Communications Landscaping - North and Latin American Transnational Communities: Introduction

Objective

The project "Communication Landscaping - North and Latin American Transnational Communities" was commissioned by The Rockefeller Foundation to The Communication Initiative Latin America [La Iniciativa de Comunicación] in September 2003 for the general purpose of:

• Drawing up a map or outline to identify the infrastructure and legislation of the sector, the communication strategies associated with migration processes from originating countries and the thinking and production of materials associated with it. The emphasis was on Mexico (Oaxaca. Puebla/Veracruz, Zacatecas), El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Guatemala, the internal migration amongst the Central American countries and their relation to the United States.


• To learn about and understand better the nature and problems of the communicative processes of these communities, as well as the actions and the activities these involve.

Core Themes

In essence, there are three main areas of work with products related to each of these themes. The areas of focus seek to inform three core questions:

1. What is the structural and regulatory communication context – and trends within that context – within which people and communities must function in order to communicate across borders and within diaspora?
   The mapping of the context includes questions ranging from something as apparently simple and basic as the costs of phone calls, access to Internet Cafes and the procedures and policies of financial transfer institutions such as Western Union; to more complex enquiries on the focus countries' media normative and legal regulatory framework, cross-border information flows and media ownership, and popular entertainment trends. Special attention will be paid to the appeal and impact of the new technologies on the possibilities for communication between people from the same family or community, and between the focus countries' government institutions to organized communities abroad, now divided by large physical distance.


2. How do people communicate?
   Within the context and possibilities outlined in 1) above: how do people from the same community, culture or [extended] family now separated by physical distance, communicate amongst each other? What methods do they use? What methods are used now that were not used 10 years ago? Have, for example, the interpersonal conveying of gifts and information by people occasionally traveling between two locales and the writing and delivery of letters through everyday mail services taken a lower importance as cheaper phone calls and e-mail provided more immediate, regular, direct communication? If the answer to this question is yes, then what impact has that had? There also is an important emphasis on less well known, culturally integral forms of communication, as well as an attention to focus countries and regional governments' efforts to support their transnational citizens abroad and their families within the borders.


3. Which groups are doing interesting/innovative work promoting transnational communication in the Americas – and what are they doing?
   This process attempted to identify and describe some of the most interesting and innovative work promoting transnational communication. We explored a wide range styles and approaches to communication, including experiences from the public and private sector, with regional, national and/ or local perspective.
   
   Examples include: communication relationships between local groups in different countries, transnational workers associations and unions, informal communication processes – eg:, festivals and carnivals - face to face service providers, formal and informal relationships and hook-ups between radio stations, the sharing of news in the USA’s Spanish media with local and national print media outlets south of the Rio Grande, bilateral cooperation between governments to support education and communication processes or any other transnational communication endeavor. Information resources on communication related issues (CD ROMs , training packages, electronic publications, web sites, etc) based in the focus countries or producing information on transnationalism and communication were also reviewed.

Nature of the Enquiry

As is indicated in the title, the nature of this enquiry, is to describe the landscape of what is known on each of the three themes. There is no attempt to either provide a critical analysis of that landscape neither to suggest a program of action to refashion the transnational communication landscape in some way.

Information Sources

For all three themes: the structural and regulatory context and trends; how people actually communicate; and examples of interesting /innovative work, thereis a reliance on secondary data. This includes published journal articles and opinion pieces, substantive and thorough news articles, communication trends stats, relevant books and other reliable secondary sources.

Geographic focus

The focus countries of the landscape are Haiti, The Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and the United Sates of America. Within those countries we specifically concentrate on the following communities:

• Oaxaca - California/Florida
• Puebla/Veracruz – New York
• Zacatecas – Illinois / California
• Dominican Republic – New York
• El Salvador – Los Angeles / Washington DC
• Central American internal migration (Nicaragua - Guatemala - Honduras - Mexico)
• Haiti – New York / Florida

Elements of the Enquiry

The elements which compose the study, all relating to transnational communities and communication, are also the result of the use of the new technologies thru The Communication Initiative’s virtual platforms, research team and network. The more than 1500 pages of information which compose the study have been uploaded in a special section of La Iniciativa de Comunicación’s knowledge website in Spanish and with summaries in English, presented in electronic and print form and grouped in the following areas:

1. An academic literature review
   The team designed a consultation process with the academic community and trawled the literature in order to highlight and summarize substantive journal articles on transnational communication themes in Latin America with particular emphasis on the geographic areas mentioned above.


2. A news media review
   The team consulted with leaders in the sector and searched the major print, radio, internet and television media in order to highlight and summarize key fiction and non-fiction production, television programming, substantive reports, results of investigative journalism and opinion pieces on transnational communication themes in Latin America, as well as in the USA’s Spanish language media. There was a particular review of the media channels in the focus areas.


3. A normative / legal regulatory environment review
   The team mapped the major issues related to telecommunications infrastructure and its uses, as well as the dynamics of the normative/legal regulatory environment in the focus countries. This included data on existence and reach of telephony, Internet, radio and television.


4. Identifying, forming and facilitating a Transnational Communication network of Investigators/Researchers/Writers/Programmers for virtual discussions
   To support and guide the enquiry, a network of experts with experience and knowledge on transnational communication was formed and facilitated throughout the process. This network offers a wide range of perspectives and roles and presented one of the most challenging aspects of the work ( please refer to Methodology for this phase). This peer group consists of specialists, scholars, practitioners, policy makers, etc and other people or organizations related to or interested, in one way of another, in this subject.


5. Interviews with selected ‘key players’ in transnational communication from across the three themes
   The research director facilitated a constant dialogue with experts from different countries as part of the support and peer review process of the enquiry. At the final stages of the research process, virtual interviews were conducted with some members of this network.


6. Country essays
   Eight essays on the focus countries were written by the members of the Control Panel or group of consultants. They describe and analyze the situation in each country, and their perspective is based on the three aspects stated in the general overview.


7. Final Overview Report
   This paper intends to provide an overview of the development of the enquiry process and the communication situations among transnational communities that we observed in the focus countries. It is written only in Spanish.


8. The Summary of the Final Overview Report.

Back to Table of Contents.