With the goal of creating support networks and providing resources to news professionals, the project From a Social Network to a Support Network: Cyber resilience for journalists trains journalists with new skills that are required in a digital world.

The project is co-directed by ITS and Redes Cordiais (Kindhearted Networks) and is supported by the Facebook Journalism Project.

The initiative is composed of 3 pillars, which aim to encourage better usage of social media and reduce the potentially negative impact that internet exposure can cause.

These 3 pillars are:

Online Courses

Train journalists to use social media in their favor, maintain control of their personal data, learn the best practices of social media for the press, and techniques to guarantee privacy protection on the internet.

The courses also address Law as a tool for the journalist and freedom of the speech in an online scenario.

Best-practices manual for newsrooms

This manual (created for directors, managers, and editors) contains guidelines on how to create a culture of cybersecurity in the newsroom, along with protocols, and channels for receiving reports that are known by the whole team. It also details monitoring procedures for the reported cases.

Support network for journalists

This network considers the psychological impact of journalists that are targets of criticism – or those who are in the front line, moderating the social media pages of their news outlets, which are being attacked daily.

Taking this into consideration, the project created a support network of peers.

With actions focused on the months preceding the Brazilian elections, the project is expected to benefit at least 1000 journalists, reducing their digital vulnerability and improving the institutional capacity of their news outlets during coverage of the 2020 Brazilian municipal elections.