Excerpt from a piece of news about the two sessions (must have a theme)

News and News Reports

The lack of strict distinction between news and news reports in the press is one of the important reasons for a certain degree of confusion in journalism theory. I proposed in "Outline of News Ontology" [1] that news and news reporting are two different concepts, and they belong to two different categories. News is the fresh facts that people experience and pay attention to in practice, which belongs to the category of social existence; news reports are the representation and statement of empirical facts, which are reports on news, and belong to the category of social consciousness. Regarding "news", I have made a more detailed discussion in the "Outline". This article attempts to further discuss the news reports, and on this basis, re-examine the authenticity of the news (reports).

1

Li Liangrong distinguished "two definitions of news" in "Introduction to Journalism" [2], one is "news is information about recent facts", and the other is It is "news is the report of recent facts", and correctly points out that the former refers to the substantive content of news, and the latter refers to the form of news expression. But in the following discussion, Li only grasped the unity of content and form, and did not see the opposition and contradiction between the two. On the issue of the unity of content and form, Li focused on form rather than content. Therefore, in the end, not only did news and news reports not really be distinguished, but the substantive content of news was unified into its form of expression - news reports.

Now let me put aside the task of distinguishing news from news reporting, and first discuss the two basic views on the definition of news that are generally recognized by the journalism academic community. They seem to be like default positions in computer language, opinions that people hold without thinking, so that any deviation from these opinions requires conscious effort and convincing argumentation. First, news can only be information or messages, not facts, because facts exist objectively and cannot be moved. For example, we cannot move a fire or a car accident around, but can only copy and spread information about them; Second, news must be disseminated, that is, from this person or group of people to that person or group of people. What does not go through this kind of dissemination can only be objective facts and cannot be news.

I want to start by attacking these two default points. Let’s look at the first question first. It involves our long-held fundamental understanding of “facts.” What are the facts? What kind of facts are meaningful in journalism research? To summarize my views in the "Outline": (1) Facts are not simple things, but that something has certain attributes or certain things have certain relationships, that is, some actual situation of objective things or phenomena, such as ours We cannot say that "the sun" is a fact, we can only say that "the sun rises from the east" is a fact; (2) The actual situation of objective things or phenomena is unquestionably objective and does not depend on anyone's subjective will. In this sense, Said, we must admit the existence of "facts in themselves"; (3) But for human society, "facts in themselves" have no use except as an endless source of people's continuous experience and understanding in practical activities, including journalism The facts studied in the general humanities and social sciences (except philosophy) can only be those facts that are encountered and perceived by people in social practice, that is, "empirical facts."

Now let's look at "empirical facts". On the one hand, "empirical facts" are the presentation of the attributes or relationships of objective things to people; on the other hand, they are people's grasp and judgment of these attributes and relationships. The former is the basis, and the latter is the condition. Both are indispensable. Therefore, the facts studied in journalism are not just "things in themselves" or "states in themselves" that are independent of human consciousness, but the perceptual reality of the actual situation of objective things that is accepted by concepts and judged by the subject. Presentation is a perceived “thing-in-itself” or “state-in-itself” and a “thing-in-itself” or “state-in-itself” in knowledge and experience. The fact at this time is no longer the natural history of its own occurrence and development or the sum of certain physical and chemical attributes and relationships. It is not an attribute that can only be propagated through the projection of certain energy and quality of itself, but through propositions. Perceptual knowledge that can be determined, expressed and disseminated through statements. The communicability of perceptual knowledge is self-evident. If our analysis can be established, then the view generally held by journalism circles that facts cannot be copied and disseminated is wrong, and the concept of "information" introduced for this purpose is redundant.

In fact, almost all scholars who use "information" to define news will use "facts" to further qualify information, and all admit that news is not general information, but "information about facts" because the concept of information is too broad. Too vague. Instead of that, why not just define news in terms of “facts”? According to our analysis and understanding, "information about facts" is actually "facts". Apart from this, it is really unimaginable that it can be anything else.

