VEJA Launches Campaign to Fight Fake News
This weekend’s issue of VEJA, the Brazilian weekly news magazine, came with a brand new editorial action against the fake news that took over social media.
In partnership with DM9DDB, the campaign seeks to alert people about the damages that fake news can bring to democracy, freedom of expression, and to society as a whole.
The magazine was printed with two covers.
In addition to the real cover, another one, on the back cover and upside down, featured fake news already seen on the internet. The fake cover has a caricature of Facebook founder and CEO saying “Brazilians have ruined Facebook,” followed by the question “Do you know the truth about the phrase attributed to Mark Zuckerberg that went viral on the internet?” In three internal editorial pages, this and other fake news were reproduced, and sources that published lies in the digital universe were identified.
VEJA also ran an ad created by the agency titled 'See If This is True,' with a manifesto about the magazine’s role on behalf of truth.
The fake news now flooding the internet tend to gain momentum in election years. It happened in the U.S. in 2016, and will probably happen in Brazil this year. According to a survey carried out by Ideia Big Data after a request by VEJA, nearly 70% of Brazilians use traditional media outlets when they seek to verify whether something is true.
In January, VEJA published an exclusive ranking, following the analysis of 4,591 posts on websites that usually publish fake news, showing the biggest targets of fake news in the country. Former President Lula, current President Michel Temer and Judge Sérgio Moro, in this order, are mentioned most often in fake news with a negative spin. Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro tops the list of fake news with a positive spin. The survey was mentioned in international media outlets, including the The New York Times and Financial Times.
LIVE EVENT
On April 24, VEJA will promote another Amarelas ao Vivo live event, in São Paulo. The theme is How social media and fake news may affect elections, Brazil, and you. Among confirmed speakers are Jaime Duran Barba (one of the leading specialists in digital political marketing, coordinator of the campaign that elected Mauricio Macri President of Argentina), Pablo Ortellado (a researcher at the University of São Paulo - USP, and a reference in studies about fake news in politics in Brazil), Ricardo Boechat (journalist and anchorman for Band TV and BandNews FM), Nizan Guanaes (local advertising legend), and Bia Granja (founder of YouPix, a platform for events, education, analysis and information on digital trends).
