Up to now, human news communication has gone through three historical stages, which can be summarized as follows: taking the communicator as the center → beginning to attach importance to the audience → acknowledging that the communicator and the audience are two subjects in communication activities. Before China's reform and opening up, news communication mainly adopted the western "goal theory" centered on communicators. At the beginning of the reform and opening-up, China media began to accept the western view that "the audience is the object of service" in the 1960s, and they knew how to pay attention to the audience, but they still didn't fundamentally realize the position and role of the audience in the news communication process. It was not until the middle and late 1990s that people gradually realized that the audience was not only the object of service, but also the subject of acceptance.
Marx's historical materialism holds that social existence determines social consciousness, and social consciousness reacts on social existence. Therefore, each era has its own communication concept, communication mode and communication method, which is caused by the different status of communicators and audiences in different historical periods.
The current misunderstanding of the relationship between transmission and reception and its reasons
It is generally acknowledged by the media that there are two subjects of communication, namely the disseminator and the receiver, but it is difficult to determine which of them is dominant. The author believes that this cognitive deviation and another cognitive deviation in news communication caused by it, that is, the incompleteness of the communication process, can be attributed to one reason, that is, although the audience consciousness has been established, it still has limitations and the audience-oriented consciousness is not clear. Strictly speaking, audience consciousness is not equal to audience essential consciousness. As Bauer said in his famous article "The Obsessed Audience", "The remaining question is how information works for the audience", but now the question is "how the audience uses information". This audience theory, which highlights the subject position of the audience in communication, is the audience-oriented theory. However, audience awareness is only an inspection of the audience by the communicator, rather than guiding communication based on the audience.
1999165438+1October 19 -2 1, Audience Research Committee of China Radio and Television Society and China Radio and Television News jointly held the "Academic Seminar on Radio and Television Audience Work in the New Era" in Tianjin. At the meeting, there was a great controversy about whether the communicator or the audience was the dominant contradiction. Comrade Chen Chongshan, a researcher at the Institute of Journalism and Communication of China Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the media, as a tool of human communication, has become a means of control for the ruling class or group since its birth, and is actually a "communicator" obeying the ruler. Therefore, in general, it is still difficult for the audience under the current system to become the "subject" in communication activities. The author believes that it is true that for a long period of time, the communicators were indeed in a dominant position in the process of news dissemination, but this was determined by their specific historical environment at that time; Moreover, from the perspective of development, if the thought of historical materialism is used in communication, fundamentally speaking, the audience is the main aspect of the contradiction between the two sides in communication activities. Because, "although the communicator has control over the content, the audience is selective about the content; Although public opinion is oriented, the audience has autonomy over public opinion; Although the communicator will have an impact on the audience, the audience will restrict the content of communication through feedback, which will not only affect and influence the current communication effect, but also affect and influence the future communication behavior. In the final analysis, communicators should follow the wishes and needs of the audience. Recognizing the people's dominant position in the communication system is the embodiment of the historical materialism of' people create history' in the process of communication. " ⑴
For another cognitive deviation of the current media in the relationship between communication and acceptance, that is, the incompleteness of the communication process, the author believes that it is precisely because people have not fully established the main aspect of the contradiction-the subject position of the audience. The embodiment of this incompleteness is that the role of the audience's feedback in communication is greatly ignored, and the audience's communication feedback can't be used to guide the next round of communication activities, so that the communication activities stop when they reach the audience, thus affecting the ultimate goal of communication. "Without production, there is no consumption; However, there will be no production without consumption, because if so, production will be useless. " ⑵ Marx's ancient famous saying still has profound practical guiding significance for China's current news dissemination. It should be admitted that there have been some changes in the research on audience feedback, but this change is far from the timely, scientific and accurate characteristics required by the objective laws of communication activities. In western countries, many media have relied on hourly and daily ratings and listening rates, as well as the attention of a page and a column to adjust the behavior of communicators in time; However, at present, most domestic media can only measure the ratings, listening rate and circulation in units of years, which leads to the feedback from the audience not being transmitted to the communicators in time. The current survey only stays at the low level of how many viewers watch what programs, and does not rise to the high level of further analysis of who watches what programs and why. In the audience feedback survey conducted by local media and professional audience survey companies, there is no authoritative, unified, standard testing system recognized by relevant administrative departments.
The involvement of the fourth media has an impact on both sides and their mutual relations.
"The Internet is the' fourth media' after radio, television and newspapers. Its influence goes far beyond the general mass media. It brings not only an impact on a society, a nation's own structure and economic status, but also a great change linked with this nation's cognitive habits, thinking habits, living habits and even the whole world. " ⑶
I. Changes in the role and status of communicators in the Internet age
"The key is not technology, but economic and social changes. The Internet is not just another media distribution system, it is a catalyst for the historic transformation from one era to another. " "In this environment, what matters is what we need and how to satisfy it-not who will satisfy it." This analysis by American scholar Catherine Forton shows that under the great changes of social times, the monopoly position of communicators in communication can be declared to disappear fundamentally, and instead, communicators gradually appear as "information collectors" and "content providers".
