Fundamentals of Interactive Journalism

Despite all the talk that globalization has made the world smaller, keeping in contact with loved ones who live in another country can still be challenging.

That is especially true when your family lives in a developing country, such as Ecuador, where Internet use isn’t as prevalent as it is in the US.

According to Supertel, a telecom supervisory body, only 12.3 percent of Ecuadorians had Internet at home at the end of 2008. This means most people don’t have access to video chat programs such as Skype, where they could see their families face-to-face.

Alicia Craven, 26, of Oregon taught English in Cuenca, Ecuador in 2007-2008. She said she noticed that Internet ownership “was very low” in Ecuadorian homes. Internet cafes, instead, were the norm.

“Though most places had Skype, the video cameras weren’t as prevalent,” she said. Also, Internet cafes present privacy issues if you try to have a meaningful conversation.

“There’s a certain degree of awkwardness since you are surrounded by other strangers, and you’re not in a booth,” Craven pointed out.

Visits back to the homeland are often not a possibility for those immigrants who are in the US illegally or for those waiting to get their paperwork in order, as the US imposes travel restrictions on green card applicants. In addition, the cost of travel is another problem. Due to these reasons many families must go for a decade or longer without seeing each other.

This is where video conferencing comes into play, such as the service offered by Austro Financial Services in Jackson Heights in Queens. Manager Diego Pinto said some 200-250 families and individuals now use the six-year-old technology service per month. Out of South Americans, the service is so far available only for Ecuadorians.

Many people like video conferencing because of its obvious benefits: it is fast, easy and more personal than a phone call. The recipients don’t have to own a computer –they just need to go to one of Banco del Austro’s operating locations in Ecuador. Unlike with Skype, you can see the whole conference room at the same time, and can squeeze even 10-20 people in the room.

Pinto said that Mother’s Day is an especially popular day for conference calls, one that sometimes includes even mariachi bands playing in the rooms.

The calls aren’t cheap at $1.25 per minute on weekdays, and $1.50 on Sundays, but neither is the technology that makes them happen. According to Pinto, the camera costs about $5,000-6,000, and the plasma TV another $1,000-2,000.

The usage costs are also pricey for the company, as the system needs to function in two countries.  “You have to pay the system here and there,” Pinto said. The customers, though, only pay in the New York end.

Despite the price of the calls, the service keeps getting more popular among Ecuadorian families, many of whom return every month.

“It’s a very beautiful experience,” said Ecuadorian immigrant Jose Flores, whose family recently used the service for the first time to talk to their relatives back in Cañar, Ecuador.

“It’s especially beautiful for the family that’s in Ecuador,” he said.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Alana Rigal contributed to the reporting of the article. Video by Alana Rigal and Mirva Lempiäinen.

I have had enough of hate crimes. They make me so sad and mad, and must be the stupidest thing ever invented. Aren’t there enough people dying in accidents and of illnesses already? Do you really need to add more bodies to the pile just because you want to vent your anger?? Next time you are mad, how about harming yourself rather than others?

I have been thinking about hate crimes a lot ever since I heard about the case of the Ecuadorian man, Jose Sucuzhanay, who died in the hospital last Friday. He had been hit in the head with a beer bottle five days earlier and beaten with an aluminium baseball bat nearby Bushwick in Brooklyn.

It’s not clear whether the motive of the guys who attacked him was hatred towards Latinos, or towards gays, or both. Apparently they at least thought that Sucuzhanay was gay, when they saw him walking arm in arm with another man on the street. In reality that man was his brother and  Sucuzhanay was a married father of two. The brothers were on their way home from church and had stopped at a bar for some drinks. What a horrible ending for their day. I makes me want to cry, but I guess I should be a hardcore reporter who is immune to emotions.

The most recent consensus seems to be that race was indeed the more important reason for this hate crime. FBI statistics show a 40 percent increase in hate crimes against Latinos during 2003-2007, and this is already the second Latino man killed in a month’s time. The other one was Marcelo Lucero, beaten and stabbed to death in Long Island by seven teenagers, who considered it their “hobby” to mug people. This time they were looking for a “Mexican” when they found Lucero, another Ecuadorian immigrant.

Obviously Latinos are not the only victims of hate crimes, although they accounted for 60 percent of those attacked in 2007. Victims come in all colors, all do the attackers. The attackers in Sucuzhanay’s case are said to be black (although they are still at large) and in Lucero’s case they were white.

As I said earlier, hate crimes drive me mad. I understand that a multicultural society is not everyone’s cup of tea, but why don’t these people then move somewhere where they don’t have to face people of other cultures or races?? Believe it or not, there are still PLENTY of homogeneous towns on this planet where you can choose to be surrounded by only “your” people if you so wish. Do these people in Long Island or Brooklyn or wherever really think that they can get rid of EVERYONE that they don’t like in their communities?? I don’t think so.

There are always going to be people in your community that you are not going to like, or who you don’t want to get to know. That’s fine. You are not expected to like everybody anyway. But why don’t you just ignore the people you don’t like and pretend that they are not even there rather than kill them? By committing a hate crime you are ruining many people’s lives, including your own. Do you really hate these people SO much that you would rather sit in jail for the rest of your life than let them live their lives? THAT is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.