texas-moody

Colombia: A new type of journalist with a social leadership role emerges in the most violent regions of the country

  • Source: FLIP
  • February 15, 2023

"[These journalists] don't have a newsroom or big production equipment. They combine traditional journalism formulas with new ways of telling what is happening in their spot. They do not follow a script, because over time they've learned empirically what works best for effective communication. On the street they are known by their neighbors and followers. Their point of view is that of a direct witness of events. Although some have received some academic or technical training, in practice they question the dogma of objectivity in the profession. Some think of their work as social service, others as activism or even militancy. Their advantage is their proximity to the news. Their audacity is to undertake a project, most of the time a one-person project, to make up for the lack of information in a country where one third of the municipalities do not have local media. Their disadvantage is the result of this condition, since the same notoriety that leads them to become the only voices that watch over and dispute local power can put them at risk, especially in the most belligerent areas of the country. This is a new type of journalist who, under the wing of the transformation of the journalism industry, practices social leadership in their territory."

Read original story (in Spanish)