1, the emergence of the internet has broken the social division of labor of news dissemination to a certain extent and shaken the status of communicators.
Nowadays, news communication is no longer the "patent" of news media (disseminators) on the Internet. Due to the unique function of the Internet, many organizations and individuals have entered the ranks of news dissemination, and many organizations and individuals may have the roles of both disseminators and receivers. This proves from the side that the leading role of communicators in news communication activities has been completely shaken, and their monopoly on communication has fundamentally disappeared.
2. The decline of the audience's dependence on traditional media will also weaken the role of communicators.
After the birth of a new media, it will certainly snatch some audiences from the original media. Facts have proved that at present, more and more people get news information through the Internet. The enthusiasm of the audience for the Internet will definitely affect their dependence on traditional media. Therefore, communicators (referring to traditional media) will also lose their glorious monopoly position in the past and their dominant position will be further shaken.
Of course, the decline in the status of communicators does not mean that journalism and journalists will disappear. As one of the two contradictory communication activities, the communicator will never quit the stage of communication activities. I quite agree with American scholar Catherine Foton, who thinks that "as the interpreter of meaning (from facts to news facts, the communicator is the first interpreter of meaning-author's note) and the provider of content, journalists will become more important because they can have a personalized and complete interface to organize the information they care about". Some people also refer to journalists in network communication as "reporters without words", that is, journalists can make use of new functions, such as promoting online dialogue, excavating archival resources, and using various news sources to organize comprehensive and centralized reports in time and quickly to meet the growing desire of the audience for in-depth information. In particular, Catherine Fortun believes that "what is valuable to news communicators (information collectors) is unrepeatable-trust, care, honesty, relationship and brand". He believes that "wise journalists will try their best to explain and sell such assets to the audience they serve, whether inside or outside the organization", that is to say, as an indispensable participant in news communication activities-communicators, it is an inevitable objective law that their main functions will decline with the development and changes of society. In this case, it is better for the communicator to understand what should be kept and what should be given up.
Second, the change of audience's role and status in the network era.
As another indispensable participant in communication activities-the audience, in the new era, the obvious enhancement of the main function is determined based on the background of the times and the development characteristics of the audience itself, which is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
1, the time for the audience to contact the media has increased, and the initiative to accept the communication has also been greatly improved.
The audience's time to contact the media has increased, mainly in their leisure time. The current weekend work and rest system and the paid vacation system recently implemented by the state give people more time to control themselves; In addition, due to the improvement of socialization, people's demand for information, entertainment, life guidance and self-expression is getting stronger and stronger, which urges the audience to spend more time in contact with the media and increases their initiative in seeking information. Especially in the Internet era, the audience can always face unlimited information sources, which greatly stimulates the audience's initiative to accept communication.
2. There are more information channels, and the improvement of their own quality makes the audience more selective in dealing with communication.
At present, there are many channels for the audience to obtain information, and the emergence and popularity of the Internet provides a strong guarantee for the audience to freely choose information. Experts at home and abroad also pointed out that the desire and choice of news information is directly proportional to people's cultural and educational level. At the beginning of the next century, education in China will enter a period of rapid growth, and people's interest in the service content and news content released by news media will increase with the improvement of education level.
3. With the development of economy and politics, the audience's sense of autonomy has been further enhanced.
The audience's independent consciousness mainly refers to the audience's self-affirmation of their important position and role in the communication process. The further promotion of the audience's independent consciousness in the new period is mainly reflected in the enhancement of the audience's independent spirit; Raise awareness of equality; The awareness of participation is enhanced, and the unique communication mode of the Internet promotes the habit of thinking from multiple angles. From the information transmission mode of network communication, there are two characteristics different from the previous communication mode: first, the webpage is arranged in hypertext format; The other is to use multimedia language, and the combination of the two produces the so-called hypermedia, which can make the audience participate in information reception with multiple senses at the same time; Moreover, hypertext breaks the habit of sequential reading in the past and replaces it with skipping reading, which strengthens people's associative thinking, urges the audience to think from another angle and cultivates the audience's independent consciousness.
Third, under the impact of the Internet, the development trend of the relationship between communicators and audiences.
The rise and development of the Internet has accelerated the transformation of China from a planned economy to a market economy. The biggest difference between the communication mode under the market economy and the communication mode under the planned economy lies in: "The planned economy tries to control the acceptance of the audience and takes the infinite expansion of the communication content as the top priority; Market economy is a kind of consumption economy. In its communication mode, the acceptance of the audience has become the starting point and destination of communication. " (4) This strengthens and consolidates the dominant position of the audience in the relationship between the two parties.
In a word, taking the acceptance of the audience as the starting point of future communication is another great progress compared with the current media only taking the audience as the information interpreter. This is the enlightenment of fully understanding the development of news communication itself, and this law of news communication develops with the development of the whole human society. This is Marxist historical materialism.