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French and Spanish < Back Vicki Mileson Vicki recently graduated her degree studying French and Spanish. She spent her year abroad in Grenoble and Bilbao, meeting people from across the world and sparking a desire to learn an unrealistic amount of languages. Vicki loves all things culture, but especially literature and film. Vicki was our 2022/23 Culture Editor. Latest Articles by this Author What’s On in Nottingham: March 01/03/23 Valentine’s Day Traditions Around the World 15/02/22 What’s On in Nottingham: February 01/02/23 What’s On in Nottingham: December 01/12/22 What’s On in Nottingham: November 01/11/22

What is Culture? Holly Cromwell Friday, 17 February 2023 A look at what culture actually means. Thinking a little more deeply about everything we include in the word, what we use it for and ultimately why it matters. Culture is an almost undefinable wreck; an amorphous frustration that nonetheless has a tangible effect on the world around you. I know that might seem rich coming from a girl who insists you can tell when the rolling hills of northern England become the Scottish Lowlands but, I promise, you can really feel the effects. We even have a word for that: culture shock. Finding yourself in an alien culture has a profound impact on a person, even if you’re expecting it and studied up. Most newspapers have a section for culture. If we trust them then all there is to culture are art galleries, exhibitions, books, theatre and film. As much as I love the arts, we know there’s more to it than that and it wasn’t Moli è re that left me feeling out of step. Then we have the university itself. I study history, politics and aspects of sociology under the banner of a degree that promises immersion in the “rich culture of French and Francophone countries”. But there’s a lot more to it than that; especially with the Year Abroad team taking the time to warn us about cultural differences in various countries. For France: first names for family and close friends until told otherwise, businesses and institutions with very strict opening and closing times, and fashion tending to be more conservative just to start. Then there’s the fact that even this is not consistent: in my lyc é e the teachers refer to each other by first name to the point that I don’t know a lot of their surnames. We watch our favourite shows and say, “ this is culture”. We look at bad situations and describe a “culture of harassment”. We describe people who are worldly and well-read as “cultured”. “Culture shock” leaves us not knowing where to go to pay in a restaurant, how to react to strangers or when to go to lunch. Culture is in the food we eat; the way we build our houses; the way we spend our free time and when we have it; the way we dance and what we dance to; what we watch and how we react to it; what we wear and when and why; the way we talk and what we do or don’t talk about. Where does this leave us? Culture is one of those disgustingly vague definitions: a collection of the behaviours, histories, media, actions and habits of a group of people at a particular time – even when, inevitably, some of those people are not behaving, remembering, acting, thinking, consuming or producing media in the same way. Describing a culture is like trying to pin down the exact flocking behaviours of all birds into a single, flat, permanent map. A good guess might be that culture is anything you could make an inside joke about because the only way to define culture seems to be by those borders that we stumble into when we leave our own culture in some way. So, do we care? Yes. Because culture is important. Our cultures define the way different people react to national or global problems; help us cope through isolation and crisis; and write the narratives we wish for in the future. It describes everything we choose to conform to or resist, and everything we do without thinking. An understanding of culture, however you define it, helps us to empathise with others and eases communication. Just try not to think about it too hard. Related Articles About the Author The Rise of Foreign Language TV Holly Cromwell What is Culture? Holly Cromwell Why Do We All Need Subtitles Now? Holly Cromwell Images provided by Holly Cromwell. For more content, follow us on Instagram , and like our Facebook page for more articles and information on how to join the Lingo Team. Have an article ready to send in? Submit it here . Tags: Holly Cromwell Definition Opinion Categories: Thought Piece Culture Share: Let us know what you think 3.0 150 Article ratings average rating is 3 out of 5, based on 150 votes, Article ratings WRITE A COMMENT Thanks for submitting a comment! LOAD MORE

