Communication Rights, an online course for Latin America

This course is a challenge, because it invites us to take further steps and to get to know more about the subject from different perspectives. Though our motivations are different, as we face the material provided, analysing it from our different backgrounds, reading what others have written, we can only agree that we need changes in the field of communication rights in our continent.

One of the assets we can rely on in the course is particular to our region: most people in Latin America speak one of the two main languages: Portuguese or Spanish, and with a bit of effort and goodwill we can understand each other. That helps us a great deal, were we to have to deal with many more languages, such as might be required in other regions, it would be an uphill struggle.

I thought I had a rough idea on the concerns involved, but now I realise that there is so much more behind communication rights. Many issues do not reach public debate as they should: gender, indigenous languages and rights, unemployment, discrimination, violence…. So many people are not considered in the process of social communication.

It becomes clearer day by day, that Latin America could be in a much better situation, could improve policies on communication and information, but recent policies, pervasively, respond to the framework of Empire within our context and without.

I would have hoped for more dialogue between us participants, responding and reacting much more to what each of us has written. I believe this is probably the weakest part of the experience (at least so far) but clearly one that can be worked on for future experiences (which I hope will take place). I feel that perhaps each of us is more concerned with “my issues” and have not been able to transfer to “our issues”.

I would like to suggest that once the second stage of WSIS has finished, those who of us who have participated in this first experience could have the opportunity to “meet” one more time for an extra module to study-react-respond to the final documents, taking this part of the course one step further.

I hope WACC-LA will continue to offer other opportunities to come into contact with issues such as these.

Finally I would like to express appreciation for the course and the materials offered. In my case it put me in contact with texts I had wanted to read and had not had the chance to, yet. The whole experience has been a rich and fruitful one.

Link:

WACC Latin America website:

www.wacc-al.org