As part of our project working on the health of information ecosystems in Latin America and the Caribbean, I spent the month of October hosting a series of community calls about how different organizations and groups are building information ecosystems that are healthy, robust, thriving, supportive of social justice.
Our conversations focused on three broad themes – all of which were present in our recently published research: the complexities of the so-called “information deserts”, the work of responding to gender injustices that are present in our info ecosystems and how crucial it is to have quality information about climate and environmental justice. In this blog, I’m sharing some of my takeaways from the conversations we had.
The difficulty in accessing long-term, sustained funding has impacted independent journalism and media, and civil society organisations
One theme that came up in all of our conversations was the difficulty some groups – including those working with alternative journalism and comunicación popular, and those addressing pressing information needs from their communities – face in accessing long-term, stable sources of funding to sustain their work.
The repercussions of this are felt both by organizations – when they struggle to secure the resources to carry out their work, it can really impact their longterm sustainability and everyday work – and by information ecosystems more broadly. As one speaker, Adriana González, put it: “Centralization of resources is one of the biggest challenges that do not contribute to ending information deserts.” In other words, the health of information ecosystems is deeply impacted by the perceived low availability of funding that is dedicated to organizations who are meeting the information needs of their communities.
Participants talked about how in light of the ongoing climate crisis, having information initiatives focusing on climate and environmental issues will be essential and that long-lasting transformation – or effectively addressing informational vulnerabilities (a term introduced to us by researcher Jéssica Botelho) of certain communities – will require sustained investment in initiatives that are building and providing quality information about climate and environment.
Speaking of this matter, Laura Sofía Mejía, from Baudó (Colombia), explained: “[In Colombia], there is a need to cover socio-environmental issues, to cover climate change issues. But there need to be processes at place for organizations and communities to strengthen their security, their capacity, their [ability to be] protected. So you need funding in order for these communities themselves to narrate their own stories with much more power, so that they can disseminate their stories better, without having to risk their lives.”
To mitigate informational vulnerabilities, we need to stop looking at “information deserts” as monoliths
Throughout this project, we employed the term “information desert” to refer to areas with limited access to useful information, to describe the lack of access to quality information from a variety of sources and the general lack of information infrastructure in certain communities. During one of our community calls, researcher Jéssica Botelho reminded us of how crucial it is to think about these areas in ways that are nuanced: “We can’t look at information deserts only through the lens of scarcity. Though people aren’t able to access as much information as they would need about their own territories, there is life there, there is information flow.” She notes that even in areas where there is low availability of quality information, people are still somewhat connected to larger information ecosystems, through social media and other communication forms.
Jéssica suggested that we need to avoid analysing information deserts in monolithic, reductionist ways, and instead look holistically at the various elements that constitute a context where informational vulnerability is strong: from the lack of funding and support to local news and popular communication initiatives, to the inequities in access to the internet and digital technologies, to the rise of information disorder, and to the lack of public policies that would ensure people’s access to information.
Misogyny continues to be a defining feature of information ecosystems in Latin America (and feminist groups are working to change this!).
A common challenge we discussed in October relates to how information ecosystems across the region have been historically impacted by machismo and misogyny. During our calls, guest speakers talked about how information ecosystems continue to be ripe with gender-based injustices. According to our speakers, this is evidenced by the amount of women and LGBTQIA+ journalists, politicians and activists who are targeted by gender-based violence, smear campaigns and vitriol, as well as by the common spread of misogynistic narratives and anti-gender justice content across information ecosystems in the region.
Gabriella da Costa (from ITS Rio in Brazil) told us how gender-based attacks against women journalists are common in the Brazilian informational context, as well as gender-based political violence. Considering the impact this has on democracies (not to mention on the lives and on the work these women conduct), Gabriella talked about her work with “Pegabot”, a project created to help identify unauthentic content and online attacks and to support people who’ve suffered these attacks with digital security and legal advice. Karen Vergara (from ONG Amaranta in Chile) also referred to how combatting online gender based violence is a holistic process, involving education and research, creation of resources, online safety trainings, and support to those who have been affected.
When it comes to fighting the spread of misogynistic narratives and anti-gender justice content across information ecosystems in the region, Agustina Paz (from LatFem) walked us through some of the learnings from her work, including the strategies the organization used to amplify political conversation during the elections in Argentina and connect with women across the country. She talked about going beyond the digital spaces and reframing how they communicate about key causes for Argentinian women, reaching “the women who they hadn’t reached before” and creatively establishing meaningful conversations with them.
Karumanta Escalada shared their “Basta de Terricidio” campaign and reminded us how connected various social justice struggles are. As a member of the indigenous group “Movimiento de Mujeres y Diversidades por el Buen Vivir” (or Movement of Women and Diversities for Good Living) in Argentina, Karumanta explained how the group created the campaign based on the interconnectedness of multiple issues they face, including the genocide of indigenous populations, the “ecocide” of the environment and land, the epistemicide of ancestral knowledge and feminicide against women.
Get to know our guest speakers’ work:
These rich conversations wouldn’t have been possible without the expertise of our guest speakers. I invite you to explore the links below and learn more about their fantastic work:
- Gabriella da Costa shared insights from “Pegabot”, a project created to help identify unauthentic content and online attacks by bots.
- Agustina Paz works at LatFem, a political and editorial collective composed of feminist professionals and activists.
- Karen Vergara from ONG Amaranta shared how they’re tackling gender-based injustices in information ecosystems with holistic strategies. Check out some of their learning materials and research here.
- Laura Sofía Mejía told us how Baudó is building a network of audiovisual narrators from afro descendent, rural and indigenous communities, who are producing community-centered journalism and art.
- Karumanta Escalada shared their “Basta de Terricidio” campaign and reminded us how connected various social justice struggles are.
- Thaís Lazzeri instigated reflections from FALA Estúdio’s work in strengthening information ecosystems.
- Jéssica Botelho brought depth and nuance to our discussion about information deserts. Keep up with her here and check out her work at Centro Popular de Comunicação e Audiovisual, a collective working with climate justice, human rights and cultural diversity.
- Adriana González, from Proyecto Lava, got us thinking about the power of “solutions journalism”.
Learn more about this project
After the online event series in October, a few of our team members got together in Santiago de Chile, where we met journalists, activists and organizers from 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. You can get a first glimpse of how that gathering was here and we’ll soon share more updates.