French and Spanish < Back Niamh Woodhouse Niamh was the founder of Lingo Magazine, was Editor-in-Chief for 2022/23, and is now a Lingo alumni. Speaking French and Spanish, she has a particular interest in articles about history, culture and travel! Whilst studying in Cadiz, Niamh met other language students from universities across the UK and soon discovered that many of them write for language magazines at their universities. Seeing this gap in the market for a language magazine, she set up the magazine alongside an amazing committee for her fellow and future language students at the University of Nottingham! Latest Articles by this Author Recipe of the week: Valentine's Focaccia 09/02/23 European Music Festivals to Attend This Summer 15/02/22 Culture Spotlight: Hispanic Society 25/10/22 A l’isoloir: what you need to know about the French Elections 06/04/22 I Went to a Naked Orchestra: A Review of Carta by Monica Calle 25/03/22

The Language of Lies: Exposing the Unreliable Narrator Saskia Johnson Tuesday, 18 March 2025 Have you ever wondered how language is used to construct lies? By delving into some of literature's most famous liars and unreliable narrators, I hope to conceptualise the act of deception and prove that dishonesty is not as easy to detect as you may think. While we encounter many notorious liars in literature, we may not even realise that the deception has sometimes taken root within the narrators themselves. As readers, it is natural for us to trust the narrators of the stories we read. Therefore, identifying unreliability is not always intended to be easy and may even be utilised purposefully by the author. That’s not to say that lying isn’t often obvious in many popular texts. Take Iago from Shakespeare’s Othello, for example. Throughout the whole play, the audience is aware that Iago is weaving lies whereas the other characters do not, often falling victim to his manipulations. This is because lying takes place in verbal communication through the act of violating, meaning that the quality of contribution to the conversation has been jeopardised by the speaker without their interlocutor noticing. The use of recurring utterances of other characters such as ‘honest Iago’ makes it clear that his deception is successful. It is important that this is communicated to the audience as it is Iago’s evil motives that drive forward the understanding of the play and subsequent tragedy. This is very different for unreliable narrators who are, for the most part, very subtly constructed by the author to be deceptive. Point of view is one of the most important linguistic considerations when attempting to understand how the unreliable narrator is established. Through first-person narration and third-person close narration, the reader sees the world through the consciousness of the narrator and subsequently, their subjective world. One of the most well-known, yet not strikingly obvious, unreliable narrators is Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby. As a first-person narrator, the reader experiences the world of the novel through Nick’s eyes. In this case, we are dealing with a narrator who is full of contradictions and is easily influenced by those around him. For instance, when Nick first attends one of Gatsby’s parties, he is enchanted by what he witnesses and feels a certain admiration for Gatsby himself. However, when he attends another one of Gatsby’s parties with his cousin, Daisy, he is struck by the artificial nature of the events, just as Daisy herself is. This prompts us to question whether we can trust Nick’s psychological and ideological perception of the events. Is Daisy really the bad guy? Or is Nick too enamoured by Gatsby to be able to think any differently? In this case, it is unclear whether F. Scott Fitzgerald is making Nick unreliable to represent an interior message or if this is a characteristic associated with Nick’s personality idiosyncrasies. It’s times like this when I greatly admire authors and their ability to channel a mind, or multiple, in order to immerse the reader within the story, to leave them enchanted by flawed characters, clueless to the real messages creeping beneath the surface. Maybe next time you read a book, you’ll outwit the author. Just take a second to consider–am I being lied to? Related Articles About the Author Copyright free images courtesy of Unsplash. For more content, follow us on Instagram , and like our Facebook page for more articles and information on how to join the Lingo Team. Have an article ready to send in? Submit it here . Tags: Language Categories: I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It's easy. Share: Let us know what you think 3.0 150 Article ratings average rating is 3 out of 5, based on 150 votes, Article ratings WRITE A COMMENT Thanks for submitting a comment! Barbara Dawson average rating is 3 out of 5 Lovely tasty dish. Try it you won’t be disappointed. Time Published Aunty Liz average rating is 3 out of 5 Very tasty and cheap. I often have this for tea! Time Published BETTS average rating is 3 out of 5 Being a bilingual family (French mother and British father,) living in France I thought your article was extremely interesting . Have you research on bilingualism ? It seems that when the mother is British and the father French and they both live in France their children seem to be more bilingual than when the mother is French and the father is British . This is what we called mother tongue , isn't it ? Time Published Niamh average rating is 3 out of 5 Such an interesting article! Time Published LOAD MORE

