"Reporteros populares (people's reporters) have emerged in a number of Latin Amer ican countries as a fruitful means of incorporating grass-roots participation into media devel opment practices. S
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cholars have documented and described a number of people's reporters projects, yet few have explained how participation is constructed and enacted in any theoret ically systematic way. This article reviews the limited work on people's reporters from Latin America, proposes a theoretical template for systematically analyzing participatory practice, and applies the template to data collected in the Bolivian highlands in 1993. Data for this study were collected using ethnographic field methods over a five-week period at Radio Pío XII in Bolivia. Recommendations are included for development practitioners interested in incorporating participatory aspects into their media projects." (Abstract)
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"Fempress was founded in 1981, in Mexico, by two Chi lean women living in exile who were passionately convinced that the media are powerful tools to challenge culturally-rooted social injustice. We felt that the people fighting to overturn the legendary culture of machismo in Lat in America needed a
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fai r and inspirational magazine on every newsstand; one that would ref lect the real problems facing women. Naturally, this was not an immediate possibility. A quick market study exposed the mechanisms by which, even today, it is virtually impossible for alternative media to survive unless it can cover some of its costs by carrying advertisements. Needless to say, advertising acts against women’ s emancipation almost by definition; and any quest for a profound social change involves swimming against the tide. As pioneers of this now well-known women’ s media network, we reached out for international co-operation and trimmed the project down to realistic proportions that excluded the news-stands and the general public but focused instead on strengthening what was then a small and inarticulate Lat in Amer ican women’ s movement." (Introduction)
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"In the developing countries radio plays an important part in awakening the national conscience — In dealing with the various world trends in the use of radio the author rejects the use of radio for commercial purposes (private stations) which will not benefit the listener or viewer, being solely
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a means of entertainment — To what extent can public organisations prohibit the use of radio for commercial purposes? — The author goes on to describe the type of radio system which can meet the requirements of the developing countries and the role radio should fulfil — Two aspects should be distinguished: 1) creating a new people in order to link society and its government — 2) raising the standard of living of the individual, making him understand himself and the outside world and bringing him into contact with the life of neighbouring civilisations — Next he deals with the economic aspect of a plan for radio and of the sharing of artistic and cultural productions by the radio services. [Working Paper, 17 Oct. 1962. Contribution to: The United Nations Conference on the Application of Science and Technology for the Benefit of the Less Developed Areas, Geneva, 4 to 20 February 1963. E/Conf. 39/L/30. Agenda Item: L]" (Jean-Marie Van Bol, Abdelfattah Fakhfakh: The use of mass media in the developing countries. Brussels: CIDESA, 1971 Nr. 94, topic code 410.330, 210.330)
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