The fight of journalism against disinformation in Latin America, and the world, does not stop. From the roles of artificial intelligence and media literacy, to funding and networking opportunities, the Global Summit on Disinformation aims to equip journalists with tools to champion the spread of fact and fight against fiction.
“We hope that the IV Summit will be a forum in which innovative strategies and approaches are debated to combat disinformation on different platforms and in different regions, as well as to learn about effective tools to confront its spread,” Carlos Lauria, executive director of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) and part of the executive committee for the summit, told LatAm Journalism Review (LJR)
This event, organized jointly by the IAPA, the Foundation for Journalism (Bolivia) and Proyecto Desconfío (Argentina), seeks to bring together journalists, academics, fact checkers, civil society organizations, among others, for the fourth year consecutive to discuss the challenges brought about by the spread of false information.
The summit will be held virtually and will be free of charge. Streaming will be in Spanish and English. Those interested only have to register through this link.
LatAm Journalism Review (LJR) spoke with members of the organizing committee and prepared the following list of what attendees at the Global Summit on Disinformation can expect.
Intense debate on the use of artificial intelligence (AI)
With the arrival of AI, the world has seen a growing sophistication of information manipulation techniques. For example, academics have denounced the creation of fake videos that impersonate television presenters and journalists to broadcast misinformation in Colombia, and in Brazil, fake campaign images have been created targeting candidates or parties in the October municipal elections.
For this reason, the opening keynote of the summit will be about the impact of AI on the creation of journalistic content and the challenge of recovering trust in journalism that, according to the organizers, falls year after year.
The person in charge of this panel will be Julia Angwin, who has been part of the Wall Street Journal and ProPublica, is the founder of Markup and has recently launched her new journalistic project Proof News, an organization that seeks to apply the rigor of the scientific method to reporting.
As explained by Adrian Pino, director of Proyecto Desconfío and member of the summit's executive committee, attendees can also expect to learn more about specific products and innovative ways in which some media outlets are applying AI in their newsrooms.
Among them are the verification techniques in native languages used by Ojo Público of Peru, or the experience of Proyecto Odin from Cuestión Pública that uses AI to improve daily coverage with investigative journalism.
Funding round and opportunities
This year the summit will have a space dedicated to disseminating opportunities and calls aimed at strengthening the work of journalists, media and fact-checking initiatives that work to combat disinformation and promote reliable information.
The European Media and Information Fund (EMIF), the European Journalism Center (EJC), the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) and Connectas have confirmed and will present the general guidelines for their funds.
There is still time for organizations that offer funds to combat disinformation to join the space. To participate, they must write to cumbredesinfo@gmail.com with a proposal.
Media and information literacy
According to UNESCO, media and information literacy aims to enable people to use the information they receive critically, safely and responsibly.
As is customary at the Summit, proposals that address this issue will be incorporated. One of the star sessions will be on strategies and playful proposals to combat disinformation.
According to Soledad Arréguez, member of the Summit’s executive committee and director of media literacy at Proyecto Desconfío, games help promote critical capabilities in citizens, as well as the creation of different content verification strategies and methodologies.
“Gamification is a strategy with a lot of potential to bring content to younger generations,” Arréguez told LJR.
Solutions on the training of future fact-checkers
A problem that fact-checking organizations and media have reported is that in university journalism curricula in Latin America, generally, there are no subjects aimed at teaching the fact-checking methodology nor are there master's degrees or journalistic postgraduate degrees in the area. Networks of trainers have even been created to make up for the lack of training in universities.
At the Summit, space will be given to debate on the challenge of universities and journalism careers in the training of future journalists to confront disinformation.
“There is a special session within the event dedicated to universities that teach journalism degrees in the region and that is led by the Latin American Council for Accreditation of Education in Journalism and Communication (CLAEP),” Pino told LJR. “They will tell about the experiences of the reforms and modifications that some journalism programs have undergone in universities in Latin America.”
Networking and contact with global projects
One of the goals of the summit organizers is to facilitate collaboration between attendees. In previous years they have served as a bridge between participants to explore joint opportunities.
According to Pino, anyone interested in forming alliances with organizations participating in the Summit can write to the organizers through the contact form or via social media.
“Something that we notice year after year is that the forms of disinformation and the topics about which disinformation is usually reported are repeated from one country to another,” Pino said. “A quick and effective way to combat it is by generating alliances between organizations from different countries and with different profiles that can put a stop to the dynamics of disinformation.”
The IV Global Summit on Disinformation has the support of the Google News Initiative. The following organizations are also supporting the initiative: International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), IJNet and IJNet en Español, Medianalysis, National Press Association of Chile (ANP), Gabo Foundation, Colombian Association of Information Media (AMI) and the Association of Journalistic Entities (ADEPA).
The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, which published the LatAm Journalism Review, is a media partner for the Summit.
