Why can't in-depth papers be reported?

Because I am a new media in the newspaper, I have read some online books this year, and finally have some understanding of the problem that I have been thinking about before-why the in-depth reporting of paper media suddenly failed in the era of mobile Internet.

A few years ago, in-depth reporting was regarded as one of the most important weapons for paper media to fight against online media. Compared with the noisy and shallow online media content, the solemn in-depth report looks really imposing, and seems to have the potential to throw online media a few streets. Unsurprisingly, with the advent of the mobile Internet, in-depth reporting has become an "ecological refugee" under "climate change", which is either ignored or embarrassed, and many departments that make a living from in-depth reporting have even been abolished.

In 20 15 years, the paper media has many deep departments. China Youth Daily, Southern Metropolis Daily, Jinghua Times, and China Business Daily all cancelled the deep ties. It is said that someone hid his face and cried at the dissolution meeting of the in-depth news department of Huashang Daily.

Although Du Nan resumed the in-depth edition after the cancellation of Deep Weekly, and China Youth Daily resumed the in-depth investigation department at the beginning of 20 16, from the perspective of the whole in-depth reporting field, with the departure of elites, the output of high-quality content declined seriously, and the glorious period of in-depth reporting in paper media has disappeared.

In addition to a few paper media such as Caixin Media and Beijing News, which are eye-catching in-depth reports, new media platforms such as portals have grabbed a lot of limelight. In recent years, Tencent's prism and probe, Netease's road sign, Sina's new knowledge, Sohu's news client and other columns have made amazing performance in in-depth reporting. New media platforms, such as surging frequently, have become a new force for in-depth reporting in China.

Why can't the in-depth report of paper media work? Apart from the shrinking policy space and high production costs, are there other reasons?

At present, most of the in-depth reports in the paper media have fallen to the point where they are not well received, especially on the mobile Internet. The person in charge of Du Nan official WeChat said that in-depth reporting is Du Nan's strong point, and exclusive and original in-depth reporting is also what Du Nan official WeChat hopes to push to users. "But after trying many times, the reading number is still so bleak. Every time I see such an excellent in-depth report, the number of readings is not as good as a dirty paragraph, and my heart is bleeding. " I have worked in the paper media for 8 years, and now I am in charge of the official WeChat of China Youth Daily. I feel the same way.

Is the quality of in-depth reporting itself declining, or is the new media platform not suitable for the spread of in-depth reporting? In my opinion, the latter is the main reason.

In the era of mobile Internet, social media has become an important channel for users to get news. According to the report released by Tencent Penguin Think Tank in 20 1 15 10, 47% of the respondents believe that social platforms play an important role in personal access to news.

Many people know the six-degree separation theory (on average, there are six people between you and anyone in the world), but they don't necessarily know the "three-degree influence" theory in Dalian: the first degree is our friend, the second degree is our friend, and the third degree is our friend's friend. "Three-dimensional influence" is suitable for the spread of attitudes, emotions and behaviors, such as "every happy friend increases the probability of making you happy by about 9%; Every unhappy friend will reduce your chances of happiness by 7%, and so on. The "three-degree influence" theory can explain why people rarely share in-depth reports or even serious news on WeChat, because these contents often cannot bring "happy" emotions. Social media is more suitable for spreading light content.

"The form of media favors certain special contents, thus ultimately controlling culture", which was written by neil Pozmann in Entertainment to Death. He said that as media, printed matter and television have no thoughts, but as tools, their different preferences for words and images determine the development of different cultures. This is like Marx's question in German Ideology: "If the printing press exists, is it possible for the Iliad to appear in this world?"

What will the mobile Internet choose? In this era, the time-space barrier of reading is constantly being broken, and the sense of ritual of reading is gradually lost, which makes content producers need to produce content suitable for reading in any environment, and the limited screen of mobile terminals makes it difficult to widely spread the content that is not easy to read. This is exactly what Meyrowitz, an American communication scientist, predicted: the long-term development trend of the media is that the content is getting simpler and simpler.

Therefore, the fundamental reason why social media rejects long articles that are difficult to understand is that this form of media determines the direction of content. Meyrowitz also said: "The increase of electronic information resources will not bring us back to the separation system of print media, because almost everyone may easily access any resources. New subgroups may appear, but their differences, stability and identifiability are low. " Readers of in-depth reports are lost with the great prosperity of content, because "people must actively look for printed information, but electronic information will actively come out to contact people."