How to separate fact and fiction online | Markham Nolan

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

翻译人员: Yi Shao 校对人员: James Yu

I've been a journalist now since I was about 17,

我十七岁开始从事记者工作

and it's an interesting industry to be in at the moment,

这在当时可是一个有趣的工作，

because as you all know, there's a huge amount of upheaval

因为正如你们所知，媒体行业经历着巨变，

going on in media, and most of you probably know this

你们大多数是从商业层面

from the business angle, which is that the business model

来看这些事情，如这个产业

is pretty screwed, and as my grandfather would say,

媒体的经济状况十分糟糕，就像我祖父的说的，

the profits have all been gobbled up by Google.

利润都被谷歌独吞了。

So it's a really interesting time to be a journalist,

所以在这个时代做记者是个有趣的差事，

but the upheaval that I'm interested in is not on the output side.

不过我所关心的巨变不是输出端方面的。

It's on the input side. It's concern with

而是输入端。我关注的是我们

how we get information and how we gather the news.

如何获取信息和收集新闻。

And that's changed, because we've had a huge shift

事情已经发生了变化，因为权力

in the balance of power from

由新闻机构

the news organizations to the audience.

交到了听众的手上。

And the audience for such a long time was in a position

长期以来观众

where they didn't have any way of affecting news

没有任何手段影响新闻行业

or making any change. They couldn't really connect.

或带来改变。他们无法与媒体建立联系。

And that's changed irrevocably.

如今改变已经不可逆转。

My first connection with the news media was

我最早接触新闻媒体

in 1984, the BBC had a one-day strike.

是在1984年，那时候BBC员工罢工一天。

I wasn't happy. I was angry. I couldn't see my cartoons.

我很不开心。我非常愤怒。我看不到动画片了。

So I wrote a letter.

所以我写了一封信。

And it's a very effective way of ending your hate mail:

在愤怒的信中用“爱你的四岁观众Markham”来结尾相当有效。

"Love Markham, Aged 4." Still works.

如今也仍然有效。

I'm not sure if I had any impact on the one-day strike,

我不知道我是否影响了那个为期一天的罢工，

but what I do know is that it took them three weeks to get back to me.

不过我知道的是他们三周之后才给我回复。

And that was the round journey. It took that long for anyone

一去一来，一个人

to have any impact and get some feedback.

想要引起媒体的注意并得到反馈需要这么长时间。

And that's changed now because, as journalists,

现在的情况与从前截然不同，因为

we interact in real time. We're not in a position

如今的记者和观众实时互动。我们不能等着

where the audience is reacting to news.

观众对新闻作出反应。

We're reacting to the audience, and we're actually relying on them.

现在是我们对观众的行为作出反应，并且我们依赖于此。

They're helping us find the news. They're helping us

他们正帮助我们找到新闻。他们正帮助我们

figure out what is the best angle to take and what is the stuff that they want to hear.

找到解读新闻的最好角度，以及什么才是他们最想听的。

So it's a real-time thing. It's much quicker. It's happening

这种互动是实时的。速度快很多 这将一直。

on a constant basis, and the journalist is always playing catch up.

发展下去，而记者只是充当一个追逐者的角色。

To give an example of how we rely on the audience,

请允许我举一个记者依赖观众获取新闻的例子，

on the 5th of September in Costa Rica, an earthquake hit.

9月5日哥斯达黎加发生了地震。

It was a 7.6 magnitude. It was fairly big.

7.6级，相当大的地震。

And 60 seconds is the amount of time it took

地震波用了60秒的时间

for it to travel 250 kilometers to Managua.

传到250公里之外的马那瓜（尼加拉瓜共和国首都）。

So the ground shook in Managua 60 seconds after it hit the epicenter.

所以，马那瓜的地面在震中发生地震60秒之后开始颤抖。

Thirty seconds later, the first message went onto Twitter,

三十秒后，推特上出现了第一条有关地震的消息，

and this was someone saying "temblor," which means earthquake.

有人发了“temblor”这样一条信息，意思就是地震。

So 60 seconds was how long it took

地震波的物理传播

for the physical earthquake to travel.