Karneval: Germany's obsession with Native Americans Olivia Marshall Monday, 19 February 2024 In Germany, it's common for people to dress up as Native Americans at annual Karneval parades. Is it time to put a stop to this tradition? With the passing of Ash Wednesday, Germany’s “fifth season” has come to an end, marked by Karneval , also known as Fasching in Austria and southern Germany. Karneval is celebrated by dressing up and dancing through the streets. With parades, floats, and of course drinking, traditionally allowing Christians to enjoy themselves before the start of lent. One of the Germans’ favourite costumes has turned out to be Native American dress. Thousands can be seen wearing tunics and dresses, feather headdresses and face paint. Certain costumes are legally prohibited at Karneval : notably those with overly realistic weapons, such as pirate swords; police costumes which too closely resemble the uniform of the real German Polizei ; as well as anything related to the Nazis; but dressing as other cultures is deemed to be acceptable. Due to a long tradition of wearing Native American costumes, it seems a lot of Germans don’t consider this to be problematic: but it repeatedly catches the attention of the foreign public, who are often outraged at its acceptance in Germany. So where does the tradition come from? Germans’ fascination for Native American culture is based in the widespread popularity of German author Karl May’s late 19th century adventure books featuring Winnetou, an Apache chief, and subsequent films in the 20th century. The books were so popular that the Nazis didn’t ban them, despite non-white main characters. This interest lives on in Germany, resulting in this trend that is seemingly unaffected by any criticism that it receives. Whether or not these costumes are acceptable is widely discussed in German media and routinely causes backlash from non-Germans, yet they still seem to be a firm favourite for those of all ages. This year’s Karneval caused some contention on X (formally Twitter). User @sagdocheinfach shared a photo of her Native American costume, causing heated debate in the replies and quote tweets, with some claiming it to be cultural appropriation and racist, others considering it a way to promote and share Indigenous culture. Dressing up as other cultures can often be a tricky subject nowadays and is probably best avoided, so why are Germans sticking with this tradition? Many Germans are genuinely fascinated by Native American culture and think that dressing in this way is acceptable as they are celebrating the culture. It is not their intent to make a caricature out of or mock Native Americans and so, in their eyes, they are not causing any harm. There’re no significant Indigenous presence in Germany, so they lack contact with cultures like this and there is a lack of awareness and education meaning even well-educated people genuinely see no wrong in their costumes. A big problem with these costumes is that, it can feel as though they are treating this group of people as a plaything, as if they are mythical or only existed in the past. In addition, Native Americans don’t look one specific way or have one specific culture; there are hundreds of Indigenous tribes and the costumes worn can be seen to play to stereotypes. If Germans really are so interested in Native American culture, shouldn’t they perhaps invest their time in speaking up about issues these groups face rather than simply dressing up as them, or at the very least, buy authentic Native American-made clothing and jewellery rather than wearing stereotypical costumes? Related Articles About the Author Karneval: Germany's obsession with Native Americans Olivia Marshall Link to tweet: https://twitter.com/sagdocheinfach/status/1756258406732603787 Copyright free images via Pexels. For more content, follow us on Instagram , and like our Facebook page for more articles and information on how to join the Lingo Team. Have an article ready to send in? Submit it here Tags: Karneval Carnival Native Americans Germany Olivia Marshall Categories: Cultural Guide Culture Analysis Share: Let us know what you think 3.0 150 Article