This is how we use the superpowers of the Maldita.es’ community: the experts in the case of the La Palma volcano

Help us in the battle against hoaxes with your knowledge. Get cursed, get cursed and share your superpowers with the community.

Superpowers increase the diversity of voices in the media

Eduardo Suárez is a seismologist at the IGN (National Geographic Institute) and he met us through our colleague Laura G. Merino, from Maldita Ciencia. Suárez was one of the first malditos who added his superpowers to the community when we launched the initiative in June 2019, but until now we had not contacted him other than to resolve some specific doubts. All this changed when, for the first time in 50 years, a volcano erupted on Spanish soil.

«Because of you, they haven’t stopped calling me from the media».

Suárez tells us, laughing. We do not know if this is so, but it is true that before appearing in the Maldita Twitchería, the seismologist had never participated in a media outlet: his colleagues were in charge of 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 are calling asking about me» he tells us.

One of the objectives of the Maldita.es 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 networks to tell her that they have seen him in the media and, most importantly, to thank her for her interventions.

«They tell me that after the clarifications we give they feel calmer», she explains.

He also conveys to us the enormous responsibility that he feels when participating as an expert intervening in an environment during a catastrophe. He is aware that there are many eyes on the statements they give and that it is very important to avoid mistakes and communicate with informative language:

«You can’t tell 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 environment and time available.

The motivation of the malditos: doing their bit against disinformation

Gonzalo Pascual is Minister of Territorial Planning, Innovation and New Technologies at the Cabildo of La Palma. Before this crisis he already knew Maldita.es and followed our work as another citizen.

«He read your newsletters and it seemed to me that Maldita.es was a good place to get informed, fleeing from the bias and tyranny and dependence on clickbait that other media fall into», he says.

Pascual is very critical of the role that some media have played in the coverage of the eruption on La Palma, and thought that it could help inform citizens, leaving aside sensationalism and «misunderstood» emotionality, offering its superpowers as a maldito. The counselor participated as a guest in the second Twitchería that we dedicated to La Palma. For Pascual, working with the media is common: 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 times that the Palmeros are experiencing, the disinformation that most upsets and affects them has to do with financial aid: that it is not going to arrive, that it is going to be insufficient… «I have seen on Facebook», say many citizens who address the Cabildo, but those people 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 compare information you had to dedicate a huge amount of time. Now, although we have more access to information than ever, there is a lack of critical culture», he believes.

He considers it a danger that official sources are questioned in times of crisis like this, in which the affected people seek certainties and hopes for reconstruction and find messages that fill them with fear and uncertainty: “This is not the time to question the institutions, but to assess and demand responsibilities in cases in which it is understood that they do not work correctly”.

Both Gonzalo Pascual and Eduardo Suárez highlight from their experience in Maldita Twitchería the relaxed format without losing rigor. Having malditas and malditos who know first-hand the details and ins and outs in moments of crisis and who share with us their knowledge in the superpowers program allows us to be more agile in our fight against disinformation, because in moments of uncertainty arriving with accurate information to citizens 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 madita, become maldito, and remember that together it is more difficult to be fooled.