Keywords: numbers; Digital application; Focus; Accurate information
In news reporting, figures can accurately report news facts from a quantitative perspective, reflect the development of news things and explain the main body of the report; It can also be used as auxiliary background material to answer difficult questions in news and explain the characteristics of news things; Or explain the academic names and concepts involved in the news to help the audience understand the news content.
First, the "focus" principle of digital application in economic reports
Focus theory is a theory that has been discussed more in communication studies in recent years. This theory emphasizes the difference of audience consumption groups and is the basic theory of media audience segmentation. In the reform stage of China economic report, specialized market positioning has been widely used, but there are still differences in audience's segmentation knowledge and understanding. Especially in the seemingly simple digital application, it is necessary to further explore the "focus" of the audience's psychological needs. Early economic reports were very rough in audience segmentation. With the change of audience psychology and the subdivision of newspaper layout in the later period, the principle of "focus" in digital application is becoming more and more obvious.
At present, many scholars believe that economic reports should follow the principle of audience segmentation-that is, the "focus" and "niche" of reports. To solve the problems existing in digital application, we must also consider this background, which is also a problem that economic media and professional financial media need to solve. For example, the Wall Street Journal in the United States generally publishes three stacks a day, that is, three sections, with a very detailed audience:
Version a-news and comprehensive content. In addition to financial news, domestic and foreign news, there are also policies, letters, art and leisure.
Version b- market segment. Including market news, important mergers or transactions, cooperative operations, industry logs, foreign exchange transactions, economic newsletters, etc.
Version c-money and investment. Usually 18 pages, including financial market diaries, Dow Jones and other stock indexes, stock market databases, stock market quotes, fund quotes, bond quotes, futures quotes, currency interest rates, stock market trends around the world, etc.
The division of the above pages is based on the perspective of the audience. According to the needs of readers, the content of version A pays more attention to the public opinion, so that readers can get economic information and master economic policies as quickly as possible, and the reading method is comprehensive, relaxed and enjoyable. Version B and C are obviously more professional and the information is more commercialized. They consider that the service objects of the two sections are highly directional, so that readers can quickly find content related to their own interests among numerous commercial information, and digital processing can be relatively professional.
Although the use of numbers is a trivial matter, it can fully reflect the basic quality of the media and the level of understanding and analysis of market changes and audience psychological changes. Now, the economic program media has noticed the necessity of focusing. For example, CCTV 2 programs have a more detailed audience division. Decision makers have half an hour's economic time; There is an economic information network for mass commerce; Private entrepreneurs have a set of "economy and law". According to different audiences, numbers are handled and quoted in different ways.
Second, digital applications need to strengthen the "entertainment" function in news reports.
At present, the development of financial newspapers still faces some difficulties. According to the monitoring data of China Media Research Center at the end of 2005, the advertising market share of financial newspapers has been declining from 9.45% in 2003 to 9.28% in 2004, and then to 9.20% in 2005, while the total advertising volume of national newspapers is increasing year by year. The reason is that the number of readers is limited. Almost all financial newspapers target their readers at the urban stratum with higher education and economic strength. This orientation will definitely affect the social influence of financial newspapers.
In this case, people in the industry, experts and scholars pointed out that economic reports should take the road of "popularization" and "socialization", and the content of reports should be popular, plain and popular. To do this, the first thing to do is to make economic news reports easy to understand and acceptable to the public. The middle link of economic report is to translate and interpret all kinds of complicated and blunt economic indicators and figures. Most media in China are gradually strengthening the "entertainment" function of information dissemination means. The "entertainment" here mainly means that the mode of communication is relaxed, pleasant and cordial, the content is close to life and reality, and it is easy to read and watch. This basic entertainment factor is manifested in various professional media, especially in solving the boring problem of digital communication. A typical example is the digital series report "Fast Reading Digital Chongqing" made by 5438+1 October1Chongqing Evening News in June 2005 to welcome the "Eleventh". Several titles are as follows:
2 1 m2, Chongqing has a well-off housing per capita.
With a height of 2 cm, the more Chongqing people eat, the more learned they become.
