美国国家公共电台 NPR Stephanie Busari: What Happens When Real News Is Dismissed As Fake?

 

GUY RAZ, HOST:

It's the TED¹ Radio Hour from NPR. I'm Guy Raz, and on the show today Truth and Lies. And what happens when people deny things that are objectively true, like this story you might remember from a couple of years ago?

Can you - can you introduce yourself, please?

STEPHANIE BUSARI: My name is Stephanie Busari. And I head up CNN's bureau in Lagos, Nigeria.

RAZ: On the night of April 14, 2014, something terrible happened that brought Stephanie to Nigeria.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Hundreds of young girls fast asleep in their beds are awakened² by the sound of gunfire.

BUSARI: Two hundred and seventy-six schoolgirls were waiting to sit an exam in Chibok Government Secondary School in northeast Nigeria, Borno State. And overnight the Boko Haram trucks arrived and these men burst in. Some of them were dressed as army, the military. And at first they thought it was the army, but they soon quickly realized that these were men who didn't have good intentions for them. And they were all rounded up. Some of them were on the phone to their parents, so the parents could hear their daughters being kidnapped. And just packed them all up and gathered them into trucks and kidnapped them.

RAZ: Boko Haram is an insurgency³ group that's been terrorizing northeast Nigeria for the past decade. And the story of the kidnapped girls, it quickly spread all around the world.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Bring back...

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #1: Our girls.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Bring back...

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #1: Our girls.

BUSARI: There can only be one reaction to a story like this, and it's outrage⁴, mass outrage.

RAZ: Politicians, celebrities⁵, activist⁶ groups - they all banded together. A huge social media campaign emerged. And their rallying cry? Bring back our girls.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #2: (Chanting) Bring back our girls now and alive.

RAZ: Even Michelle Obama made a video pleading for their return.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MICHELLE OBAMA: My husband and I are outraged⁷ and heartbroken over the kidnapping of...

RAZ: Meanwhile, Stephanie Busari was sent to Nigeria by CNN to investigate the story. And what she discovered surprised her because it turned out a lot of Nigerians didn't think the story was true. They thought it was all a big hoax⁸ made up by the Nigerian government. Stephanie picks up the story from the TED stage.

(SOUNDBITE OF TED TALK)

BUSARI: Influential⁹ Nigerians were telling us at the time that we were naive¹⁰, we didn't understand the political situation in Nigeria. But they also told us that the story of the Chibok girls was a hoax. Sadly, this hoax narrative¹¹ has persisted, and there are still people in Nigeria today who believe that the Chibok girls were never kidnapped. For two years, inevitably¹², the news agenda moved on. And for two years we didn't hear much about the Chibok girls. Everyone presumed they were dead. But in April last year I was able to obtain this video that Boko Haram filmed as proof of life.

But before I could publish it, I had to travel to the northeast of Nigeria to talk to the parents to verify it. One of the mothers, when she watched the video, told me that if she could have reached into the laptop and pulled out her child from the laptop she would have done so. For those of you who are parents like myself in the audience, you can only imagine the anguish¹³ that that mother felt. This video would go on to kick-start negotiation¹⁴ talks with Boko Haram. And a Nigerian senator told me that because of this video they entered into those talks, because they had long presumed that the Chibok girls were dead.

RAZ: So here's what I don't get, Stephanie. Why did people think that this was a hoax when it was so obviously true? I mean, there was tons of evidence.

BUSARI: I think certainly people are very cynical¹⁵ here. They're distrustful because they've been lied to and cheated and, you know, they've been through successive waves of governments who have not necessarily had their best interests at heart. So the default stance definitely is cynicism and, you know, skepticism. But, you know, with the Chibok girls, that was for me the most widespread example of people dismissing something that was so blatantly¹⁶ true. I had never experienced that on such a wide scale.

RAZ: So this idea doesn't come from nowhere. I mean, it comes from a long history of governments basically lying. And people are like, what do you expect us to believe?

BUSARI: Yes.

RAZ: So what do you think that people can do to - you know, to fight against this perception of fake news?

