Fake News: Fact and Fiction from BBC

Learning English. In this series we're

looking at a topic that's on the tip of

everyone's tongues: fake news. Yes fake

news - we'll find out what it is and what it

isn't. We'll look at where it comes from

and how it can be dangerous and we'll

also show you

how you can become a fake news

detective with tips and suggestions for

developing your critical thinking skills.

We're starting today with the look at the

word fake itself - what does it actually

mean and how do we use it? Over to you,

Sam. Okay, well actually, thank you Hugo,

I want to show you something I prepared

earlier so it's really over to me, Sam

So what do we know about the word

fake? The word fake is first recorded in

the late 18th century.

It's slang used by criminals in

London with meanings connected to their

illegal activities. Today it can be an

adjective, a noun or a verb and is used

when talking about things that are not

real, not genuine but are designed to

make people think that they are real or are

genuine. So where do we see this word?

The news is full of stories of fakes - fake

works of art, fake concert tickets, fake

documents and fake qualifications to

name only a few. In some places you can

buy fake designer goods even knowingly

or unknowingly. However those looking

for a bargain could end up with

dangerous fake goods

or even fake medicines. All these kinds

of fakes can be called counterfeit.

Being fake isn't always for criminal

reasons, though. People and how they act

can be called fake too, like smiling,

laughing being injured and even, even,

even, yes, not confident but want to ace

that job interview - fake it till you make it.

And sometimes what is fake

is more ethical. For example, if you wear

fur is it real or fake? Fake fur is

regarded to be more ethical so much so

that real fur is sometimes labelled as

fake. So knowing what is real and what is

fake and what is fake fake can be tricky.

How do we choose what to buy, where to

go, even where to stay? Many of us look

at reviews online but even then we have

to watch out for fakes. The digital world

of social media and the internet are

places where it can be very difficult to tell

what is fake and what is real and that

brings us to perhaps the most common

phrase associated with the word fake

these days - fake news

Fake news - do you hear what I am

saying?

Something different here...Yes, so

obviously those were fake ears.

And that's a fake laugh but it's a comedy

classic fake ears really just to

demonstrate that not everything fake is

bad. And can I say that laugh was a

counterfeit laugh? That's a really good

question actually but no. So we use the

word counterfeit to describe real

objects, real things that are fakes or

for example documents money, paintings,

jewellery, they can all be counterfeit but

a laugh no matter how fake or false is

not counterfeit no. And you, have you had

any experience with fake things? So I did

have a friend who was setting up his own

business and he did ask me to write him

a fake review online. What happened?

Ah no comment. What about you? I

haven't bought anything fake or

counterfeit but I think we've seen you

know fake t-shirts, fake shoes, bags

everywhere right. But now let's turn to

fake news itself. Yes. So the words fake

and news as we know have existed

separately for a very long time but as a

journalist Hugo, when did you start seeing

them together being used as a thing. I

think we all became more familiar with it

in the 2016 election campaign in the US

because Donald Trump was a big fan of it

to essentially dismiss

anything he didn't like but you may be

surprised to find out that he wasn't

actually the first one to use it. Earlier

I was joined by Mike Wendling from BBC

Trending. He's written a piece called 'The

almost complete history of fake news' and

he was here to explain more about the

recent history of this term.

So people may be surprised that Donald

Trump wasn't you know the first one to

use it back in the election in 2016. No

actually it was his opponent Hillary

Clinton who was the first person to utter

the words fake news and she was

describing a process by which people

were inventing stories and they were

going viral on social media. These stories

were fake, they were being written... there

was a famous example that was

uncovered by BuzzFeed where these

stories were being

written by people in Macedonia and those

people weren't necessarily interested in

Trump or interested in bashing Hillary

Clinton. What they were interested in was

money. Through Facebook they could

draw people into their websites and then

make money off of advertising and

that's why they wrote these

sensationalised completely made-up

stories that we now have come to know

as fake news.

And misinformation you know fake news

has existed for many many

years right but now the difference is

social media and how easy it is to you

know spread this kind of disinformation.

That's right - there's always been

mistakes, propaganda, spin, or just lies by

political candidates, that has always

existed. This is a new type of

information and a new type of how

information spreads online and what that

means is that it can be spread faster

than ever before by people who might be

anonymous or might be thousands of

kilometres away. So it's really a

challenge for

media organisations, social media

organisations and really all of us to

try and figure out how to separate the

truth from the fiction. And you can find

out more about Mike's work on the BBC

Trending blog on the BBC News website

and also on the BBC World Service. Mike

thanks for joining us. Thank you.

So Sam, what did you make about what

Mike was saying there? I thought it was

really really interesting and he mentioned

words like spin and propaganda which we

are going to talk about more in a later

programme but one word I wanted to pick up

today was the term 'viral' that he used. So

viral is the adjective and it comes from

the noun virus which as you know is a

medical term and as you also know a

virus can spread really, really quickly

so when we use something viral when we

use the term viral, to go viral online, it

basically means it spreads really really

quickly across the Internet. Yes we all

know about it, very interesting. Now

before we wrap up for today, Sam, remind

us about the word fake. OK, absolutely.

So fake means not real it is not genuine

and grammatically the word fake can be a

verb. So you can fake a smile, you can

fake a laugh, as Hugo did before, you

can also fake being confident. It can

also be a noun so a picture is a fake,

the diamond ring my grandmother left me

was a fake for example, and it is

commonly used as an adjective so I was

talking earlier about the fake review

which I of course didn't write and also

if you're unlucky you might buy fake

tickets for a concert or things like

that. If we're talking about fake objects

like documents, money or copies of

well-known brands for example you can

also use the word counterfeit. Thank you,

Sam and that's all from us today. Do

join us again next time on Fake News:

Fact and Fiction.

Thank you, bye-bye. Goodbye.