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