How a Peruvian journalist turned media literacy into a community movement
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Peru, Lucero Ascarza found herself staring down a new challenge in the classroom: disinformation.
She started her career as a reporter for Convoca, a Peruvian-based investigative journalism organization, digging into the Panama Papers as part of an international coalition of journalists. Later, Ascarza transitioned into education at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, where she helped the next generation of reporters learn the craft. But it wasn’t until the public health crisis — and the mistrust that fueled Peru’s anti-vaccine movement — that she realized how central the fight against falsehoods had become.
That realization shaped the next part of her career. At Salad con lupa, a newsroom focused on public health, she saw firsthand how dangerous misinformation could be. Training with Chequeado and MediaWise introduced her to the concept of media literacy as a tool for teachers and entire communities. Through the International Center for Journalists’ Disarming Disinformation initiative, she turned that idea into action, reaching more than 150 people — from students to community leaders — with skills to spot and stop falsehoods before they spread.
Related Knowledge Center: Media literacy
Digital technology has irrevocably altered the media landscape. As traditional sources of credible information — gatekeepers — lose influence, jostled and often replaced by content of uncertain pedigree, many users lack the requisite skills to separate fact from fiction, truth from lies, sense from nonsense. The market doesn’t reward one over the other — social media algorithms often produce better business outcomes with falsehoods — prompting some dedicated efforts to empower users with better critical-thinking tools.