ratings average rating is 3 out of 5, based on 150 votes, Article ratings WRITE A COMMENT Thanks for submitting a comment! Barbara Dawson average rating is 3 out of 5 Lovely tasty dish. Try it you won’t be disappointed. Time Published Aunty Liz average rating is 3 out of 5 Very tasty and cheap. I often have this for tea! Time Published BETTS average rating is 3 out of 5 Being a bilingual family (French mother and British father,) living in France I thought your article was extremely interesting . Have you research on bilingualism ? It seems that when the mother is British and the father French and they both live in France their children seem to be more bilingual than when the mother is French and the father is British . This is what we called mother tongue , isn't it ? Time Published Niamh average rating is 3 out of 5 Such an interesting article! Time Published LOAD MORE

A Taste of the Mediterranean in Nottingham: Review of Yamas Beth Walker Wednesday, 6 April 2022 Settled in the heart of Nottingham, Yamas serves up delicious Mediterranean cuisine on a student-friendly budget. Beth Walker tells us about her top picks from their menu in the first instalment of A Taste of The World in Nottingham. Last week, I visited Yamas: A Mediterranean tapas and meze restaurant on Thurland Street in Nottingham’s city centre. Established in 2008, Yamas aims to create an enjoyable experience of sharing both food and special moments together, replicating traditions of Greek Cypriot households. Well, this was apparent from the happy, warm atmosphere when I dined there last week. Despite it being a Wednesday lunchtime, the restaurant was full to the brim with groups of friends and families gathered to enjoy the fantastic Mediterranean cuisine Yamas has to offer. Lots of lunchtime choice Popular with many lunchtime diners are the 3 tapas/meze dishes for £10.95. This deal is very student-friendly and allows you to choose from a varied selection of new and exciting Mediterranean dishes. This is, in fact, what I opted for. I ordered pinchos de pollo (chicken and chorizo skewers with honey and sesame seeds), tirokroketes (Greek style cheese balls served on a bed of zingy chutney) and patatas bravas (a much-loved favourite by any tapas fan, these need no explanation). These meze dishes from Yamas did not disappoint. The cheese in the tirokroketes was the softest, lightest cheese I think I have ever tasted, encased in a crispy, breaded coating. I would absolutely recommend these. Patatas Bravas Tirokroketes My friends opted for a few different dishes, some of which included the village salad (fresh and colourful), the chicharrones de pollo (fried chicken fillets filled with soft aioli), pinchos de gambas (marinated prawns served on skewers) and the spanakopitta (feta cheese and spinach wrapped in filo pastry). We thoroughly enjoyed our choices and despite the portions being so generous, there was very little left over at the end of the meal. As you can tell, there’s a wide variety of choice on the Yamas menu – with many vegetarian and vegan friendly options available too. Pinchos de Gambas Village Salad That’s not to say that you have to order the meze dishes at lunchtime though. One of my friends opted for chicken gyros from the regular menu and they looked wonderful. Served with chips, the gyros wrap came with chicken and a generous helping of salad and tzatziki – all for less than £10! If you are on a budget but wish to go somewhere a little bit more special, I cannot recommend Yamas highly enough. Unfortunately, we were so full from our lunch that we couldn’t bring ourselves to sample any of Yamas’ selection of yummy desserts, but they looked so hearty and decadent. I can only imagine that they were of the same high quality as the Meze. The service was equally of a high standard. We were waiting a little while to receive our food, but we were one of the larger tables and it was very busy – for good reason! The waiters were very friendly and attentive. Plenty of meze options Takeaway points … If you don’t fancy dining in, Yamas also have a separate takeaway menu! I must admit, upon seeing this I was very excited as I had enjoyed the food very much and would love to order it to eat at home in the future – although I am yet to do this! Overall, I was very impressed with Yamas and will absolutely be returning. ★★★★ ☆ Related Articles About the Author 48 Hours in Seville: Spain's Sunny City Niamh Woodhouse Hungry in St Petersburg? My Top 5 Restaurants for Visitors Jess Henrys A Taste of the Mediterranean in Nottingham: Review of Yamas Beth Walker Images provided by Beth Walker. For more content, follow us on Instagram , and like our Facebook page for more articles and information on how to join the Lingo Team. Have an article ready to send in? Submit it here . Tags: Restaurants Greek Food Spanish Mediterranean Beth Walker Categories: Culture Nottingham Eats Review Share: Let us know what you think 3.0 150 Article ratings average rating is 3 out of 5, based on 150 votes, Article ratings WRITE A COMMENT Thanks for submitting a comment! LOAD MORE

