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Study: Americans Think News Media Needed for Democracy, But Untrustworthy

研究称美国人认为民主需要媒体，但是媒体不可靠

By Mario Ritter Jr.
06 August 2020

Many Americans describe the news media as "very biased," but they still believe the work of reporters is important to democracy.
很多美国人称新闻媒体极具偏见，但是他们仍然认为记者的工作对民主很重要。

That is the finding of a report from the Knight Foundation, a not-for-profit group, and the research company Gallup.
这是非盈利组织奈特基金会和盖洛普研究公司发布的一份报告中的研究结果。

Knight and Gallup questioned more than 20,000 American adults between November 8, 2019 and February 16, 2020. That was before the United States began taking steps to fight the novel coronavirus. It was also before protests over the death of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of Minneapolis police.
奈特基金会和盖洛普于2019年11月8日到2020年2月16日期间对2万多名美国成年人进行了调查。那是在美国开始采取措施应对新冠病毒之前。它也发生在针对黑人男子乔治·弗洛伊德死在明尼阿波利斯警方手里的抗议活动之前。

The study's findings – called "sobering" in the report – suggest that Americans increasingly distrust the news media.
该研究结果在报告中被称为“觉醒”，这表明美国人越来越不信任新闻媒体。

John Sands is director of learning and impact at the Knight Foundation. He said that when half of Americans have concerns about the news "it's going to be impossible for our democracy to function."
约翰·桑兹是奈特基金会的学习和影响总监。他说，当半数美国人对新闻感到忧虑时，我们的民主就将无法运作。

The study confirmed sharp differences of opinion between supporters of the two major parties in the United States.
该研究证实了美国两大政党的支持者之间存在着截然不同的观点。

For example, it found that 71 percent of Republican Party members had a "very" or "somewhat" unfavorable opinion of the news media. Fifty-two percent of independent voters and 22 percent of Democratic Party members also had unfavorable opinions.
例如，该研究发现71%的共和党人对新闻媒体“非常”或“稍微”持有成见。52%的独立选民和22%的民主党人也对新闻媒体持有成见。

However, 54 percent of Democrats had a favorable opinion of the press. Only 13 percent of Republicans felt the same way.
然而，54%的民主党人对新闻媒体表示赞许。只有13%的共和党人持相同看法。

Sands said this finding is not new and added the differences between the two sides have become deeper over the years.
桑兹表示，这一结果并不新鲜，而且多年来双方之间的分歧已经变得越来越大。

"Moving the dial on these attitudes becomes more and more difficult for media organizations," he said.
他说：“对新闻机构来说，改变这类态度变得越来越困难。”

The study did not try to identify reasons for the differences in opinion about the news media. U.S. President Donald Trump often calls stories he does not like "fake news."
该研究并未试图找出对新闻媒体存在意见分歧的原因。美国总统川普经常把他不喜欢的新闻称之为“假新闻。”

Studies show that more than 90 percent of media reports on Trump and his administration are "negative" or appear hostile toward the president.
研究表明，关于川普及其政府的媒体报道中，有90%以上是负面的或对总统怀有敌意。

Who is to blame?
谁的责任？

Among those questioned in the study, 48 percent said the news media has a great deal of responsibility for the country's political divisions. Seventy-three percent believe that too much bias in news reporting is a major problem. That represents an increase of eight percent from two years ago.
在接受调查的受访者中，48%的人表示新闻媒体对美国的政治分歧负有很大责任。73%的人认为新闻报道中的偏见是一个大问题。这比两年前增长了8%。

In addition, Americans did not believe that reporters make honest mistakes. Instead, 54 percent said they believed reporters misrepresented facts, while 28 percent said reporters made up some of their information.
此外，美国人不认为记者是无心之失。相反，54%的人说他们认为记者颠倒黑白，同时28%的人说记者编造了一些新闻。

Knight and Gallup found that 41 percent of Americans have a great deal of trust in the ability of the media to report the news fairly. However, that is down from 55 percent in a similar study from 1999.
奈特和盖洛普发现，41%的美国人对媒体公开报道新闻的能力抱有很大的信任。但是，这比1999年类似研究的55%有所下降。

A big majority of Americans, 84 percent, still believe that, in general, the news media is either "very important" or "critical" to democracy.
占84%比例的绝大多数美国人仍然认为，一般而言，新闻媒体对民主来说非常重要或至关重要。

I'm Mario Ritter Jr.
我是小马里奥·利特。

Words in This Story

biased – adj. showing one side as better than another side in an unfair way

sobering – adj. causing seriousness or thoughtfulness

function – v. to operate correctly

unfavorable –adj. showing disapproval

Move the dial –idiom to cause something to change in a way that can be seen or heard

attitudes –n. (pl.) the way someone thinks about a subject in general

fake – adj. a copy or reproduction; opposite of true or real

critical –adj. extremely important

*内容来源51VOA.COM原创翻译，侵删~

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