In 2020-2021, as part of our Civic Media Observatory research, Global Voices ran country-level Observatories focused on Bolivia, Brazil, Haiti, Venezuela, India, and Myanmar, with a major focus on elections and crises of legitimacy. For these projects, we assembled teams of local researchers with diverse language and analytics skills to identify and analyze emerging issues, narratives, and trends in each country's information ecosystem.
In each country, we focused on significant events in public life, and provided contextual and subtextual analysis to complex issues, to help partners, Global Voices contributors and readers understand the nuance and motivations for the narratives that frame public conversations.
Myanmar
We explored the crisis around the general elections in 2020, which provoked a coup and has resulted in a military dictatorship. We covered these events in three special coverage sections:
- Myanmar elections 2020
- The junta seizes Myanmar again. Will democracy prevail?
- Myanmar's Spring Revolution
Read the Myanmar analysis.
India
We did extensive work on COVID-19, especially natural health and spiritual cures such as Ayurvedic healing and hydroxychloroquine cures. We covered Hindu nationalism and anti-Muslim bias, the decline of democratic institutions, the Farmer's Protests, and regional elections in Assam in March-April, 2021.
Read the India analysis.
Bolivia
We focused on the public disinformation crisis surrounding false and potentially dangerous COVID-19 cures. We also did extensive research on the general elections in October 2020, with an emphasis on racist narratives against Indigenous communities.
Read the Bolivia analysis.
Brazil
We worked on conspiracy theories, populist and nationalist politics, COVID-19 controversies, especially the promotion of hydroxychloroquine as a cure and anti-China rhetoric.
Read the Brazil analysis.
Venezuela
We worked on December 2020 parliamentary elections, with an emphasis on the rhetoric coming out of expatriated Venezuelan communities and the influence of United States politics, and the humanitarian crisis surrounding Venezuelan refugees, combined with COVID-19 needs.
Read the Venezuela analysis.
Haiti
In Haiti, we focused on crime and impunity, on topics such as police brutality, gang rivalries, human rights restrictions and infringements, human trafficking. We also looked at gender-based violence and LGBTQ+ rights.
Visit the Civic Media Observatory main page.
Read the stories
Stories about Country monitor observatories 2020-2021
India bans TikTok, 58 other apps amid rising anti-China sentiment, border clashes
The border clashes and the stand-off between India and China reached naught after India decided to ban video-creation platform TikTok and 58 other apps due to “security issues”.
US and Venezuelan politicians accuse Maduro of instigating violence during BLM protests
US and Venezuelan politicians believe that President Nicolas Maduro was behind the looting and violent protests during Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the United States.
How Trump's ‘game-changer’ drug is boosting nationalism in Brazil and India
The claim that there’s a cure for COVID-19, but that powerful actors prevent access to it, allows these leaders to cast themselves as saviors.
Will the ‘Self-reliant India’ scheme bring relief to migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced another economic reform package of 265 Billion USD during the COVID-19 pandemic which drew criticism from netizens.
