So I am going to do a longer post later on this week that would potentially be the introduction to the project (in Spanish), but for now, I am just going to do a quick overview of some of the changes in the project, and progress made so far.
After our project workshop, I thought about the suggestions and concerns on the vagueness of my proposal, and how if I could focus some of the research on what is happening specifically in the context of Costa Rica, I would be able to be more concrete with my investigation on how the different topics we have discussed in class are reflected in the country’s media ecology, and how this, in turn, would help inform the decisions on the development of a participatory media prototype (test page here).
At the same time, the process of interviewing, researching and communicating with, different media actors in the country would allow me to build a (stronger) relationship with some of these media and people, and open up the space for their input, if not co-design, at least through a suggestion process similar to this one here. Also, focusing the research on Costa Rica will make the theory more practical in addressing media and information needs in a more manageable local space.
Amauta, the web zine I am a volunteer editor of, has already been developing some relationships with media, activists and other in Costa Rica. I have been identifying (see below) some of these to interview, depending on their specialties, but have also tried to find other sources we have no relationship yet, but that could contribute to this research. Amauta is part of Red MICA Red MICA, a network of alternative media in Costa Rica, and I have sent a general survey to the whole network asking open-ended questions about their role as media, their vision of alternative media, experience with networks, etc. There have been two responses so far (attached), and I will send direct messages to media I consider would have important experience to share in the survey. From there, I will continue communicating through interviews and questions for more in-depth experience and ask them for their input about the prototype.
Revised interview possibilities
civic media (Red MICA)
crisis in journalism (Red MICA, Colegio de Periodistas CR)
digital inequalities (InfoCEDIN, Conciencia Limonense, Elides Rivera Navas, indigenous woman writer and contributor to Amauta, Mesa Nacional IndÃgena de CR)
public sphere/networked counterpublics (Red MICA, Enlace de Medios, which is more general to Latin America)
power/radical media/resistance (Chris Spannos, ZMI, Michael Albert, Stella Chinchilla)
media justice (Sandra Salazar, Voces Nuestras director)
media political economy (Chomsky interview here)
free cultural labor (LibreBus Costa Rica, Comunidad Software Libre Costa Rica)
activism through other media (Red MICA)
digital civic media, and its potential (Cokomal, Fusil de Chispas?, Alkaid)
social movements (Esther Vivas, Eva Carazo, Indignad@s CR, Francisco Guerrero)
social change and participation (Red MICA)
indymedia and open publishing news models (Indymedia CR, and other media in Costa Rica that use open publishing)
Hyperlocal (geography) (Jaguar del Platanar, a hyperlocal blog from San Carlos, CR, and Conciencia Limonense, a news bulletin for Limon, CR)
Collaborative creations (Clay Shirky responded to an interview request, but we haven’t arranged details)
Hacktivism/digital civil disobedience (two Costa Ricans that have done digital civil disobedience, no names given for obvious reasons)
Some data, sources and more research to read and analyze regarding media ecology in Costa Rica:
http://www.aresep.go.cr/cgi-bin/index.fwx?area=08&cmd=servicios&id=4949&…
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/statistics/
http://www.pnud.or.cr/images/stories/downloads/pdf/Cuaderno03.pdf (inseguridad ciudadana costa rica y medios)
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Medios_de_comunicaci%C3%B3n_de_Costa_…
http://www.latindex.ucr.ac.cr/rcs001-07.php tirania medios de comunicacion cr
http://www.fusildechispas.com/2010/09/tabu-costa-rica/ concentracion medios?
http://es.scribd.com/doc/55930860/Los-duenos-de-la-Palabra-en-Costa-Rica… concentracion
http://viejo.eccc.ucr.ac.cr/pdf/credibilidad_negocio_yn.pdf credibilidad costa rica
http://www.iplexcr.org/downloads/MonserratSolano.pdf libertad de expresion medios rurales ticos
http://www.iplexcr.org/ (instituto de prensa libertad de expresion costa rica)
http://www.iplexcr.org/biblioteca_y_documentos.htm mas documentos importantes
Some initial investigation on the country’s media infrastructure:
En Costa Rica
lineas de telefono fijas (fuente: ICE)
898734- 2000
1481722- 2010
subscripciones telefonos celulares (Fuente: ICE / Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones)
211614- 2000
3035007- 2010
Internet (porcentaje de usuarios) (Fuente: Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones)
5,8- 2000
36,5- 2010
subscripciones de internet fijas
35620- 2000
271512- 2010
Infraestructura
Porcentaje de casas ticas con:
Radio: 77,7
Tele: 95,9
Telefonos de linea fija: 65,9
Telefonos celulares: 69,5
Computadoras: 38
Internet: 18,7
Porcentaje de ticos individuales con celulares: 46,3