花了60秒。

Thirty seconds later news of that earthquake had traveled

30秒之后地震的消息就

all around the world, instantly. Everyone in the world,

可以即时传遍全球。理论上

hypothetically, had the potential to know that an earthquake

世界上所有人都有可能知道

was happening in Managua.

马那瓜正在发生地震。

And that happened because this one person had

这些都是因为这个人有纪实报道的直觉，

a documentary instinct, which was to post a status update,

公布现有的最新状态，

which is what we all do now, so if something happens,

这就是我们现在都在做的一件事， 于是，凡是有什么事情发生，

we put our status update, or we post a photo,

我们就更新自己的状态，或者发布一张照片，

we post a video, and it all goes up into the cloud in a constant stream.

一段视频，这些信息源源不断的被上传到云存储。

And what that means is just constant,

这就意味着持续的，

huge volumes of data going up.

海量的数据出现。

It's actually staggering. When you look at the numbers,

数据流量实际上非常惊人。如果你用数字来计算的话，

every minute there are 72 more hours

每分钟有72小时以上的新视频

of video on YouTube.

被上传到YouTube。

So that's, every second, more than an hour of video gets uploaded.

也就是说，每分钟YouTube上都会出现一小时以上的新视频。

And in photos, Instagram, 58 photos are uploaded to Instagram a second.

照片方面，每秒钟有58张新照片被上传到Instagram，

More than three and a half thousand photos go up onto Facebook.

每秒钟Facebook上则会出现三千五百张以上的新照片。

So by the time I'm finished talking here, there'll be 864

也就是说，我今天的演讲结束之后，

more hours of video on Youtube than there were when I started,

YouTube上就多出了864小时的新视频，

and two and a half million more photos on Facebook and Instagram than when I started.

Facebook和Instagram上则多出了二百五十万张新照片。

So it's an interesting position to be in as a journalist,

因此，现在做记者真的非常有趣

because we should have access to everything.

因为理论上，我们的信息源头无处不在。

Any event that happens anywhere in the world, I should be able to know about it

我可以即时免费了解

pretty much instantaneously, as it happens, for free.

任何时间发生在世界上任何地方的任何事情。

And that goes for every single person in this room.

这一点在座的每一位也都可以做到。

The only problem is, when you have that much information,

唯一的问题是，面对大量信息时，

you have to find the good stuff, and that can be

如何找到有价值的内容

incredibly difficult when you're dealing with those volumes.

筛选大量信息其实相当困难。

And nowhere was this brought home more than during

飓风桑迪袭击美国期间，这一现象尤为明显。

Hurricane Sandy. So what you had in Hurricane Sandy was

飓风桑迪是一次难得一见的

a superstorm, the likes of which we hadn't seen for a long time,

超级风暴

hitting the iPhone capital of the universe -- (Laughter) --

它袭击了浩淼宇宙中的iPhone之都（笑声）

and you got volumes of media like we'd never seen before.

因此出现了大量我们以前从未见过的媒体素材。

And that meant that journalists had to deal with fakes,

因此，记者必须分辨真伪，

so we had to deal with old photos that were being reposted.

我们要辨别重新发布的老照片

We had to deal with composite images

用以前风暴的照片

that were merging photos from previous storms.

合成的图片。

We had to deal with images from films like "The Day After Tomorrow." (Laughter)

来自电影《后天》的图片。（笑声）

And we had to deal with images that were so realistic

以及那些看起来非常真实、

it was nearly difficult to tell if they were real at all.

难以辨别真伪的图片。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

But joking aside, there were images like this one from Instagram

玩笑之外，有一些照片，比如Instagram上的这张，

which was subjected to a grilling by journalists.

经历了记者们反复的调查和核实。

They weren't really sure. It was filtered in Instagram.

他们不能确定这张照片的真伪。它在Instagram上遭到了过滤。

The lighting was questioned. Everything was questioned about it.

有人认为光线有问题。几乎个个方面都遭到了质疑。

And it turned out to be true. It was from Avenue C

最终，这张图片被证明是真实的。它来自

in downtown Manhattan, which was flooded.

