S06 - 1 News

Native English speakers answer exam-style questions about the news.

In this episode you will learn lots of key vocabulary about the news as well as some advanced phrasal verbs and idioms. You can practice listening to American accents, British accents and Irish accents too.

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For transcripts - https://realexamenglish.com/podcast/

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Music: Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesome
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Real Exam English podcast, this episode is about the news. This is a great topic to cover as we are living in an age where we are bombarded with so much news, from so many sources. It’s a topic that comes up pretty often in exams so it´s essential to know the key vocabulary, plenty of which you will hear today. As we are speaking of it, I highly recommend reading, watching or listening to the news in English as it is a super way to acquire language, and ideas, on a whole range of subjects. We have a couple of speakers from the US today, a couple from the UK and a couple from Ireland too, so lots of different accents for you to practice listening to.

For transcripts of the episode, go to realexamenglish.com or check out the link in  the shownotes.

Here we go with the first question:

What was the most memorable or impactful news story that you have ever watched? 

There's two. The first one was Princess Diana passing away. I watched that. I was, it was very, very early in the morning. My friend was staying over and the TV was on and I saw the news coverage that was happening and it was really shocking to me. I'm not a royalist, but it was so out of the blue that it really shook me as a teenager. And the second was the Twin Towers, the 9/11. That was awful and very, it kept me in a state of, I'm not comfortable with going to the city and kept myself on edge because of it. 

What impact do you think citizen journalism has on professional journalism? 

I feel that Professional journalists will have a non-biased viewpoint around the news that they're covering. That is what they're trained for. That is what they learned to do at university or college. Whereas citizen journalism, there is going to be personal viewpoints and there is not the slick coverage that you may get when it comes to professional journalism. So we're seeing a raw and real side of it, but we're also seeing a potentially biased side. 

A biased side. You are going to hear that word a lot today, in one form or another. So biased means unfairly prejudiced, for or against someone or something. She also used the negative form here, she said professional journalists have a non-biased viewpoint, and also that they have slick coverage. Slick means that the coverage is smooth and looks really smart and professional. Another example would be, once the musician signed for the record company the sound became much slicker. In contrast then, she said that amateur journalists were more raw and real. Raw in this context means unedited, maybe showing stuff that could be disturbing for the viewer.

In her first answer she mentioned Princess Diana dying and how that coverage really shook her. If something shakes you, it really upsets you and worries you. Like, I was shaken by the news that my company was closing down. Similarly, she said after the twin towers she felt on edge, meaning tense and nervous. Like, while I was waiting for the results of my medical test I was on edge 24/7.

We also had a nice phrasal verb, to stay over. Her friend was staying over when they heard the news about princess Diana. So to stay over means to sleep there for the night. And then they heard the news out of the blue. Super useful idiom that one, meaning suddenly or unexpectedly. For instance, my friend called me out of the blue to let me know he was going to visit me, so I told him he could stay over!

Which news sources do you trust the most and why?

I think ones that I'm most familiar with, I suppose, is an easy answer to give and like that would be my go-to would be the Irish Times newspaper. My opinion is that it's more balanced than maybe other publications or other news sites, gives a fairer view potentially. But again, maybe I'm wrong. I tend to stay away from main news channels on television because again, they're very led by one direction that they want to go in. And you very often get one side of a story and not the real side of the story that you want to hear. So I think, yeah, the…what I've become used to, I suppose, is where I will go mostly for and probably trust that most.

In what ways should the media be regulated?

Yeah, regulation is an interesting word because where does it stop being regulation and where does it start becoming control? So if there was to be regulation, I think, fact-checking would be maybe part of that to make sure that the news that is being given or presented is accurate. But again, how would you regulate that? Who's doing the regulation? That's the other side of it, so.

Alright, some nice vocabulary here. Firstly, he said his go-to is the Irish Times newspaper. Your go-to is something or someone you rely on for help or in particular situations. Another example would be, John is my go-to guy for repairing technology, or when I need to relax in evenings, hot chocolate is my go-to drink.

We had some more news-related vocabulary, he said the Irish Times is more balanced and fairer than other publications or news sites. Nice comparatives there, and also it’s good to use publications, rather than just saying newspapers. In the second answer, he mentioned fact-checking as potentially being part of regulation. This, of course, is when you check how true or accurate the information is. This is useful vocabulary for discussing or writing about this topic, especially in the world we live in now. Another example of this one would be, I fact-checked the president’s speech and half of what he said wasn’t true. 

What is your preferred method of getting the news?

The news actually kind of follows me. It'll pop up. You can't avoid it. So it's usually like the New York Times or CNN or something has popped up on the Facebook feeds or the Insta feeds. And I'll read it that way. I can't tell you that I sit down and watch the news unless something has occurred in which I'm like, oh, I need to figure out what's happening with that. Otherwise, it just kind of chases me or like my husband is a news watcher. He's a real big history buff. So I will get my information from my personal reporter.