Banksy Cut and Run Exhibition: Review Emma Burnett Tuesday, 7 November 2023 This Summer (2023), Banksy's first official exhibition in 14 years opened in Glasgow's GoMA. Just about as elusive as Banksy himself, the Cut and Run exhibition was truly enigmatic, forbidding any public photography. Fortunate enough to get her hands on tickets, Emma Burnett recounts her experience of possibly the most intimate exploration of the legendary Banksy ever seen before. Walking up to the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) in Glasgow, you are first greeted by a longstanding Glaswegian inside joke. This is the statue of the Duke of Wellington, who has worn a traffic cone on his head for the best part of the last 40 years. Once you’ve nodded with bemusement, possibly snapped a couple of pictures of it, you enter the gallery, only to discover that it is this landmark that granted Glasgow the honour of hosting the exhibition. Banksy recounts that he has always found the tireless existence of the traffic cone hilarious - every time it is taken down, another one takes its place with immediate effect. One might say that the statue personifies the anti-establishment nature of Banksy’s artwork. The exhibition captured this perfectly. As Banksy stated on a wall of the exhibition: “Most artists have an obsession that defines their work, Monet had light, Hockney has colour, I’ve got police response time”. This obsession was certainly evident, as the GoMA was littered with references to law enforcement. Some were more explicit, such as a disturbingly life-like model of a police officer see-sawing on a children’s rocking horse, and some more subtle, such as first-edition of the Union Jack bulletproof vest Stormzy wore to headline Glastonbury in 2019. However boundary-pushing, or arguably offensive, it may be, the brilliance of Banksy’s artwork cannot be denied. Pieces such as ‘The Great British Spraycation’ and ‘Balloon Girl’ are simply beautiful in their raw depiction of humanity. The Cut and Run exhibition captures perfectly the contradiction of Banksy. Primarily, that despite the fact that hi s art is as public as it possibly can be, his identity has always been the artist’s greatest secret – his disguise (a beige trench coat and Groucho glasses) was also featured in the exhibition. Banksy’s artworks are often built upon juxtaposition; this is exemplified in his ‘Flower Bomber’ and ‘Punk’s Mum’ pieces, both of which have been recreated in the exhibition. The exquisite storytelling of the exhibition does not occur solely through art, but also through those easily ignored, small, white boxes of writing which line the walls of art galleries. Despite their usual forgettability, they housed satirical, yet poignant anecdotes from Banksy himself. Narrating the exhibition, these amusing reminiscences became a focal point of the exhibition, producing ruptures of laughter from the audience. ‘This guy should be a comedian!’, I overheard one audience member exclaim. The most valuable knowledge Banksy relays, however, is the unquantifiable power of art. Art can convey so much without words. It can be political, it can be influential, it can be revolutionary. Banksy’s Cut and Run exhibition may be the most revealing examination of Banksy and his work yet. He uses his artwork to lead us on a journey through the depths of his mind – the mind of one of the most innovative artists of our time. Related Articles About the Author I Went to a Naked Orchestra: A Review of Carta by Monica Calle Niamh Woodhouse Violeta by Isabel Allende: One Hundred Years on the South American Continent Mhairi MacLeod Holi on the Downs 2022 Beth Walker Images provided by Emma Burnett. Links to images below. For more content, follow us on Instagram , and like our Facebook page for more articles and information on how to join the Lingo Team. Have an article ready to send in? Submit it here . Image links (in order of appearance, including thumbnail): https://www.bigissue.com/culture/art/banksy-cut-run-is-the-closest-weve-come-to-seeing-behind-his-mask/ https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/4781238/nike-orange-trainer-glasgow-tributes-duke-of-wellington-statue/ https://oversixty.com.au/entertainment/art/banksy-goes-on-a-mural-making-spree-in-england https://niblanconinegro.com.ar/un-banksy-se-vende-por-mas-de-12-9-millones-de-dolares-en-una-subasta-de-criptomonedas/ http://www.aliexpress.com/item/BANKSY-MOM-PUNK-CRASS-WALL-MURAL-TRANSFER-ART-STICKER-STENCIL-POSTER-DECAL-HOME-WALL-STICKERS-MODERN/32635029219.html Tags: Art Banksy Culture Events Emma Burnett Exhibition Categories: Culture Experience Review Share: Let us know what you think 3.0 150 Article ratings average rating is 3 out of 5, based on 150 votes, Article ratings WRITE A COMMENT Thanks for submitting a comment! LOAD MORE

