Fake News: Fact & Fiction - Episode 5: Why do people share fake news?

Hello and welcome to Fake News: Fact and Fiction, from BBC Learning English. I'm Hugo. And I'm Sam.

In the programme today, we'll look at some of the reasons people share fake news. We'll hear from disinformation researcher Samantha Bradshaw. One reason why people share fake news that they know is fake, has to do with this thing that we call identity signalling.

Identity signalling. Have you heard of that Sam? Not until I saw the script for this programme actually.

Ah, so make sure you keep watching to find out what identity signalling is and how it's a part of the spread of fake news. Before we get to that, we have some key vocabulary which you're going to tell us about Sam. What do you have for us today?

Yes, so today I am talking about: agenda, actors and motives. If you have to go to meetings and who doesn't love a good meeting? I hate them.

They're such a waste of time. You will probably be familiar with agendas. An agenda is a list of things that are going to be discussed at the meeting.

But there is another meaning of the word 'agenda' that is important in the area of fake news. If an individual or organisation or a government 'has an agenda', it means that there is something they want to achieve. This could be clearly stated objectives.

But having an agenda can also suggest a secret or hidden aim. Let's park the word agenda for the moment because there is another word I want to talk about that has a very well-known meaning but also another meaning which is perhaps not so well-known - actor. It's probably a very familiar word.

Somebody who performs on stage or in films is an actor. But the same word is used to describe a person, group or even a state that has an agenda that's either politically or economically motivated and they have influence or power that they use to promote that agenda. In this context you can hear the phrases: state actors, political actors, and even - bad actors.

State actors are governments, political actors are those with, you guessed it, political power and agendas and bad actors - well that doesn't mean people who aren't very good at acting. A bad actor uses power or influence in a dishonest way to push a hidden agenda. They're trying to achieve something but it's not clear what it is.

And it's not clear who is doing it. For example, if a government from one country wants to influence an election in another country, they may spread fake news stories but hide the fact that they're doing it. This could be described as the actions of a bad actor or a bad state actor.

People who spread disinformation online may not be doing it because they believe it but because it suits their agenda. This spreading of disinformation can be very sophisticated and the motives of those doing it are often not obvious. Motive.

That's another useful word in this context. If you like TV crime dramas, and who doesn't love a good crime drama? , - me, I never really understand them - you will often hear the word 'motive'.

"He can't be guilty. He didn't have a motive. " A motive is a reason for doing something and not everyone's motives for what they post online are genuine.

But how can you tell? Let's go back to the studio to see if there are any more useful tips. Thanks for that Sam.

Really interesting, I was really impressed with your acting there. Well, I may be a bad actor but I'm not a bad actor. My motives are purely genuine.

Well that's an interesting point about fake news I think. We've heard that fake news is produced by people who may want to make money or have a political or social agenda. Those are their motives, but they can only be successful if we share those stories.

Absolutely. But why do people share news, stories, images that are fake? Well researcher Samantha Bradshaw from the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University shared her observations with us earlier.

People share fake news for a variety of reasons. In many cases sometimes people don't even realise the stories that they're sharing are fake. They might find the content funny or humorous or they might think that people in their network such as their friends or family or broader acquaintances might enjoy this content.

Another reason people might share fake news has to do with the emotional appeal of fake news because it tends to be very negative. It tends to also elicit a reaction from people and they might be angry and they might type and share and discuss what is being talked about in this article because they find it so outrageous that they need to share it. The third reason why people might share fake news has to do with what we call 'identity signalling' where people know that the information being shared in this story is false.

But the purpose of sharing it is to signal to a broader community that they share certain values that are reflected in that news story. And so it gives people a sense of belonging and fitting into a broader community of people. Has much more to do with identity than the actual facts of the story.

So what do you make of that Sam? OK, well, I can definitely see how we might accidentally share things that aren't true for, for example I sometimes see some amazing photos that I find out later are actually photoshopped. and things that might make me angry can make me reach for the share button.

But what stood out for me was this idea of identity signalling. We might want to show that we belong to a particular group. We share some beliefs and opinions and that it really doesn't matter whether the content is true or not.

And this is something that the people who produce fake news know well and they know how to make us share those stories. Here's Samantha Bradshaw again. So the purveyors of fake news will use a variety of strategies to get people clicking and sharing their content.

One of these strategies has to do with just the style that fake news stories are often written in. They'll tend to use highly emotional language and content also that gets people's emotions high. And this is because psychologically we also like to share this kind of information.

And this kind of content, especially highly emotive content, will go much further because of the algorithms of the platforms. And we also know that emotions like anger, outrage, fear are much stronger emotions than things like happiness and joy. And so that's why we see disinformation and fake news stories go viral compared to facts and the boring truth and the mundane truth behind our factual daily news briefs.

We of course still see our cat memes and cute animal videos going viral too because joy and happiness is a strong emotion but it's not quite as strong as things like anger and fear. Now we know that many fake news stories are very emotive. They generate strong emotions; the sense that something's not fair or people or organisations are doing things they shouldn't and that can make us look for other content to support that feeling.

Yeah but good to know the cute cat videos are being shared too. And dogs don't forget dogs! But she also talked about algorithms, the algorithms that social media companies use.

So Sam what is an algorithm? OK, thanks for that Hugo! I might get into trouble here from computer experts but let's have a go.

Have you ever lost a huge amount of time because, for example, you've gone on YouTube to watch a video and then you see a list of suggested related videos which start playing automatically? All the time, all the time. I think we've all done that.

Absolutely. So you click on one video and then another and another and another and then it's been hours and hours and hours. Exactly.

Yeah. OK. So what's this got to do with algorithms?

Well an algorithm is a set of instructions a computer system follows to complete a particular task. Social media companies use algorithms to make that list of related videos just for you. These are personalised based on your behaviour online and they get us clicking.

This is because the companies want to keep you on their platforms for as long as possible. That's how they make their money. The longer you're on their site the more links you click the more advertisements you see and the more cash they collect.

And the more we click on a particular kind of story, the more the algorithms give us similar content. Now there's nothing necessarily wrong with that because I guess after all we're getting a free service which has to be paid for somehow. But it does mean that we usually don't see things that we don't like, that we don't agree with.

And this can make us feel that our view, our opinion is the right one which everyone shares. Which is why I think it's a good idea to try and look for different opinions. So we don't end up thinking that everyone thinks the way we do.

So does that mean after watching all your cat videos you search for dog videos, for a bit of balance? I love cats and dogs equally actually but that's not exactly what I was thinking. I'm just putting your leg there.

Sam please remind us of today's vocabulary. Certainly Hugo. So we started with 'agenda' which is a plan of things to be done.

And it's a hidden, and if it's a hidden agenda, it means the reason for someone's actions might be secret or hidden. Then there was the word 'actor'. In the context of fake news an actor is someone with an agenda that uses power and influence to try and promote that agenda.

A 'motive' is a reason for doing something. And like hidden agendas sometimes the motives for a particular action on the Internet are not always clear and transparent. Samantha Bradshaw talked about identity signalling.

This is the description of behaviour online when people share things without being interested in whether they're true or not. What's important is not how true it is but that it demonstrates that they think in the same way or share the same beliefs as the group. And finally 'algorithm'.

An algorithm is a set of software instructions that for example can produce a personalised list of recommended videos based on what an individual has searched for or watched in the past. Thank you Sam. That was very comprehensive.

That's all from us today. We look forward to your company again soon. Goodbye.

And stay safe. Bye bye!