Venezuelan Election Covered by Community Media Reporters   There
is a line running out the door of LaraTVeC, with a microphone
attached, so that people can be interviewed throughout the day
as they exit the election booth. Over the past few weeks,
participants of Lara TveC have been preparing for 24 hour
coverage of the elections on Sunday, Oct. 7. Unlike the state
and private media, which is also covering the event, LaraTv and
dozens of other video and radio collectives around the country
are community-run collectives, situated in the barrios,
broadcasting on everything from pirate signals, legal signals,
to internet radio and full 24-hour television stations.
LaraTVeC is a member of ANMCLA, the largest and longest living
of a number of independent and community media networks in
Venezuela, that solidified as an active network during the 2002
coup to oust Chavez. As the right-wing private media began
airing fabricated photos of violence and talking about an
uprising, people in the barrios realized there was