About us
Commission for Informational Reliability and Misinformation Combat in the Digital Environment (CIDAD)
CIDAD is an outreach program of the Federal University of Santa Catarina Libraries System (BU/UFSC) and University of the State of Santa Catarina (UDESC) that promotes actions and studies about ethical and epistemological foundations for the production, dissemination and access to reliable information.
CIDAD started as a library working committee in 2018 and since 2020 it became an outreach program.
Among the explored topics are fake news, post-truth, information literacy, media literacy, disinformation, logic, philosophy of information, semiotics, reflective thinking and critical reading.
Field of work:
- means of verifying information sources;
- strategies to combat misinformation and disinformation;
- ethical practices for sharing and creating information;
- ways of improving reading, especially in the digital environment.
Objectives:
To plan, execute and institutionalize research, actions and services on informational reliability and misinformation combat, in the form of:
- Conducting research, lectures and training;
- Producing teaching materials, papers, articles, e-books;
- Organizing exhibitions, live streamings and meetings;
- Developing outreach actions for the community;
- Expanding the activities of libraries and universities in combatting disinformation.
Summary of activities done so far:
- Editions of “Critical Reading Workshop”;
- “Informational Reliability Criteria: How to Identify Misinformation” and “Identifying Lies on the Internet” trainings;
- “Critical Reading in Contemporary Times” e-book;
- CIDAD’s annual online event “Informational Reliability Seminar“;
- “Philosophy of Information” and “Disinformation and emotions” classes;
- IFLA’s infographic “How To Spot Fake News” bookmark adaptation;
- “Information reliability: criteria to identify misinformation in the digital environment” and others scientific and academic papers;
- Live streaming discussions about specific topics on the UFSC and UDESC library channels.
CIDAD reached out more than 400 people through face-to-face activities among students, librarians, educators and other professionals and citizens – and over 2.500 views of the online activities. Besides, we have already published almost 900 pages of written material.
Currently, our team consists of a group of librarians, university professors and journalism professionals that research and teach in Information Science, Philosophy, Communication and Education areas:
Msc. Leonardo Ripoll (Coordinator/Doctoral student/Librarian)
Dr. José Claudio Morelli Matos (Researcher/Professor)
Dr. Suely Ribeiro Figueiredo (Researcher/Professor)
Dr. Marcos Antonio Alves (Researcher/Professor)
Luis Carlos Ferrari (Journalist)
Contact us: 
