The Amazônia Vox project, an initiative of the Bem da Amazônia Institute, was one of nine Brazilian projects selected to participate in the Jogo Limpo 2.0 Program, promoted by the ICFJ (International Center for Journalists) and Youtube Brazil. In addition to Amazônia Vox, well-known groups and initiatives, such as the newspaper Folha de São Paulo and the agencies Alma Preta and Lupa, were also chosen.
In total, there were more than 80 applications from all over the country to participate in the program, which includes a mentoring phase to monitor and guide the projects, in addition to financial support to support part of the project. The selection of the winning projects was made by a team composed of ICFJ experts and external judges from Brazil and Argentina, considering criteria such as innovation and creativity, suitability to the theme and structuring of the proposal.
The Amazônia Vox project is a database of sources of knowledge about the Amazon and fosters a network of freelance journalists working in the region. The initiative aims to facilitate access by journalists from other regions and countries to sources with knowledge of the Amazon and, thus, promote greater prominence of Amazonian leaders and voices in reports on the subject. As part of the Jogo Limpo 2.0 program, the Amazônia Vox team will be able to produce content by listening to Amazonian sources, seeking to combat misinformation about the region.
“During the mentoring phase, we will be able to improve the project and we intend to work on topics that are the focus of misinformation about the region to create quality and in-depth content, listening to and giving prominence to Amazonians and those who live and produce knowledge in the Amazon. And we believe that creating this platform and facilitating access is also a step towards ensuring greater plurality, diversity and space for Amazonian voices in narratives about the region,” says Daniel Nardin, journalist responsible for the project and director of the Bem da Amazônia Institute.
Currently, Amazônia Vox has a provisional website online for voluntary and collaborative registration of sources and freelancers. The search platform is expected to be available in early May, although it is still in the testing phase. The website for access is www.amazoniavox.com.
In addition to Amazônia Vox, another project from the Amazon region was selected for Jogo Limpo 2.0. Cley Medeiros, with the project “Media education for riverside, indigenous and peripheral communities in the Amazon”. The proposal aims to solve the problem of “structural distancing between socially vulnerable populations and the world of journalism, one of the reasons for the great impact of fake news among these populations, in addition to the hostility towards the work of journalists”, says the text promoting the program.
To carry out the project, the journalist from Amazonas intends to hold media literacy workshops for riverside, indigenous and peripheral communities in cities in the Amazon, with the main objective of bringing readers closer to the world of news production. “In the last stage of the project, participants from each location will build a community newspaper, so that the project leaves a legacy in the region,” the text highlights.
See below a summary of the other seven selected projects (text reproduced from the release published by ICFJ).
Ask Folhinha!
Organization: Sao Paulo Newspaper
Problem to solve: Children are widely exposed to all types of video content, including false information and low-quality material. In addition, there is still very little content for this age group that addresses the problem.
Project: A series of animated videos for children between the ages of 4 and 12 that playfully address sensitive and current issues that are constantly the target of disinformation narratives. The ultimate goal is to introduce children to professional journalism at an age when their perceptions of the world are being formed and when media literacy plays a fundamental role.
Magnifying glass on the Coup plotters
Problem to be solved: Impact of false information and coordinated disinformation campaigns on electoral processes.
Project: mapping of false publications that led Brazilians to participate in anti-democratic acts in Brasília on January 8, 2023 and subsequent production of a medium-length documentary, focused on the individuals who participated in these actions, which demonstrates how false information directly impacts people's lives and changes the course of the history of nations.
Organization: Forget
Amplifying the voice of the Black community against misinformation:
Organization: Alma Preta Journalism, in partnership with Sleeping Giants Brasil
Problem to be solved: Lack of structured information on how disinformation affects the black population in Brazil, resulting in few projects and campaigns to combat disinformation with this focus.
Project: campaign to collect reports of fake news targeting black people. After collecting, checking and analyzing the reports, the project authors will produce a pioneering report with indicators and insights on how misinformation affects the black population in Brazil.
Accessible Checking
Organization: Efficient, in partnership with Lume Accessibility
Problem to be solved: Lack of accessibility on news checking platforms and consequent greater vulnerability of people with disabilities to misinformation circulating on the networks.
Project: creation of a report with a diagnosis of the accessibility level of the eleven Brazilian news verification websites; preparation of a manual detailing how verification tools can make their functionalities more suitable to accessibility guidelines and, finally, training in accessible communication and assistive technologies for the teams of all the organizations that were analyzed.
Hate-free school
Organization: Porvir Institute
Problem to be solved: Global growth of extremism with attacks on schools as one of its national repercussions. Association between high consumption of fake news and intolerant attitudes. Exposure of young people to extremist narratives and low instrumentalization in the school community to combat the circulation and effects of fake news.
Project: Multimedia guide for educators on the relationship between disinformation and the growth of extremism and hate speech in Brazilian schools. The material investigates the context of attacks in schools and offers guidance for teachers to promote practices to combat fake news and media literacy.
Pulpo Antifiction
Organization: Sabia Mail
Problem to be solved: false narratives that question the credibility of the electoral system and put democracy at risk.
Project: An interactive global map to bring together, in one place, the essential characteristics of all the world's electoral systems and allow comparisons. The audience will be able to select different countries and compare electoral processes, obtaining information about each system (counting time, size of the electorate, mandatory voting or not, etc.).
Want me to draw? - Fighting cultural misinformation in Brazil
Problem to be solved: disinformation campaigns about public cultural policies, cultural financing and artists that make up the country's cultural scene.
Project: production of quality content in new digital journalism formats to combat misinformation in the field of culture and art. The formats will be: comic journalism, illustrated FAQ (with the use of animation and interactivity) and Video Essays.
Organization: The Scream Magazine!