Do you believe that journalists should try and be more positive in their reporting?

I think journalists should be very honest in their reporting and they should just tell the facts. And they shouldn't sway it one way or the other. Yeah, that's, either side may be in any country, we'll call it right, left, north-south, whatever it is. Both sides are always so quick to only see it on their side. And confirmation bias is a huge thing. So you, so you're just going to believe the person that resounds with what I think that person sucks. So when that person says, yeah, they're right, they're right. If we all just said, this is what has happened, these are the things that what happened. And you can voice your personal opinion on blogs. You know, on your personal pages, you know, there. But the news, like this feel good articles like, oh my God, the little kitty that little Timmy found that was in the well, you know? Yeah. Okay, good news, good feels, all that stuff. There's a war in this place. That is sad. But you should not say, I am sad because this person caused it and this person was wrong. Like, is that your opinion or is that fact?

Good question. In the first answer she mentioned that the news pops up on her Facebook or Insta feeds. Pop up, we had that one recently in another episode, meaning to appear and your Insta feeds refers to the stream of content that appears on your Instagram account. This actually comes up in another answer later on too, so is definitely key vocabulary when talking about the news nowadays. Other useful news vocabulary was that journalists shouldn’t sway their reporting one way or the other, meaning they shouldn’t incline their reporting to one side side or other, often with the intention of persuading people about something. For instance, the national TV channel always sways the news in favour of the government. Or the population was swayed into believing immigration was bad by the constant anti-immigrant stories on their social media platform. 

Also, we had another version of bias here, confirmation bias. This is where we look for and prefer information that supports our preexisting beliefs, and we ignore any evidence to the contrary. As the speaker said, in her lovely New York accent, if someone says that this guy sucks, and that resounds with you, then you are going to believe him, whether it’s true or not. I guess we are all guilty of this to some extent these days and it undoubtedly is a factor in why there is much polarization in our society these days, we fall for the rage bait and the sensationalist headlines. Perhaps, we should all break out of our echo chambers sometimes and listen to the other side of the argument! A little bit of nice vocab for you there.

If you would like to learn some more vocabulary, or grammar, or practice your reading or writing or listening or speaking, then you should check out my application for learning English. It’s been going for 2 months now and the feedback is really positive. I’ve designed the app around the key topics you need for English exams, things like technology, travel, the environment, etc. And have included all of the advanced grammar that you are expected to study to achieve an advanced level. It also has speaking and writing exercises, where you get instant feedback from the AI coach, about your pronunciation, language, task achievement and bunch of other stuff. And the best thing is that it is designed specifically for you and your needs. When you enter the app you tell it what areas you want to work on, what your level is, what your objectives are and it designs an app just for you. And as it runs with AI, it picks up on your errors as you use it and builds this in to your learning plan. If that sounds like something that would help you achieve your language goals then check it out at studio.com/realexamenglish, I’ll put a link in the shownotes too. 

Which news sources do you trust the most and why?

Unfortunately, I'm increasingly becoming less trusting of many of them. I would say The New York Times, The Guardian, would be too. Generally, El Pais here in Spain seems to give me a fair read, The Economist. But I'm not always convinced. So sometimes, I wish there were more sources that are readily available. But many times, what comes across one's feed, I tend to be suspect of.

what was the most memorable or impactful news story you've ever watched?

Probably watching in real time 9/11 unfold. Yeah. You know, that was, you know, it went on and on, but actually that moment of seeing all of, you know, one airplane, no, now it's two airplane, like watching that and being, watching it happen live.

Some useful adverbs here. She said unfortunately, I’m increasingly becoming less trusting of them. Increasingly is like a fancier version of more and more. And then she said I wish there were more sources that are readily available. This collocation readily available means easy to find or get your hands on. Like, as I live in the countryside fresh vegetables are readily available. Or information about taking classes with Trevor is readily available on his website, realexamenglish.com

She finished her first answer with what comes across one’s feed, I tend to be suspect of. Ok so we have the feed mentioned again and then this adjective suspect. Ok so suspect can be a verb or a noun too but here is it used as an adjective. You may be asking, what about suspicious? Isn’t that the same? Well, more or less. If something is suspect the reasons for your suspicion are a little more direct or self-evident. Like if a package is suspicious you think the whole situation of you getting a package is a bit unusual, a bit fishy. But if a package is suspect you have better reason to think there is something bad about it, like it’s in the shape of a bomb, or the sender of the package was Mr Terrorist, or whatever. Ok so a subtle difference there. So she is suspect of the news on her social media, she has good reason to think it might not be trustworthy.

