Puerto Rico: A Space "activao" with school sports

Much has been made in Puerto Rico that the key to creating a better society is to invest in youth, creating spaces and opportunities for it to manifest, whether in the arts or sports, and have where to channel their energies helpful.

That is precisely what the photojournalist Jose Jimenez are doing with your project, activao . This website is the only place in Puerto Rico dedicated entirely to sport at school level, where youth can get professional-quality photos of their performance in sports that include swimming, basketball, baseball, volleyball, athletics and football, among others. In the company of his two faithful companions canine Maximiliana and Mila, spoke in detail about what the project activao:

Jose Jimenez (JJ): Part of a premise which is a platform where it is a purely positive content to have a space where young people take a break from all this negative information, for whatever reason, are being bombarded by traditional means. This always has been a lot of positive news does not sell and I have proved that this is false. [...] Not that the downside is covered. What I believe is that it gives too much prominence to criminality in the media. [...] So I start from that part of creating a space that is a social project for youth. That is the end of the project.

© José Jiménez. Used with permission.

Activao existed since 2010, but says Joseph who is one year closer to what really takes the project, by taking away the months when it was down. However, the project has had an enthusiastic response from his audience:

JJ: We started in October 2010 [...] We have over 15,000 friends on Facebook. About 85,000 people have viewed the page. The first year [...] the entire platform was in Facebook. I came to open the site in April 2011. The website, April 2011 to today, have seen over 85,000 people. But that was OK inactive site from April to October last year, because everything I did on Facebook. From August 2011 until now, which is almost a year, it is really the site has been active. [...] So the first year we were purely a platform Facebook and social media, and the second year we were on the web and posteaba on Facebook.

Interestingly, the project exists on different platforms on the Internet, each one is like a branch of the tree and each takes you to the other:

JJ: I took the Facebook platform to grow. [...] I use Twitter, but simply to announce that it has posted a new gallery. I do not get any message. It's just that I have for followers on Twitter that they will find out that I just post a gallery and they can see.

Photo by Jose Jimenez (©). Used with permission.

On the low levels of coverage of sports at school level in traditional media, I commented that after seeing your page and be able to appreciate the great amount of activity that is in that area, I was surprised he was not pay much attention in other media as one would expect:

JJ: I do not see because it is a habit. I see it because there is much talk of the three b: basketball, baseball and boxing. [...] Means one thing happens: sports societies have lost much of its space and prominence. Although this is changing, because cybernetically, sports sections have gained a boom [...] but in print, over time, have fallen space. So, they have become accustomed to his readers to the three b. [...] All the traditional media covering high school sports, but very little. [...] At least once a week take a note. And now cyberspace, they get a bit more.

Being so small the presence of school sports in other media, I wonder how he manages to learn about events that may be covered to activao:

JJ: So many, it is not difficult to learn. I did not know there was so much school sports. [...] And people, because I know and constantly on the Facebook wall of the kids are posting [...] and they ask activao cover them.

Talking a bit about future plans for activao, Joseph reveals that he would like to expand what it does to go beyond shooting sports only:

JJ: Ultimately, I would like to produce events continue creating positive platforms for youth. [...] I've noticed that the youth, if you do not do something different, not going to get attention. They are so and so bombarded with so much information and much of this information is presented fairly repetitive.

Joseph ends with his thoughts about social networks, particularly Facebook:

JJ: Facebook is the most impressive platform is now to inform the public. Nothing has never been anything like Facebook. And in Puerto Rico is going to stay that way for long. [...] 50% of all young people who have internet have a Facebook account in the U.S. [...] see news on Facebook, do not go to the pages. [...] The newspapers migrate their people in their feed the paper. [...] For me Facebook is synonymous with preacher, he hands you the news. [...] That does not make anyone. In terms of media, is the world's most efficient preacher. [...] That's the amazing thing about Facebook. Nothing in the world is as efficient as that.

Written by Angel Carrion · Comments (0)
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