How to fight disinformation? Spreading research results from the Social Media Disinformation Research Group of Unicamp

• Grant number: 21/10023-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Journalism
• Start date: January 01, 2022
• End date: December 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Communications - Journalism and Publishing
• Principal Investigator: Leda Maria Caira Gitahy
• Grantee: Nicole Martins de March
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IG). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Ministério da Saúde (Brasil). Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Brazil

Abstract

Disinformation is propaganda created intentionally to cause harm. They are developed to be shared and consumed within specific targeted audiences, which creates its own ecosystem. Disinformation diffusion has disastrous impacts on society and is boosted by social media, big data, and bots. The Social Media Disinformation Research Group of Unicamp is an interdisciplinary group that aims to study the disinformation ecosystem. This project's goal is to broaden the group's research disclosure using platforms such as Observatório da Imprensa, Revista ComCiência, and podcast Oxigênio. The science communication of this interdisciplinary research group helps to combat disinformation since it prepares the external community to deal with the digital era that we live in.