By Dean Graber
More than 350 journalists, instructors and students from 22 of Argentina’s 24 provinces attended the Fifth National and International Congress on Argentine Journalism, held Nov. 4–6, 2010, by the Argentine Journalism Forum (FOPEA), a Knight Center partner.
The gathering in Buenos Aires focused on the theme “Returning to Sources: How to Tell Stories to Audiences in the 21st Century” and proved again to be the most important gathering among Argentine journalists. The event was co-sponsored and supported by nearly 20 organizations, including the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, which has worked with FOPEA since its creation in 2003 and participated in its previous congresses.
The more than 50 speakers came from Argentina as well as Brazil, Chile, Great Britain, the United States, and Uruguay. (See the complete program, and this story listing keynote addresses and other panel presentations.)
"In the number of attendees and the level of the debates, this has been one of the richest Congresses FOPEA has held in recent years,” FOPEA President Gabriel Michi says. “The keynote speakers Sergio Ramírez (Nicaragua), Brian Hamman and Nora Paul (United States), Alex Wood (Great Britain), and Marcos Chiaretti (Brazil) provided transcendent visions about how journalism is facing the challenge of telling stories with the many resources provided by new technologies, but without loosing its professional essence.
This was FOPEA’s first congress that was transmitted live via Internet streaming,and more than 680 unique users were able to access the more than than 20 hours of panels and discussions, held at the University of Palermo. The conference organizers and participants also made strong use of Twitter during the event.
The streaming proved successful in extending the discussions to broader audiences, Michi says, adding that FOPEA will seek to give greater promotion to this aspect of the Congress in the future because the technical details were finished only a few hours before the Congress.
FOPEA is considering alternatives for publishing the material generated during the Congress.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
