Dosia Blackerby is a Peace Corps volunteer in a rural Salvadoran town, and her work focuses on agroforestry and environmental education.
Zephyr reporter Alayne Moody communicated with Dosia Blackerby '00 by e-mail. Blackerby is a Peace Corps volunteer in Central America. There, as in most of the world, new media play no role in the lives of people often too poor to have a telephone.
Dosia Blackerby
"Most people are too poor even to be associated with a life that involves new media"
What role do new media play in your job?
New media do not at all affect my job. I'm a Peace Corps volunteer in a rural Salvadoran town, and my work focuses on agroforestry and environmental education.
However, I work in the school sometimes (K-9th grade), and the volunteer before me had old computers donated. I'm working on teaching the teachers how to use them, so in turn the teachers can teach the students.
There is no Internet access since we don't have phone lines where I live, but one of the teachers frequently searches the Web and has an e-mail account where he lives, the closest city.
Sometimes we talk about the Internet with the students (very basic ideas, about globalization, about its convenience), but that is the only single connection I can think of directly related to my "work."
What is the general availability of the Internet in El Salvador?
Every major city has universities and random Internet cafés. The university connections are only for students, so I don't use them, but sometimes I use the cafés. Usually I check my e-mail and read an online newspaper once a month when I visit the capital.
Do newspapers operate Web publications?
Yes. There are two major newspapers in El Salvador, La Prensa and El Diario de Hoy. I believe both of those have sites.
Do people get most of their news from traditional media (i.e., television, radio or newspapers) as opposed to over the Internet?
Screen shot of one of two Salvadoran newspapers offering online editions
This has two answers. The people I am usually around rarely read a newspaper. Few are even able to read. But in the cities, yes. You see people with newspapers all over the place, and people sell them in every place imaginable--on buses, in taxis, out of car windows, in the streets, on the sidewalks, in stores.
Radio is usually either music or religious. There is occasional news, especially when we had the two major earthquakes in January and February of 2001. Most stations reported the aftershocks again and again and again.
Most people definitely get news with traditional methods rather than Internet. It's just more available. A very small part of the population uses a computer.
What are the characteristics of people who use the Web in El Salvador?
Educated, often doctors, lawyers, college students. Almost always under 30 years of age. Kids, no. Most people are too poor even to be associated with a life that involves new media, and so unlike in the States, 98 percent of kids don't have a great understanding of the Internet.