The introduction of the concept of "information" is said to have a "major theoretical significance", which is to clarify the relationship between news and publicity, making people realize that the content of news is information, while the content of publicity is opinions (do opinions Isn’t it also information? ). But in our view, to clarify the relationship between news and propaganda, there is no need to introduce the concept of "information" in a superfluous manner, but only to make it clear that news is the fresh facts that people experience and pay attention to in practice. Tens of millions of years of communist social practice have provided people with basic cognitive forms for experiencing the external objective world. These background conditions, which some philosophers call "transcendental forms", determine people's understanding of "empirical facts". Basically unanimous recognition. It is in this realm of recognition that we say “facts speak louder than words.” News is empirical facts, which are basically unanimously recognized by all members of society; news reports are statements of empirical facts by specific reporters (individuals or organizations). In addition to the above basic understanding

forms, there are also Containing the reporter's own special "cognitive form", it can be said that most news reports embody the reporter's thoughts and opinions. Therefore, leaving aside the political roots of China’s social reality, the theoretical root of equating news with propaganda lies in equating news with news reports, rather than the lack of the introduction of the concept of “information.” The scholars who first introduced this concept also had the idea of ??trying to find a method or even formula for calculating the amount of news information. However, more than 20 years of practice have shown that such efforts are in vain.

In addition, we also agree with Yu Siyong’s doubts about using information to define news: First, as a general scientific concept of information, there is still no generally accepted definition because the current academic circles are still inconsistent. According to some statistics, there are 39 publicly published definitions of "information" in the world. What's even more funny is that when explaining "information", "Oxford Dictionary" says "information is things talked about, news and knowledge"; "Webster Dictionary" also believes that "information is data, news obtained in the process of observation or research" and knowledge”. By turning things around and borrowing from each other, the more you explain, the more confused you become. Second, information is used to reveal the essence of news phenomena, but what is the essence of information itself? Is it physical or conscious? Even Wiener himself, the founder of information theory, could not explain clearly: "What is information? Information is neither spiritual nor material." In this case, using "information" to define "news" is at least unscientific. , not serious. Third, according to the definition rule in ordinary logic that "the defining item must not directly or indirectly include the defined item", using "information" to define "news" is tantamount to making a logical error of "circular definition". [3]

Now let’s look at the second question. Is objective fact news if no one reports and disseminates it? Gan Xifen said: "Having facts and the latest important events that happened in a certain place is not the same as having news. If a major change in natural phenomena occurs in a remote and uninhabited area, it is not known to anyone. Although no one knew about it, and no one spread it, even if it was unknown, it would not constitute news.” [4] This is probably the earliest report in the academic community after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. There is no clearest and most authoritative expression of news in dissemination. At first glance, this statement makes sense. But a little closer examination will reveal the problem: Are the “facts” here “facts in themselves” or “empirical facts”? Judging from the fact that "it is not known to anyone, and no one knows about it", it seems to be the former; judging from the attributes that this "change" is judged to be "the latest", "important" and "major", it is obviously the former. the latter. If it is the former, we have said before that it should not be a fact discussed in journalism; if it is the latter, we believe that it cannot be considered "obscure" because it has appeared to people and been heard by people, and it has no influence on people. To those who see and hear it, it is news. We believe that new facts that a person or group of people have personally experienced or directly experienced are news to that person or group of people.

In the first chapter of "Dream of Red Mansions", after Zhen Shiyin deciphered the lame Taoist's "Good Song", he snatched the robe from the Taoist's shoulders and put it on his back. Instead of going home, he drifted away with the crazy Taoist. This incident (we assume it to be true) "immediately stirred up the neighborhood and everyone treated it as news and legend." From a logical perspective, there is "news" first, and then there are "legends" about it.

