A total of 37.4 million Brazilians (equivalent to 17.9 percent of the population) live in the so-called news deserts, meaning, municipalities where there is not even one journalistic outlet. To these are added 27.5 million (13.2 percent of Brazilians) who live in “quasi deserts,” with up to two journalistic outlets.
There is a popular Brazilian saying: “O combinado não sai caro.” Or roughly, keeping your word doesn’t cost anything. This is a golden rule in collaborative projects between journalists, especially among different outlets or even across countries.
If collaboration is natural and widespread among new native digital media, the same is not so simple for newspapers that were born on paper and developed within a culture of competition and rivalry.
Diferentemente de outros países latino-americanos, a Colômbia não tem eleições presidenciais neste ano, mas elegerá representantes locais como governadores, prefeitos e vereadores, entre outros cargos, em 27 de outubro. Como nas eleições presidenciais, as campanhas regionais podem ser afetadas pela disseminação de informações falsas.
Five renowned journalists in Latin America just launched a new journalistic project that seeks to use collaborative investigative journalism to explain phenomena that cross borders in the region.
After Mexico and Brazil in 2018, as well as Uruguay and Bolivia in 2019, Argentina also launched a collaborative fact-checking project ahead of 2019 general elections. And with 130 participating media outlets, Argentina’s Reverso stands as the broadest alliance against disinformation ever carried out in the region.
Journalists from Nicaragua, Mexico and Panama are now among the 54 professionals from Latin America in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).