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The Perfect Channel for Public Dialogue

January 15th, 2007 | Category: We Media Miami

Community and communication share the same roots, and that is, mainly, because one can’t exist without the other. We are part of society as long as we interact with others, as long as we recognize and understand them, and also, as long as we are capable of negotiating and coexisting.

It is in this spirit that the World Wide Web offers an extension of the streets where citizens share and basically, talk. Thus, the Net allows conversations in real time, with a democratic world-wide reach. At the same time, the Net also has the possibility to trespass borders, give a common space to global citizens, and allow us to participate in new sorts of activities… activities close to where we are and molded to our needs and realities… cyber activities.

The network is fed with the voices and the subjectivities of each one of those who go inside. It is rich and plural. Unlike traditional speech in mass media, or the speech used by politicians, citizens express themselves, put out their needs, and with this, they demand a higher level from those involved.

Seeing these elements interacting under an atmosphere of presidential elections, like the ones we had in Venezuela on December 3, we find ourselves needing to build a triangle among the main sources of communication: the speech of politicians; the mass media’s interpretation of this speech; and finally and most important, the people’s view. In this case, the Internet is the perfect channel for public dialog. It is instantaneous, in most cases cheap, and accessible. Also, it would not require a different use from the one bloggers and citizen journalists already give to it, except maybe, for the content, which needs to be devoted to the election process.

For this reason, the Internet must not be seen as a separated space, out of reality, but instead, a scene that coexists with reality and that opens the horizons of whatever happens that day. So, we plan to name the coverage of all citizen reporters coordinated around the country before, during, and after the elections “3D Elections.” Our objectives are based on emphasizing two points: the recognition of the political opponent and a democratic reading of the results.

To participate in the We Media event will allow us to show the results of this experience in Hugo Chavez’s country: a country divided and fragmented in his social imagination. Through this, we will be able to get closer to other possibilities of communication among citizens, politicians and mass media, on the road towards 2007, a year of reconstruction in national consensus. The specific case of Venezuela urges new spaces dedicated to public interaction, community and communication. This is how the Internet demonstrates its role as a suitable space for dialog and discussion, and, most of all, all the angles of democracy.
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Comunidad y comunicación poseen la misma raíz porque no puede existir una sin la otra. Formamos parte de la sociedad en la medida en nos relacionamos con el otro, en la medida que lo reconocemos, lo comprendemos, y seamos capaces de negociar y convivir con él.

Es así como la www ofrece una extensión de la plaza pública donde los ciudadanos dialogan. La red permite una conversación en tiempo real, con alcance mundial y absolutamente democrática. Su capacidad para trascender fronteras y ser espacio de encuentro para ciudadanos globales, también nos permite realizar actividades, ciberactividades, absolutamente locales y amoldadas a nuestras realidades inmediatas.

La red se llena de las voces y las subjetividades de cada actor que en ella participe. Es rica y plural. Al contrario del discurso tradicional de los medios de comunicación, o el discurso de los políticos, los ciudadanos se expresan desde sus necesidades y demanda e interpela una mejor actuación de los otros implicados. Al enmarcar estos componentes en el escenario de una elección presidencial, como la que tendremos en Venezuela el próximo 3 de diciembre, necesitamos plantear un triángulo de comunicaciones. El primero será el discurso de los políticos, el segundo es la cobertura que de esto hagan los medios de comunicación, y la tercera óptica es la narrativa ciudadana. En este caso, la Internet es un medio perfecto para el diálogo público entre ciudadanos.

La red es inmediata, relativamente barata y de fácil acceso y no exigirá de los bloggers y periodistas ciudadanos un uso distinto al que ya le dan, salvo la dedicación a la cobertura electoral.

Por eso Internet no debe ser vista como un espacio separado de la realidad, pues más bien es coexistente y amplia los horizontes de percepción de lo que ocurra ese día. Planteamos denominar “Elecciones en 3D” a la cobertura que coordinaremos con ciudadanos reporteros de todo el país durante los días anteriores y siguientes a la cita electoral. Sobretodo para hacer énfasis en dos puntos: el reconocimiento del adversario y la lectura democrática de los resultados.

Asistir al evento de WeMedia nos permitirá presentar lo que se recoja de esta experiencia en el país de Hugo Chávez, un país dividido y fragmentado en sus imaginario social, para además aproximarnos a otras posibilidades de interacción entre ciudadanos, políticos y medios, de cara a un ańo 2007 de reconstrucción de consenso nacional. El caso específico venezolano demanda con urgencia nuevos espacios de encuentro público, de comunidad y comunicación horizontal. La red se nos presenta como un espacio idóneo para hacer prácticas de diálogo y debate en torno a los múltiples temas que la democracia nos exige cada día. Muchas gracias.

tags: 3 comments

3 Comments so far

Martin G. Smith January 16th, 2007 7:00 pm

I come to this from a route slightly skewed [Bias Declared] from what might be considered normal. Me interest lies in the development of community using the advantages available on the Highway of Light.
I have been highly successful in getting those who were once thought to be lost or even ‘not worth bothering about’ jazzed about the possibilities of both being able to learn and moreover create with the massive potential there is, just for the asking.
This past week was spent following the machinations at a ‘Sandpit’ sponsored by EPSRC in the UK [http://ideasfactory.wordpress.com]. What was most heartening for me was watch my crew devour the words from each day and hook up and learn more about what was being talked about and the people involved. At the end of the week, they came away with greater knowledge and more than a few ideas of their own to explore.
My role as always remains to provide the means for exploration and creation, then let them loose to get on with it.
Ifocus too provides yet another means, a route for expression. There will be no stopping the creative potential of those who join in and this bodes well for the future. Gone are the days when Media, of all types, was the privileged domain of the few – Gone is the day when scientific and creative discovery, again, of all types, was restricted to university labs or industrial infrastructures. The revolution is at hand and it is WE.
I look each day at a frame grab form an advertisement for Slooh [The interactive telescope service. – ‘There’s something going on up there. Some thing we don’t understand. Something bigger that we are. Some kind of huge cosmic question that renders us insignificant. And just when it seems like the answer is near, like we’ve mastered the universe, the question changes. Or evolves into an entirely new question. And as our renowned astronomers, physicists and all-round geniuses scramble to solve these mysteries, they begin to feel a distant fear. A fear in the back of their minds that one night, when they are not looking, some woman siting at home armed only with curiosity, a small library of alien movies and an associates degree in accounting could hop onto he computer and make the next big discovery. All while eating eating leftover Kung Pao Chicken and waiting for her laundry to dry. That’s the beauty of space – timing is everything.’ – As I said, WE!!
Alvaro Ramirez January 22nd, 2007 1:45 pm

Creating new communities is not an easy task. But as you mention it is a worthwhile endeavor. I hope many good things happen in the Conference for you and the other participants.
Periodismo de paz » Archives » Este pichón de reportero se va a volar February 5th, 2007 11:47 am

[...] El texto postulado al Congreso, tesis inicial de lo que se desarrolló en la criollósfera el año pasado, está aquí en versión bilingüe: The perfect channel for public dialogue – El canal perfecto para el diálogo público. Así que esto conforma una experiencia colectiva que puede ser retribuida en la medida que se capitalice ese conocimiento y pueda ser utilizado para movilizar algún otro guateque en la red. [...]

The Perfect Channel for Public Dialogue

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