Fake News: Fact & Fiction - Episode 3: Information or disinformation?
BBC Learning English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLu4AcRaK_o

Transkript (automatisch erstellt)

0:06 Hello this is Fake News: Fact and Fiction from BBC Learning English. I'm Hugo and
0:11 I'm Sam. In the program today we'll hear from expert
0:13 Samantha Bradshaw on the dangers of fake news, and I'll be giving you some
0:17 information about information. We will also
0:20 hear a story about what happened when fake
0:23 news was spread in a small town in Mexico. Now Sam how are you today? I'm
0:27 fine thanks Hugo, how are you? I am very well and I'm looking forward to your
0:31 vocabulary slot later. Okay, I am today going to be talking about the word
0:37 information. I can hardly wait. Yeah I think that might be fake sincerity there
0:42 - no honestly I'm really looking forward to it - okay, okay well we'll see if you
0:45 feel the same way afterwards. Here is everything you could ever want to know
0:49 about the word information, maybe not everything but as much as I could fit in.
0:58 What is information? Information is knowledge, it's facts and details about a
1:05 particular subject. Grammatically information is an
1:09 uncountable noun so we talk about bits of information or pieces of information
1:17 but not informations. Information has a number of very closely related
1:23 grammatical variations - the verb to inform is quite formal and means to tell
1:29 someone something and the adjective informative is used to describe
1:34 information that is useful and interesting. Information also appears in
1:40 at least two initialisms I.T. - information technology and F.Y.I. - for your
1:49 information. Information comes from sources and there are many different
1:54 sources of information including TV, radio, newspapers, books, magazines, the
2:00 internet, social media, teachers, friends, colleagues, even overheard conversations
2:05 on the bus. In fact, wherever we turn there is
2:08 information of one kind or another and not all information is useful
2:13 or appropriate so it's definitely possible to have too much information.
2:19 In fact that's a phrase we use when someone
2:22 tells us something that is very personal and makes us feel a little uncomfortable.
2:27 You haven't changed your underpants in a week?! Oh too much information. Too
2:32 much information is another initialism - T.M.I. When thinking about
2:38 fake news we should be aware that information isn't always true and not
2:44 all sources of information are reliable or accurate. We need to be on the lookout
2:50 for disinformation which is false information deliberately spread and
2:56 misinformation which is false information that is accidentally spread
3:02 though to be honest these expressions are both commonly used for the same
3:07 thing - fake news. I hope that wasn't T.M.I. now F.Y.I. it's back to the studio.
3:17 Thanks, that was very informative. Ah Hugo you're very
3:20 good. I try my best. But now our theme of the day is the possible dangers of
3:25 sharing fake news. To give us an overview we're going to hear from Samantha
3:28 Bradshaw from Oxford University. She's a researcher in fake news and
3:32 disinformation at the Oxford Internet Institute.
3:41 Fake news can have real human consequences when it spreads from the
3:46 online world to the offline world particularly because of the speed at
3:51 which this disinformation can spread. Often unlike in the past where there are
3:58 many checks to the information that was being put out to the public there aren't
4:04 as many checks with social media and viral
4:06 stories containing fake news or other forms of disinformation have real-life
4:12 consequences for people. For example, if we look at India or Mexico
4:18 disinformation and fake news have led to people actually being killed. If we look
4:25 at the medical world with vaccines, a lot of the anti-vacs movement
4:30 narratives and the fake news about vaccinating children
4:34 have caused real-life children not to get vaccinated and then die of sickness
4:39 later. So there are real consequences to fake news and to these rumors that
4:44 spread online. So Samantha was talking a
4:51 lot about consequences there. Yes some tragic consequences in that case. So
4:54 consequences are the result of things that happen or in the case of
4:59 vaccinations don't happen and the result is usually bad. Yeah and she mentioned a
5:03 story in Mexico when people were killed as a result of fake news and I remember
5:07 that because we covered that story here at the BBC. I tracked down one of the
5:11 producers who worked on the story, Reha Kansara, to find out more of the details
5:22 Reha you covered a tragic story and that
5:24 was because of fake news. Tell us about that.
