Liberation Technology in El Salvador: Re-appropriating Social Media among Alternative Media Projects

224 Pages·2017·3.67 MB·English

by  Summer Harlow (auth.)

Liberation Technology in El Salvador
SummerHarlow
Liberation
Technology
in El Salvador
Re-appropriating Social Media among Alternative
Media Projects
SummerHarlow
SchoolofCommunication
FloridaStateUniversity
Tallahassee,Florida,USA
ISBN978-3-319-48038-1 ISBN978-3-319-48039-8(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-48039-8
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017936225
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For Ginger, mi tíaand so muchmore
Thesehomiliestrytobethispeople’svoice.Theytrytobethevoiceofthosewho
havenovoice.Andso,withoutadoubt,theydispleasethosewhohavetoomuch
voice.Thispoorvoicewillfindechointhosewholovethetruthandwhotruly
love ourdear people.
— ArchbishopOscar ArnulfoRomero,29 July1979
A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want to acknowledge the generosity, support, and expertise of so many
colleagues, friends, and institutions (more than I can name) that I relied
upontowritethisbook.Thisbook,basedonmyPh.D.dissertationatthe
University of Texas at Austin, would not have been possible without the
guidance, constructive criticisms, and encouragement of my committee:
co-chairsTomJohnsonandMercedesdeUriarte,andmembersRosental
CalmonAlves,JosephStraubhaar,andLauraStein.Iamindebtedtothem
fortheiradvice,insights,andfriendship(hook‘em!).Anyshortcomingsof
thisbookaremyown.IwouldberemissifIdidnotalsopointoutthatmy
introductiontoElSalvador,itsmedia,andmanyofitsjournalists,isthanks
to Rosental Calmon Alves and the Knight Center for Journalism in the
Americas.
I also want to thank my friends and family who served as sounding
boards during the writing and editing process, in particular Allison
Ramirez and José (Chepe) Burgos, who were always on-call to help me
with just about anything, and Erik (Boxer) Hernandez, who kept me
suppliedwith DietDrPepperwhile I wasinElSalvador.
Perhaps most importantly, thank you so much to my interviewees: the
journalists, communicators, activists, readers, and others at Diario
CoLatino, Radio Victoria, Voces, and Política Stereo who so generously
and patiently answered my seemingly never-ending questions. I cherish
the time I spent with these people, so many of whom have worked
passionately to fight for social justice and to try to make their world—
ourworld—abetterplace.Ialsoamespeciallygratefultoandinspiredby
ix
x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
WendyWallas(knowninElSalvadorasCristinaStarr)andherdedication
to RadioVictoria andhersolidarity withthe Salvadoran communities.
Lastly,IamgratefultotheInter-AmericanFoundation,whichawarded
me a prestigious Grassroots Development Fellowship that funded my 12
months of ethnographicresearchin ElSalvador.
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
MainstreamVersusAlternative Media 7
Beyond DigitalDeterminism 8
Participation in andthrough Technology 9
Overview of theCaseStudies 11
ChapterOutline 16
Noteon Sourcesand Ethnocentrism 21
Notes 23
2 The Rootsof ElSalvador’s AlternativeandDigital Media
Environment 25
Setting the Scene 25
El Salvador’s Media 27
Giving Voiceto the Voiceless 28
DefiningAlternative Media 31
Alternative Media inLatin America 36
A Mestizaje Approachto Alternative DigitalMedia 38
Alternative Media inaDigital Era 43
DigitalInequalities 45
DigitalInequalities inLatin America 47
Liberation Technology 50
Participation 52
Conclusions 53
Notes 54
xi
xii CONTENTS
3 DiarioCoLatino 55
A Different Kind ofNewspaper 58
Participation VersusRepresentation 59
A Question ofIdentity 62
Social Media: Informing,Not Communicating 65
Evolving Usesof Facebookand Twitter 67
A Lackof Digital-First Vision 69
DigitalInequalities andBlackberries 71
Overcoming Non-liberatingUses 73
Conclusions 74
Notes 78
4 Radio Victoria 79
Accompaniment: “I AmPartof RadioVictoriaBecause
I Participate” 82
Activismand Empowerment 84
Radio and SocialMedia: ComplementaryTools to Bridge
DigitalDivides 86
Social Media: Changesin Participation andParticipants 89
FindingCounter Usesfor “Capitalist”Technologies 93
Conclusions 98
Notes 103
5 Voces 105
“Openness” 107
Communication VersusInformation Diffusion 111
An OnlineNewspaperin anOffline Country 116
Conclusions 121
Notes 126
6 Política Stereo 127
A DigitalPublic Sphere 128
“Hearing theOther Side” 132
“Moving theDebate fromOnlineto Offline” 136
“The EliteTweet” 140
Conclusions 144
Notes 151