In this group of reports, the materials provided by Chongqing Statistics Bureau are used to reflect the economic achievements since the 16th National Congress. The success of the report, first, lies in the careful selection of these figures, rather than simply piling up and quoting; Second, the angle is close to readers, and vivid stories and examples are used to reflect the influence of each macro figure on people's lives. Here, the "entertainment" of numbers is manifested in the closeness and life of boring numbers.
Third, the digital application in news communication will inevitably move towards accuracy.
Accurate news, also known as accurate news reporting, was first put forward by American scholar and journalist Philip Meyer. It means that journalists use social science research methods such as investigation, experiment and content analysis to collect information and verify facts, so as to report news. Now, accurate reporting has become an inevitable trend of economic news reporting.
The reason why accurate news has become a form of reporting that the media generally attach importance to is that social phenomena are becoming more and more complicated, which requires the media to be objective and accurate in reporting content. It should be said that in the traditional way of news reporting, the reporter's interview depends entirely on the materials provided by the source. In today's society, various groups and individuals may disclose untrue or one-sided information to the media for their own interests. When the information is difficult to distinguish or understand, it is easy to make the news inaccurate.
It is not difficult to see that, compared with traditional news reports, accurate news adopts scientific social investigation methods, and excludes individual and accidental events as much as possible, which is more universal, convincing and more in line with the audience's acceptance psychology. At the same time, accurate news uses quantitative digital language to describe news facts, tries to exclude journalists' subjective opinions and makes news more scientific and objective, which is also the biggest advantage of its communication. The emergence of accurate reporting is not only the inevitable result of the development of digital news, but also the necessary factor for the transformation of news mode, which has brought about changes in the whole mode of communication and information.
For the dissemination of digital information, the media first appeared differences and division of labor. As far as television is concerned, it has two basic advantages: first, it is fast and can be transmitted at any time, especially cable transmission and satellite transmission; The other is dynamic and easily accepted information. For example, CCTV 2' s Economic Information Network, China Financial Report and other columns pay attention to the flexible combination of accurate figures, making complex problems simple and clear. There is also the story of Fortune, which makes accurate figures easy to understand in an economic story. These are all important manifestations of the popularization of television, which makes complex economic problems popular, so the audience market potential of this kind of communication is great.
Fourth, pay attention to the extension significance and application of digital news.
The role of numbers in news reports lies not only in its nature and facts as information, but also in its service and market demand. In the era of paying attention to accurate and instant information, the meaning of numbers is more special. Whether it is the analysis and comment of economic phenomena, the description and dissemination of market fluctuations, or the information service in the stock market, digital information has become a business opportunity and economic ability, which plays an irreplaceable role. For the media, the huge figures and the analysis results that consume material and financial resources every day are not counted if they are used only once. Therefore, developing the potential value and extended significance of digital news is the key to maximize the value of digital news.
For example, the digital information of the Wall Street Journal has a hierarchical relationship of increasing economic value. Its first value lies in the rapid spread of information. Among them, Dow Jones Telecom's "instant" communication performance provides instant and accurate business information services for business people, especially those on Wall Street. At present, it provides global financial information to 346,000 financial professionals around the world, and cooperates with Associated Press to provide international economic and financial news to 65 countries. Its second value lies in the network. For example, The Wall Street Journal Online, the world's largest paid financial website, is also the only newspaper website in the United States that charges readers for reading, with a revenue of $328 million in 2004. Network is an extension of newspaper resources, which not only realizes more levels of services through digital information itself, but also through the re-integration of numbers and information from different angles and fields.
Its third value lies in periodicals and magazines. The extension of newspapers to periodicals is actually the reuse of information, such as the digital background analysis of information, or the comparative analysis of a feature of information. Such a combination and report is a deep processing and reorganization of information, and its editing content points to a more professional target audience.
Generally speaking, the extended service and extended media of digital information of The Wall Street Journal provide us with a kind of thinking and reference. Using the huge and scientific information editing system and service network of core newspapers, it continuously extends outward, including audience segmentation, regional segmentation, cross-media communication and cross-channel communication. This can not only reduce the dependence on core publications, create more economic growth points and enhance the anti-risk ability of enterprises, but also use the formed scientific system and network to extend the market and achieve good results in low-cost operation.