5:27 So this is the story about two men who were murdered for something that they
5:32 didn't do. These two men, they were going back home, they stopped over by a school
5:38 to take a break. They had loud music on and were resting
5:41 in their car but someone at the school got suspicious and so
5:46 they called the police. As soon as the police arrested them not
5:50 for you know not for anything but just finding you know beer bottles, empty beer
5:54 bottles in that car. People came, saw everything that was happening outside
5:59 the school and started spreading fake news on Whatsapp.
6:02 The rumor that essentially spread was that they were two men who
6:06 were child kidnappers who were waiting outside of school to abduct children and
6:12 that obviously caused a frenzy on social media, on Whatsapp, and that turned into
6:17 something bigger when they were arrested.
6:19 because this went from Whatsapp to Facebook, gathered on Facebook to call
6:24 out on people to come outside of the police station and basically take the
6:30 law into their own hands. They were dragged from the police station to a
6:34 town hall, doused in petrol and then lit on fire. Lynchings are not a new thing but
6:39 what is new is the way that this whole thing was filmed on Facebook. It really
6:44 shows the danger because it went from Whatsapp to Facebook and then it was a
6:49 very small town in Mexico so in a matter of hours everybody was talking about it
6:56 and what struck you the most when covering the story? The fact that people
7:00 so easily believed things without you know fact-checking or double sourcing
7:05 things. It has grave consequences and this was one of them. Has there been any
7:12 change in terms of I don't know legislation in Mexico like public
7:17 perception even like public behavior when when they said something that is
7:21 not true? There are people talking about misinformation more particularly over
7:28 here disinformation - the fact that people can turn lies into actual news
7:33 and this is something that Mexico is dealing with not just with lynchings but
7:38 also with elections and just in general fake news in the country and so you have
7:44 platforms like Lo Que Sigue that is the you know that has had to come about just to
7:50 combat fake news in the country. Reha, thank you very much indeed.
7:53 Thank you. A terrible story Sam. Yeah
7:57 really really tragic. Yeah and we know this has happened not just in Mexico but
8:01 also in other countries as well like in India and Myanmar.
8:04 Yeah it just goes to show that we have to be really really careful when we're
8:08 sharing information online. Most of us only share cute cat videos probably but
8:12 there are consequences to things like gossip that are shared. It seems a little
8:17 bit insensitive to talk about vocabulary after such a tragic story but Reha did
8:22 use a really interesting journalistic term there. So could you explain to us
8:26 what double-sourcing means. So it is making sure that you have two
8:31 independent sources confirm the same information but you also have to make
8:36 sure that these sources are not confirming you know the news using the
8:40 same source themselves. Now if you are an
8:43 avid news consumer and want some advice
8:45 on what you consider before you share anything on social media here's Reha
8:49 again with her top tip. The best tip that
8:55 I can give people who are consuming news
8:57 non-stop is that you need to if you see something you need to find a way to
9:03 verify it. That means if you see something in the news check another
9:07 media organisation's coverage of that news
9:10 to see whether they are following the same line. If you see something on
9:13 Whatsapp that isn't news but people are spreading question why they're spreading
9:18 it - what's their agenda? You know if there is something involved in it that shows
9:23 that it could have a reliable source of news then go to that source and find out
9:27 what's happening. Well it's a great tip there, not just for
9:33 journalists but for everybody. It's very important to verify before sharing.
9:37 Absolutely and to verify simply means to check that something is true. Okay
9:41 well almost done for today before we go Sam reminders of today's
9:45 key vocabulary. Of course, very happy to. So
9:47 today I was talking about different forms of the word information.
9:51 Information itself is an uncountable noun and when it comes to fake news you
9:57 can talk about disinformation which is deliberately fake information and then
10:02 there's also misinformation which is accidentally fake information. So for
10:08 example if you're sharing something that you didn't know was fake that's
10:11 misinformation but you might hear misinformation and disinformation being
10:16 used interchangeably. The adjective for something that is interesting and useful
10:21 is informative. In the programme we also talked about the
10:25 word consequences which are the negative results of something
10:29 and we also heard the word double- sourcing
10:32 which is checking a news story is true by seeing if two independent
10:37 sources are reporting the same thing and if you do that you may be able to verify
10:42 the story and you may be able to confirm that it is indeed true. Thank you Sam and
10:47 that's all from us today. Share safely, good bye, bye.