Modern European Studies < Back Isaac Shoffren Isaac is a first year studying History, German and Russian. He likes investigating the intersection of these topics and how they're still affecting the news today. Latest Articles by this Author Remembering the GDR: How Post-Reunification-Cinema Keeps Us Thinking about East Germany 04/11/24

Physics with Astronomy < Back Jordan Walton Jordan is a final year Physics with Astronomy student. He can't speak any languages aside from English but is here anyway. He also loves pumpkins. Latest Articles by this Author Why are all programming languages in English? 06/02/23

Portuguese loanwords in Japanese Aidan Cross Wednesday, 8 June 2022 One of our Welfare Secs, Aidan, explores the influence of Portuguese on the Japanese language and the relationship between the two languages. Read on to discover the true origin of a very popular Japanese dish! The Portuguese arrived to Japan as merchants and missionaries in 1543, during the Muromachi period (室町時代) which lasted from 14th to 16th Century. As the first Europeans to reach Japan, bringing with them new goods and Christianity, many Portuguese words found their way into Japanese and their influence on the language can still be seen today in the form of loanwords. However, this was not a one-sided exchange - as the Japanese learned from the Portuguese, the Portuguese also learned from the Japanese. For example, in 1603, Portuguese missionaries compiled the “Nippo Jisho” (日葡辞書) or “Vocabulario da Lingoa de Iapam” (Vocabulário da Língua do Japão), translating 32,000 Japanese words into Portuguese and becoming the first dictionary between Japanese and a European language. In Japanese, loanwords (or gairaigo, 外来語) from foreign languages are typically written in katakana (片仮名), a phonetic script. However, older loanwords, such as many of those originating from Portuguese, are written in kanji (漢字), logographic Chinese characters, and are known as ateji (当て字) in which the characters can both represent the sound and meaning of the word. For example, the Japanese word “tabako” from the Portuguese “tabaco” can be written in kanji as 煙草: 煙 meaning “smoke” and 草 meaning “grass”. Most of the words introduced into Japanese from Portuguese refer to goods that were brought to Japan for the first time by Portuguese traders such as “kappa” (合羽) from “capa”(cape) and “botan” (ボタン) from “botão”(button), as well as “pan” (パン) from “pão”(bread). Whilst these words are still used in Japanese, many other Portuguese loanwords, especially Christian religious terms, are archaic and aren’t generally heard in modern-day Japan. Another food that was introduced to Japan by the Portuguese is tempura , known in Japanese as “tenpura” (天ぷら) from the Portuguese “tempora”. Now typical of Japanese cuisine, tempura was a traditional Portuguese dish of deep-fried battered seafood or vegetables, eaten during periods of religious fasting and abstinence from meat. Portugal’s version of this dish survives as the deep-fried battered green beans called Peixinhos de Horta (literally “little fishes from the garden”) – and they’re delicious! Related Articles About the Author Translation and the Untranslatable Aidan Cross Portuguese loanwords in Japanese Aidan Cross What makes a language “easy” to learn? Aidan Cross Copyright free images via Unsplash. For more content, follow us on Instagram , and like our Facebook page for more articles and information on how to join the Lingo Team. Have an article ready to send in? Submit it here . Tags: Portuguese Japanese Loanwords Influence Food Aidan Cross Categories: Language Study Language and Linguistics Share: Let us know what you think 3.0 150 Article ratings average rating is 3 out of 5, based on 150 votes, Article ratings WRITE A COMMENT Thanks for submitting a comment! Barbara Dawson average rating is 3 out of 5 Lovely tasty dish. Try it you won’t be disappointed. Time Published Aunty Liz average rating is 3 out of 5 Very tasty and cheap. I often have this for tea! Time Published BETTS average rating is 3 out of 5 Being a bilingual family (French mother and British father,) living in France I thought your article was extremely interesting . Have you research on bilingualism ? It seems that when the mother is British and the father French and they both live in France their children seem to be more bilingual than when the mother is French and the father is British . This is what we called mother tongue , isn't it ? Time Published Niamh average rating is 3 out of 5 Such an interesting article! Time Published LOAD MORE

