Digital Media: Breaking Boundaries, Bridging Divides
The boundaries that divide most communities are usually based on race, language, religion or socio-economic differences. At the U.S. - Mexico borderline where I live, the separation between people is physical and political – government policies that create walls and other barriers to the free exchange of travel, business, education, ideas and personal relationships. Unfortunately, traditional news media (newspapers, broadcast television, magazines, newsletters) have reinforced the separation of my community of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, twin border cities of about 2 million residents that meet at the banks of the Rio Grande.
Most news stories about the border – whether they deal with drugs, a health crisis or environmental pollution – rarely explore impact on both sides. For example, reporters frequently write about the effects of air pollution from a copper smelter on Central El Paso without also examining the spread of the contamination to a Mexican colonia a few hundred yards away. Or they write about the rapid rise of diabetes among El Pasoans, without exploring a similar problem in Juarez, ignoring the fact that most of our residents have family members living on both sides.
Language (English or Spanish) has also been a barrier to communication at the border. Although El Paso is more than 70 percent Hispanic and many local residents speak English and Spanish, the city’s only major daily is English-only. Juarez has a Spanish newspaper, El Diario, which recently began publishing a sister newspaper in Spanish in El Paso. There are currently no bilingual publications in the borderplex.
We propose to use new communication technologies (digital cameras, cell phones, webcams) and the Web to bridge the geographic and communication divide. Digital media, specifically a bilingual BorderZine accessible to U.S. and Mexico residents of the border region, can be a tool for the free exchange of information, ideas, news, commentary and images. It can help border residents connect on an immediate people-to-people basis using interactive modes of communication like written and video blogs. Recently, the Sam Donaldson Center received a modest grant from the Ford Foundation to allow my school to create a bilingual multimedia Web magazine to connect residents of the borderlands. Planning for the project is in the early stages and still collecting ideas. An opportunity to attend the We Media Conference in February would be an invaluable source of information, cutting-edge ideas and contacts for this project.
I believe the border presents a perfect laboratory for groundbreaking journalism that uses digital media to cross boundaries and connect communities. It will allow members of our community to create a new style of hybrid journalism in cyberspace that truly crosses borders. The new technology, plus plenty of imagination, will make this project viable.
Zita Arocha
Senior Lecturer
Associate Director, Sam Donaldson Center for Communication Studies
University of Texas at El Paso
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Good idea, but please dont forget the developing world too when forging ahead with Digital media.
Perhaps the loaction referred to can be seen as an allied situation. Remembering that the developing world has economics against it. Households earning less than a few dollars a day. So lets ensure the digital solutions are scalable and can go everywhere at a reasonable price.
Taking teh cellphone as an example, it has taken off in all parts of Africa, even though household income is low. Why? It serves a purpose and answers a loacl need. Cellphone usage in some rural areas sits at 70%, whiel computer (internet) usage sits at 1% in the same area.
Lets get creative.
You are so right about building models that take into account the needs and limitations of developing countries and less wealthy parts of the U.S. like the U.S./Mexico borderlands. As you say, fortunately cell phones are now quite common in all parts and places of the globe, from rural villages in Indonesia to the capitals of Europe. On the U.S. Mexico border where the first and third worlds meet, we must address this deep technology divide. Cell phones might be the best way to open up the cross border community dialogue. thanx for your thoughts.
La idea de mejorar la comunicación en ambos lados de la frontera es una preocupación que ha existido desde siempre, pero las diferencias que menciona Zita ha hecho que el proceso sea cada vez más complicado.Los gobiernos de los tres niveles, en ambos lados, nunca han tenido una comunicación efectiva, mientras que las relaciones familiares y comerciales son las que han marcado los vínculos más fuertes entre ambas comunidades. Aunque la idea de Zita es muy buena, habría que tomar en cuenta que la tecnología esta superitada a sectores muy específicos, condición que se acentúa en el lado juarense. Además, habría que establecer a qué comunidades, paseñas y juarenses, están interesadas en intercomunicarse, ya que no son pocos los que prefieren mantener las diferencias y esa lejanía marcada físicamente por el río y políticamente por la frontera.
Martin, lo que dices tiene mucho sentido, especialmente para esos sectores que tienen un interés personal (self interest) en mantener las divisiones. Crees que hay manera de demonstrarle a estos sectores que hay mas ventajas en destruir las barreras a la comunicación?
Es posible que haya algunas formas que podrían aplicarse, pero creo que -tal vez- no resultarán efectivas porque muchas de esas personas no han resulento sus carencias primarias, como el tener un lugar seguro donde vivir, tener dinero suficiente para comer y para vestir, así como mandar a sus hijos a la escuela. Datos recientes que hemos publicado indican que más del 50 por ciento de los juarenses viven con tras salarios mínimos diarios o menos. Es decir, se mantienen con 150 pesos al día o menos. Creo que no podrían acceder a la tecnología. Sin embargo, podría buscarse un sistema de comunicación de alta tecnología comunitaria, que sean varios los usuarios los que puedan utilizarlo a la vez. Tendríamos que echarle una pensada.
The move to develop a multimedia platform that allows for discussion and debate on issues related to the borderland is long overdue – thank you for advancing this important project. As you move forward, I would invite you to consider the nature of what an institutionalized platform will look like versus a more “organic” grassroots fusion of technology. My concern with technological innovation and its eventual use by media is that individuals are much faster and more flexible about incorporating new technology than are media institutions. Podcasts are a great example of this diffusion problem – individuals were using podcasts much sooner than media outlets and as media outlets start to incorporate the technology, individuals are already off to the next innovation. This trickle down effect is even more pronounced along the borderland, where media outlets are very far behind their larger, market peers in using technology to reach out to readers/users. Even when borderland media outlets do incorporate new technology it is far behind the curve and in most cases sloppy at best. How can we train the next generation in using technology if the institutional curve is slower than innovation at a personal level? If we are constrained by these limits and the outlets where our students work are also constrained by these limits, how can we insure that our students can compete? How do we latch onto innovation so that pedagogy reflects the cutting edge versus “yesterday’s news[technology]?”
You are absolutely right about how the border is often last in the nation to adopt technology innovations, and that young people are way ahead of the institutional curve on that front. Perhaps our young border residents(using the latest technology for grassroots communication) should be the ones to trailblaze the effort to facilitate a real cross-border dialogue. We are fortunate to work in a university setting that values individual innovation, rather than within the strictures of a mega media conglomerate. I say let’s give it a try.
Excuse, and what you think concerning forthcoming elections?