"News acceleration" and "news alienation" in disaster reports

Author: Hou Yanting (Assistant Researcher at the Institute of Digital Media Application of Yangzhou University School of Journalism and Media) Feng Rui (Dean, Professor, Doctor Instructor of the School of Journalism and Media of Yangzhou University)

Source: "Youth Reporter", No. 13, 2022

Hartmut Rosa, a German sociologist, pointed out that modern society is dominated by a strict time structure, and "acceleration" is the core feature of the time structure of modern society [1], while "social acceleration has led Social alienation forms that can be observed with experience are serious. If you want to examine the structure and quality of our lives, we must gather in our time mode "[2]. At present, the news media, as an important social intermediary in the public's knowledge of external world information, [3], the changes in the time structure of the news production production practice also shows the "acceleration" characteristics that echoed the social time structure, causing news practice into the "acceleration logic" At the same time, it also brought a series of intuitive "news alienation" problems.

On March 21, 2022, China Eastern Airlines, a 132 -person passenger plane MU5735 crashed in Tengxian County, Wuzhou, Guangxi. In the early days of the accident report, some news media carried out inconsistent news production practice. The phenomenon of "acceleration of the news" caused widespread concern in the academic community. The fierce news ethical disputes in the acceleration process also further prominent the "alienation" of the news. At present, for "news alienation", few people pay attention to the "acceleration logic" behind them from the perspective of news time. , This article quotes the theory of social acceleration of Rosa, analyzes the phenomenon of "acceleration of news" and "news alienation" in the news reports of disaster news reports, discusses the problem of "news acceleration" in the news reports of disaster news reports. Observation is given in the background of acceleration.

"News acceleration" in disaster news reports

(1) News accelerate. In the disaster accident, in order to eliminate the public's panic in the unknown disaster, the news media needs to open the information channel and provide key information. Therefore, the news report of the disaster has a strong "instant" appeal. In the context of social acceleration, this "instant" demand has been continuously enlarged, and news practitioners fall into the blind pursuit of "news speed". The "acceleration logic" in disaster news reports is highlighted.

1. Early preset news information. In the era of mobile interconnection, news "instantaneous" achieved mythology, and the advance pre -section of information became the primary feature of "acceleration of news", and disaster news reports cannot be separated from the expression of casualties. Expression acceleration representation. Limited by the search and rescue progress of the accident and the responsibility of the mainstream media itself, traditional media generally hold a more prudent attitude in such reports, that is, the "death conclusion" is never made without verification. In the era of mobile internet, the main body of news production is no longer limited to a single official mainstream media. New media have emerged in large numbers and occupy a place in online public opinion fields. The "easy -to -earn" of the Internet link and the "instantaneous" conveyed by content enables new media to intervene in disaster news reports. In addition, the new media and mainstream media themselves have different operating logic. In the end, when the disaster was not clear and the official was not notified of the casualties, the media had contacted the family members of the victims to conduct an interview and report to inform the family members of the death of their relatives. At the same time, the reports of related affected people were also filled with the Internet. In the information environment they created, the "death notification" of the victims was accelerated in advance.

In the Eastern Airlines Flight Incident, when the official reported on -site search and rescue progress, the public still hoped that the miracle occurred, the relevant figures on the crashed plane had become a hot spot for public opinion. "Characters" produced a related report "People in the MU5735 flight" within less than 24 hours of the accident. In the words, the information of "the people on the flight have been difficult". Similar comments such as waiting for official results, waiting for miracles of life "and other similar comments expressed some readers' dissatisfaction with death information. At the same time, in the "Character" report, there is a sentence, "We have contacted her schoolmates and teachers. After hearing her news on the plane, everyone was shocked and sad." In the state, the "death notification" was made. It is true that there are no relevant regulations to restrict the news of the death of the victims. The official will notify the relatives as soon as possible, but less than a day after the plane crashes, the media hurriedly "Death notification" to the family members, which undoubtedly brought a huge impact on the relatives to relatives. At the same time, to the public, the "death notification" of the media in advance will undoubtedly cause various questions from the public, and the credibility of the media will also be lost.

2. The density of news broadcasts has increased sharply.罗萨将“加速”定义为“单位时间当中，事件数量的增加”[4]，放在新闻报道过程中，其“加速”则可概括为“单位时间内，新闻播发的数量增加”，即The density of news broadcasting has increased sharply, and the dramatic increase in news broadcast density in the news reports of disaster can specifically reflect the shortening of the news cycle and the increase in news content.