The facts that the neighbors have personally experienced or experienced are news, while the "legends" about the facts are news reports. The reason seems to be very simple: the so-called news reporting and news dissemination are the existence of news first and then the reporting and dissemination of news; the same is true for the so-called news interview and news writing. Genetically speaking, news must come first, and reporting and dissemination come later. A fact experienced by human beings, as long as it has news value, it is still news even if you don't report or disseminate it. Reporting and dissemination are prerequisites for news diffusion, but not for the birth of news. Just think, what would we report and disseminate without getting the news in advance? The ancestors of mankind initially understood the objective conditions around them mainly through direct experience. Enhancing themselves with the experience of others is the result of evolution and a sign of civilization. News communication is an integral part of this result and sign. Based on the above understanding, we insist that from an ontological perspective, news is the fresh facts that people experience and pay attention to in social practice. Moreover, the experience here is first of all direct experience. If we must use communication terms, it belongs to people's "personal communication".

II

Human beings are animals that can benefit from the experience of others. Even in relatively small societies, not every member of society can directly experience the various natural and social events that he wants or should understand. This requires indirect experience, that is, learning from the experience of others. Any event or phenomenon has certain time and space boundaries and scope. People in different time and space scopes have to rely on indirect experience to understand these events or phenomena. This is the important reason and reason for the existence of news reporting and news dissemination. The more the scale of society expands, the more the need for indirect experience increases, so that today's society has to entrust specialized personnel and set up specialized institutions to do this work.

Indirect experience must rely on a certain symbolic form to be presented and transmitted, and the most exquisite symbolic form is language. News reports are statements of "empirical facts". Since this statement has a corresponding perceptual presentation object, that is, the sensory image produced and formed by the object stimulating our sensory organs, it must be a statement that is true or false, that is, Propositions, so news reports are composed of propositions. It can be said that news is the content stated and affirmed by propositions, while news reports are the expression form of news. The two are unified and opposite, consistent with each other but not one-to-one correspondence. We can neither separate the two nor We cannot ignore the important essential differences between the two and confuse them.

Saying that news is the content stated and affirmed by propositions does not mean that all proposition forms are suitable for stating news content. In fact, only some propositions can become the basic expression form of news. In his article "On Different Logics" published in 1941, Jin Yuelin divided propositions into three types: special propositions, universal propositions (Peng Yilian thought it was a typographical error of "ordinary propositions") and universal propositions. Special propositions determine special facts, such as "At the first session of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Jia Qinglin was elected as Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference", "A man broke into the Reuters Beijing branch carrying suspicious explosives", etc.; general propositions or ordinary propositions determine It is an ordinary situation at one time and place, used to express and affirm "historical summary", that is, "the combination of special facts in history", such as "People in the Qing Dynasty had braids", "All the girls in this class today are wearing makeup" etc.; universal propositions assert certain truths, such as "the distance between two parallel lines is equal everywhere", "people must eat to survive", etc. [5] The first type of proposition is used to determine a special fact and appears in the form of a particular statement or a singular statement, so it is called a special proposition. The third type of proposition asserts universal truths (including theories, opinions, general norms, etc.), which appear in the form of universal statements, so they are called universal propositions. The difference between the two is relatively obvious. The second type of proposition, the ordinary proposition, is somewhat complex and requires detailed analysis. Ordinary propositions are different from universal propositions.

First of all, the content expressed by universal propositions transcends specific time and space. For example, "people must eat to survive" is not restricted by special spatio-temporal conditions; while ordinary propositions are restricted by special spatio-temporal conditions and do not have universality beyond time and space. What they express It is just a common situation within a certain period of time and within a certain range. For example, "all the girls in this class today are wearing makeup" is limited to "today" and "this class". Secondly, universal propositions have universal generality and analogy, so they may be overturned by more general and analogical propositions in the future, such as "geocentrism" being overturned by "heliocentric theory", etc.; while ordinary propositions are for specific time and space conditions. "Historical summary". If this summary conforms to the reality at that time, there will be no problem of being overturned by future propositions. If "all the girls in this class today are wearing makeup" is true, no matter what the class will be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Whether girls wear makeup or not, this proposition cannot be overturned. Third, universal propositions require universal factual basis, which can be repeatedly confirmed by experiments and observations; while ordinary propositions only have factual basis under specific time and space conditions, and any verification beyond such conditions is meaningless. It can be seen that although ordinary propositions also have the form of universal statements, they are not universal propositions.

