Academia, civil society, and the struggle for information.
During the recent period of cultural war in Brazil, the defense of democracy and the democratic rule of law was made possible through a new model of independent journalism.
By Thaiane Oliveira, Roberto Kant de Lima, Afonso Albuquerque and Reynaldo Aragon Gonçalves
In recent years, particularly during the period when Brazil was the scene of one of the most notable cases of explicit exercise of Brazilian inquisitorial procedural criminal practices, culminating in impeachment Following the repercussions of President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment and subsequently the imprisonment of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the term "culture war" has dominated public debate in the country. This culture war has drawn the attention of a segment of society caught in a process of democratic crisis within national institutions. Situated within a context of media and technological oligopoly, the culture war is related to disputes over epistemic authority and "truth" as the central element in a process of negotiation, legitimation, or maintenance of power.
The manifestations of this culture war, the denialism, the disinformation, the fake news, Among other informational practices, these issues have become topics of debate among scientific institutions seeking solutions to address this phenomenon of great global concern. As a central axis for discussion, scientific initiatives seek to debate the quality of information and sovereignty over data, which today present themselves as one of the great challenges for Western democracies. However, confronting disinformation and denialism, as well as the struggle for informational sovereignty, is not a responsibility solely of scientific institutions, but rather of society as a whole.
During the recent period of cultural war in Brazil, the defense of democracy and the democratic rule of law was made possible through a new model of independent journalism. This model, funded by public sources and with agendas free from economic interests, served as resistance against the crisis of national democratic institutions that we currently face. In this environment of institutional rupture, journalists, scientists, opinion leaders, liberal professionals, and other actors in civil society found in the ecosystem of independent and democratic journalism an important space in the battle against the cultural war.
The impact of the new model has generated reactions from conservative and liberal sectors, such as traditional journalism and digital platforms, which constantly seek to discredit the professionalism of these media outlets. Recently, during the electoral process, fact-checking agencies linked to large commercial media groups and newspapers such as Folha de São Paulo have promoted direct attacks on democratic journalism that addresses sensitive issues systematically silenced by traditional media. Similarly, digital platforms like YouTube have removed videos produced by the editorial team of Brasil 247, arguing that they promote disinformation. Given this scenario, it has become increasingly crucial to strengthen partnerships between civil society, independent democratic media, and academia, as a way to bolster institutional ties between the parties and enhance the capacity of society as a whole to react to the erosion of our sovereignty over information.
Initiatives such as Connect Network¹[Name of the research center], a scientific center for strategic studies on topics related to current challenges, born from the public university, has been bringing together partnerships between academia and sectors of civil society to promote greater dialogue between the knowledge generated within academia, increasing the circulation and quality of information, and society. This movement is only possible today as a consequence of the strength of digital networks and the ecosystem of independent and democratic media, which offer spaces for major national debates. Composed of research laboratories such as... CiteLab and Lamide, the National Institute of Science and Technology in Comparative Studies in Conflict Management (INCT-InEAC²), among other partners, has a network of over 200 researchers from different fields of knowledge, to discuss current challenges based on the problems we face today, in the context of a dispute over information within this culture war.
¹The Conecta Network is a strategic studies center that seeks to combat misinformation. We aim to broaden the conversations between academia and society in general. To this end, we propose participatory and immersive models that foster greater user engagement with the methodologies and results of all areas of knowledge. It is vital that citizens are empowered with the tools so that they themselves become another agent in the fight against misinformation.
² The InEAC (www.ineac.uff.br(InEAC) is an international research network whose scope of action is the analysis of institutional conflict management processes and non-institutional forms, especially processes of demanding rights and recognition by various actors. These two research avenues are articulated with the actions proposed in the area of knowledge transfer. Thus, this project is based on a comparative and multidisciplinary perspective of analysis, aimed at understanding Law and Public Security as a field of disputes and consensuses that goes beyond criminality and repressive intervention. Since the creation of InEAC in 2009, initiatives for dissemination, diffusion and scientific education, such as this one, have multiplied and become institutionalized, including on its YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/ineac).
About the authors:
Thaiane Oliveira She is a professor in the Postgraduate Program in Communication at the Federal Fluminense University. Leader of the Research Laboratory in Science, Innovation, Technology and Education (CiteLab). Researcher at the National Institute of Science and Technology in Comparative Studies in Conflict Management (INCT-InEAC).
Roberto Kant de Lima He is a Professor in the Postgraduate Programs in Anthropology and in Justice and Security at UFF and in Law at UVA. He is a Scientist of Our State/FAPERJ, a Level 1-A Researcher/CNPq, and Coordinator of the Institute for Comparative Studies in Conflict Management (INCT-InEAC - CAPES/CNPq/FAPERJ). www.ineac.uff.br).
Afonso Albuquerque He is an associate professor 4 at the Federal Fluminense University, an ad hoc consultant for the Carlos Chagas Filho Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro, an ad hoc consultant for the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, and an ad hoc consultant for the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).
Reynaldo Aragon Gonçalves He is the executive director of the Conecta Network for Artificial Intelligence and Scientific and Media Education. He conducts research on innovation in the fields of political and scientific communication from the perspective of information quality. He is a research member of the INCT in Conflict Management (INCT/InEAC) and of the Laboratories for Research, Science, Innovation, Technology and Education (Citelab-UFF) and the Laboratory of Media and Democracy (LAMIDE - UFF).