美国航天飞机“挑战者”号爆炸,是震惊世界的大事。美国新闻界人士在报道这一事件的过程中,表现出灵活的应变能力和很高的工作效率,显示出他们对突发性事件的报道,的确有较丰富的经验。报道“挑战者”号的飞行,对美国新闻界来说,几乎是例行公事,因为这已经是美国航天飞机的第二十五次飞行。他们普遍认为,这次航天飞行比较有新闻价值的只是一名中学女教师麦考利夫将作为第一个平民升上太空,并将在太空轨道上向她的学生讲课。所以美国两大新闻通讯社美联社和合众国际社均未投入较大的力量。美联社派了一位从1969年以来就报道航天新闻的记者霍德华·本尼迪克和该社驻康柯德城(女教师麦考利 The explosion of the U.S. space shuttle Challenger is a major shock to the world. In the course of reporting on this incident, the members of the U.S. press showed their flexibility and high work efficiency, showing that they did have more experience in the coverage of unexpected incidents. It is nearly routine for the U.S. press to report the “Challenger” flight, as it is already the twenty-fifth flight of the U.S. space shuttle. They generally agreed that what was more newsworthy about this space flight was that a high school female teacher named McAuliffe would ascended to space as the first civilian and would teach her students on orbital space. Therefore, the two largest news agencies in the United States, the Associated Press and Allied International, have not devoted much effort. The Associated Press sent a reporter who has been reporting space news since 1969, Hodard Benedict, and the agency’s presence in the city of Concord (female teacher Macaulay