So what is the difference between ordinary propositions and special propositions? Can they also state an empirical fact like special propositions? Since ordinary propositions use the form of universal statements, what they assert is not a special empirical fact. From this point of view, such propositions are different from general propositions expressing general theories, and from special propositions expressing specific facts. Jin Yuelin believes that it is a "proposition between the universal and the particular". In terms of its relationship with facts, "compared with universal propositions, this type of proposition seems to be closer to the facts." [6] But what is relevant to our topic is whether such propositions affirm facts, and if so, what kind of facts do they affirm? Regarding this issue, we agree with Peng Yilian's analysis in "On Facts": There are two situations in ordinary propositions. One is that the scope of objects represented by the subject is so wide that it is impossible for an observer to directly obtain it through perceptual experience. All the contents to be determined, such as ordinary propositions such as "Qing people have braided hair", cannot be determined by direct observation of each Qing Dynasty person for a specific observer. There is no guarantee that it affirms one particular fact after another, that is, it cannot be confirmed that every Qing Dynasty person had braids. Therefore, this kind of ordinary proposition "neither expresses universal facts nor affirms one particular fact after another."

[7] The other is that the scope of the object represented by the subject is narrow, and a specific observer can directly obtain all the content he wants to conclude through perceptual experience, such as "All girls in this class are chemical "Wearing makeup", an observer with normal ability can completely conclude and confirm that every girl in the class is wearing makeup. Although this type of proposition does not determine a special empirical fact like a special proposition, it can generalize and determine a certain time and space. All factual conditions within a certain range, that is, a specific fact that is affirmed one by one within a narrow space and time range, is a combination of empirical facts within a certain space and time range. For the convenience of description, we call the former a "general proposition in a broad sense" and the latter a "ordinary proposition in a narrow sense".

Through the above analysis of propositions, it is not difficult to conclude that news as "empirical facts" can only be the contents stated by special propositions and narrow general propositions. Since the universal statement of a narrow ordinary proposition has specific time and space restrictions, and its space and time scope is very limited, we have reason to regard it as a combination of special propositions within a limited scope. Therefore, we believe that the basic statement form of news is a special proposition. Of course, this special proposition must be consistent with the perceptual presentation of the objective state of things, that is, it must be true. At this point, we can conclude that news is the content of true special propositions, and news reports are true special propositions and the form of statements composed of such propositions. In a specific news report, only the content stated in a true special proposition may be news content, otherwise it will be non-news content no matter how fresh and important it is.

Three

The relationship between news reports and news can generally be understood as the relationship between form and content. The two are both unified and opposed to each other; It’s not a one-to-one correspondence. It is wrong to separate them, but it is equally wrong to lump them together indiscriminately.

Theoretically, there are four main differences between news and news reports:

First, news belongs to the category of social existence, while news reports belong to the category of social consciousness. According to the previous discussion, news comes from empirical facts, and empirical facts come from "facts in themselves"; while news reports are the result of the human brain sorting, processing and representing some empirical facts, and they belong to another link. As shown in the figure:

Among the three ovals on the left, the outermost circle represents "facts in themselves", the middle circle represents "empirical facts", and the innermost circle represents "news facts" (ontology news in the sense); news reporters only select part of the news facts, consciously organize, process and represent them, and materialize them into news reports through appropriate symbolic forms. The small ovals on the right represent specific news reports, and the large circles represent abstract news reports, that is, the sum of all specific news reports. Of course, there are always problems with using concrete graphics to express abstract ideas. As shown in the picture above, the "facts in themselves" are actually infinite, not limited, while the "empirical facts" are constantly expanding, dynamic, etc. But this picture at least clearly shows that news and news reporting belong to two different links. The former belongs to the category of social existence, and the latter belongs to the category of social consciousness.

