In the Dominican Republic there are 7 national printed newspapers and an imprecise number of local newspapers. Over five hundred radio and television stations and more than three hundred domestic and international TV cable stations. The practice of journalism is governed by the Constitution of the Dominican Republic; 61-32 Law on Freedom of Expression and Media; by Law 10-91 of licensing of journalists; 200-04 and the Law on Free Access to Public Information.

The Dominican College of Journalists (CDP) has more than four thousand (4,000) members who are journalism professionals, divided into (1) a National District; ten (10) regions; (31) thirty-one provinces; hundred fifty five (155) municipalities and two hundred thirty-two (232) boroughs. Its members are organized in twenty-three (23) Sectional throughout the national territory, three (3) in the United States and one (1) in Puerto Rico.

The widespread access to Internet and to information and communication technology (ict) significantly increases the autonomous usage of the resources for the creation, edition and publication of texts, videos and sounds of local and diverse content fostering more than ever, that individuals, groups and communities produce and distribute their communication outlets in the digital world. The emergent formulas of the multimedia and hypermedia communication have had a strong impact in the field of local communication, but even more with the diffusion of Web 2.0.

In the Dominican Republic, these practices have a critical communicational value, especially regarding the on-growing local and community media. Relaying on the strong national technology platform it is relatively easy to establish productive networks that facilitate the sharing of knowledge as well as the production and wide distribution of local contents, in particular those produced by the alternative local media.

With the development of Web 2.0, where the production of information becomes horizontal, local journalists and media may have an excellent Internet resource for producing and disseminating news of their communities, increasing the number of local on-line newspapers and blogs and fostering interaction between local and national/international scopes. The diversity of contents enriches the democratic system and favors media pluralism.

The proposal aims at enhancing the professional capacities of local journalists and community media for the production and distribution of multimedia products through local and community media and moreover to external audiences using ict and Internet tools. The project seeks to improve the skills of local journalists through four training workshops (one workshop in each Dominican region) with a 4-day training methodology. Through the trainings the participants will be provided with techniques for effectively communicating through the Internet the reality of their municipalities. The project will benefit from the technology platform installed in MunicipiosAlDia.com to facilitate that the journalists can exercise more efficiently and effectively virtual communication that happens in their communities.

The proposal pursues gender equality. Women candidates will be strongly encouraged to apply and their applications will receive special consideration to ensure equal opportunities for women and men. Also, educational materials will be peer reviewed in order to ensure an adequate gender perspective in training materials.