Should we say “false info», “bobard», untruth?With the surge of the phenomenon, the French media did not take the time to translate the expression, as many readers of "Télérama" have already pointed out to us.A translator, a historian and a linguist look at the question.
Fake News everywhere...But above all French nowhere.The expression, coming directly from the United Kingdom or the United States, has arrived as it is in the French media, without anyone having really taken the time to translate it in the language of Molière.Besides, when Télérama seizes the question of the proliferation of fake news, it is not uncommon for our readers to alpine, rightly, and ask us to look at a French -speaking concordance.But it is not so simple.How to translate a practice which is, depending on the case, both humorous pastiche (the gorafi in France, on the model of The Onion in the United States), of frankly oriented articles (Breitbart News in the United States, open supportIn Trump, Sputnik or Russia Today with a strong Russian tropism) or publications from sites that take up the name or graphics of real media (NBC.com.CO, for example, which has nothing to do with the site of the American chain).Besides, isn't the term "fake news" in itself in itself a also narrow designation for as many concepts?A translator, a historian specializing in disinformation and a linguist try the experience of vf adaptation.
Bérengère Viennot, translator: "It is not shocking to talk about fake news provided you know the context"
"To translate the term" fake news ", everything will obviously depend on the context in which we speak and in which the reader is, according to the old principle of the translator of" non-united of the receiver ".Also, there are several choices: “false information» would be a literal translation that would not cover the concept as a whole.This expression suggests that the info is wrong, a fault committed, for example, by the journalist.In this case, we would rather speak of "Wrong News" in the original language.However, the English term has the concept of deliberate deception."Fallaious information" could be a good alternative, but the expression is too supported for a journalistic context.A bit like the term "disinformation": close to meaning - because there is the idea of deliberately deceiving - but difficult to place syntactically in a sentence.In addition, with regard to the expression “alternative facts», which appeared in the mouth of Kellyanne Conway, the communications advisor of Donald Trump, we then move away from the context of the media to get closer to an “alternating reality», Which would include a system, politics… Another society, convinced that it is in the real.The important thing, then, would be to translate with an expression that makes the reader react in the same way as his foreign counterpart.Our job is to translate a culture more than words.If in the culture of arrival (in this case French), the words do not exist to transcribe such a complex idea, then it is not shocking to leave the English term - even if it is to explain it by a periphrase.Bérengère Viennot is the author to “translate Trump, an unprecedented and distressing puzzle» for Slate.
François-Bernard Huyghe, historian: "If it is difficult to translate it, it is perhaps because this kind of practices does not yet exist"
"Whether we are talking about" fact checking "," fake news "or" hoax ", anglicisms swarm when it comes to these trends to lies or their verification or dismantling.It is notably because of events and tensions in the Anglosaxon world, such as Brexit or the election of Donald Trump.Also, the trivialization of the term “fake news» is particularly recent even if lies, bobards or hoaxes have always existed.This term with blurred borders has many shades, ranging from fabrication (a false invented, a variant of defamation), to irony (as large as possible to play on credulity) via the simple rumor (whereA background of truth is possible).If the practice is old, the term is new, as is its manufacturing process (very quick to achieve), its ease of accessing it (everywhere on social networks) and its potential success (faced with disbelief ordistrust of the mainstream media).In the term “disinformation», we find the desire to deceive via neutral sources.However, it is difficult to qualify Breitbart, for example, to disinform, because this site is very partisan.There is dependence on reality in the fake news: the first does not exist without the other.This reality is undermined in this so-called post-truth period, where the status of the real is in crisis.Some masses or politicians don't care whether something is true or not, provided that their passions satisfy.This joins the notion of "alternative facts" which reflects an advanced struggle until the caricature of supports in Trump.If in France it is difficult to translate this term of “fake news», it is perhaps that here, we do not yet have people who, quietly in front of the camera, endeavor to the obvious falsehood as soon as'We spend five minutes checking them.There are certainly delusions in the press, approximations of policies, but which remain of the order of interpretation or opinion.Such false claims do not yet exist.Does that mean that we are less liars?Our more serious media?I have no response !»François-Bernard Huyghe, specialist in disinformation is the author of disinformation, the arms of the false (Armand Colin).
Louis-Jean Calvet, linguist: “This term is now present in the collective unconscious.»
"In general, we opt for the term" alternative truth ".But this implies that there are different truths and that we would change people.We get closer to Orwell!However, this is not what "fake" means in English.We could bring “Fake News» to “Bobard», word from the popular register, like “fake» in English-, or “untruth»."Fallaious" may be a bit nice, while "wrong" does not really stick as closely as possible.In "Fake", there is the notion of both everyday language and a manufactured history, like a false painting.This term is now present in the collective unconscious.Should we leave it as is, without translation as we do with certain film titles?If we do not adapt it, we would hear that fake news is an entirely English -speaking fact - since it seems quite coherent not to translate what is typically English, like corn flakes, for example.But these fake news is not specifically American.When François Fillon talks about the suicide of his wife announced on television, this is a typical case of fake news.Translation is a difficult and not always exact science ... It is said that the shame of the translator is the footnote.That is to say, leave a word in its original language, without trying to translate it.It would be a shame not to leave the reader available to the most expressions that transcribe the concept.»»