Secondly, the same content has different forms of expression. Correspondingly, the same news can have different news reports. This issue has long been pointed out by scholars. Gan Xifen cited different reports from Xinhua News Agency and the Associated Press on the liberation of Peking more than 20 years ago. However, almost all scholars talk about this issue from the relationship between "facts" and "news" rather than from the relationship between news and news reports. In their view, the reason for this problem is that different reporters have different opinions on "facts" There are different choices and judgments. According to our point of view, news is fresh facts that people experience and pay attention to in social practice, and news reports are statements composed of true special propositions. In short, news is facts, and news reports are statements of propositions. The same news can have different news reports. The root cause is that the same fact can be stated with different propositions. When discussing this issue, Jin Yuelin gave an example: "'The tree is in front of the temple' and 'The temple is behind the tree' are not only two sentences, but also two propositions. However, what these two propositions assert is only one fact." [8] There seems to be no different selection and judgment of facts here. “The tree is in front of the temple” and “the temple is behind the tree” both select and judge the same fact. That is to say, the ontological root reason why the same news can have different news reports is not that the news reporters have different positions and opinions, but that the news itself as an "empirical fact" is direct and indirect, subjective and objective. sexual unity. From the perspective that the objective situation of things is presented to people in their own form, it has objectivity that is not subject to human will; from the perspective that the objective situation of things is the subject of the concept of accepting and making judgments based on it, it also has the objectivity Certain subjective nature. As the "empirical facts" of news, the oppositional unity of objectivity and subjectivity is reflected here as the oppositional unity of facts and propositions, that is, propositions reflect facts, but they are different from facts. Facts embody the objective nature of "empirical facts". In terms of content, propositions embody the subjective formal aspects of “empirical facts”. Subjective forms can be divided into universal and special forms. As a universal form of understanding, it is formed by people in hundreds of millions of years of social practice. It is accepted and recognized by every cognitive subject. It has the attributes of social existence and the authenticity and objectivity of news reports. It is based on this general form of understanding; while the special form of understanding is restricted by the specific conditions of the subject of understanding and may vary widely. The subjectivity, tendency and some unintentional inaccuracies of news reports are related to this.

Thirdly, the content does not matter whether it is true or false, but the form that reflects the content does. Correspondingly, news reports may be true or false, but news cannot be true or false. News is the fresh facts that people experience and pay attention to in social practice. Facts can only exist, or have existed in the past, or exist now. There cannot be a "fact" that has neither existed in the past nor now. From an empirical level, people's grasp of facts is the same. A direct grasp of perceptual experience, that is, experiencing facts through perceptual intuition. This kind of perceptual intuition has a unique biological foundation for human beings and a unique cultural foundation formed by hundreds of millions of years of practice. It is on these two identical bases that we experience the light refracted by the sun from certain types of objects as "red", we call the movement of massive objects away from the earth's surface "flight", and we call the movement of objects with mass away from the earth's surface "flight". Sound is identified as "noise" and so on.

Therefore, perceptual intuitive experience is basically the same for normal members of society. This is the reason why "empirical facts" are possible. News reports are composed of propositions, and propositions are always true or false, otherwise they would not be propositions. It can be seen that the so-called "authenticity of news" is actually a false category. News does not matter whether it is true or false. What is false is not news. What is true or false is news report. The so-called "fake news" is actually fake news report.

Finally, news reports contain the subjective emotions of the reporter, which is not found in the news. News as empirical facts is the direct acceptance and grasp of objective facts by human sensory organs. Subjective factors such as human emotions and values ??are almost powerless in this process. This is exactly the reason why the saying "we must face the facts" is true. However, when empirical facts become the subject's "object consciousness" as a result, the subject's "self-awareness" begins to entangle this "object consciousness" and even interfere with the "object consciousness". News reports are statements of empirical facts by the reporting subject, which are permeated with the subjective self-awareness of the presenter