University of Kwazulu-Natal

Building Resilience To Misinformation In Communities Of Color Results

Bonisiwe Shabane
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building resilience to misinformation in communities of color results

Report Highlights Lessons Learned to Defend Against Efforts to Mislead the Public in Florida, Texas and Arizona Communities Targeted by Election Disinformation (NEW YORK)— In a new report on strategies by local journalists, community leaders and organizers to defend against the spread of disinformation to multiple groups—immigrants, non-native English speakers, people of color, and others—PEN America... The report, titled Building Resilience: Identifying Community Solutions to Targeted Disinformation, provides critical insight for the 2024 election cycle by examining community strategies to defend against the spread of disinformation in Miami and South... The report looks at examples of disinformation narratives that target people of color, immigrants, non-native English speakers, historically disenfranchised populations, and others, based on the 2022 midterm elections. PEN America held town halls, conversations, round tables, and interviews with journalists, faith leaders, voting rights experts and advocates, researchers, and community organizers in the regions, starting in 2022. The goal was to gain a broad understanding of efforts to mislead the public and, as proven tactics came to light, to work with community leaders and local journalists to help build resilience to...

Sustained exposure to disinformation, especially when paired with a dearth of credible and inclusive local journalism-—tied to the crisis in local journalism that PEN America has previously documented—can have major consequences for individuals, public... Voter apathy is inextricably linked to it. Scholars and experts will work on projects to inform effective interventions that can mitigate the effects of intentionally misleading information targeting communities of color. MIAMI — The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced today that nine universities and nonprofits were awarded more than $1.2 million to work on projects to identify solutions that help news organizations and civil society expose and lessen the impact...

The grantees were winners of a Knight open call for proposals that advance independent scholarship, partnerships, tools and interventions to combat disinformation. Knight believes democracy thrives when citizens are informed and engaged. The open call aimed to find a wide range and diverse set of experts to combat the ways that disinformation disproportionately impacts the accuracy of information that communities of color receive and impedes their... The winning proposals represented a diverse range of methods and approaches to this societal challenge and span a wide geographic area — from partnering with local churches and school districts, to addressing disinformation within... In two Knight cities, St. Paul and Miami, Florida, grantees will focus on scalable models for addressing disinformation within the Black community; and researching and reporting on disinformation operations targeting Latino voters in the upcoming 2022 election.

“Recent scholarship shows that communities of color are often targeted to discourage participation in our country’s civic and political life,” said John Sands, Knight’s senior director of Media and Democracy. “This challenge isn’t going away, but projects like these show promising paths forward. They leverage community relationships and expertise to test and better understand the mechanisms that build resilience to disinformation.” Introduction: The Disinformation Dilemma and the 2024 Election The 21st century presents a paradox: despite unprecedented access to information, the public is not necessarily better informed. The decline of traditional news, the rise of inflammatory content online, and the ease of creating and disseminating disinformation, particularly with AI tools, contribute to this problem.

The 2024 presidential election highlighted these challenges, with disinformation campaigns ranging from AI-generated robocalls to false claims about social issues. Xenophobia, transphobia, and racism further complicated the landscape, intertwining prejudice with perceptions of truth. Simultaneously, social media platforms scaled back content moderation, and legal pressures hampered counter-disinformation research, demanding innovative solutions. PEN America’s Localized Approach: Empowering Communities Against Disinformation PEN America’s Disinformation and Community Engagement (DCE) program addressed this challenge by focusing on local initiatives. Recognizing that disinformation is a global problem requiring localized solutions, the program piloted interventions in Miami, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Phoenix.

These rapidly growing, diverse Sunbelt cities served as bellwethers for understanding how disinformation operates and how communities react to counter-programming. The program aimed to distribute trustworthy information, amplify local perspectives on disinformation’s impact, and cultivate critical information consumption skills. While nonpartisan, the program acknowledged the highly polarized political climate surrounding the 2024 election and the frequent weaponization of the term "disinformation" itself. The Post-Election Landscape: Disinformation’s Enduring Power and the Need for Resilience A coalition of values-aligned partners brought together to counter the forces of online misinformation. The Administration promised free expression.

The results were anything but more freedom. With more than 22K instances since 2021, the bans have become normalized. Thu. December 4 at The Strand Bookstore in NYC The PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers recognizes 12 emerging writers each year for their debut short story

Local censorship tactics are being adopted on the state and federal levels

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Sustained exposure to disinformation, especially when paired with a dearth of credible and inclusive local journalism-—tied to the crisis in local journalism that PEN America has previously documented—can have major consequences for individuals, public... Voter apathy is inextricably linked to it. Scholars and experts will work on projects to inform effective interventions that can mitigate the ef...

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