When Carolina Bazante returned to Ecuador after working across Latin America, the United States, and Spain, she wanted to contribute, but not necessarily as a media entrepreneur.
Today, she leads Lupa Media, one of the most credible verification and media education outlets in Ecuador. Lupa Media was born out of an incubator and built in one of the most violent periods in the country’s recent history. It’s currently a grantee in the Brave Media accelerator, an international initiative that SembraMedia is implementing in Latin America in partnership with BBC Media Action and with support from the European Union.
I spoke with Carolina on Zoom while she was traveling to Madrid. The following excerpts are edited for clarity.
There is an escalation of violence in Ecuador, including violence against journalists (source: CPJ). What made you decide to return to your country after working internationally and set up Lupa Media?
It’s something that I’ve been thinking about this last week here in Madrid, because when I came to Madrid in 2021, I fell in love and I realized I could settle down here. But at the end of my master’s program, when I was working as a correspondent for Ecuadorian media, I had to decide to start a fresh new career here, or go back to Ecuador. I learned about fact-checking in Spain and I always thought, my country needs something like this: a verification program in an independent media outlet.
It wasn’t an easy decision, but everything that happened after that was worth it. After 2021, Ecuador started having security issues, with more violence than before. And it has become worse since then. I kept asking myself what I could do as a journalist to respond to a moment of deep national crisis—a time when violence was rising and disinformation was spreading rapidly. I figured I could be more useful doing something that I learned outside the country and take it back.
When did it become clear to you that you would start something for yourself?
I never think of myself as a media entrepreneur. I always say I am a journalist. Even now, I say I work for my team. I just want to take advantage of every opportunity that I have.
In 2023, after doing the Emerging Media Leaders Program at the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) in the United States, SembraMedia and Google News Initiative opened a call for the GNI Startups Lab Hispanoamérica incubator. And I realized that was a moment to build something.
I wasn’t thinking of a media outlet, I was thinking of a project [focused on] talking about verification and media literacy on television. But in the incubator process, it was clear that the idea had potential. The name for my project was Con Lupa, and I changed it to Lupa Media. [Lupa means “magnifying glass” in Spanish.]
What did you learn from the incubator that you didn’t learn in traditional journalism?
The incubator for me was like a revelation. I knew how to do journalism because I had been doing it for more than 10 years, but I didn’t know anything about business. Not even what an MVP is [minimum viable product], or how to think about a business model.
The consultants in the incubator process, in my case, Nico Piccoli from Argentina, were so patient and taught me how to build this. Not just the content, but also the value: how it is going to help people, and how it is going to work as a business?
At the end of the incubator, I had a plan and next steps. Almost three years later, it worked out.
What does Lupa Media’s sustainability model look like?
Most of our sustainability model is based on media literacy programs, international cooperation, and grants. But right now, we are doing something different.
We created three different units. Lupa Media is the editorial unit; then Lupa for Education, where we work all the media literacy programs, and Lupa for Business.
We do consulting, research for NGOs or organizations like the United Nations, and prebunking programs for businesses, making them understand how disinformation could affect their brand or their business.
We also set up crowdfunding campaigns for donations from our community. We’re always thinking creatively about how to diversify our model and be sustainable, but also independent.
What do you learn from your audience about fact-checking when you teach media literacy?
It became clear to us that it doesn’t matter if we have the evidence and show people why it’s false. In the end, people believe what they want. So we understood: we need to combine verification with media literacy.
We work with children, teenagers, university students, journalists, community leaders, and also people over 60. When we created the Youth Fact-Check Network [Red de Jóvenes Verificadores], people asked why we didn’t do it for seniors.
In Ecuador, about 70% of the population has internet access, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into digital understanding. We’ve seen this through the rise of phishing and other forms of online deception. When you explain that misinformation can affect their health, decisions and even democracy, people don’t remain passive. They want to do something about it.
It’s inspiring to see that members of the community increasingly hold public figures accountable. Sometimes in comments on social media, people call out politicians, saying, “I follow you, but please don’t lie to us.”
It’s interesting how this works. Our goal is not for Lupa Media to verify everything for you: you can also do this for yourself. We are going to teach you how.
You’re ambitious with Lupa Media in not just wanting to debunk false information, but rebuilding the whole Ecuadorian information ecosystem. In the Brave Media accelerator, you’re with other founders from Ecuador and also Colombia. What partners are important to you in doing this?
In Ecuador, we work closely with civil society organizations, universities, journalists, and community leaders who share the goal of strengthening democratic resilience. Journalism is often called “prensa corrupta” [the “corrupt press”]. When people call me a liar, I say, “I’m not a liar, I’m a journalist.”
It made us realize that with Lupa Media, we need to work closely with people. Not just treating them as an audience, but as a community. We don’t want to tell you what to think; we provide verified information so you can reach your own informed conclusions. Maybe you have another conclusion, that’s okay, but here’s the evidence.
Two and a half years later, Lupa Media is one of the most reliable and trusted references for verification in Ecuador. People now expect us to fact-check everything [for them], but that isn’t realistic. We want to help cultivate a culture where verification becomes a shared responsibility.
2025 was the most violent year in Ecuador on record. Ten journalists got killed. If you watch the news, everyone is dead, there is corruption every day, and you feel tired. People ask if I’m afraid, but I’m not. We don’t try to hurt anyone with our work. We want to do something good, and the community around us and our partners understand it and support us.
So instead of just verifying information, we want to be accompanying people in this process. We have a WhatsApp line where everyone can text us directly. We focus on social media because that’s where the interaction is. We don’t publish 10 stories, maybe one or two, but these will be the most important ones for you to think about.
You make use of AI in your methodology. What is your view on this technology for journalism?
For projects like Lupa Media, AI could be an ally. For a year we were two people doing the job. People thought we were kidding—how could we do all of that? And we say: we use AI.
We have been using AI since the beginning as a tool, as editorial support. Claude, ChatGPT, Google Pinpoint, Notebook LM.
You can train the tools as guides to work with. In the general elections of 2025 we used Chequeabot by Chequeado, and InVID.
But there is no possibility that AI will replace the role of the journalist. We can do quick research, but then we have to investigate, call people, and do interviews.
For us, with a team that is not big, we need this kind of resource to create the impact we want. We don’t have money to hire two or three more people. Even our designer uses AI to do things more quickly. But it’s a resource, a tool, and an assistant, not a replacement.
In your bio on Lupa Media’s website, you mentioned that you play Satie on the flute and ukulele. Is that helpful to stay grounded?
In the beginning, I used to work 24 hours, 7 days. Then I understood I needed to at least be off one day in a week. I have played the flute since I was nine years old. My dream was to be a musician in Europe. For music, just as for journalism, you need patience and discipline. And as an entrepreneur, you need even more discipline.
I read a lot. I’m a Christian, I read the Bible, I do meditation and praying. You have to think about your mental health and your spiritual life. I also like to walk around, grab a coffee somewhere, journal, and watch series on Netflix or HBO, preferably something I don’t need to think about.
And I like to sleep.