From September 2023 to December 2024, I led a project focused on information ecosystems in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The research for this project focused on learning from peers across the region about what it takes to build healthy information ecosystems. Together with a fantastic team, I’ve hosted community calls with over 60 people from Latin America and the Caribbean and hosted in-depth interviews with almost 30 practitioners.
It was wonderful to learn about the creative, transformative ways civil society organisations, journalists, and activists are creating more balanced creation, exchange, flow, and uses of information. Some of my reflections/learnings from this research are linked below:
- An exercise in imagination: the work of strengthening information ecosystems.
- Talking it out: Restoring information ecosystems through authentic human connections, with Olivia Johnson for Branch Magazine
- For some communities in Latin America, the informationecosystem has always been hostile.
- Community Diagnosis: Protecting the Health of the Latin American Information Ecosystem.
- To improve information ecosystems we need to rebuild trust and focus on local, community-driven initiatives.
A comprehensive report of findings can be found here: it holds insights inspired by the strategies used by civil society organisations, journalists, and activists, as well as recommendations for funders and donors who are interested in further supporting that type of work.
As part of the project, I hosted a series of online learning exchanges focused on how different groups are working to improve their local information ecosystems, as well as facilitated an in-person gathering with a group of journalists, activists and organisers from 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.