Misinformation rarely travels alone. It moves through messaging apps, social media feeds, whispered conversations, public speeches, memes, songs, and even carefully staged photographs. It does not spread simply because people are foolish or easily deceived; it spreads because it often feels true. A rumor about a vaccine can carry the weight of a family story. A manipulated video about a politician can confirm what someone has long suspected. A denialist claim about the climate can offer comfort in the face of overwhelming anxiety. For this reason, disinformation cannot be tackled only by identifying false content and labeling it as a lie. What matters is understanding how information circulates, what contexts allow manipulated narratives to take root, and how social and political relationships influence the way people interpret the world. This is the guiding perspective of MILWeek 2026 – Global Media Literacy Week, held from October 26 to 30, 2026. With the theme “We are all part of it,” the event brings together researchers, teachers, artists, activists, and representatives from many fields to discuss issues related to the Brazilian situation, citizenship, and democracy. It is organized by the Observatory of Disinformation, in conjunction with the Center for Logic, Epistemology and History of Science (CLE), the Institute of Philosophy and Human Sciences (IFCH), and the Faculty of Education (FE) of Unicamp, as well as Revista Mouro and other partner institutions. All activities take place online and are streamed on the Observatory of Disinformation’s YouTube channel. The event is not an exercise in fact-checking or a test of information hygiene. It is an invitation to think together, to ask why some narratives become powerful, and to build tools for critical participation in public life. The title is not decorative. It reflects a conviction that everyone has something to contribute, and that no single expert can solve the problem alone.
At the heart of MILWeek is a deliberate refusal to reduce media literacy to a simple matter of true or false. Claudia Wanderley, a researcher at CLE and one of the coordinators of the Observatory of Disinformation, explains this approach clearly: “Our research approach at Unicamp is that we can combat misinformation by discussing the Brazilian context, rather than by labeling it as true or false.” This may sound counterintuitive in an age of verification tools and fact-checking platforms, but it is based on a deep understanding of how beliefs actually change. Facts matter, but they rarely matter in isolation. When people have lost trust in institutions, seeing a headline contradicted is not enough to transform their worldview. What can transform it is dialogue, context, and the experience of being heard. That is why the event proposes a public conversation about the topics most affected by disinformation, without restricting the discussion to classifying content as right or wrong. Wanderley insists that the program brings together experts from many areas and seeks to broaden participation far beyond academic environments. “We invite different groups and individuals to show that we have a body of intellectuals in Brazil,” she says. The intention is to connect the knowledge produced in universities with the issues faced by society, opening space for different perspectives, experiences, and forms of knowledge. This means listening not only to professors and researchers, but also to community leaders, artists, health workers, teachers, students, and ordinary citizens who live with the consequences of disinformation daily. It also means acknowledging that knowledge is not produced exclusively inside universities. The commitment to “we are all part of it” is visible in the range of voices invited to speak and in the careful construction of a space where expertise does not silence lived experience.
The sense of urgency is shared across professions. Ciro Yoshiyasse, the engineer who organizes the program, points out that concern about misinformation cuts across every field of human activity. “Medicine, health, literature, political conflict: everything is related today to the medium through which these things occur, that is, the internet and social networks,” he observes. For him, bringing together people from different areas creates connections and deepens our understanding of how the circulation of information interferes with many dimensions of social life. If misinformation about health is also a problem of literature, in the sense that it depends on narratives and storytelling, and if political conflict is also a problem of technology, because it is shaped by algorithms and platforms, then no single discipline can respond alone. This is why the event is conceived as a meeting point, not a lecture series. Professor Nima Spigolon from the Faculty of Education, who is also involved in the organization, emphasizes that the proposal goes far beyond teaching people how to use digital tools or how to evaluate a source. “Media literacy enables people to become critical readers, conscious producers of content, and active participants in social life,” she states. According to Spigolon, collective construction and the diversity of participants are central characteristics of the event. She also offers a dose of realism about what media literacy can achieve. “MILWeek doesn’t eliminate misinformation on its own, as it’s a very minefield, but it offers tools to recognize, question, and confront it collectively.” In her view, media literacy becomes an educational, cultural, and political practice that contributes to forming people capable of critically understanding reality and participating in the construction of a more democratic, inclusive, and just society. The event also builds on work developed since 2019, focused on investigating disinformation, media and information literacy, and intercultural dialogue. It serves as a preparatory activity for the Brazilian Media Education Olympiad, or OBEm, an initiative that seeks to bring media education closer to the daily lives of students and teachers, making media literacy something alive and practical rather than abstract.
