Communication/Media Platform

Misinformation plays a central in the continuation and escalation of conflict as well as complicating humanitarian responses. State and non-state actors alike take advantage of chaos and uncertainty to further their objectives at the expense of the people who must live and cope with the conflict each day. Divided into several elements, misinformation combines the spread of false information, misrepresentation of factual information, and the inherent denial of factual events.

Humanitarian crises affect millions, especially in countries affected by protracted conflicts, including Nigeria, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. While humanitarian assistance provides a crucial lifeline in these areas, reliable data to inform, monitor and evaluate its delivery remains a huge challenge in an age of distrust and disinformation. Vulnerable populations in these regions are in need of a technology that will allow them to make verified, secure reports on their needs and access to aid.

Philip Roessler of The College of William & Mary and Laiah Idelson of ETR both in the U.S. will test whether promoting cooperative mobile phone use in families in low-resource settings can improve household income and welfare. In their recent study, they found that providing a cost-free smartphone to poor households in Tanzania had a significant, positive impact on their economic state. The impact appeared to be catalyzed when both the male and female members of the household shared the smartphone and abolished when male members monopolized it.

The Center for Popular Democracy's Fair Workweek Initiative in the U.S. will run a digital campaign to tell the real-life stories of how volatile working hours and other business practices harm families' financial security and well-being. The majority of Americans are paid hourly and are not given set working hours. This makes it difficult for families to plan for necessities such as child-care or pursue further education, leading to poverty, instability, and a feeling of powerlessness.

Sojourners in the U.S. will feature the voices of young people and marginalized communities in short films and articles shared on their digital and print platforms to change stereotypes about the causes of poverty, from one of personal responsibility to one that highlights structural and historic barriers to economic mobility.

The Center for Public Interest Communications and the Radical Communicators Network (The Center and RadComms) in the U.S. are working together to change the narrative of poverty by supporting those most affected in telling their stories. The Center and RadComms will first conduct a narrative power analysis to characterize the harmful narrative and underlying assumptions that need changing, then provide frontline activists with science-based communications tools to produce and develop counternarratives that can replace harmful and inaccurate ones.

The Young Women's Christian Association of San Antonio in the U.S. will run a multimedia public awareness campaign by producing videos of days in the lives of women of color working in hospitality, caregiving, and food service industries in the city.

The National Center for Families Learning in the U.S. will produce and distribute stories told by low-income, diverse families describing their remarkable achievements leading projects that address local challenges. Low-income families are often mischaracterized by false narratives. By building trust with families and creating a safe space for them to openly and productively share their personal experiences overcoming barriers and driving change with larger audiences via local open mic events, they hope to change such narratives.

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, together with visual artist and educator Zun Lee, M.D., and the Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition in the U.S. will tell the stories of traumatic loss, resilience, and quests for economic mobility of young black men in Baltimore to recast them in the national consciousness as human beings deserving of dignity and investment rather than as social problems. In the last decade, the team has documented the unequal burdens of violence and grief faced by this community.

White Mountain Apache tribal members and founders of the Arrowhead Business Group Foundation in the U.S. will engage the voices of their fellow Native Americans to tell the story of a grass roots initiative to change the national narrative about the poorest and most invisible peoples in the U.S. Native Americans living in reservation settings continue to struggle with poverty and high unemployment. Working together with their tribe and the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, they will use different forms of media to explain how the first peoples of the U.S.