制造“目击”:新闻权威争夺与消解的地方性认识

Manufacturing“Eyewitnessing”:How Local Journalism Claim Journalistic Authority and its Dissolution

基于互联网节律并鼓励新闻机构跨越时空和专业管辖权的边界来介入新闻叙事的远程报道,已逐渐成为数字新闻生产的常规,这挑战了新闻业在信息供给领域权威地位的合法性前提,即“现场目击”。新闻业古老而浓厚的“在场/目击”文化与地方性的消解之间存在理论和实践张力,新闻权威研究主流的“关系范式”亟须更新。在经验材料的支持下,以报道全国社会民生新闻的都市新闻业为关注对象,本文揭示了编辑部如何围绕地方性知识的挪用、地缘关系的刻绘和地方信任的修复来制造“目击”,进而维护饱受挑战的新闻权威。应予以批判性反思的是,远程报道藉由各种目击证据来宣称“在线/在场”,这些替代性话语与“在地”的目击实践正渐行渐远,反而为新闻业文化权威的重建带来更多不确定因素。

In the context of digital journalism,remote reporting has become a pivotal routine,compelling news organizations to transcend geographic,temporal,and professional boundaries in their engagement with news narratives,which challenges the legitimacy premise of the news industry's claim of authoritative status in the field of information supply,namely,“eyewitness”.A theoretical and practical tension arises between journalism's deeply entrenched culture of eyewitnessing and the erosion of locality,necessitating a reevaluation of the dominant paradigm in studies of journalistic authority.This paper focuses on metropolitan journalism,which aims to cover social news all over the nation.Supported by empirical evidence,this paper reveals how newsrooms construct the discursive practice of eyewitnessing by appropriating local knowledge,depicting geographical connections,and repairing local trust,thereby upholding the challenged journalistic authority.What should be critically reflected upon is that remote reporting claims to be“online/present”through various eyewitness evidence,and these alternative discourses are gradually distancing themselves from the practice of“on-site”witnessing,instead bringing more uncertain factors to the reconstruction of cultural authority in the news industry.