A News Portal to Trauma
社群媒體 開啟創傷經驗大門
By Teddy Wayne

“The world has always been messy,” President Barack Obama said in 2014 after a string of doom-and-gloom news events. “In part, we’re just noticing now because of social media and our capacity to see in intimate detail the hardships that people are going through.”
2014年，在一連串令人悲觀失望的新聞事件發生後，美國總統歐巴馬說：「這世界總是一團糟，在某種程度上，我們到現在才注意到這一點，因為社群媒體發達，而且我們能夠看到別人所經歷困境的私密細節。」

As a number of people similarly commented in the wake of recent videos of police violence against African-Americans, these episodes have been happening for a long time; it’s only lately that smartphones have facilitated their widespread visual documentation.
許多人針對近日美國警方暴力對待非裔族群的影片發表類似看法，但這類暴力事件已發生好長一段時間，直到近年出現智慧手機，才促使各地人們用畫面將它們記錄下來。

Social media, too, has begun to play a prominent role in broadcasting tragedy. The shooting of Philando Castile was streamed as it happened on Facebook Live, which figured in another violent video since then. The app Periscope has also live-streamed its share of grisly and objectionable content, including the rape of an Ohio teenager and a suicide in France.
社群媒體也開始在傳播悲劇事件上扮演重要角色。非裔男子卡斯提爾被警察槍殺的過程在發生當下透過臉書直播，臉書直播也在其後另一部暴力影片上占重要位置。應用程式Periscope也直播恐怖且令人反感的內容，包括美國俄亥俄州一名青少年被強暴和法國一場自殺案的過程。

The effect on audiences can be traumatic. Historically, traditional mass media has also shown graphic images and horrifying videos like terrorist attacks or the 1991 Rodney King beating while barraging audiences with related content. For some people, it may not matter through which medium they consume their news: A video is a video and an article an article, whether it’s on a TV screen, laptop or newspaper.
這可能使觀眾承受心理創傷。從歷史角度來看，傳統的大眾媒體也會播放讓人不舒服的影像與駭人影片，如恐怖攻擊或1991年非裔美國人金恩遭警方毆打的過程，並以相關內容轟炸觀眾。對某些人來說，透過哪一種媒體取得新聞並不重要，影片就是影片，文章就是文章，不論在電視螢幕、筆記型電腦或報紙上都一樣。

But there are several reasons to suspect that the emotional impact of such intimate social-media images or internet-derived news is different, and perhaps even longer-lasting in some cases, than that from old-media sources.
不過，有幾個理由讓人推測，此類私密的社群媒體影像或網路衍生出來的新聞，對觀眾情緒的衝擊與傳統媒體不同，有時候影響的時間可能也比傳統媒體更久。

Contact with violence through any media can lead to what is called vicarious traumatization – and may, for some people, be more upsetting than an unmediated experience.
透過任何媒體接觸暴力都可能導致所謂「替代性創傷」，而且對某些人而言，可能比不透過媒體經驗暴力更難過。

A 2013 study in the journal PNAS compared the acute stress symptoms of those with “direct exposure” to that year’s Boston Marathon bombing (being present at the site or in the Boston-area lockdown, or knowing someone in either of those circumstances) with those who had only media exposure. People who were exposed to six or more daily hours of bombing-related media exposure reported higher levels of acute stress than those with direct exposure.
2013年美國國家科學院院刊刊出一份研究報告，比較了「直接接觸」同年波士頓馬拉松爆炸案與僅透過媒體接觸者的急性壓力症狀。「直接接觸」是指身處爆炸案現場或波士頓封鎖區內，或認識某個在現場或封鎖區的人。結果顯示，每天與爆炸案相關媒體報導接觸達6小時以上者，感受的急性壓力高過直接接觸者。

“Unlike direct exposure to a collective trauma, which can end when the acute phase of the event is over, media exposure keeps the acute stressor active and alive in one’s mind,” the study concluded. “In so doing, repeated media exposure may contribute to the development of trauma-related disorders by prolonging or exacerbating acute trauma-related symptoms.”
研究結論如下：「直接接觸集體創傷，創傷能在事件的急性階段結束後停止，但透過媒體接觸會讓急性壓力源在心裡保持活躍生動。這麼一來，重複的媒體報導會延長或加重急性創傷相關症狀，導致創傷相關疾患。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/fashion/the-trauma-of-violent-news-on-the-internet.html

