正当性的建构:近代上海小报与社会

The Construction of Legitimacy: The Modern Shanghai Tabloids and Society

近代上海小报以色情、无聊等负面形象遭到主流社会的批评,始终处于边缘地位,以大报的对立面而存在。为挽救正当性危机,小报通过申述大报小报价值等同、自我夸赞、批评大报、攀附名人等话语策略以及呼吁“大报化”和建立小(型)报同业组织来建构其正当性。然而,由于小报浓厚的商业性、缺少合作精神,小报文人迫于谋生、知识结构陈旧,以及当局管制不力,小报未能剔除其身上的痼疾,扭转社会的认知,致使正当性的建构成为一个没有终点的过程。新的政权立即中止了这一过程。

Modern Shanghai tabloids were criticized by the mainstream society for their pornography, boredom, etc. They were always on the edge and existed as the opposite of the leading newspapers. In order to save the crisis of legitimacy, tabloids constructed their legitimacy by stating the equal value of leading newspapers and tabloids, self-praising, criticizing the leading newspapers and playing up to celebrities, and calling for “turning into leading newspapers” and establishing tabloid peer organizations. However, due to the strong commercial nature and lack of cooperative spirit of tabloids, the tabloid literati busy making a living and their obsolete knowledge structure, and the authorities’ inefficiency in controlling, the tabloids failed to eliminate their handicaps and reverse the social cognition. As a result, the construction of legitimacy had become an endless process. The new regime immediately halted the process.