曼哈顿市中心被水淹的C大街（Avenue C）。

And the reason that they could tell that it was real

记者判断照片真实的理由是

was because they could get to the source, and in this case,

他们找到了照片的来源

these guys were New York food bloggers.

这张照片的拍摄者是纽约的美食博客写手。

They were well respected. They were known.

他们都备受尊敬、有一定知名度的作者。

So this one wasn't a debunk, it was actually something that they could prove.

所以这张照片不是冒牌货，记者们可以证明它的真实性。

And that was the job of the journalist. It was filtering all this stuff.

这就是记者的工作，在大量的信息中进行甄选工作。

And you were, instead of going and finding the information

记者不是寻找信息然后将它们传达给大众

and bringing it back to the reader, you were holding back

记者所作的是截住

the stuff that was potentially damaging.

那些有可能造成伤害的不良信息。

And finding the source becomes more and more important --

找到信息的来源――找到可靠的信息来源

finding the good source -- and Twitter is where most journalists now go.

变得越来越重要――现在大部分记者都从推特入手。

It's like the de facto real-time newswire,

推特就是一个实时的新闻网络，

if you know how to use it, because there is so much on Twitter.

如果你知道如何利用它，就可以从上面获得大量的信息。

And a good example of how useful it can be

2011年的埃及革命就是一个很好的例子

but also how difficult was the Egyptian revolution in 2011.

不过它同时证明了从推特获取信息的优势和困难。

As a non-Arabic speaker, as someone who was looking

对于一个在都柏林关注局势发展的、

from the outside, from Dublin,

不会说阿拉伯语的人来说，

Twitter lists, and lists of good sources,

推特上有很多好的信息来源

people we could establish were credible, were really important.

找到可靠的信息来源是非常重要的。

And how do you build a list like that from scratch?

我们如何从茫茫的信息海洋中甄选出这样一个名单呢？

Well, it can be quite difficult, but you have to know what to look for.

这相当有难度，但只要找对方法就可以实现。

This visualization was done by an Italian academic.

意大利学者 André Pannison

He's called André Pannison, and he basically

创造了这个效果图。

took the Twitter conversation in Tahrir Square

他集中了侯塞尼・穆巴拉克辞职的那一天

on the day that Hosni Mubarak would eventually resign,

来自解放广场的推特消息

and the dots you can see are retweets, so when someone

这些点都是转发

retweets a message, a connection is made between two dots,

如果有人转发了某一条消息，两个点就会建立联系，

and the more times that message is retweeted by other people,

一条信息被转发的次数越多

the more you get to see these nodes, these connections being made.

就会有越来越多的点出现，越来越多的联系建立。

And it's an amazing way of visualizing the conversation,

这是一种将推特互动视觉化的出色方式，

but what you get is hints at who is more interesting

可以从中看出哪些人发布的信息更意思

and who is worth investigating.

哪些人值得调查。

And as the conversation grew and grew, it became

随着互动的规模越来越大

more and more lively, and eventually you were left

状态越来越活跃

with this huge, big, rhythmic pointer of this conversation.

你就会找到这些互动中重要的、有规律的线索。

You could find the nodes, though, and then you went,

你可以找到这个点

and you go, "Right, I've got to investigate these people.

然后决定，“好，我要去调查一下这些人。

These are the ones that are obviously making sense.

这些的消息看起来似乎相对可靠。

Let's see who they are."

让我们来看看他们都是何方神圣。”

Now in the deluge of information, this is where

现在在信息的洪流中

the real-time web gets really interesting for a journalist like myself,

实时网络对于记者来说愈发有趣，

because we have more tools than ever

因为现在我们拥有比以往任何时候都更加丰富的工具

to do that kind of investigation.

来做此类调查。

And when you start digging into the sources, you can go

调查信息来源的工作

further and further than you ever could before.

也可以比以往深入许多。

Sometimes you come across a piece of content that

有时候你会遇到非常吸引人的素材

is so compelling, you want to use it, you're dying to use it,

你非常想采用它，

but you're not 100 percent sure if you can because

但因为不确定来源是否可靠

you don't know if the source is credible.

有所顾忌。

You don't know if it's a scrape. You don't know if it's a re-upload.

