Discussions of innovations in media, technology, languages and platforms were just some of the central themes when journalists from throughout Brazil gathered June 30–July 2 in São Paulo at the 6th International Congress of Investigative Journalism organized by the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism. The program covered dozens of topics, ranging from the format of news on tablets to the practice of independent journalism on the web.
Tools for managing, visualizing, and distributing data was a recurring theme in the 16 vanguard media projects that will share $4.7 million in funding from the 2011 Knight News Challenge. Since it began in 2006, the initiative, primarily funded by the John S. and James L Knight Foundation, has given out $27 million to 76 projects to promote journalistic innovation.
Inspired by the recent protests in Spain that, since March, have demanded economic and electoral system changes, filmmaker Raquel Diniz, 31, created a collaborative map to pinpoint cases of corruption in Brazil, according to Folha de S. Paulo.
”Crowdfunding”, a term used to describe networking, usually via the Internet, to pool money and resources, is starting to take off in Brazil. An explosion of crowdfunding websites, like Catarse, Multidão, Movere and Benfeitoria, are just some to come on the scene.
Five years after its creation, a Portuguese version of the micro-blogging service Twitter is in the works, the site announced. According to Terra, the site is looking to crowdsource the translation to volunteers.
Violence in Saltillo has increased in recent months, putting us in new risky situations where social media is a way to break the silence enforced by criminal groups. It is not the best substitute, but considering the lack of protection journalists in Coahuila state have, there is no other option.
The Brazilian online site Journalists on the Web has published a virtual interactive map with information about urban massacres -- particularly in schools -- from around the world. The map was launched one day after the April 7 school shooting in Río de Janeiro, in which 12 people died.
The United States has Propublica, the U.K. has the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and Chile has the Center for Investigative Journalism (Ciper). Brazil will soon join the ranks of countries with these independent centers, as Natália Viana, a journalist and collaborator with WikiLeaks, announced the creation of “Pública” (Public), the first investigative journalism agency in the country.
Considering the way WikiLeaks and its publishing of secret diplomatic cables and classified documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have prompted debates about the public's right to know and transparency in government, the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas has decided to highlight information access laws throughout Latin America.
The International Press Institute and the Poynter Institute have teamed up to publish a 152-page report on the future of news. The report, "Brave News Worlds: Navigating the New Media Landscape," was published Sept 13, 2010.
During the wave of violence in Kenya in 2008, that stemmed from conflicts among rival political factions, a group of friends created a system in which persons in various locations could send and share, via the Internet, news about attacks and killings. The Ushahidi (witness in Swahili) online platform became a model of success for participative coverage of news worldwide. Now the system has come to Brazil, with Voter 2010, an unprecedented election monitoring tool for citizens.
First he went on television and radio. Next, he started tweeting. Now, President Chávez has launched an official blog to communicate with Venezuelans, ABC and Europa Press report.