26 April 2005

Latin America Blogs

I spent the weekend shuttling between Davis Square and Kendall in search of an affordable apartment. No luck yet, not suprisingly, but I am keeping my fingers crossed and praying for patience as we keep looking. But tonight I caught up on RSS feeds and came across the Reporteres sans frontieres’ Blog Awards, via Global Voices Online. The official contest description states:

We want to draw attention to the importance of weblogs in countries where the traditional press is under the control of the authorities. Throughout the world, Internet users are adopting this new tool to combat censorship and circulate independent news and information.

I plan to follow Ethan’s advice and read each blog that was nominated, but first I want to raise a criticism that is as applicable to groups like Global Voices as it is to the RSF contest. The three nominated bloggers from the “Americas” groups - Dan Gillmor (CA), Declan McCullagh (DC), and Jay Rosen (NY) - are eminently important but do not face situations “where the traditional press is under the control of the authorities.”

Their inclusion effectively hides bloggers in Latin America and the Caribbean who face real censorship and/or persection from being recognized by an international community. So I pose 5 questions:

  1. Does the blogosphere either ignore or not know about Latin America and Caribbean bloggers?
  2. Does Spanish blogging create a barrier that African and some Asian blogs do not face?
  3. Do good Caribbean and Latin American blogs simply do not exist yet?
  4. What opportunities exist for groups like Global Voices to support alternative voices in Latin America and the Caribbean?
  5. How important is the US news cycle in pushing international blogs to prominence?
I don’t know the answers, but I’ve been wrestling with these issues for the better part of a year. Over the next several weeks, I will give my thoughts on each question individually because each really deserves a full treatment. I welcome comments, input, and thoughts. Stay tuned.

3 Comments »

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  1. Hi Jason!
    One way you can help us bring attention to more Latin American blogs is by helping us fill in the Latin American section of our Bridgeblog Index: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu:8080/globalvoices/wiki/index.php/Bridge_Blog_Index

    Also, if you see great posts on Latin American blogs feel free to shoot me an email and we’ll try to cover them in our world blog roundups.

    Thanks!!
    Rebecca

    Comment by Rebecca MacKinnon — 29 April 2005 @ 2:30 pm

  2. Thanks, Rebecca. It’s taken me a month to respond, but I have started to collect Latin American bridgeblogs and will hopefully get a chance to post them on the wiki sometime soon.

    Comment by Jason — 30 May 2005 @ 1:12 am

  3. testcomment188

    Comment by testanchor21 — 15 October 2005 @ 7:54 pm

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