《乌合之众·第二编·群体的意见与信念·群体信念与意见的变异限度》第11节
As to the press, which formerly directed opinion, it has had, like governments, to humble itself before the power of crowds. It wields, no doubt, a considerable influence, but only because it is exclusively the reflection of the opinions of crowds and of their incessant variations. Become a mere agency for the supply of information, the press has renounced all endeavour to enforce an idea or a doctrine. It follows all the changes of public thought, obliged to do so by the necessities of competition under pain of losing its readers. The old staid and influential organs of the past, such as the Constitutionnel, the Debats, or the Siecle, which were accepted as oracles by the preceding generation, have disappeared or have become typical modern papers, in which a maximum of news is sandwiched in between light articles, society gossip, and financial puffs. There can be no question to-day of a paper rich enough to allow its contributors to air their personal opinions, and such opinions would be of slight weight with readers who only ask to be kept informed or to be amused, and who suspect every affirmation of being prompted by motives of speculation. Even the critics have ceased to be able to assure the success of a book or a play. They are capable of doing harm, but not of doing a service. The papers are so conscious of the uselessness of everything in the shape of criticism or personal opinion, that they have reached the point of suppressing literary criticism, confining themselves to citing the title of a book, and appending a "puff" of two or three lines.[22] In twenty years' time the same fate will probably have overtaken theatrical criticism.
注释摘要
勒庞在此处论证的是群体时代新闻报刊功能的根本性转变。他的核心主张是：报纸曾经是舆论的塑造者，如今却沦为了舆论的奴仆。这并非说报纸失去了影响力，而是说它的影响力来源发生了翻转——它之所以还有影响，恰恰因为它放弃了主见，全心迎合群体读者每一刻的情绪波动。勒庞给出的理由很简单：竞争所迫，不紧跟读者口味就会丧失读者。他将此视为现代报业的法则。 这段论述里有非常具体…