Over the five days of MILWeek, the program is organized around five major themes: valuing science, the climate emergency, citizenship and digital citizenship, gender and diversity, and public health. The meetings also address popular communication, art and technologies, preservation of memory, environmental issues, public health, the Black movement, the world of work, denialism, youth, and political participation. This broad menu is not accidental. Disinformation does not respect disciplinary boundaries, and neither can media literacy. A false claim about vaccines can travel alongside a denialist narrative about climate change; a manipulated video about a political opponent can exploit long-standing gender stereotypes; a conspiracy theory about the world of work can be intertwined with racist narratives about social programs. To respond to this complexity, the organizers built a program that encourages participants to move across topics, disciplines, and perspectives. Historian Josianne Cerasoli, a professor at IFCH and one of the organizers, insists that combating misinformation depends on the participation of different sectors of society. “You can’t build a strategy to deal with misinformation if you always leave the expert in the position of judging what’s happening. If you don’t encourage dialogue, things really won’t move forward,” she states. The program therefore intentionally brings together researchers, professionals from different fields, and people who work in social movements and community initiatives. For Cerasoli, this diversity is essential. The debate cannot belong only to specialists; it must incorporate other experiences, memories, and modes of understanding. That is what makes media literacy a truly democratic practice. It is not merely a technique for detecting falsehoods, but a way of building a shared civic culture. It is an educational, cultural, and political process that invites people to understand that reality is not simply given, but interpreted, narrated, and contested. And it is the reason why the week is structured as a series of dialogues rather than monologues, with time for questions, responses, and unexpected connections.
The event also has an important international dimension. A proposal to create a thematic chapter dedicated to diplomacy in media and information literacy has just been accepted by the UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Alliance. Claudia Wanderley is among the founding members of this initiative, which represents a new space for international collaboration for the work developed at Unicamp. The new chapter is titled “MIL Diplomacy for Human Rights, Peace, Cultural Diversity and Sustainability.” It brings together 26 partners from 15 countries, distributed across five continents. Its objective is to strengthen cooperation between academia, diplomacy, and technology, connecting different sectors around the promotion of human rights, peace, cultural diversity, and sustainability. This global network amplifies the work developed locally in Campinas, São Paulo, and Brazil. According to Wanderley, participation in this network reinforces the possibility of connecting experiences and knowledge from different contexts, broadening the scope of discussions on disinformation and media and information literacy. The acceptance of this thematic chapter is also a recognition that media literacy is not only a classroom practice or a research field; it is a form of diplomacy. In a world where propaganda, digital espionage, and information warfare have become instruments of international conflict, the capacity to understand and communicate across differences is a form of peacebuilding. The chapter’s commitment to human rights, peace, cultural diversity, and sustainability reflects the conviction that media literacy should not be used only to defend national interests or to manage public opinion. It should be used to create relationships of mutual respect, to protect vulnerable communities, to preserve the memory of peoples, and to confront the global inequalities that make some groups more vulnerable to disinformation than others. By joining this network, MILWeek becomes part of a conversation that extends far beyond Brazil, while remaining deeply rooted in the specific realities of a country marked by inequality, creativity, social conflict, and resilience.
In thinking about the work ahead, Cerasoli offers a powerful image. “Democracy and the work of fighting disinformation never rest. It’s like riding a bicycle: if you stop pedaling, you fall.” This is perhaps the most important lesson of MILWeek 2026. There is no final victory over disinformation, no moment when the problem is solved and we can all return to a calmer world. The digital public sphere is continually changing, and those who spread false narratives are also learning, adapting, and finding new channels. But the same is true for those who defend democracy, science, and human dignity. The work is constant, but it is not exhausting only because it is urgent. It is also generative, because every dialogue creates new possibilities. The theme “We are all part of it” is a reminder that the fight for truth is not a spectator sport. It requires participation, curiosity, humility, and courage. It requires listening as much as speaking, and questioning as much as answering. Media literacy is not a set of rules to be memorized, but a form of life to be practiced. It happens in classrooms, but also in living rooms, in public squares, in health clinics, in digital communities, and at family dinner tables. It is an invitation to pay attention to the stories we tell, the images we share, and the silences we keep. MILWeek 2026 offers a space for this practice, and it joins a growing movement of people and institutions who understand that information is not only a matter of technology or journalism, but of justice. The week may not end disinformation, but it will leave everyone who participates a little more aware, a little better connected, and perhaps a little more willing to keep pedaling. For real change begins when we stop imagining ourselves as passive consumers of information and start seeing ourselves as co-creators of the shared world. And that is exactly what the event invites us to do: to take part, to ask questions, to speak, to listen, and to understand that the struggle against disinformation is inseparable from the struggle for a more democratic, inclusive, and just society.