In the second answer, she said the most impactful news item was watching 9/11 unfold in real time. This verb unfold is really nice, isn’t it? In fact, it’s listed as a C2 level word in the Cambridge dictionary. If a story unfolds it gradually develops or becomes clear. Another example would be, as the story unfolds, you start to get the feeling that Maria wasn’t the murderer after all.  Or as events unfolded, it seemed that Real Madrid were going to win the race to sign latest superstar. So she watched 9/11 unfold in real time, or as she rephrased later she watched it happen live. This ability to rephrase key vocabulary is really useful for exams, if you think you can paraphrase your ideas then do so as it shows a wider range of language. 

In what ways should the media be regulated?

I don't know, can you really regulate the media or should you even try? Because like that, depending on who's, let's just say you've a benign government and that's all good, and they appoint normal people in these roles and without maybe a complete bias one way or the other, you might end up with fair regulation, but you can take the states at the moment, Donald Trump appoints some right-wing lunatic and all of a sudden he's setting the rules for all the media, So I don't think you really can.

I think it has to be almost self-policed and obviously you can go to the courts if someone publishes something that's complete lies about you or whatever.

So you have you still have your recourse to the law. But yeah, I'd be kind of worried about trying to really try and regulate is just slippery slope to censorship.

A slippery slope to censorship, I love it. If something is slippery you slide on it and a slope is an inclination so a slippery slope refers to a bad situation that is likely to get worse once it has started. Once you start slipping down that slope there is no going back. For instance, if we allow the kids to play Playstation this time, then they’ll want to play every day and become addicted. Or if the president gets control of the media and the courts then the country is on a slippery slope to dictatorship.

What was the most memorable or impactful news story you have ever watched?

Probably Brexit, unfortunately. Do you know what I mean? Like, it impacted me the most. And do you know what's so annoying about it is like, the people that voted for it were just so unequipped to vote for it. They just got….. propaganda just done them in left, right and centre. If they'd have told everyone, oh, by the way, if you vote for Brexit, you won't have freedom of movement around the whole of Europe and you're going to have to get visas if you want to stay over 90 days. They wouldn't have voted. Because now it's just messed everyone up. Aside from all the economical downfall that's happened from it, the freedom of movement that has been taken away from the common people, because that's all we really give a **** about, isn't it? It's how it affects the common people. We don't really care about the logistics side of things, like the economical side of things. They can throw fear at us, but the truth of the matter is, how does it affect my everyday living? And it does. I can only stay in Europe for 90 days of the year.

Should the news just report the facts or should journalists interpret the facts and provide opinion?

I have a strict policy on this. I think they should just report the facts, but it is comedy gold for the other side of things. But yeah, they should only report, like the whole thing with Donald Trump in that documentary. I don't know if you've seen about it in the news where they edited it, the BBC edited it. So like it made it sound like he said, let's go to the, let's go to the, where was it they went to when we raided it?

Capitol Hill or whatever.

Wherever they went, that political building anyway. And it sounded like he told them to go do it. And he didn't say that, like, like, and that's the BBC, right? That's the one you expect to only present the facts. They're non-biased, so they say, and they're supposed to just present the facts and they didn't, they fell short. And that's, I feel like some news outlets should only present the facts and some can do whatever the hell they want. Like The Sun, they can, they, they print misinformation all the time.

Alright, misinformation, key vocab for this topic. This is where the information is not correct or accurate. Not to be confused with disinformation which is where the information is deliberately spread in order to cause harm or achieve a particular goal. As he said, some news outlets can do whatever the hell they want. Love the use of The hell for some emphasis, whatever the hell they want. The BBC he said fell short. This means they didn’t do as much as expected or their effort wasn’t good enough. For example, my attempts to pass the exam on my own fell short so I signed up for classes with Trevor. Or reality often falls short of the perfect world we see on social media.

In the first answer, we had more news vocabulary with propaganda. When talking about Brexit he said propaganda done them in, left, right and centre. So done them in here means it screwed them or to say it in a more polite way, propaganda was their undoing. You may be wondering why he said propaganda done them in instead of did them in, which would be more correct but in the north of England, where this speaker is from, as well as in parts of the US and Ireland too, people often use past participles in place of the past tense, particularly when speaking. And when he says propaganda done them in left, right and centre, this means it done them in completely, in every way. That is quite a British expression too. It often implies something is happening all over the place or all the time. Like she was spending money left, right and centre. Or vape shops are opening up left, right and centre. 

One last expression to point out is the truth of the matter is it affects my life. So we use the truth of the matter either for emphasis or to reveal the reality of a situation. For example, I think I’m not ready for the exam. The truth of the matter is I haven’t been studying hard enough. Some people think the disease came from a marketplace but the truth of the matter is that nobody really knows. I like that, it’s a good one to use in an essay perhaps, or maybe in a review or a report. 

Ok guys, that’s about it for our news based podcast. The truth of the matter is that it’s a rich topic and one that is very relevant for English exams, so hopefully I didn’t fall short today!

Thank you very much for listening, if you liked the episode and the podcast it would be greatly appreciated if you could give it a like on your podcast player or on social media, youtube or tiktok now too.

All the best,

Trevor