【英语语言学习】这些视频是真实的吗？

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

 

More and more news organizations are finding and sourcing content through social media. Whether it's evidence of chemical attacks in Syria, the Boston bombing, or the fake-out video of an eagle snatching a baby, the problem for old-school news organizations is sorting out what's real and what's fake. And that's where a company called Storyful comes in.

 

NPR's Sami Yenigun reports.

 

SAMI YENIGUN, BYLINE¹: Whether it's an uprising in Egypt...

 

(SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING PROTESTERS)

 

YENIGUN: ...or a video of a fake twerking session gone awry²...

 

(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)

 

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Oh, my God.

 

YENIGUN: ...news outlets³ need to know everything they can about a video before they run with it, says Storyful's executive editor, David Clinch⁴.

 

DAVID CLINCH: We use the same forensic⁵ process of discovery and verification for Syria as we do for hoax⁶ videos.

 

YENIGUN: Since 2010, Storyful has worked with companies like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, ABC and others to make YouTube videos, tweets, and cellphone snapshots a major part of the news cycle.

 

CLINCH: When a story breaks, there is no shortage of content that exists. But the problems are finding it in the first place but, most importantly, verifying that it's real.

 

YENIGUN: When bombs went off at the Boston Marathon last April, the earliest news reports surfaced on social media. Storyful's job was to sift⁷ through the noise to help their clients deliver the news.

 

CLINCH: For instance, there was a video that everyone ended up using of a woman running down a street with a GoPro camera attached to her head.

 

(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)

 

YENIGUN: Storyful started working to verify that this video was actually an eyewitness⁸ account. To do that, David Clinch says, they first needed to find the source.

 

CLINCH: It was uploaded with a username that really wasn't a real name.

 

YENIGUN: NekoAngel3Wolf, an account with no personal details, so Storyful searched Twitter to see who'd been sharing the video. They found a user named NightNeko3.

 

CLINCH: We were able to connect that user name to a Pinterest account that had a real name.

 

YENIGUN: From that social media profile, the name was linked to a Facebook account, and Storyful checked the list of marathon runners.

 

CLINCH: We saw a person with the same name who stopped her marathon run at exactly the point where that explosion was seen in the video.

 

YENIGUN: Then they flipped⁹ through the public phone book.

 

CLINCH: Rang her up and worked out that that was actually her in that video, and that her daughter had uploaded that video.

 

YENIGUN: This type of digging is just one way that Storyful vets¹⁰ amateur videos. Everything from the length of a shadow to a digital blemish¹¹ can be used as a clue to determine if something is actually what it claims to be. But there's another reason Storyful reaches out to users, and that's to broker¹² deals between people and news providers.

 

Jennifer Preston is a reporter for the Lede Blog at The New York Times. She says, when The Times wants to post a video to its player...

 

JENNIFER PRESTON: Our practice would be to reach out to that person and to get permission, and to pay them.

 

YENIGUN: But YouTube videos are a different story and viral videos can make big bucks¹³ on the Web. YouTube has a revenue sharing setup where money from advertising¹⁴ is split between the uploader and the website. But as Andrew Springer, senior editor for social media at ABC News, points out, news organizations like his and The Times generally don't pay to embed¹⁵ YouTube videos.

 

ANDREW SPRINGER: During the Boston bombing when we were clearing videos and we were clearing photos that were tweeted or YouTubed, or whatever, nobody came back to us and said: Yeah, you can use my video of the Boston bombing if you pay me X amount of dollars.

 

YENIGUN: There's an obvious upside to news groups being able to gather content for free. But David Clinch says he hopes to change this Wild West attitude to what he calls a more ethical¹⁶ model, where people are paid for what they upload. He calls it a win-win-win.

 

CLINCH: The people who own the content get courtesy and part of the revenue. The platforms and the news organizations that want to use it know that they have permission to do that, and also know that they can generate significant views and revenue themselves by adopting this model.

 

YENIGUN: Storyful is acting¹⁷ as a third party resource for mainstream¹⁸ news outlets around the world. But places like the BBC, Al-Jazeera, and NPR have in-house teams that are doing many of the same things.

 

CLINCH: Any news company that thinks they can survive and thrive using only traditional news content is missing the point and is missing a huge element of what the future of news is.

 

YENIGUN: And as the line between social and traditional media gets blurrier by the second, news organizations hope to keep the facts in focus.

 

Sami Yenigun, NPR News.

 

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 awry   

adj.扭曲的，错的

参考例句：

• She was in a fury over a plan that had gone awry. 计划出了问题，她很愤怒。
• Something has gone awry in our plans.我们的计划出差错了。

3 outlets   

n.出口( outlet的名词复数 )；经销店；插座；廉价经销店

参考例句：

• The dumping of foreign cotton blocked outlets for locally grown cotton. 外国棉花的倾销阻滞了当地生产的棉花的销路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They must find outlets for their products. 他们必须为自己的产品寻找出路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 clinch   

v.敲弯，钉牢；确定；扭住对方 [参]clench

参考例句：

• Clinch the boards together.用钉子把木板钉牢在一起。
• We don't accept us dollars,please Swiss francs to clinch a deal business.我方不收美元，请最好用瑞士法郎来成交生意。

5 forensic   

adj.法庭的，雄辩的

参考例句：

• The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
• The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后，法官于10时30分宣布休庭。

6 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。

7 sift   

v.筛撒，纷落，详察

参考例句：

• Sift out the wheat from the chaff.把小麦的壳筛出来。
• Sift sugar on top of the cake.在蛋糕上面撒上糖。

8 eyewitness   

n.目击者，见证人

参考例句：

• The police questioned several eyewitness to the murder.警察询问了谋杀案的几位目击者。
• He was the only eyewitness of the robbery.他是那起抢劫案的唯一目击者。

9 flipped   

轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转，撞毁了。
• The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。

10 vets   

abbr.veterans （复数）老手，退伍军人；veterinaries （复数）兽医n.兽医( vet的名词复数 )；老兵；退伍军人；兽医诊所v.审查（某人过去的记录、资格等）( vet的第三人称单数 )；调查；检查；诊疗

参考例句：

• I helped train many young vets and veterinary nurses too. 我还帮助培训了许多年青的兽医和护士。 来自互联网
• In fact, we've expanded mental health counseling and services for our vets. 实际上，我们已经扩大了退伍军人的心理健康咨询和服务。 来自互联网

11 blemish   

v.损害；玷污；瑕疵，缺点

参考例句：

• The slightest blemish can reduce market value.只要有一点最小的损害都会降低市场价值。
• He wasn't about to blemish that pristine record.他本不想去玷污那清白的过去。

12 broker   

n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排

参考例句：

• He baited the broker by promises of higher commissions.他答应给更高的佣金来引诱那位经纪人。
• I'm a real estate broker.我是不动产经纪人。

13 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

15 embed   

vt.把…嵌(埋、插)入，扎牢；使深留脑中

参考例句：

• The harpoon struck but did not embed.鱼叉击中了但并没有插入。
• This photo showed us how did the root of plant embed the soil deeply.这张照片显示植物的根是如何深入到土壤里去的。

16 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

17 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

18 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。