你不知道该素材是不是假的，不知道它是不是以前的内容被重新上传。

And you have to do that investigative work.

你必须进行调查。

And this video, which I'm going to let run through,

我即将为你们播放的这个视频

was one we discovered a couple of weeks ago.

是几周之前发现的。

Video: Getting real windy in just a second.

视频：风一下变的非常大。

(Rain and wind sounds)

（风雨声）

(Explosion) Oh, shit!

（爆炸）哦，天啊！

Markham Nolan: Okay, so now if you're a news producer, this is something

Markham Nolan：好了，如果你是新闻制作人

you'd love to run with, because obviously, this is gold.

你就会想要使用这段素材，这个视频非常棒。

You know? This is a fantastic reaction from someone,

这里面有一个人的自然反应，

very genuine video that they've shot in their back garden.

视频在后院拍摄，也相当真实。

But how do you find if this person, if it's true, if it's faked,

要怎么找到拍摄者呢？

or if it's something that's old and that's been reposted?

这个视频到底是真是假，是不是有人把老的内容重新上传到网上呢？

So we set about going to work on this video, and

所以我们开始对这段视频进行核实

the only thing that we had to go on was the username on the YouTube account.

一开始我们掌握的唯一信息就是一个YouTube的用户名。

There was only one video posted to that account,

用户名是Rita Krill，

and the username was Rita Krill.

这个账户也只上传过一个视频。

And we didn't know if Rita existed or if it was a fake name.

我们不知道Rita是否真的存在还是仅仅是一个假名。

But we started looking, and we used free Internet tools to do so.

所以我们利用免费的因特网工具开始调查。

The first one was called Spokeo, which allowed us to look for Rita Krills.

寻找Rita Krills的时候我们用到的第一个工具是Spokeo。

So we looked all over the U.S. We found them in New York,

我们在全美范围内搜索叫Rita Krills的人

we found them in Pennsylvania, Nevada and Florida.

在纽约、宾夕法尼亚、内华达和弗罗里达都有发现。

So we went and we looked for a second free Internet tool

接下来我们使用了第二个名叫

called Wolfram Alpha, and we checked the weather reports

Wolfram Alpha的免费网络工具，

for the day in which this video had been uploaded,

查到了视频上传当天各地的天气，

and when we went through all those various cities,

依次检查过所有有Rita Krill居住的城市之后，

we found that in Florida, there were thunderstorms and rain on the day.

我们发现弗罗里达那天有雷暴和大雨。

So we went to the white pages, and we found,

然后我们找到电话簿开始查询

we looked through the Rita Krills in the phonebook,

在其中找到好几个Rita Krills的地址

and we looked through a couple of different addresses,

我们在谷歌地图上

and that took us to Google Maps, where we found a house.

检索了她们的地址，并且找到了一幢类似的房子。

And we found a house with a swimming pool that looked

这座房子也有游泳池

remarkably like Rita's. So we went back to the video,

很Rita的十分相似。我们再次观看视频

and we had to look for clues that we could cross-reference.

寻找可以对照的线索。

So if you look in the video, there's the big umbrella,

仔细看视频的话你就会发现这里有一把很大的遮阳伞，

there's a white lilo in the pool,

游泳池里有一个白色的气垫，

there are some unusually rounded edges in the swimming pool,

游泳池的角形状比较特别，

and there's two trees in the background.

背景里有两棵树。

And we went back to Google Maps, and we looked a little bit closer,

我们再次打开谷歌地图，仔细核对

and sure enough, there's the white lilo,

这是白色的气垫

there are the two trees,

这是两棵树

there's the umbrella. It's actually folded in this photo.

这是遮阳伞。在这找图片里这把伞没有撑开。

Little bit of trickery. And there are the rounded edges on the swimming pool.

所以不容易看出来。这是游泳池有弧度的角。

So we were able to call Rita, clear the video,

随后我们致电Rita，核实真伪，

make sure that it had been shot, and then our clients

确定是她拍摄了这段视频，

were delighted because they were able to run it without being worried.

随后我们的客户就可以放心的使用这条素材了。

Sometimes the search for truth, though,

有时候追寻真相没有这么轻松，

is a little bit less flippant, and it has much greater consequences.