For journalists, all tasks should be completed within a specific news cycle [5], and in the accelerated journalism industry, the fixed news cycle no longer exists, especially in its own "timeliness". Among them, the reporter can only run against time, collect and produce related content, and the news cycle is reduced as much as possible. Zhiwei Data shows that on March 21, the first day of the plane crashed, the relevant public opinion on the Internet reached its peak, and then showed a slow downward trend. It is not difficult to see that although no one sets the time limit for the news cycle, all practitioners have a one more. Clear cognition -news production and release faster. At the same time, the reduction of the news cycle does not mean that journalists can breathe after the production of a product. The huge competitive pressure between the media makes the reporter's work mode shift to the "Hamster Wheel" mode proposed by Starkman [6 ]. Before the heat of the disaster, the journalists could only carry out the production and release of related news content endlessly. The shortening of the news cycle provided the possibility of more content production in the unit time. In order to produce massive content in a short period of time, the phenomenon of "imitation" of the news has gradually become a way to speculate on journalists, which leads to the increase in the number of news, but the phenomenon of homogeneity of news is becoming more serious. 3. Early enrollment of news stories. In the context of acceleration, the news practitioners are in a situation of "fast -paced work", and in the news report of disaster news reports, the story of news products is advanced. In disaster news reports, accurate accident information is an important part of the public urgently needed. Therefore, in the early days of the report, the media need to focus on key information reports at the accident site. Today, "News Acceleration" brings subjective time pressure to practitioners, and has promoted the speed of the rhythm of practitioners and competition among the media. The storytelling report is easily caused by the public and bringing competition advantages. schedule.

Regarding the writing of the character's life story, the author has always considered it necessary. It has externalized the cold casualties into a lively character story, which has caused public empathy while helping the public to build public memories. The China Youth Daily "Ice Point Weekly" in the report of China Eastern Airlines's crashed report "I am willing to tell: my sister and husband are all on that plane, and 1 and a half -year -old niece", telling the victims in a simple and true words. The story of the public restores the most authentic monologue of the family's inner world, allowing the public to see the lives of the individual in the disaster, but also to understand the preciousness of the current life. As stated in the "Dynamics of the News", "All disaster presented in the news should be fixed to give us the greatest courage to resist chaotic components in human nature" [7]. The "person's story" in the disaster should be recorded, so that the victims were remembered in this way, and they also wake up later.

However, the production and release node of the character story under the "acceleration of the news" has been significantly advanced, so that the media in the early stage of the accident began to report the character stories. It is a large extent for family members who are still in sadness. For example, the "People in the MU5735 flight" mentioned above, the journalists completed the interview with relatives and friends and the production and release of character stories within less than 24 hours. Once the report was published, it gathered a high heat. Detaled the topic of public opinion, but was also questioned as "incompetence" and "eating human blood buns". In the process of comprehensive acceleration of disaster news reports today, as netizens commented, "In reality, even if" Characters "are not posted now, there will be other media issued, and it will still be swiped by the screen." The advancement of Hua has been unstoppable. We do not deny that the public needs such news stories to re -examine the disaster, but the ethical issues caused by the early entry of the news story are worthy of our reflection.

"News alienation" in disaster news reports

In Society's accelerated critical theory, Rosa quoted the definition of alienation by German scholar Rahel Jaeggi, that is, "lack of relationships", and believed that "acceleration" is the root cause of this alienation because it is because it Breaking the rhythm of people's habitualness, in order to keep up with the pace of society, people can only sink themselves into the wave of accelerated rhythm, thereby lacking the mutual echo with the entire world and others [8]. In the journalism, the development of mobile communication technology provides conditions for "acceleration of news". The news media and their practitioners perceive the subjective time pressure and the competitive pressure between peers. Operation. In the closed acceleration cycle, news practitioners followed the "accelerated logic" to carry out the so -called "high -speed news" production, but ignored the value resonance construction with the public. Relevant reports produced by some news media for the speed of news have caused the majority of netizens to question, and even caused controversy about the issues related to "news speed" and "news ethics" between the follow -up academic community and the industry.

