The Disinformation Diaries: A Global Journey Through the Crisis of Information

The integrity of the information circulating across digital platforms is increasingly at risk. Disinformation spreads rapidly, crossing borders, adapting to different cultural and political contexts, and reproducing familiar patterns in the service of economic, ideological, and geopolitical interests.

The phenomenon can undermine democratic institutions, erode trust in journalism and public authorities, intensify social divisions, threaten the cultural values and narratives of different communities, and weaken our ability to recognize and empathize with experiences beyond our own.

The Disinformation Diaries, a series co-produced by DCN Global and journalist, author, and educator Alexandre Le Voci Sayad (member of the IC4ML Board), begins with the idea that one of the most powerful responses to this global challenge is conversation: listening carefully to people who are studying the transformations of our information ecosystems, comparing experiences from different parts of the world, and examining the crisis from multiple perspectives.

Over the course of his international travels, Sayad came across five continents and brought together more than 30 conversations with specialists and practitioners. Those full interviews are organized into episodes, released weekly on the journalist and DCN Global Series. In one month, short versions will be aired on the Brazilian TV channel “Canal Curta!”.

Rather than searching for a single explanation or a universal solution, the series explores how information disorders take different forms according to the historical, political, technological, and cultural realities of each society. The conversations reveal that disinformation is connected to unequal access to reliable information, declining trust in institutions, the concentration of power in digital platforms, the fragility of independent journalism, political polarization, armed conflicts, and the growing influence of automated systems on what people see, believe, and share.

At the same time, the series highlights possible paths forward. Media and information literacy, quality journalism, ethical technology governance, education, institutional transparency, freedom of expression, and international cooperation emerge as essential elements in the effort to rebuild healthier information environments.

Watch the full episodes also on the YouTube.

Here are the first 4 released episodes:

#1 – Can pop culture tackle disinformation, or does it quietly reinforce it?

In the first episode Dr. Gernot Wolfram, Professor of Arts and Media Management at Macromedia University (Germany), talks about a the role of comics, cinema, pop music and pulp fiction as new ways of looking at disinformation.

#2 – What Is the Role of Science Fiction in Our Information Environment? 

Dr. Holger Briel, Professor of Cultural Theory and Media Studies at BNU-HKBU-UIC, explores how science fiction as a genre shapes the way societies imagine and relate to the future, and whether that imaginative power helps us navigate a Emotion and disinformation: what role do our emotions play in what we believe?

#3-  Emotion and disinformation: what role do our emotions play in what we believe?

In Episode 3 of The Disinformation Diaries, Alexandre Le Voci Sayad travels to Tallinn, Estonia, to meet Dr. Bernie Hogan, Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. A conversation that gets to the heart of why disinformation works.

#4 – What’s the Role of Innovation in Fighting Disinformation? 

The Philippines has one of the world’s most complex communication ecosystems and is therefore among the countries most affected by disinformation. Marlon Julian Nombrado, one of the creators of the award-winning initiative Out of the Box, talked about What’s the Role of Innovation in Fighting Disinformation? and his current initiatives.