”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.
Scholars, journalists and media executives from 12 countries shared experiences about online journalism that are particular to Latin America, Spain, and Portugal. The Third Ibero-American Colloquium on Digital Journalism took place in Austin on April 25, 2010.
Access to Internet has grown considerably in Latin America, increasing the access to social networks. According to a report by David Cuen for BBC Mundo (Spanish), Latin American Internet users don't surf in isolation. At least 95 percent of them have an account on a social network.
In the face of attacks on journalists and attempts to discredit the press, Instituto Palavra Aberta launched a web series to explain to the lay public how journalism works.