Citizen journalism, long the domain of the English-language media, has caught on in the Spanish-speaking world, where the number of citizen media portals are increasing, thanks in part to initiatives from major Spanish-language newspapers.

January marked the launch of the first citizen journalism site in Boliva, AhoraBolivia.com. Boliva's issues don't receive much coverage in the international or national media, for that matter, a gap that the creators and contributors to AhoraBolivia are trying to fill, reports MediaShift.

In Argentina, would-be citizen journalists have a choice of both independent and newspaper sponsored projects. In one corner is igooh.com, founded by freelance writer Ignacio Escribano in 2006 to offer an alternative to a traditional press that he considered "narrow-minded and primitive." Users have to option to share news, but also discuss more philosophical topics such as poetry and the meaning of the death. Though mostly independent, Argentine newspaper La Nacion provides a link to Igooh on their website.

Other options include a network of blogs spearheaded by Argentine newspaper Clarin.

Similar projects have come out of Chile, with Gua 3.0 and Asociacion Atina Chile, a non-profit organization dedicated to civic participation. Spain too is in on the action, where El Pais has created a specific citizen journalism portal called "Yo, Periodista" ("I, Journalist"). Another interesting initiative is the pan-Spanish site PeriodismoCiudadano.com, ("Citizen Journalism"), provides daily news about citizen journalism in Spanish and allows for contribution as well.

 "In my opinion, the citizen journalism movement is progressing better in Latin America than in Spain," said Oscar Espiritusanto, founder of PeriodismoGiudadano.com. "A good example is the good work Chile's Asociacion Atina Chile is doing with its network of citizen newspapers, which show that citizen journalism works, covers stories that professional journalism does not."

Source: MediaShift through IFRA Executive News Service