Media Literacy Takes Root in the Amazon: Journalist Adapts Global Methods to Local Needs

In the remote communities along the Madeira River in the Amazon, misinformation isn’t just a digital annoyance—it’s a threat to survival. Journalist and activist Josi Gonçalves has embarked on a mission to bring media literacy to these vulnerable populations through innovative, culturally appropriate methods.

Gonçalves, who traces her ancestry to northeastern Brazil where her forebears experienced modern slave labor, has found her calling in empowering Amazon communities to distinguish fact from fiction. Through her participation in the International Center for Journalists’ (ICFJ) Disarming Disinformation initiative, she developed techniques that bridge traditional knowledge with digital literacy.

“In the Amazon region, misinformation can directly impact public policy, strain social relations and threaten community survival,” Gonçalves explained. Her challenge was making media literacy relevant to people who may have limited internet access and who communicate in local dialects.

The ICFJ program, a three-year initiative supported by the Scripps Howard Foundation, partners with the Poynter Institute’s MediaWise project to slow disinformation’s spread through investigative journalism, capacity building, and media literacy education. Gonçalves was selected as one of 27 global trainers who have collectively reached over 3,200 people.

Rather than relying on technology-dependent approaches, Gonçalves adapted her methods to use materials familiar to riverside communities—tree bark, forest photographs, and simple narrated videos. Her first workshop took place at a riverside school in Vila Dnit, where approximately 70 students aged 14 to 17 gathered alongside their teachers and administrators.

“I was surprised by how quickly the students absorbed the content when it was presented with local examples,” Gonçalves said. “I didn’t expect, for example, that a student would connect a fake image with a news story about a flood on the Madeira River. He identified, on his own, that the photo was old and from another place.”

The workshop’s impact was immediate. Many students had never considered that information on their phones might be false or that even trusted family members could unintentionally spread misinformation. The sessions sparked critical thinking about media consumption, with students expressing newfound skepticism about online content.

Gonçalves emphasized one fundamental principle: pause before sharing. By encouraging participants to question who posted information and in what context it appears, she built what she calls “a first layer of protection” against misinformation.

This approach resonates particularly well in Amazon communities comprised of family farmers, fishermen, extractivists, and young people of Indigenous descent—groups often marginalized in mainstream digital literacy efforts. By respecting local knowledge systems and communication styles, Gonçalves has made abstract concepts tangible.

News of her successful methods has spread rapidly through the region. Additional rural schools have requested her workshops, and she’s received an invitation to conduct training in the Karipuna Indigenous Territory—a significant vote of confidence from a community particularly vulnerable to misinformation-fueled land encroachment.

Gonçalves plans to expand her work through Voz da Terra, the online media outlet she founded focusing on environmental, Indigenous, and human rights issues in the Amazon. She intends to publish educational materials centered on media literacy through formats based on oral tradition and podcasts—approaches designed to reach communities with limited internet access.

Her vision represents an important evolution in the fight against global disinformation. While much attention focuses on technological solutions and urban populations, Gonçalves demonstrates that effective media literacy must be adapted to local contexts, especially in regions where misinformation can have life-or-death consequences.

By viewing communities not just as receivers of knowledge but as producers in their own right, Gonçalves has created a model that could be replicated in other remote areas worldwide where standard digital literacy approaches may fall short. Her work underscores that combating disinformation requires not just technical tools but deep cultural understanding and respect for local knowledge systems.