【精英翻譯】的部落格

Don't Believe Everything You Read on the Internet 網路新聞不可盡信

精英翻譯社轉自https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0054/370759/web/

The Internet is free, open, far-reaching, and available to everyone. Its invention represented a new era for sharing information. Yet these strengths can also be weaknesses. From the very beginning, some people used the Internet to spread lies and misinformation. More recently, they have been getting pretty good at it. Welcome to the era of "fake news."

網路擁有免費、公開、無遠弗屆且人人唾手可得的特性。網路問世後，可說是建立一個共享資訊的新世代。但這樣的優勢也可能是缺點。很早就有人利用網路散播謊言和誤導資訊。近期更有人駕馭自如，創造了充斥「假新聞」的世代。

A fake news story has three key ingredients. The first one is the most straightforward—the news is simply false. Maybe it's one little fact, or maybe the whole story is a work of fiction. But something in there is not true. After all, fake news is called "fake" for a reason.

假新聞通常具備三大元素。第一也是最明顯的特徵：新聞本身就是捏造而來。也許會摻雜一點事實，或是虛構整篇報導。總之文章裡會有不實資訊，畢竟「假新聞」此名稱非浪得虛名。

The second ingredient is where things get tricky. Fake news stories are always made to resemble the real thing. The story might appear on a website that looks and sounds very official. It might also look like people are talking about the story a lot on social media. But in reality, these people aren't people at all. They're often just bots that are sharing a fake news story to make it look real.

第二種元素則較為棘手。假新聞通常會以假亂真，將文章發表於看似官方設立的網站上，或是營造一種該報導在社群媒體上備受網友討論的現象。但事實上，這些網友並非真有其人，而是負責分享假新聞的「網路機器人」，目的是為了呈現逼真的效果。

The third ingredient of fake news is that there's an agenda behind it. Real news is just news—it's something that happens. Fake news is a weapon. Someone out there is spreading it with a goal in mind. This goal might be political, like using fake news to hurt certain politicians or political parties. It could also be financial, like using fake news to make money. But make no mistake: there's a reason behind every fake news story.

第三種假新聞元素就是醉翁之意不在酒。真新聞通常就是確實發生過的事件。假新聞卻可作為一種武器。有人可能另有目的而刻意散播假新聞，也許是為了某種政治意圖，像是利用假新聞來中傷特定政客或政黨。也許是為了經濟層面，利用假新聞來圖利。但是請務必謹記：每一則假新聞皆事出必有因。

Fake news is everywhere on the Internet these days. Companies like Facebook and Google don't want to get involved with deciding what is "real." As a result, many people can't identify fake news when it shows up in their social media. That means you must always be alert, and question what you read on the Internet!

現今網路上的假新聞比比皆是。臉書和谷歌等公司不想干涉篩選新聞真偽一事，因此很多人無法分辨此類社群媒體所顯示的新聞資訊是真是假。也就是說，大家務必隨時提高警覺，閱讀網路文章時，一定要先抱持懷疑的態度！