Fake News: Fact & Fiction - Episode 3: Information or disinformation?

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.