The Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation held in Sintra a Summer School dedicated to the theme "(Dis)information and Democracy", where 59 young people aged between 15 and 17 spent a week learning to recognize and be skeptical of disinformation. Divided into eight groups, the participants went out into the field, in Sintra, to interview people and look for real stories, accompanied by the team from the narrative journalism magazine Divergente.
The practical reporting experience proved more difficult than they expected. Leonor Rio, 16 years old, from Felgueiras, explained that some people refused to participate or made up excuses, leading the group to realize that it was better to start by chatting before recording. Another group discovered that making pauses of silence after questions allowed people to share more information. The young Sara Carvalho, from Lisbon, learned that it was not necessary to tell something extraordinary, just "people's lives".
The training proved to be a bridge to the central theme of the week. The participants recognized that disinformation is difficult to combat because it is present in daily digital life. Leonor learned to be skeptical also of the tendency to believe what confirms what she already thinks, while Pedro Figueiredo, from Leiria, warned about the relationship between disinformation and algorithms on social media. Journalist Sofia da Palma Rodrigues summarized the initiative: "A good journalist will be a good person and a good citizen."
The Foundation's content director, João Tiago Gaspar, explained that the choice of theme is related to the transformations of the media space and the growing influence of social media, which he considered a "fifth power" that is not governed by the ethical criteria of traditional journalism. At the end of the week, the discussion returned to the essential: to stop, listen, and be skeptical.
