亦作gullably]
materialism：英[məˈtɪəriəlɪzəm]美[məˈtɪriəlɪzəm] n.唯物主义;唯物论;实利主义，物质主义; [艺]写实主义;
idealism：英[aɪˈdi:əlɪzəm]美[aɪˈdiəˌlɪzəm] n.唯心主义;理想主义;理想化;
Television programmers use frequent scene shifts and sensory appeals such as car crashes,violence, and sexual encounters to keep audience interest from diminishing. Then they add frequent commercial interruptions. This author has analyzed the attention shifts that television viewers are subjected to. In a dramatic program, for example, attention shifts might include camera angle changes;shifts in story line from one set of characters (or subplot) to another, or from a present scene to a past scene (flashback), or to fantasy;and shifts to “newsbreaks,” to commercial breaks, from one commercial to another, and back to the program. Also included might be shifts of attention that occur within commercials. I found as many as 78 shifts per hour, excluding the shifts within commercials. The number of shifts within commercials ranged from 6 to 54 and averaged approximately 17 per fifteen-second commercial. The total number of attention shifts came out to over 800 per hour, or over 14 perminute.
如今，电视节目制作人经常运用频繁的场景转换和感官诉求（如汽车碰撞、暴力和性邂逅），以维持观众的兴趣不减，然后频繁地插播商业广告。本书作者分析过电视观众所承受的注意力转移程度。例如，在电视剧中，注意力转移或许包括镜头角度的改变；故事线索从一个情节（或陪衬情节）向另一个情节的转变，或者从当前场景切换到过去场景（闪回），或切换到幻景，切换到“插播新闻”或商业广告，从一个商业广告跳到另一个商业广告，然后回到电视节目。而且，注意力的转移也有可能发生在商业广告之内。我发现每小时的广告切换多达78次，这还不包括商业广告之内的切换。每15秒钟的商业广告内的切换次数从6次到54次不等，平均大约为17次。意力转移的总次数超过了每小时800次，或每分钟超过14次。
encounter：英[ɪnˈkaʊntə(r)]美[ɛnˈkaʊntɚ] vt.遭遇;不期而遇;对抗; n.相遇，碰见;遭遇战;对决，冲突; vi.碰见，尤指不期而遇;
dramatic：英[drəˈmætɪk]美[drəˈmætɪk] adj.引人注目的;戏剧的，戏剧性的;激动人心的;
subplot：英[ˈsʌbplɒt]美[ˈsʌbplɑ:t] n.（剧本，小说中的）陪衬情节，次要情节;
This manipulation has prevented many people from developing a mature attention span. They expectthe classroom and the workplace to provide the same constant excitement they get from television. That, of course, is an impossible demand, and when it isn’t met they call their teachers boring and their work unfulfilling. Because such people seldom have the patience to read books that require them to think,many publishers have replaced serious books with light fare written by celebrities.
这种视觉操控使得很多人不能形成一种良好的注意力跨度。以致他们希望教室和工作场所也能提供像电视中那样的连续刺激。当然，这种要求是不可能得到满足的，当得不到满足时，他们就会说老师们枯燥无味，他们的教学方式让人失望。另外，因为这些人很少有耐心读完一本需要认真思考的书籍，所以很多出版商就用名人写的轻松消遣之作代替严肃的书籍。
manipulation：英[məˌnɪpjʊ'leɪʃn]美[məˌnɪpjʊˈleʃən] n操纵;控制;（熟练的）操作;（对账目等的）伪造;
celebrity：英[səˈlebrəti]美[səˈlɛbrɪti] n.名流;名声;名人，知名人士;名誉; [其他]复数：celebrities
Even when writers of serious books do manage to become published authors, they are often directed to give short, dramatic answers during promotional interviews,sometimes at the expense of accuracy. A man who coaches writers for talk shows offered one client this advice: “If I ask you whether the budget deficit is a good thing or a bad thing, you should not say, ‘Well, it stimulates the economy but it passes on a burden.’ You have to say ‘It’s a great idea!’ or ‘It’s a terrible idea!’ It doesn’t matter which.” (Translation: ”Don’t give a balanced answer. Give an oversimplified one because it will get you noticed.”)
