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This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.这里是美国之声慢速英语科技报道。
We have all witnessed the power of social media. It helped elect Barack Obama president in two thousand eight. It also helped to support popular revolutions in two thousand ten and eleven that forced several long-time rulers from office. 我们都见证了社交媒体的力量。它帮助了2008年奥巴马总统的当选。还帮助2010年和2011年推翻数个长期执政统治者的人民革命。
Now, research suggests that social networks could have an even greater effect on elections, helping to increase the number of people who vote.如今，研究表明社会网络甚至能够对选举有更大的影响力，因为它能够增加投票的人数。
The new report appeared in the journal Nature. It estimates that about one third of a million more people voted in America’s two thousand ten congressional elections all because of a single message on Facebook.新报告被登载在《自然》杂志上，它估计至少33万美国人都是因为一个在脸书上的信息而参加2010年美国国会选举。
James Fowler is a political science professor at the University of California, San Diego. He led the research in partnership with Facebook’s Data Science team. They studied the effect of a “get out the vote” message on more than sixty million Facebook users. The social network placed the message at the top of their Facebook news feeds on Election Day two thousand ten.詹姆斯•福勒是加利福利亚大学圣地亚哥分校的政治科学教授。他领导一个和脸书的数据科学组合作的研究。他们研究“投票动员”这个信息在超过六千万脸书用户中的影响。这个社交平台把这条消息在2010年选举日放在他们的脸书新闻订阅的顶部。
JAMES FOWLER: “And in the message, there was button that says ‘I Voted’.” There was also a link that you could click on that allowed you to look up your polling place. And in some of the messages we also showed people the pictures of their friends who had clicked on the ‘I Voted’ button earlier in the day.”詹姆斯•福勒：“在信息中，有一个“我投票了”的按钮。还有一个链接,你可以点击,允许你查看你的投票点。同时，在一些信息中，我们还向人们展示他们在早些时候点击了“我投票了”按钮的朋友的图片。
We spoke to Professor Fowler on Skype. He says the team later compared this information to publicly available voting records. 我们和詹姆斯•福勒教授在网络电话上交谈。他说小组稍后对比了这些信息和公开的有效投票记录。
JAMES FOWLER: “And one of the remarkable things that we found was that when we were comparing the people who received these messages to the people who received no messages, the people who saw the message without the faces of their friends actually voted at exactly the same rate as the people who saw no message at all. But the people who saw faces of their friends they actually voted more.” 詹姆斯•福勒：“一个最值得注意的事情，我们发现当比较收到信息的人和没有收到信息的人时，看到信息却没有看到他们朋友的头像的人，实际上和没有收到信息的人的投票是完全相同的概率。
The researchers say the results of the study show that the message directly influenced about sixty thousand extra people to go and vote. Even more importantly, says Professor Fowler, the friends of the people who saw the message also were influenced to vote. He says this led an additional two hundred eighty thousand people to take part in the elections. As a result, the message influenced a total of three hundred forty thousand people.研究者们称这个研究结果表明信息直接影响超过六万人去投票。甚至更重要的是， 詹姆斯•福勒教授说，用户的看到信息的朋友同样影响投票。他说这导致额外的二十八万人参加投票。结果，这个信息影响了整整三十四万人。
And, Professor Fowler says the experiment led to an even more interesting finding. It is that in the world of social networking, like in the real world, not all friends are equal. 詹姆斯•福勒说这个实验引向了更多有趣的发现。在社会网络的世界中，就像是真实世界，不是所有的朋友的地位都是相等的。
JAMES FOWLER: “It wasn’t all of these online connections that matter. The average person on Facebook today has about one hundred fifty friends. And when we just looked at the close friends, those closest ten people on Facebook, we found that they were driving the whole effect. That all of the extra two hundred eighty thousand voters were coming from just ten out of your one hundred fifty friends.” 詹姆斯•福勒说：“不是所有的在线活动都和上述事件有联系。目前，平均每个脸书的用户有大约一百五十个好友。我们只是关注关系亲密的好友，那些在脸书上最亲密的十个好友，我们发现是他们推动着整个效应。所有的额外的二千零八万选民仅仅来自你的一百五十位好友中的百分之十。
The researchers say the study suggests that voting is a social behavior. They say social networking may be the best way to get more people involved in the democratic process. And they think this in not only true in politics, but in other areas as well, including public health.研究者们称这个研究表明投票是一个社会行为。他们说社交网络可能是让更多人被民主进程影响的最好方式。同时，他们认为这不仅仅在适用于政治，而且在其他领域包括公共健康，也是如此。
And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. I'm Steve Ember.这里是美国之声慢速英语科技报告，由琼•西门斯撰稿。我是史蒂夫•安贝。 | 
发表于 2016-8-2 11:24:36