Help us in the battle against hoaxes with your knowledge. Become a Maldita, become a Maldito and share your superpowers with the community.
Superpowers increase the diversity of voices in the media
Eduardo Suárez is a seismologist at the IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional) and got to know us through our colleague Laura G. Merino, from Maldita Ciencia. Suárez was one of the first Malditos to add his superpowers to the community when we launched the initiative in June 2019, but until now we had not contacted him except to resolve some specific doubts. All this changed when, for the first time in 50 years, a volcano erupted on Spanish mainland territory.
"Because of you they haven’t stopped calling me from media outlets," Suárez tells us with a laugh. We don’t know if that’s the case, but it is true that before appearing on the Maldita Twitchería, the seismologist had never taken part in a media outlet: his colleagues handled media appearances. In recent days we have seen him on Telecinco, on La Sexta, on Radio Televisión Canaria, we have heard him on COPE… "Now they call asking for me," he tells us.
One of the objectives of Maldita.es’s superpowers program is to offer a space to experts who do not usually participate as sources and to increase diversity in the media. Many people have written to Suárez on social media to tell him they have seen him in the media and, most importantly, to thank him for his interventions. "They tell me that after the clarifications we give they feel calmer," he explains. He also conveys to us the enormous responsibility felt when participating as an expert in a media outlet during a catastrophe. He is aware that many eyes are on the statements they make and that it is very important to avoid mistakes and to communicate in accessible language: "You can’t talk to people about a seismic swarm if you don’t first explain what it is." The seismologist is learning to communicate in different ways depending on the outlet and the time available.
The motivation of the Malditos: contributing their grain of sand against disinformation
Gonzalo Pascual is Councillor for Territorial Planning, Innovation and New Technologies at the Cabildo of La Palma. Before this crisis he already knew Maldita.es and followed our work like any other citizen. "I read your newsletters and I thought Maldita.es was a good place to get informed, avoiding bias and the tyranny and dependence on clickbait that other media fall into," he says. Pascual is very critical of the role some media have played in covering the eruption in La Palma, and he thought he could help inform citizens, setting aside sensationalism and “misunderstood” emotionalism, by offering his superpowers as a Maldito. The councillor took part as a guest in the second Twitchería we dedicated to La Palma. For Pascual, working with the media is something usual: participating in radio talk shows and dealing with journalists is part of his work at the Cabildo.
Gonzalo Pascual tells Maldita.es that, in the difficult moments that the people of La Palma are experiencing, the disinformation that most upsets and affects them has to do with economic aid: that it will not arrive, that it will be insufficient… "I saw it on Facebook," say many citizens who approach the Cabildo, but those who share this content do not provide any proof of what they say. However, Gonzalo believes that many citizens, when reading this type of content, think: "I have no proof, but I have no doubts either." "Before, to verify information you had to devote an enormous amount of time. Now, although we have more access to information than ever, there is a lack of critical culture," he says. He considers it dangerous for official sources to be questioned in moments of crisis like this one, in which affected people seek certainty and hope for reconstruction and instead encounter messages that fill them with fear and uncertainty: “It is not the time to question institutions, but rather to assess and demand accountability in cases where it is understood that they are not functioning properly.”
Both Gonzalo Pascual and Eduardo Suárez highlight from their experience on the Maldita Twitchería the relaxed format without losing rigor. Having Malditas and Malditos who know firsthand the details and intricacies in moments of crisis and who share their knowledge with us in the superpowers program allows us to be more agile in our fight against disinformation, because in moments of uncertainty reaching citizens with accurate information is the best vaccine against hoaxes.
You can also be part of the Maldita.es community and help us with your superpowers in the battle against lies: become a Maldito, become a Maldita, and remember that together it is harder for them to fool us.