聽力原文:
Technology and politics
科技與政治
Bits and ballots
比特與選舉
Social media have made the world more democratic—for now
現在看，社會化媒體給世界帶來了更多的民主
THE world’s first tweet was as dull as they come. “Just setting up my twttr,” wrote Jack Dorsey, now Twitter’s chief executive, on March 21st 2006. Ten years after that inauspicious start, Twitter’s 320m monthly users send hundreds of millions of tweets a day. However cloudy the firm’s current prospects, and however trivial many of those tweets may be, Twitter is part of a wider communications revolution. As this week’s special report shows, the internet has distributed more political power to citizens. But new technologies also carry risks.
重點詞匯：
1 inauspicious 預示前景黯淡的；不祥的；不吉利的
2 trivial不重要的；瑣碎的，微不足道的
聽力原文:
Initial scepticism about the political impact of social media has faded. With the advent of the smartphone, messaging apps and video-streaming services, Twitter and other social platforms have become central to all kinds of collective action. They let like-minded people quickly find one another. They make it easy to get the message out and to mobilise the masses. And they allow nascent protest movements to function without leaders or formal organisations, to begin with at least.
重點詞匯：
1 scepticism 懷疑態度；懷疑主義
2 fade （使）變淡，變暗
3 advent （重要事件、人物、發明等的）出現，到來
4 mobilise 動員起來，調動，鼓動起;
5 the masses 群眾；平民百姓
6 nascent 新生的；萌芽的；未成熟的
聽力原文:
All this is to be welcomed. Twitter and other social media have made the world a more democratic place. They give voice and power to people who have neither—and not just in autocratic countries. Social media turbo-charged anti-austerity movements such as the indignados in Spain. More recently, they helped get Black Lives Matter, a movement fighting violence against African-Americans, off the ground.
重點詞匯：
1 autocrat 獨裁者；專制統治者；專制君主 autocratic 獨裁的; 專制的;
2 turbo-charged 裝有渦輪增壓器的 turbo 渦輪（發動機）
3 austerity 苦行；禁欲； 節衣縮食；艱苦樸素
4 indignados 憤怒者運動
5 off the ground 順利開始，開始發生
聽力原文:
But technology is never purely good or bad—it always cuts both ways. Social media also facilitate more troubling kinds of activism: xenophobic groups in Germany and Islamic State both make extensive use of such platforms, for example. And even as social-media services democratise political movements, the data they carry can also concentrate power in pernicious ways.
重點詞匯：
1 activist 積極分子；活躍分子 activism 行動主義; 激進主義;
2 xenophobia 仇外，懼外（對外國人的厭惡或懼怕） xenophobic adj. 恐懼（或憎恨）外國人的，恐外的;
3 pernicious 有害的，惡性的（尤指潛移默化地） facilitate 促進；促使；使便利
聽力原文:
Online campaigns leave a big digital footprint that can be analysed, often in real time. Again, Twitter is a good example: those with access to its millions of tweets can map networks of activists, analyse what they are talking about and identify the most influential. This flood of digital information is a bonanza for intelligence agencies and, especially, for autocratic regimes. Both can use social media as a tool for surveillance. True, citizens can use encryption to protect themselves from the eye of the state. But greater secrecy also makes media less social, and political campaigns harder to organise.
重點詞匯：
1 bonanza 發財（或成功）的機遇
2 encrypt 把…加密（或編碼）
3 intelligence agencies 情報機構

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