Brazil: Youth using citizen media to chronicle Rio violence

Young residents in the Complexo do Alemão favelas in Rio de Janeiro have begun using social and citizen media to chronicle the recent wave of violence spreading through the city. Seventeen-year-old aspiring journalist Rene Silva has set up a Twitter account, @vozdacomunidade (voice of the community) [pt], to monitor the police occupation of the favela complex, with the related hashtag, #vozdacomunidade, already beginning to trend. Meanwhile, @Igorcomunidade [pt] is also offering updates of what he calls “a guerra do alemão” (Alemão's War), and another group of young locals [pt] has started streaming footage [pt] of the occupation.

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