LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — We've never had more access to information as we do today. But we've all probably seen someone post something that isn't true. It can be hard to identify misinformation and stop it.
Scripps reporter Chris Stewart speaks with an artist, fighting misinformation in the Latino community.
"Do you still get excited when you see people reacting to something you create?" asks Chris. "Oh yea... like that never gets old," says Political Cartoonist, Lalo Alcaraz.
LOUD MESSAGE
This tiny office Lalo brought me to, is where he sends a loud message.
"I'm just trying to get people to think critically," says Lalo.
Using barely any words.
"I think political cartoons are really accessible, quick format that delivers the truth with a punch," says Lalo.
The thing about political cartoons, he told me, is that within seconds you should know the point.
"Yours don't really beat around the bush," says Chris. "Bluntness that's what makes my cartoons different... My first hate mail was actually literally U.S. mail snail mail and then it processed to emails then it processed to social media posts," says Lalo.
For many of you, Lalo may need no introduction.
"I clip 'em out… newsprint man before it goes out of existence," says Lalo.
He's a Pulitzer Prize-nominated cartoonist, whose daily comic strip LA Cucaracha is the first nationally syndicated Latino political cartoon.
"The strip is about a group of friends it's basically me and my friends when we're 25 when we got out of college... It's just us living life and living the politics of the day," says Lalo.
In the pandemic his work has carried a new meaning.
"It makes me feel good if someone tells me like that really helped me to talk to my uncle about his dislike of vaccines or you know that's always win for me," says Lalo.
FIGHT MISINFORMATION
These are the special cartoons Lalo created to fight pandemic misinformation as part of a project with Arizona State called "COVID Latino."
"I inserted myself as the Arizona sun devil logo dude and changed his pitchfork to a giant syringe presumably with the vaccine and I'm chasing a little coronavirus dude away," says Lalo.
The Latino community's high reliance on social media for news is a reason why groups like Nielsen says they are at a higher risk for misinformation.
"It's not because we're not smart people. We're good people," says Lalo.
And as Lalo animated special for this story, non-profit Avaaz, which studies misinformation... found posts with misinformation in Spanish on Facebook are far less likely to be flagged compared to posts in English.
"I think we're all responsible to our communities we can't expect people to come in and fix things for us and also on the ground level at some point," says Lalo.
Facebook has promised to do more to fact check Spanish posts on its platform. But as we head closer to the midterm elections, Lalos's message in both cartoon and voice is to be educated.
"You know the information is out there you have to look at it. Use the coco that God gave you" That's an old thing my mom used to say," says Lalo.
