Community work and social media

I was reading a few days ago the latest news on the Chevron lawsuit in Ecuador, in which the company has been sued for causing severe environmental damage in the Amazonian forest. It is a very interesting case, with great implications, and an intriguing element has been the social media involvement in the same.  Reading about this brought back to mind a project some of us on the team were part of several years ago when a very large US oil company, in attempting to expand its operations, wanted to build roads through indigenous communities in South America. The project caused an uproar, not only in the indigenous communities, but also among environmentalists, and peasant movements throughout the region. The people banded together to create a united front and what surprised us the most, was how the different parts connected with each other not only through conventional means of communication, but also very much through  texting, forums, blogs, portals and youtube (facebook and twitter were not part of the scene yet). What we found very surprising – and refreshing – was how engaged the peasant movements were with this social media! They were absolutely in the vanguard in this regard, and they worked hard to create other forms of mass communication with the indigenous populations, to engage with them, and also to give them a voice for a wider audience. And so among other media, they helped create community radios, with which whilst they had a limited mileage of reach, were then connected to others, creating a multiplying effect that then covered greater part of the region and helped the people keep in touch and organize themselves. It was glorious to see that happen. Pure initiative and creativity, and it gave us a great opportunity to learn about how communities use media to achieve their goals, experience which has helped us a great deal in our work at VeritasSquared.

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