BUSARI: I just want people to be more careful about the information that they share, that they discover online because people are so quick to believe what - a piece of information that suits their agenda, that mirrors their worldview. They don't want to delve¹⁷ deeper to say, actually, you know what? Is this really true? Who is publishing this? Who has said this? And why do they say it? And what do they have to benefit from saying this? So, you know, do a bit more research. Don't just share it or take it at face value, you know?

RAZ: Are there still a lot of people in Nigeria who still think this story is a hoax?

BUSARI: Less and less so now. The girls have started to come back because of negotiation talks with Boko Haram and Nigerian government. And, you know, what can't be faked is the scenes of unbridled joy at the reunion with the parents and their daughters. One mother picked up her daughter and put her on her back. You know, like, how mothers carry babies on their back? She tried to put her on her back.

RAZ: Yeah.

BUSARI: And you cannot forget scenes like that. So people are seeing these things and they're saying, OK, hang on a second, you know, maybe it wasn't fake. So but, you know, even now people believe that it's fake, the Chibok girls story is fake. It's fake news. And I think people just believe what they want to believe in that instance.

RAZ: Stephanie Busari is a reporter for CNN in Lagos, Nigeria. You can hear her full talk at ted.com.

1 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

2 awakened   

v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到

参考例句：

• She awakened to the sound of birds singing. 她醒来听到鸟的叫声。
• The public has been awakened to the full horror of the situation. 公众完全意识到了这一状况的可怕程度。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 insurgency   

n.起义；暴动；叛变

参考例句：

• And as in China, unrest and even insurgency are widespread. 而在中国，动乱甚至暴乱都普遍存在。 来自互联网
• Dr Zyphur is part an insurgency against this idea. 塞弗博士是这一观点逆流的一部分。 来自互联网

4 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

5 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

6 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

7 outraged   

a.震惊的，义愤填膺的

参考例句：

• Members of Parliament were outraged by the news of the assassination. 议会议员们被这暗杀的消息激怒了。
• He was outraged by their behavior. 他们的行为使他感到愤慨。

8 hoax   

v.欺骗，哄骗，愚弄；n.愚弄人，恶作剧

参考例句：

• They were the victims of a cruel hoax.他们是一个残忍恶作剧的受害者。
• They hoax him out of his money.他们骗去他的钱。

9 influential   

adj.有影响的，有权势的

参考例句：

• He always tries to get in with the most influential people.他总是试图巴结最有影响的人物。
• He is a very influential man in the government.他在政府中是个很有影响的人物。

10 naive   

adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的

参考例句：

• It's naive of you to believe he'll do what he says.相信他会言行一致，你未免太单纯了。
• Don't be naive.The matter is not so simple.你别傻乎乎的。事情没有那么简单。

11 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

12 inevitably   

adv.不可避免地；必然发生地

参考例句：

• In the way you go on,you are inevitably coming apart.照你们这样下去，毫无疑问是会散伙的。
• Technological changes will inevitably lead to unemployment.技术变革必然会导致失业。

13 anguish   

n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼

参考例句：

• She cried out for anguish at parting.分手时，她由于痛苦而失声大哭。
• The unspeakable anguish wrung his heart.难言的痛苦折磨着他的心。

14 negotiation   

n.谈判，协商

参考例句：

• They closed the deal in sugar after a week of negotiation.经过一星期的谈判，他们的食糖生意成交了。
• The negotiation dragged on until July.谈判一直拖到7月份。

15 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。

16 blatantly   

ad.公开地

参考例句：

• Safety guidelines had been blatantly ignored. 安全规章被公然置之不顾。
• They walked grandly through the lobby, blatantly arm in arm, pretending they were not defeated. 他们大大方方地穿过门厅，故意炫耀地挎着胳膊，假装他们没有被打败。

17 delve   

v.深入探究，钻研

参考例句：

• We should not delve too deeply into this painful matter.我们不应该过分深究这件痛苦的事。
• We need to delve more deeply into these questions.这些是我们想进一步了解的。