The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced grants totaling $1.2 million to nine universities and nonprofit organizations working to expose and reduce disinformation in communities of color. 

The winning proposals represent a diverse range of methods and approaches to the societal challenge of disinformation and span a wide geographic area—from partnering with local churches and school districts, to addressing disinformation within Spanish-speaking populations in South Texas, to relying on community-based disinformation interventions in Syracuse’s predominantly Black South Side neighborhood. In St. Paul, Minnesota, and Miami, grantees will focus on scalable models for addressing disinformation within the Black community and researching and reporting on disinformation operations targeting Latino voters in the upcoming 2022 election.

“Recent scholarship shows that communities of color are often targeted to discourage participation in our country’s civic and political life,” said Knight Foundation senior director of media and democracy John Sands. “This challenge isn’t going away, but projects like these show promising paths forward. They leverage community relationships and expertise to test and better understand the mechanisms that build resilience to disinformation.” 

(Photo Credit: Getty Images/artisteer)