甚至当一些严肃书籍的作者要出版著作之时，在推销性访谈中，他们也经常被要求作出简短的、戏剧性的说辞，有时还会有失真实性。一位指导作家参加脱口秀的教练向他的一个客户建议：“如果我问你财政预算赤字是好事还是坏事，你不该说，‘嗯，它刺激了经济但也增加了负担。’你必须说，‘这是个多好的主意！’或者说‘这是个可怕的念头！’回答哪一个都无所谓。（即“不要给出一个平衡双方的答案，而要给出一个非常简化的答案，因为这会让你受到关注”。）
Print journalismis also in the grip of sensationalism. As a newspaper editor observed, “Journalists keep trying to find people who are at 1 or at 9on a scale of 1 to 10 rather than people at 3 to 7 [the more moderate positions] where most people actually are.” Another journalist claims, “News is now becoming more opinion than verified fact. Journalists are slipping into entertainment rather than telling us the verified facts we need to know.”
如今，印刷媒体也一样追求这种视觉冲击效应。正如一位报纸编辑所说：“在1到10分的范围内，新闻记者一直试图去找1分和9分的人，而不是3分到7分的人（更中间位置的人）。”另一位新闻记者也认为：“新闻正在变得观点多于已证实的事实，新闻记者也变得越来越娱乐化，而没有向我们提供所需要的新闻事实。
sensationalism：英[senˈseɪʃənəlɪzəm]美[sɛnˈseʃənəˌlɪzəm] n.煽情主义;<贬>（指行文或报道）耸人听闻，哗众取宠;
moderate：英[ˈmɒdərət]美[ˈmɑ:dərət] adj.有节制的;稳健的，温和的;适度的，中等的; <美俚>慢吞吞的; vt.使和缓;主持;节制; vi.变缓和;作主持人;
Today’spoliticians often manipulate people more offensively than do journalists.Instead of expressing their thoughts, some politicians find out what people think and pretend to share their ideas. Many politicians hire people to conduct polls and focus groups to learn what messages will “sell.” They even go so far as to test the impact of certain words—that is why we hear so much about“trust,” “family,” “character,” and “values” these days. Political science professor Larry Sabato says that during the Clinton impeachment trial, the president’s advisors used the term private lives over and over—James Carville used it six times in one four-minute speech—because they knew it could persuade people into believing the president’s lying under oath was of no great consequence.
如今，相比新闻记来说，政客经常操纵人民更令人们厌恶。政客们并不是表达他们的想法，而是调查人们在想什么，并且假装分享人民的看法。许多政客雇人做民意调查，并集中盯住一些群体，并研究什么样的信息可以贩卖。更严重的是：他们测试一些关键词语的影响力——这就是我们近来听到很多关于“信任”、“家庭”、“性格”和“价值”等词语的原因。政治学教授拉利·萨巴托(Larry Sabato)说，在弹劾克林顿的审判中，总统的顾问们反复使用“私生活”这个词（詹姆斯·卡维尔（James Carville）在一次4分钟的演讲中就使用了6次），因为他们知道，这一词语可以说服人们相信，总统在宣誓后说谎无足轻重。
oath：英[əʊθ]美[oʊθ] n.誓言，誓约;妄用神名，渎神的言词; [法]宣誓;诅咒，咒骂语;
记：存在即是真实，但这个世界的表象大多是假的，各种人为的引诱、欺骗与操控。本质上，我们活在一个被计划被操纵的世界里，但这又是唯一的选择。在各种汗牛充栋、凌乱繁杂的泛滥媒体这个大环境下，我们无法指望环境会自然变好变简单，也无法指望人为的或制度的方式去控制或减小环境对我们的影响，而只能控制自己，修养自我，提升自身的免疫力。
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