2016-09-25．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．李京倫譯

說文解字看新聞 張佑生

「媒介即訊息」（The Medium is the Message）和「媒介即按摩」（The Medium is the Massage）是傳播學者麥克魯漢（Marshall McLuhan）半世紀前的名言，主張媒體傳播的不僅是內容，更潛在改變了人類的思維邏輯。麥克魯漢的理論有助於理解紐時報導所論及，大眾媒體（mass media）與社群媒體（social media）對受眾的影響。

影響之一是替代性創傷（vicarious traumatization）。這個心理學名詞源自同理心失衡（empathic strain），旁觀者不斷看到災難新聞畫面，生離死別的悲悽，容易產生強烈的情緒波動，進而反芻，將他人的不幸與自己情緒作連結。

除了媒體，新聞的定義也跟以往不同，《時代》雜誌1992年元月號將率先標榜新聞現場直播的CNN創辦人泰德透納選為年度風雲人物，評語是History as it Happens（非happened），昭告突發即時新聞的興起。

即時串流（live streaming）是現今媒體的王道，延伸閱讀（related content）是一定要的。智慧型手機讓各種視覺記錄(visual documentation）的散播更為便捷。

Air Force, Short of Drone Pilots, Uses Contractors to Fight Terror
美軍反恐無人機 起用外包操作員
By Michael S. Schmidt

The U.S. military’s extensive use of drones against the Islamic State and other terrorist groups has resulted in a shortage of Air Force pilots and other personnel to operate the aircraft, leading the Pentagon to rely more on private contractors for reconnaissance missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
美軍大量使用無人機對付「伊斯蘭國」等恐怖組織，導致操作無人機的空軍駕駛員和其他人員人手不足，也使得美國國防部更加仰賴民間承包商在阿富汗和伊拉克執行偵察任務。

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Pentagon has used contractors to perform many duties traditionally carried out by uniformed personnel, like protecting military bases and feeding service members. The contractors who are now serving as drone pilots are based in the regions where the drones are flown, and they are legally prohibited from being “trigger pullers” and firing weapons, Air Force officials said. But there is no limit on the type of reconnaissance they can perform, and they are providing live video feeds of battles and special operations.
自從2001年9月11日的攻擊事件發生之後，國防部一直在用外包人員執行許多傳統上由制服軍人執行的任務，像是保護軍事基地和供應軍人伙食。空軍軍官說，現在擔任無人機駕駛的外包人員以無人機飛行的地區為基地，法律禁止他們成為「戰士」和發射武器，但沒有限制他們可以進行偵察的類型，他們現在提供戰役和特種任務的實況影片。

As the Obama administration has accelerated its campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq, Syria and Libya over the past 10 months, the Pentagon has added four drones flown by contractors to the roughly 60 that are typically flown every day by uniformed Air Force personnel.
過去這10個月，歐巴馬政府升高了在伊拉克、敘利亞和利比亞對付「伊斯蘭國」的行動，在每天由制服空軍操作的大約60架無人機之外，國防部再加上四架由外包商操作的無人機。

Over the next two years, the Pentagon plans to add six more operated by contractors, the officials said. The number and identities of contractors working on the drone flights are considered classified information, the Air Force said. But Pentagon officials said there are at least several hundred contractors, many of them former drone or fighter pilots who are making double or triple their military salaries.
這些官員說，國防部計畫未來兩年再增加六架由外包商操作的無人機。空軍方面表示，操作無人機的外包人員的數量和身分都被視為機密資訊。但國防部官員表示，外包人員至少有幾百名，其中許多是退役的無人機或戰機駕駛，現在的薪水是在軍中時的兩三倍。

“This is opening up a whole new can of worms – we have seen problems with security contractors on the battlefield since 9/11, and there’s been an improvement in oversight in that area, but that came after a decade of problems,” said Laura A. Dickinson, a law professor at George Washington University, who has written extensively about the United States’ use of military contractors. “With drones, this is a new area where we already do not have a lot of transparency and with contractors operating drones there’s no clearly defined regime of oversight and accountability.”
羅拉．狄金森是喬治華盛頓大學的法律教授，寫過很多關於美國使用軍事外包商的書， 她說：「這會製造一連串的新問題，我們看到過911之後戰場上安全業務承包商的種種問題，現在這方面的監督已有改進，但已是在問題叢生的十年之後。無人機已是我們不太透明的新領域，用包商操作無人機並沒有明確的監督問責機制。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/06/us/air-force-drones-terrorism-isis.html

2016-09-25．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．田思怡譯