Monitoring misinformation: What’s being said on Spanish radio in Miami before election?

Miami Herald Staff

Immigration, the pandemic, Biden administration policies and voter fraud are among the issues that have hit the airwaves on Spanish-language radio in the weeks leading up to the election.

The Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald and researchers at Florida International University have been monitoring Spanish-language radio and social media as the Nov. 8 midterm elections approach to see what information is being disseminated to a key South Florida voting bloc.

This week, the changing story about an attack on a Republican canvasser went from an initial police statement to a father’s call to Radio Mambi to a tweet by Sen. Marco Rubio, who is running for reelection. It served as an example of how information can shift as it travels.

FIU graduate students overseen by professors have been listening to Spanish-language radio programs, chosen for their audience reach, at fixed times during the day and finding politically relevant content to study for veracity and enter in a database on a platform designed by Global Voices. Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald journalists then review and edit those entries.

Global Voices, a nonprofit that works with news organizations among others, has a Civic Media Observatory method that focuses on questions of misinformation and disinformation. It has the following rating scale:

  • Minus-3 - hateful, inciting, illegal, disinforming or otherwise harmful material, with a large audience, coordinated activity and likely to result in harm

  • Minus-2 - hateful, inciting, illegal, disinforming or otherwise harmful material without mass audience or coordinated activity; or false or misinforming material with a mass audience

  • Minus-1 - false, misinforming, inaccurate or biased material

  • Zero - material containing no substantive information/knowledge

  • Plus-1 - generally accurate material with little influence or importance

  • Plus-2 - accurate, original material that has value and importance

  • Plus-3 - accurate, highly original material that expands understanding and deserves a wide audience

CLICK HERE to view the Monitoring airwaves in Miami database (the best view may be on a laptop or desktop)

The database is being made public and will be updated as more entries are added through Election Day. It is part of a project started earlier this year to look at how political narratives are shaped on South Florida’s potent Spanish-language media, following claims that they were among the influencing factors behind a rightward shift in Hispanic voting patterns in Miami-Dade County in the 2020 election.

READ MORE about Spanish-language misinformation in South Florida

The Miami Herald, el Nuevo Herald project is funded by Journalism Funding Partners, which received support from the Knight Disinformation Fund at The Miami Foundation. The Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald retain editorial control of the content.

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