Knight International Journalism Fellowships

Bolivia: Use the Web to Strengthen Community Radio

Knight International created an Internet platform for community radio stations in Bolivia to share programming with one another--and ultimately with major news outlets in the capital. Knight Fellow Celia Cernadas worked with Radio Fides and the Federacion de Trabajadores de la Prensa to improve the quality of the community radio programming that is being shared on a new Web site.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Developed a new, digital platform that allowed rural journalists to post their stories online to a nationwide audience...including one story that reached the desk of Bolivian President Evo Morales, with startling results.
  • Created the first manual for Bolivian radio journalists with step-by-step instructions on how to produce quality broadcast stories.
  • Gave journalists at radio stations in rural areas the skills to produce high-quality newscasts and establish a professional network.
  • Developed special local news programs for urban radio stations.
  • Created a portal that enables community radio stations to easily share content.

Our Stories

Blogs

  • Apr 92009

    Local journalism: the challenge in Bolivia

    by Celia Cernadas

    In a recent workshop about journalism, organized by a consortium of universities in Santa Cruz, the brasilian Osman Patzzi, member of the ONADEM -the National Media Observatory-, concluded that local journalism that involves the community, and that talks about its problems, is the future solution for the current crisis that the sector is living due to the impact of digital tools and the world financial difficulties.

    Although I had already visited some of them, this last weekend I held my first workshop after several weeks preparing suitable material to answer real journalistic problems, not

  • Mar 172009

    Journalism in Bolivia

    by Celia Cernadas

    Greetings from Santa Cruz, Bolivia! The carnival is over and routine has come back to the capital of the eastern part of the country. Santa Cruz was paralised for one week, with thousands of people in the street drinking, throwing water and painting the walls, dancing with loud music... It was really crazy.Today starts a very interesting workshop organised by the ABOCCS, the association that integrates the main university graduates in communication, in Santa Cruz.

  • Feb 112009

    First weeks in Santa Cruz, Bolivia

    by Celia Cernadas

    It has been already three weeks!! I arrived to Bolivia with my family the 16th of january to work with the ICFJ implementing a digital platform that will entitle the journalists from rural areas to share their contents and stories. My partner in Santa Cruz will be Radio Fides, a networks of stations owned by the jesuitic company and considered to be one of the most serious and balanced in a country torn by a fierce political struggle between the capital, La Paz, and the capital of the eastern part, Santa Cruz.