Peru: first participatory journalism initiative launched

Posted by John Burke on February 6, 2006 at 3:55 PM

The Peruvian daily, El Comercio, has opened its webpages to contributions from readers. "Be our citizen journalist" ("Sea nuestro periodista ciudadano") is a section of the daily's website launched in January 2006 where the papers readers can participate by sending photos, videos and information that helps to substantiate the images.

El Comercio's article describing its new feature tells of the story of Eduardo, a motorist who must slow down or change lanes every day as he nears a certain part of a major route where pedestrians cross the road instead of using bridges built over the street. One day, Eduardo decides to stop and snaps a picture of a woman dodging traffic directly under one of the provided pedestrian bridges.

This is an example of the images that El Comercio is looking for from its readers; pictures that tell stories of their every day lives. The paper has already received over 70 pictures from local readers on subjects such as car accidents and unkempt neighborhoods to illicit photos of neighboring Chile's recent elections. Peruvians as far away as Finland and Russia have even sent photos to El Comercio to show local readers the cold that they are enduring in Europe.

All this, according to El Comercio, shows that the general public is becoming more inclined to participate in the production of information through technology which add a welcome dimension of interactivity to digital publications.

Source: El Comercio (in Spanish)