而是会带来深远的后果。

Syria has been really interesting for us, because obviously

我们一直对叙利亚很感兴趣

a lot of the time you're trying to debunk stuff that can be

你经常需要甄别那些可能构成

potentially war crime evidence, so this is where YouTube

战争犯罪证据的素材

actually becomes the most important repository

在这一方面，YouTube确实存储了

of information about what's going on in the world.

全世界范围内的大量时事信息。

So this video, I'm not going to show you the whole thing,

接下来这个视频画面相当血腥

because it's quite gruesome, but you'll hear some of the sounds.

所以我就不完整播放了，不过你们可以听到声音。

This is from Hama.

这个事件发生在哈马（叙利亚西部城市）。

Video: (Shouting)

播放视频：（喊叫声）

And what this video shows, when you watch the whole thing through,

这个视频的完整版记录的是

is bloody bodies being taken out of a pickup truck

人们从小货车上卸下血淋淋的尸体

and thrown off a bridge.

然后从桥上扔进河里。

The allegations were that these guys were Muslim Brotherhood

有传言说这些人来自穆斯林联盟

and they were throwing Syrian Army officers' bodies

正在将叙利亚军队士官的尸体

off the bridge, and they were cursing and using blasphemous language,

从桥上扔下去，一边扔嘴里还在诅咒，说一些渎神的话，

and there were lots of counterclaims about who they were,

但是，关于他们的身份，以及视频对他们的表现是否真实

and whether or not they were what the video said it was.

都有人持不同意见。

So we talked to some sources in Hama who we had been

所以我们找到了一些曾经在推特上和我们交流的线人

back and forth with on Twitter, and we asked them about this,

问他们对这个视频有什么看法，

and the bridge was interesting to us because it was something we could identify.

我们对这座桥特别感兴趣，因为它相对容易辨识。

Three different sources said three different things about the bridge.

三个线人对这座桥作出了不同的判断。

They said, one, the bridge doesn't exist.

第一个人说这座桥根本不存在。

Another one said the bridge does exist, but it's not in Hama. It's somewhere else.

第二个人说这座桥确实存在，但是不在哈马，在其它地方。

And the third one said, "I think the bridge does exist,

第三个人说，“我觉得这座桥确实存在，

but the dam upstream of the bridge was closed,

但是河流上游的堤坝是关闭的，

so the river should actually have been dry, so this doesn't make sense."

所以这条河应该是干的，视频与此矛盾。“

So that was the only one that gave us a clue.

最后一个线人给了我们一些线索。

We looked through the video for other clues.

我们仔细观看视频寻找其他的线索。

We saw the distinctive railings, which we could use.

我们找到了这种独特的栏杆，可以用来对照辨识。

We looked at the curbs. The curbs were throwing shadows south,

我们观察了路牙。路牙的影子朝南，

so we could tell the bridge was running east-west across the river.

所以这座桥是东西向横跨河流的。

It had black-and-white curbs.

路牙黑白相间。

As we looked at the river itself, you could see there's

我们再看这条河，可以发现

a concrete stone on the west side. There's a cloud of blood.

西边有混凝土石，水中有一滩血迹。

That's blood in the river. So the river is flowing

从血迹可以看出这条河

south to north. That's what that tells me.

从南向北流动。我们从视频中提炼出了这些信息。

And also, as you look away from the bridge,

从桥上看出去

there's a divot on the left-hand side of the bank,

可以发现何的左岸有一块草皮，

and the river narrows.

而且河流的宽度显著缩小。

So onto Google Maps we go, and we start

所以我们用谷歌地图

looking through literally every single bridge.

开始检查每一座桥。

We go to the dam that we talked about, we start just

我们找到线人提到的水坝

literally going through every time that road crosses the river,

然而检查每一次道路与河流相交的地方，

crossing off the bridges that don't match.

划掉那些不符合描述的桥梁。

We're looking for one that crosses east-west.

我们要找东西向横跨河流的桥。

And we get to Hama. We get all the way from the dam

我们从大坝一直检查到哈马

to Hama and there's no bridge.