French and Spanish < Back Grace Whitaker Grace is a final year languages student studying French and Spanish. She is openly a member of the LGBTQIA community - an area she would love to focus on in her articles! Latest Articles by this Author Exploring Spain through Erasmus Trips 14/06/22 24 hours in... Barcelona 26/04/22 YEAR ABROAD TALES: A Reflection on Being LGBTQIA Abroad 18/03/22

Misinformation vs Disinformation – what’s the difference? Rosie Loyd Sunday, 27 March 2022 These two words have been cropping up in news stories over the past few weeks. In this article, Current Affairs Editor, Rosie Loyd, breaks them down to find out what the difference is, whilst considering potential causes and consequences. When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24th February 2022, it reached headlines all over the world. The coverage of this event has been constant, but not all of it has been reliable. It’s not just war, however, that has sparked an increase in the spread of incorrect information – Covid-19, Black Lives Matter Protests, Presidential Elections, The Royals, and Natural Disasters are all other examples of major events instigating a major dissemination of information which is not always accurate. The two words, ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ are increasingly becoming household terms. The colloquial phrase ‘fake news’ has been around for several years, and whilst not wholly different to the meaning of ‘dis-’ and ‘misinformation’, it more broadly signifies false and misleading news without indicating whether this was its original purpose. Do not be confused with former US President Donald Trump’s unique interpretation of the phrase - he frequently coined the term for news he simply did not like. In one conference, Trump, pointing to a reporter, responded “you are fake news”. The two words in question in this article, however, have a very subtle difference, primarily relating to the initial intention of the news spreader and the validity of the content. Misinformation is the spread of false information, regardless of intent to mislead. Social media sites such as Facebook are constantly spammed with misinformation, with users sharing fake news stories, simply because they think them to be real. Recently, whilst scrolling through TikTok, live video streams were supposedly depicting cities in Ukraine, when in fact, it was later found out that this was a video taken years before in a different country. By the time the videos were proven inaccurate, they had already gone viral. Disinformation, on the other hand, is the deliberate spread of false information. It is often employed by governments in the shape of propaganda to protect their legitimacy, or by certain organisations to generate profit from the number of visits on a website. A prime example of disinformation can be seen in the 2016 presidential election when Russia invoked bots on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, , to spread propaganda in favour of Donald Trump. The consequence of such omnipresent deceit online is that news is becoming decreasingly trustworthy. With the rapid development of technology at an all-time high, this is a problem that is only going to grow. The best way to make sure you continue to absorb accurate information is by relying on respected organisations and by checking their sources. If a story seems too good to be true, it most likely is. Related Articles About the Author A Reflection on Tensions in Ukraine Jessamy Guest Lunar New Year in a Covid-19 world Rosie Loyd Misinformation vs Disinformation – what’s the difference? Rosie Loyd Copyright free images via Unsplash. For more content, follow us on Instagram , and like our Facebook page for more articles and information on how to join the Lingo Team. Have an article ready to send in? Submit it here . Tags: Rosie Loyd Fake News Trump Ukraine Russia Social Media Categories: Global Affairs Share: Let us know what you think 3.0 150 Article ratings average rating is 3 out of 5, based on 150 votes, Article ratings WRITE A COMMENT Thanks for submitting a comment! Barbara Dawson average rating is 3 out of 5 Lovely tasty dish. Try it you won’t be disappointed. Time Published Aunty Liz average rating is 3 out of 5 Very tasty and cheap. I often have this for tea! Time Published BETTS average rating is 3 out of 5 Being a bilingual family (French mother and British father,) living in France I thought your article was extremely interesting . Have you research on bilingualism ? It seems that when the mother is British and the father French and they both live in France their children seem to be more bilingual than when the mother is French and the father is British . This is what we called mother tongue , isn't it ? Time Published Niamh average rating is 3 out of 5 Such an interesting article! Time Published LOAD MORE