Youth mobilize to curb disinformation and hate speech | All media content | DW | 12.09.2023
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Latin America

Youth mobilize to curb disinformation and hate speech

In Bolivia, students, families and teachers meet to identify risks lurking on the Internet and devise ways to disarm threats such as disinformation and hate speech, with the help of CEPRA.

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    Disinformation: a common challenge

    "The radio operator said dangerous people were coming to Morochata (Cochabamba). The community got scared and tried to block their way by making trees fall or burning things; some people escaped to the hill," says Cecilia. "It turned out that it wasn't true that they were coming, it was a lie." This is one of the experiences of disinformation shared in CEPRA's Ideathon on Media Competencies.

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    Identify risks in order to deal with them

    CEPRA, DW Akademie's partner in Bolivia, brought together young people, family members and teachers in this ideathon to identify risks in the communication channels they use, such as social networks, and how to respond to them. All participants agreed on the need for more information and practical workshops to learn how to protect themselves.

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    Collaborative work between professionals and young people

    Ideathon participants, who came from schools in six municipalities in Cochabamba and one in Chuquiasca, paid close attention to the CEPRA team's instructions. Multimedia producer and trainer Fabiana Condori discussed the Ideathon activities to be developed and answered students' questions.

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    Learning can also be playful

    Gloria Rosales, CEPRA's trainer, explained to the participants the five media competencies: access, analyze, create, reflect and act. These competencies were conveyed in an entertaining way to keep the young audience's attention, in this case through a story that included the adventures of young characters.

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    A space of trust to learn together

    Little by little, more schoolchildren shared cases of harassment, extortion or online scams through messaging applications. The young people said, for example, that they called one of their grandmothers and asked her for phone cards to free her son; or that a person pretended to be a cancer patient to get money. Both were lies.

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    Collective construction of responses to the challenges

    The adolescents developed proposals to counter the risks of new communication technologies. Their ideas included the production of short informative videos, musical or theatrical compositions, as well as debates on misinformation. They also recommended asking an older person for help when dangerous or suspicious messages arrive.

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    Curbing disinformation: a shared responsibility

    "It is important to be aware that families, teachers, communicators and young people are all at imminent risk from disinformation," says Luis Salazar, CEPRA's project coordinator, during the ideathon event. "Every day we are exposed to some degree of disinformation and it is our responsibility to learn the tools to combat it."

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    An enriching path to follow

    After this first step in the development of media skills in the face of misinformation and online risks, all participants agreed to contribute to future training workshops on the appropriate use of new technologies and social networks, as well as to foster inter-institutional partnerships. This is the beginning of a long learning journey!


  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    Disinformation: a common challenge

    "The radio operator said dangerous people were coming to Morochata (Cochabamba). The community got scared and tried to block their way by making trees fall or burning things; some people escaped to the hill," says Cecilia. "It turned out that it wasn't true that they were coming, it was a lie." This is one of the experiences of disinformation shared in CEPRA's Ideathon on Media Competencies.

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    Identify risks in order to deal with them

    CEPRA, DW Akademie's partner in Bolivia, brought together young people, family members and teachers in this ideathon to identify risks in the communication channels they use, such as social networks, and how to respond to them. All participants agreed on the need for more information and practical workshops to learn how to protect themselves.

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    Collaborative work between professionals and young people

    Ideathon participants, who came from schools in six municipalities in Cochabamba and one in Chuquiasca, paid close attention to the CEPRA team's instructions. Multimedia producer and trainer Fabiana Condori discussed the Ideathon activities to be developed and answered students' questions.

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    Learning can also be playful

    Gloria Rosales, CEPRA's trainer, explained to the participants the five media competencies: access, analyze, create, reflect and act. These competencies were conveyed in an entertaining way to keep the young audience's attention, in this case through a story that included the adventures of young characters.

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    A space of trust to learn together

    Little by little, more schoolchildren shared cases of harassment, extortion or online scams through messaging applications. The young people said, for example, that they called one of their grandmothers and asked her for phone cards to free her son; or that a person pretended to be a cancer patient to get money. Both were lies.

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    Collective construction of responses to the challenges

    The adolescents developed proposals to counter the risks of new communication technologies. Their ideas included the production of short informative videos, musical or theatrical compositions, as well as debates on misinformation. They also recommended asking an older person for help when dangerous or suspicious messages arrive.

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    Curbing disinformation: a shared responsibility

    "It is important to be aware that families, teachers, communicators and young people are all at imminent risk from disinformation," says Luis Salazar, CEPRA's project coordinator, during the ideathon event. "Every day we are exposed to some degree of disinformation and it is our responsibility to learn the tools to combat it."

  • Bolivien Seminar der DW Akademie in Cochabamba

    An enriching path to follow

    After this first step in the development of media skills in the face of misinformation and online risks, all participants agreed to contribute to future training workshops on the appropriate use of new technologies and social networks, as well as to foster inter-institutional partnerships. This is the beginning of a long learning journey!


"I was playing online when I made a virtual friend, but it turned out not to be the person I thought it was. Pedophile alert!" is how Eva, a Bolivian teenager, describes her bad experience on the Internet.

She is one of the more than 50 participants in the Ideathon on Media Competencies, an event organized by the Center for Radio Production CEPRA, DW Akademie's partner in Bolivia. The Ideathon brought together students, family members and teachers from educational units in Cochabamba and Chuquisaca.   

This event is CEPRA's first step in identifying risks that new communication technologies and the Internet pose to young people. This mapping can help prepare them against threats such as disinformation and hate speech.  

"Once we validate the process, we will share these methodologies so that anyone interested in fighting disinformation and hate speech can use them and continue to share information on media competencies," said Luis Salazar, coordinator of the Colaboratorio project, a joint initiative of CEPRA and DW Akademie that promotes media competence and youth participation in community media, and in which this ideathon is framed. 

 

CEPRA is a strategic partner of DW Akademie in Bolivia. Since 2023, the joint work focuses on fostering media skills among youth, based on the joint project Colaboratorio, which promotes the participation of young people in community media. The work between DW Akademie and its partners in Bolivia, CEPRA and Muy Waso, aims to sensitize local journalists, students and youth against hate speech and misinformation, and thus prepare them to engage in constructive public discourse. This joint work is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).