By Kara Andrade, Guatemala

I would like to conduct more research about an emerging journalism and to create a collaborative citizen journalism Web site for Guatemalans, especially young ones, to post information from their cellphones to a Web site. The Web site will also aggregate all other blogs and citizen media sites related to Guatemala. I will be working with local bloggers and nonprofit organizations in Guatemala or concerned with Guatemalan issues. I will also coordinate one Citizen Journalism Academy to train citizen journalists and reporters to work collaboratively on stories. 

Guatemala has not had a citizen media Web site focused only on issues and stories that are user-generated and important to Guatemalan citizens both locally and in the United States.  Although the growing nonprofit base in Guatemala uses the Internet to reflect the popular voice on national issues, such as indigenous rights and gender equality, it is common that in developing countries like Guatemala (where Internet penetration is high in urban centers, and with increasingly affordable access) that the average participant is still not ready to enter the global arena of media and participate fully. The need for a more free media and discussion to accomplish sustainable social change is ever present. In the online world, as in the offline world, it is the ones with less access, less capabilities and knowledge who are not heard.

This group blog is a Web site for the Fulbright class of 2009-2010 to share their stories and development of their projects. It is also to build a conversation with whatever audience wants to engage with us on these projects as they grow and develop.

The suburbs of Guatemala City are a little different than the suburbs in other parts of the Western world.

I captured this image in Guatemala and it always makes me think of Chiquimula.