Fake News: Fact & Fiction - Episode 1: The meaning of ‘fake news’

66,351 views ・ 2020-08-10

BBC Learning English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hello, I'm Hugo. And I'm Sam. Welcome to
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Fake News: Fact and Fiction from BBC
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Learning English. In this series we're
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looking at a topic that's on the tip of
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everyone's tongues: fake news. Yes fake
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news - we'll find out what it is and what it
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isn't. We'll look at where it comes from
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and how it can be dangerous and we'll
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also show you
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how you can become a fake news
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detective with tips and suggestions for
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developing your critical thinking skills.
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We're starting today with the look at the
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word fake itself - what does it actually
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mean and how do we use it? Over to you,
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Sam. Okay, well actually, thank you Hugo,
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I want to show you something I prepared
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earlier so it's really over to me, Sam
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So what do we know about the word
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fake? The word fake is first recorded in
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the late 18th century.
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It's slang used by criminals in
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London with meanings connected to their
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illegal activities. Today it can be an
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adjective, a noun or a verb and is used
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when talking about things that are not
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real, not genuine but are designed to
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make people think that they are real or are
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genuine. So where do we see this word?
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The news is full of stories of fakes - fake
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works of art, fake concert tickets, fake
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documents and fake qualifications to
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name only a few. In some places you can
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buy fake designer goods even knowingly
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or unknowingly. However those looking
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for a bargain could end up with
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dangerous fake goods
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or even fake medicines. All these kinds
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of fakes can be called counterfeit.
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Being fake isn't always for criminal
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reasons, though. People and how they act
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can be called fake too, like smiling,
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laughing being injured and even, even,
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even, yes, not confident but want to ace
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that job interview - fake it till you make it.
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And sometimes what is fake
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is more ethical. For example, if you wear
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fur is it real or fake? Fake fur is
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regarded to be more ethical so much so
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that real fur is sometimes labelled as
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fake. So knowing what is real and what is
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fake and what is fake fake can be tricky.
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How do we choose what to buy, where to
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go, even where to stay? Many of us look
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at reviews online but even then we have
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to watch out for fakes. The digital world
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of social media and the internet are
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places where it can be very difficult to tell
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what is fake and what is real and that
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brings us to perhaps the most common
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phrase associated with the word fake
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these days - fake news
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Fake news - do you hear what I am
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saying?
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Something different here...Yes, so
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obviously those were fake ears.
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And that's a fake laugh but it's a comedy
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classic fake ears really just to
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demonstrate that not everything fake is
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bad. And can I say that laugh was a
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counterfeit laugh? That's a really good
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question actually but no. So we use the
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word counterfeit to describe real
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objects, real things that are fakes or
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for example documents money, paintings,
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jewellery, they can all be counterfeit but
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a laugh no matter how fake or false is
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not counterfeit no. And you, have you had
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any experience with fake things? So I did
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have a friend who was setting up his own
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business and he did ask me to write him
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a fake review online. What happened?
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Ah no comment. What about you? I
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haven't bought anything fake or
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counterfeit but I think we've seen you
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know fake t-shirts, fake shoes, bags
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everywhere right. But now let's turn to
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fake news itself. Yes. So the words fake
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and news as we know have existed
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separately for a very long time but as a
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journalist Hugo, when did you start seeing
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them together being used as a thing. I
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think we all became more familiar with it
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in the 2016 election campaign in the US
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because Donald Trump was a big fan of it
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to essentially dismiss
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anything he didn't like but you may be
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surprised to find out that he wasn't
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actually the first one to use it. Earlier
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I was joined by Mike Wendling from BBC
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Trending. He's written a piece called 'The
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almost complete history of fake news' and
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he was here to explain more about the
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recent history of this term.
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So people may be surprised that Donald
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Trump wasn't you know the first one to
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use it back in the election in 2016. No
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actually it was his opponent Hillary
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Clinton who was the first person to utter
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the words fake news and she was
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describing a process by which people
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were inventing stories and they were
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going viral on social media. These stories
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were fake, they were being written... there
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was a famous example that was
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uncovered by BuzzFeed where these
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stories were being
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written by people in Macedonia and those
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people weren't necessarily interested in
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Trump or interested in bashing Hillary
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Clinton. What they were interested in was
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money. Through Facebook they could
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draw people into their websites and then
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make money off of advertising and
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that's why they wrote these
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sensationalised completely made-up
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stories that we now have come to know
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as fake news.
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And misinformation you know fake news
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has existed for many many
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years right but now the difference is
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social media and how easy it is to you
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know spread this kind of disinformation.
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That's right - there's always been
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mistakes, propaganda, spin, or just lies by
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political candidates, that has always
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existed. This is a new type of
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information and a new type of how
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information spreads online and what that
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means is that it can be spread faster
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than ever before by people who might be
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anonymous or might be thousands of
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kilometres away. So it's really a
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challenge for
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media organisations, social media
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organisations and really all of us to
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try and figure out how to separate the
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truth from the fiction. And you can find
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out more about Mike's work on the BBC
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Trending blog on the BBC News website
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and also on the BBC World Service. Mike
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thanks for joining us. Thank you.
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So Sam, what did you make about what
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Mike was saying there? I thought it was
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really really interesting and he mentioned
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words like spin and propaganda which we
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are going to talk about more in a later
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programme but one word I wanted to pick up
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today was the term 'viral' that he used. So
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viral is the adjective and it comes from
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the noun virus which as you know is a
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medical term and as you also know a
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virus can spread really, really quickly
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so when we use something viral when we
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use the term viral, to go viral online, it
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basically means it spreads really really
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quickly across the Internet. Yes we all
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know about it, very interesting. Now
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before we wrap up for today, Sam, remind
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us about the word fake. OK, absolutely.
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So fake means not real it is not genuine
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and grammatically the word fake can be a
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verb. So you can fake a smile, you can
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fake a laugh, as Hugo did before, you
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can also fake being confident. It can
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also be a noun so a picture is a fake,
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the diamond ring my grandmother left me
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was a fake for example, and it is
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commonly used as an adjective so I was
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talking earlier about the fake review
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which I of course didn't write and also
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if you're unlucky you might buy fake
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tickets for a concert or things like
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that. If we're talking about fake objects
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like documents, money or copies of
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well-known brands for example you can
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also use the word counterfeit. Thank you,
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Sam and that's all from us today. Do
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join us again next time on Fake News:
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Fact and Fiction.
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Thank you, bye-bye. Goodbye.
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