(1) News ethics transfer news timeliness. Time pressure will have a negative impact on the quality of the news, which will affect the ability of the news media to provide information to the public and serve democracy. Media's credibility continues to decline. Disaster news reports are closely related to the life and death of people. Therefore, the ethical issues in the meantime have always been the focus of attention and avoided in the process of production practice, and the bottom line of news, and accelerate the time pressure under the society. With the time race, the shortening news cycle allows practitioners to consume all time and energy on the topic, interviews and production of the news, how to grasp the human bottom line to be a matter of thinking that practitioners have considered and unable to think deeply. For example, the "Character" reports on the Eastern Airlines Flight Accident. On the day of the incident, the reporter contacted relatives and friends extensively and tapped the stories behind the loses. There may be second injuries and the pain of spending the pain of others; The details of the lives and work of others involved in the related privacy of the loses to a certain extent; too many subjective creative elements are against the motivation for forcibly sensational news. "Character" obviously failed to find the balance between the "timeliness" and "ethics" of the news "timeliness" and "ethics" in this China Eastern Airlines aircraft. The ethical boundaries in the news reports of disaster news from ancient times have been argued endlessly. The news media will fall into the dispute with a little carelessness. In the accelerated journalism industry, "speed" has become the core production and communication logic of catastrophic news reports. The ethical boundary of the control has more reasons for being marginalized by the brightness. The ethical disputes in the news reports of disaster news will also be accompanied by the acceleration of the news. (2) Rhythm rush to work ideas. The alienation of the news is inseparable from its subject -news practitioner's alienation. Under the promotion of the "News Acceleration" mechanism, journalists fall into the fast -paced work under the racing of time. The huge time pressure and the long -term low -quality content production disappear the career ideals and enthusiasm of the practitioners, so that it shows Rosa The state of action in the mouth is "what we do (even what we do voluntarily) is not the state we really want ]. In disaster news reports, the major acceleration of competitive pressure between the media and the overall acceleration of the news cycle undoubtedly prompted journalists to gradually move towards this alienation state. Under the influence of "accelerated logic", "news speed" became the successful report of disaster reports to be successful. In order to adapt to the rules of news survival in the era of acceleration, the reporter sometimes lacks the consideration of ethical issues in the report, or it is not appropriate to publish the node in this report, but it will still choose to continue production and release in order to catch up with heat. In the report of major disaster accidents, journalists who have long been imprisoned by the "law of survival" have gradually lost the original intention of building effective information channels for the public and responsible for social responsibilities, and slowly flattened their career ideals.

(3) News stories cover the facts of the news. In terms of disaster accidents, the focus of the initial agenda settings should be news facts, not news stories. In the background of accelerated, disaster news reports go to the story in advance. Although its expression techniques can easily trigger viewers and bring competitive advantages to news media, the early entry of news stories can easily lead to the subversion of the original information environment. The traffic and heat of the coming attract more media institutions to imitate. More and more news stories are accelerated and constructed, and the focus of news reports has shifted from facts to stories. For example, when the Eastern Airlines Flight Accident continues to ferment, the "Bow Girl" with high popularity on Douyin, with a few chat records and simple interviews with their boyfriend, the media outlines the two -way love scenery to the public. Destruction often defeats the heart defense of the onlookers, and this video is often occupied by the Douyin hot list. The flow and heat obtained in the news story in the disaster reached the height of the fact that the fact notification report could not be available. The information about the truth has become a secondary topic that the public tasting and discussing the news stories. After the admission of soft texts, the loss of the story in advance has become a significant problem in the current disaster news report.

Conclusion

In the macro background of social acceleration, the development of media technology is accelerating, the operation of media institutions is accelerating, and the rhythm of the work of news practitioners is accelerating. This is a development trend that the journalism cannot be avoided. It is reported that the acceleration phenomenon presented in the meantime and the problem of alienation caused by it are worthy of our thoughts. At the same time, driven by accelerated logic, the depression of the "career ideal" of journalists is also worthy of our attention. How to alleviate the subjective time pressure of journalists and let journalists interpret the balance of time and value of catastrophic news reports in the journalism. The news media properly slows down, abandoning the morbid acceleration of the news reports of disaster news under the logic of growth, or an effective guidance to solve the problem of alienation during the period.

Reference format for this article:

Hou Yanting, Feng Rui. "News acceleration" and "news alienation" in disaster reports-take the "March 21" Eastern Airlines MU5735 aircraft flight accident [J]. Young reporter, 2022 (13): 51-53.

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