LIMA, Peru....Breakthrough interactive and Web-based maps detailing media coverage during national elections will be unveiled Thursday Feb. 9, 2006, by The Carter Center, the University of Calgary, and the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL). Developed using state-of-the-art Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, the maps are designed to increase transparency in campaign finance reform and democracy-building efforts by illustrating where media are located, how far they broadcast, who owns them, and what the demographic profile is of the electoral constituencies they reach.
 
Throughout the Western Hemisphere, media play an increasingly important role in transmitting information about elections and candidates. As machine politics have gone into decline, mass media have filled the role once played by door-to-door organizers in recruiting voters. Publicity is usually the most expensive single item in a campaign budget for a national office, giving advantage to well-financed candidates in establishing name recognition and communicating their programs; therefore, rising television advertising prices have jacked up campaign costs. The outcomes of electoral races may be altered by financial disparities, especially where media ownership is concentrated and owners offer price discounts to their preferred candidates. Yet there is comparatively little information about the media available to citizens; these new maps are another step to ensuring an informed electorate.
 
Experts from The Carter Center -- including Dr. Shelley McConnell, senior associate director of the Center's Americas Program -- and the University of Calgary will present the map as part of a day-long seminar event.  Leading up to Peru’s national elections, these breakthrough interactive and Web-based maps will contribute to strengthening political processes. Peru is one of 12 countries being mapped with the new technology to provide visual context to the lines of influence the media has in shaping the campaign finance environment. The maps and their accompanying hotlinks to related reports and Web sites answer the question: “Which media reach out to which voters?” and enable citizens to better understand the impact of publicity on the vote, and therefore the influence of the money that bought that publicity.
 
The maps will be demonstrated live on the Internet (http://www.mediamap.info/) during the inaugural panel of the Mapping the Media in Peru: Implications for Peruvian society and Politics seminar, which will feature distinguished Peruvian government, civil society, academic and media representatives discussing the utility of the maps and the potential impact of the media on elections in Peru and throughout the Western Hemisphere. There will be opportunities for participants to experiment hands-on with the Web site during the event. Staff will be available to answer technical questions. 
 
Agenda for this event will be posted in English and Spanish on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at www.cartercenter.org
 
A map of media in Guatemala will be launched April 5, 2006, and a map of Canada was made public on Jan. 17, 2006, and is currently available on the internet at www.mediamap.info.
 
The launch will be held at the Salon Ejecutivo I at the Sol de Oro Hotel, Calle San Martín 305 Miraflores, Lima-Perú. Please visit  http://www.soldeoro.com.pe/ for directions
 
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The Carter Center has observed 62 elections in 25 nations, helped farmers in 15 African countries double or triple crop yields, worked to control or eradicate diseases in Africa and Latin America, and strived to diminish the stigma against mental illnesses.
 
 
The Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL) is a think tank devoted to policy development on social, political and economic issues facing the Americas. Through research and dialogue with national and regional actors, FOCAL promotes greater Canadian engagement in the hemisphere and progress in development and governance in the region.
 
 
The Latin American Research Centre creates knowledge through disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and multidisciplinary research that is disseminated to various user groups locally, nationally and internationally. This includes the development and operation of institutional academic programs, publications and publication series, public service activities, resource development, and cooperative research projects designed to serve the academic, business and government communities. The Centre is essential to the development and cultivation of world-class scholarship and critical thinking on issues of importance to Latin America and Canada’s role in the region.