In 1984 I finished a B.A. in Communication at Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, my home town and country. After graduation I became a communication researcher and popular educator at CINEP, a Colombian non-governmental organization run by Jesuits inspired by liberation theology. Also, I started teaching communication courses at Universidad Javeriana.

By this time mass communication had already become the main focus of my research and teaching. At Universidad Javeriana I had several professors who had just returned to the country after finishing their graduate studies at European universities; their favorite readings included the German scholars from the Frankfurt School (Theodor Adorno, Jürgen Habermas, Walter Benjamin), the French semiotics and hermeneutics scholars (Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, Feliz Guattari, Jacques Derrida); and the Latin American cultural studies scholars (Armand Mattelart in Argentina, Jesús Martín Barbero in Colombia, Paulo Freire in Brazil, Néstor García Canclini and Carlos Monsivais in Mexico); these readings shaped my ideas, beliefs, and values about the social sciences in general and communication research in particular. I approached (and still do) communication research as an interpretive venture more than a search for objective truths; I also believed (and still do) that my research should contribute to the empowerment of underprivileged communities.

The main research projects I developed at the time were all inspired by Latin American scholars. Based on Paulo Freire's theories on communication and education, I conducted several projects on participatory media, participatory research and action research. Alternative media became my main research area.

I edited a book that documents four cases of participatory communication and/or action research in Colombia; this text, published in 1987 is called Contando Historias, Tejiendo Identidades: Experiencias en Comunicación Popular (Telling Stories, Weaving Identities: Case Studies on Popular Communication ).

Based on popular culture theories developed by Jesús Martín Barbero and Néstor García Canclini I developed a major research project on the history of Colombian telenovelas. The final text, co-authored with Patricia Téllez and published by CINEP in 1989 is entitled La Telenovela en Colombia: Mucho Más que Amor y Lágrimas (The Colombian Telenovela: Much More than Love and Tears).

In 1988 I came to the United States to further pursue my studies. I graduated from Ohio University with a M.A. in Communication and International Development (1990) and a Ph.D. in International Telecommunications (1994). Three different yet related research interests guided my graduate studies: first, critical analysis of mass media texts (with an emphasis on feminist scholarship); second, alternative media and democratization of communication; and third, communication and Third World development. My doctoral dissertation is a comparative analysis of four case studies of alternative media, which I rather call citizens' media. In 1991 I interrupted my graduate studies for a year; the Universidad Centroamericana at Managua, Nicaragua had invited me to join their communication faculty as visiting professor. There I taught mass communication courses (theory, research, media criticism) and conducted research on alternative media and participatory communication.
 
 

Today, after more than ten years researching alternative media in different international contexts I have published Fissures in the Mediascape: An International Study of Citizens' Media, (Hampton Press 2001). In this text I coined the term citizens' media as a way out of the binary thinking an essentializing categories characteristic of traditional theories of alternative media.

Since 1996 I have somewhat re-directed my research interests with a stronger focus on Colombia.  Currently I am working on several different research projects that share a common goal: to understand Colombian culture(s) and their articulation with social and political violence.  These projects include gender and development discourse, citizens' media for peace, Colombian telenovelas, and life-stories of Colombian women in violent contexts.

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