Citizens can become valuable partners in identifying emerging narratives, highlighting information needs, contributing knowledge and strengthening research, monitoring and verification efforts. Drawing on the experience of Maldita.es, this workshop will explore practical ways for journalists, researchers and civil society organisations to build meaningful relationships with their communities and integrate their contributions into their work.
The workshop will take place online on 8 and 15 October 2026, from 15:00 to 17:00 CET, and will be conducted in English. It will be led by Ximena Villagrán, Operations Director at Maldita.es. Applications are open until 4 October 2026. If you are interested in taking part, you can apply by completing this form here.
The sessions will look at practical ways to turn community knowledge and participation into a valuable resource for monitoring, research, verification and public-interest communication.
Drawing on Maldita.es’ experience, the workshop will explore how to create effective channels for listening to communities, how to integrate information and contributions from citizens into organisational workflows, and how to design participation mechanisms that are useful for identifying and responding to disinformation. The workshop will also address some of the challenges involved in this type of collaboration, including how to ensure that participation is meaningful, how to manage and prioritise community contributions, and how organisations can build trust and establish clear expectations with the people who contribute to their work.
Participants will be introduced to practical examples from Maldita.es, including La Buloteca, a space where people can submit potentially misleading or false content for verification, and Superpoderosas, a network of women experts who contribute their specialised knowledge to the newsroom’s work.
Who is it for?
The workshop is aimed at journalists, fact-checkers, researchers and academics, civil society organisations, media literacy practitioners, advocacy and public policy professionals, and others working to understand, monitor or counter disinformation. It may be particularly useful for people who are interested in developing or improving community-based approaches to research, monitoring and verification, and in exploring how collaboration with citizens can strengthen their organisation’s work.
Workshop information
Dates: Thursday, 8 and 15 October 2026
Time: 15:00–17:00 CET
Format: Online
Application deadline: 4 October 2026 at 23:59 CET
Selected participants announced: Monday, 5 October 2026
About Ximena Villagrán
Ximena Villagrán is a Guatemalan journalist specialising in media management, investigative journalism and data journalism. She is certified in News Product Management by the News Product Alliance and was an International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) fellow through the U.S. State Department Fellowship programme. She previously served as Executive Director of El Intercambio, a data journalism production organisation working across Central America.
About CIRCLE
The CIRCLE (Citizen Integration for Resilient Collaboration against Disinformation in Europe) is a European project, co-funded by the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS), that promotes citizen participation as a key strategy to combat disinformation. Through research, training, and knowledge exchange, the project aims to develop a transferable model that will enable organizations and communities to strengthen their capacity to respond to the challenges of today’s information ecosystem.