Chpt1
C The Influence of Mass Culture (大众文化的影响）
C1 大众文化的定义和概念
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
过去的几百年里家庭和教师对孩子的影响是主导的甚至是唯一的。今时今日影响更大的大众文化指广播媒体，报纸，杂志，互联网和流行音乐等。
作者举了18岁和35的成年人看电视和上课的数量对比。一个35岁的成年人上课的时间大大减少，看电视和广告的时间成倍增长。数据非常直观地说明问题。
By age 18 the average teenager has spent 11,000 hours in the classroom and 22,000 hours in front of the 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.
C 2 大众文化对今日的我们产生的影响有哪些？
a 由名人宣传和背书的广告挑起我们的情绪进而人为地制造对物品或服务的需求，从而惯以情绪化地冲动化和被蒙骗化地应对这类诱惑。
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.
b 广告常常向我们灌输和宣传错误的价值观：娱乐比工作更让人快乐满足，自我满足比自我控制更加重要，物质主义比理想主义更有意义（呵呵，简而言之就是提倡追求物欲的享乐主义吧）
Ads often portray play as more fulfilling than work, self-gratification as more desirable than self-control, and materialism as more meaningful than idealism
c 电视节目常常以频繁的场景转换和感官刺激（如车祸和一些黄暴场面）来吸引我们保持观看兴趣。然后在中间频繁插入广告。
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.
接下来作者引入一个注意力被这些电视和广告打断和损害的统计。一个小时注意力被转换高达800余次。（可怕的数据吧）这导致了很多人无法形成稳定的专注力。习惯了电视带来的无需动脑的感官娱乐刺激，因此没有耐心读完一本需要大脑参与思考的严肃读物。（因此小孩看多了电视危害非常大。看多了降低智商也是极有可能的。台湾作家李敖尖锐地指出”电视是批量制造傻瓜的机器“） 而很多出版商为了迎合这一受众特点，也把严肃读物的出版用名人的轻松畅销书读物代替了。（大众的审美大部分是低俗的，呵呵。出版社也要媚俗以求生存。这确实是一个问题和矛盾。扯远了。嘿嘿）
This manipulation has prevented many people from developing a mature attention span. They expect the 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.
甚至这些严肃读物的作者被劝导新书促销发布见面会回答读者问题的时候尽量用简短夸张戏剧化的方式作答。而不要以长篇大论地逻辑清晰地论证分析的方式。这样才可以吸引普通大众读者的注意。即使有时候这是以牺牲严谨和准确为代价的。（who care? 呵呵！话说这种拉低智商迎合大众的方式真是好无奈)
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.
无独有偶。报刊记者也未能免俗，也在此哗众取宠之列。他们也在寻找水平在底层或顶层的受众来制造惊悚的效果吸引眼球。现在新闻媒体已经更像是娱乐行业，表达观点哗众取宠而不是向大众传播大家想了解的一些确定的事实。（呵呵，新闻媒体也堕落了，背离了新闻的初衷）
以后看新闻也要明辨思维，分清事实和观点了。
Print journalism is also in the grip of sensationalism. As a newspaper editor observed, “Journalists keep trying to find people who are at 1 or at 9 on a scale of 1 to 10 rather than people at 3 to 7 [the more moderate positions] where most people actually are.”13 Another journalist claims,“News is now becoming more opinion than verified fact. Journalists areslipping into entertainment rather than telling us the verified facts we need to know.”
最后最高级别的操作政客的操作来了。他们比记者对大众的迎合和操控有过之而无不及。他们不会直接表达自己的思想而是先研究大众的想法然后再假装分享是自己的。（想起那一句：一流的演员在政界，二流的演员在商界，三流的演员拿小金人奖，呵呵） 甚至他们会请人操控民意，请智囊团研究应该像大众兜售何种信息。有的更甚，会研究某些特定的词汇的影响力和效果。
Today’s politicians 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.
大众文化对我们的影响有种全是套路的感觉，呵呵。”自古深情留不住，总是套路得人心“！
(本文为本人词简书账号关安其心原创，如要转载，请注明出处，谢谢)
