The Amazon must be covered with a lot of preparation, including local voices, from diverse approaches and without falling into the trap of misinformation, according to participants of the First Amazon Summit on Journalism and Climate Change 2022, held June 9-11 in Ecuador.
Across Latin America, governments have attempted different models to investigate and prosecute attacks against journalists. It is evident that there is no unified model for creating an office to investigate and prosecute crimes against journalists. Some countries have special prosecutors, while other countries have investigative units. Moreover, the results of their efforts are often difficult to track, according to experts.
The Argentine organization Chequeado, with the support of Google News Initiative, invited news organizations Verificado (from Mexico), Colombia Check (from Colombia), Convoca and Ojo Público (both from Peru) to form a 'Latin American network of fact-checking trainers' and thus make up for the lack of fact-checking-oriented courses in university journalism curricula in Latin America.
Brazil is where a growing aversion to the news is worst, as 54% of Brazilians avoid the news, well above the world average of 38%. In Argentina, 46% now say they avoid news content. The other countries in the region surveyed were Chile (38%), Colombia (38%), Mexico (37%), and Peru (37%).
Nearly 5,500 students from 59 countries seized the opportunity to learn how to start and sustain their own journalism ventures in a free online course from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, Ajor and SembraMedia.
The MasterLAB in Investigative Editing 2022 will provide training to nearly 20 journalists, mainly from Mexico, on tools and skills to conceive, organize, narrate, and produce investigative journalism, while monitoring the safety of their staff.
Brazilian journalist Rubens Valente participated in the "5 questions” section of the LatAm Journalism Review (LJR). In the interview, he talks about the conviction that forces him to pay USD 70,000 to a justice of the Supreme Court. "Its effect was that it provoked the worst censorship of all: self-censorship”, Valente said.
The Brazilian digital news outlets AzMina and Núcleo have created the Amplifica project, a tool to follow their readers’ debates on Twitter and to promote conversations between the public and the news outlets on the social network. The idea is that, by getting to know their public better and knowing what their interests are, the media can get closer to their readers and maximize the impact of the journalism they produce.
Learn more about the photogrammetric process and how it can be used for journalism in a new free online course from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas. Photogrammetry allows journalists to tell stories about the world around them by creating three-dimensional replicas from photographs.
The social movement created in 2015 after a case of femicide that shocked Argentina also caused profound changes in journalism in the country: “gender editor” roles were created in several news outlets and the approach to themes related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) was strengthened.
LatAm Journalism Review (LJR) heard from friends, co-workers and family of Brazilian journalist Tim Lopes, murdered on June 2, 2002. The case provoked profound changes in news companies, with the implementation of security measures and the reduction of coverage in at-risk areas. However, Brazilian journalists feel as vulnerable now, if not more so, than they did 20 years ago.
The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, the Carter Center and The Self-Investigation are offering the free online course, “Mental health and journalism: How journalists can responsibly report on it and take care of themselves.” Beyond journalists’ own mental health, this course will delve into how media professionals can also approach mental health issues when reporting.