都没有找到符合要求的桥梁。

So we go a bit further. We switch to the satellite view,

所以我们又继续努力。我们用卫星图像对照

and we find another bridge, and everything starts to line up.

找到了一座桥，与所有描述一一对应。

The bridge looks like it's crossing the river east to west.

这座桥东西向横跨河流。

So this could be our bridge. And we zoom right in.

所以很可能就是视频里那座。我们放大视图。

We start to see that it's got a median, so it's a two-lane bridge.

我们能看到中线，所以这是一座两车道的桥。

And it's got the black-and-white curbs that we saw in the video,

和视频中一样，它的人行道也是黑白相间的

and as we click through it, you can see someone's

再点击一下，我们发现有人上传了

uploaded photos to go with the map, which is very handy,

桥的照片，大大方便了我们的工作，

so we click into the photos. And the photos start showing us

我们打开这些照片，

more detail that we can cross-reference with the video.

找到了更多可以与视频对照的细节。

The first thing that we see is we see black-and-white curbing,

我们第一个看到的就是这黑白相间的路牙，

which is handy because we've seen that before.

很有价值，因为我们之前也找到过类似的证据。

We see the distinctive railing that we saw the guys

我们看到那些人扔尸体时

throwing the bodies over.

越过的、花纹独特的栏杆。

And we keep going through it until we're certain that this is our bridge.

进一步的比较对照证明这就是我们要找的那座桥。

So what does that tell me? I've got to go back now

这样的结果对我有什么意义呢？我现在必须

to my three sources and look at what they told me:

重新看看我的三个线人都给我提供了什么样的信息：

the one who said the bridge didn't exist,

一个说桥不存在

the one who said the bridge wasn't in Hama,

一个说桥不在哈马

and the one guy who said, "Yes, the bridge does exist, but I'm not sure about the water levels."

还有一个说”是的，有这座桥，但是我不确定现在水位如何。“

Number three is looking like the most truthful all of a sudden,

现在第三个人看起来最为可靠，

and we've been able to find that out using some free Internet tools

我们坐在都柏林的办公室小隔间里

sitting in a cubicle in an office in Dublin

使用免费的因特网工具

in the space of 20 minutes.

只要二十分钟就可以得出这样的结论。

And that's part of the joy of this. Although the web

这是相当有趣的。

is running like a torrent, there's so much information there

尽管网络信息好似洪流

that it's incredibly hard to sift and getting harder every day,

数量非常巨大，筛选越来越难，

if you use them intelligently, you can find out incredible information.

但如果你明智的使用网络，就能找到超乎想象的信息。

Given a couple of clues, I could probably find out

给我一两条线索，我就能找到

a lot of things about most of you in the audience that you might not like me finding out.

在座各位很多不想被人发现的信息。

But what it tells me is that, at a time when

这说明，在这样一个时代

there's more -- there's a greater abundance of information than there ever has been,

尽管信息前所未有的丰富

it's harder to filter, we have greater tools.

过滤越来越难，但我们也拥有更加有力的工具。

We have free Internet tools that allow us,

免费的网络工具

help us do this kind of investigation.

可以帮助我们开展调查。

We have algorithms that are smarter than ever before,

智能算法和电脑运算速度

and computers that are quicker than ever before.

也都发展到了前所未有的高度。

But here's the thing. Algorithms are rules. They're binary.

然而我们必须认识到，算法是一套规则，是建立在二进制的基础上的。

They're yes or no, they're black or white.

在算法的世界里只有绝对的对错和黑白。

Truth is never binary. Truth is a value.

然而真相不是二进制的。真相是一种价值观。

Truth is emotional, it's fluid, and above all, it's human.

真相涉及人的情感，是多变的，最重要的是，是人性化的。

No matter how quick we get with computers, no matter

无论电脑变得多快

how much information we have, you'll never be able

无论我们拥有多少信息

to remove the human from the truth-seeking exercise,

我们永远无法把人类排除在寻找真相的过程之外

because in the end, it is a uniquely human trait.

因为，追寻真相是属于人类的独特品质。

Thanks very much. (Applause)

非常感谢。（掌声）