Public Journalism: Ecuadors First Big Step
I came to Ecuador to give workshops on the philosophy of public journalism knowing that in the United States it has morphed into the publics journalism. I was prepared to wow the Ecuadorian journalists with all the new digital tools that are changing everything in the high-tech countries. Yes, the participants loved making their own digital movies using Serious Magic and some will be blogging soon. In fact, my host Eric Samson, a professor at La Universidad San Francisco de Quito, is interested in starting an Ecuadorian PJNet, which I am hoping will be expanded into a Latin American PJNet or better yet a PJNet for the entire Spanish speaking world.
However, more important to the journalists was how public or civic journalism might help them build a richer civic society and a stronger democracy.
So it is fitting that my favorite picture from the workshop is of Davis Buzz Merritt, a public journalism founder, talking on a dubbed tape as if from on high about the importance of the public part of public journalism.
The class of 16, most of whom are pictured here, was primarily editors and reporters, a couple of people from the civic sector and a few students and recent graduates. 
At one point I asked if they wanted to work more on digital tools or public journalism methods and the response was overwhelmingly methods. They said only two percent of the people in Ecuador have access to the Internet, but they know that will change. Still they wanted to see how they could make their daily reporting more responsive to needs of the people. Something all of us so in love with the new digital tools must not forget.
I am convinced journalists in countries where democratic institutions are not taken for granted grasp public journalism philosophies much faster in than in places like the United States. This past Sunday Gabriela Paz y Mino, workshop participant and editor at El Comercio who is pictured here, 
wrote a column in the newspaper on the need for journalists to turn to civic mapping techniquesa civic journalism method we discussed earlier in the workshop.
By the last day of the five-day workshop, I stopped talking and turned the class over to the participants to develop first steps in producing public journalism projects. Without prompting they came up with two solid projects and the methods to execute them. They want to get citizens more involved in the national election in December 2006 and to confront gang issues in a poor section of Quito.
The main obstacle, as in the United States but more pronounced here, is where do they get the resources. The editors and reporters here have a much heavier workload and have little time to work on major projects whether they be public journalism or investigative reporting. Still one would think there is some interest by the people who control the purse strings. After all, one newspaper El Comercio sent eight reporters and editors for the full week of four-hour-a-day workshops.
They so are close to taking a major step forward that it would be a shame if it did not happen. So I going to try to seek sufficient funding or at least help in finding a coordinator to work as a liaison between the communities, civic organizations, universities and the media so they are not overwhelmed by the early logistics.
The Kettering Foundation already has said it will help build some connections with Hispanic journalists in the United States, who worked on gang issues in Washington, D.C. So the process is beginning. Now it is up to the workshop participants, Eric Samson and his university, Kennesaw State which is my university, and me, perhaps with some help from a funding agency, to make sure the next steps take place.
