Digital Journalism and Peacemaking: An essay on La Silla Vacía, Colombia

Abstract

We concentrate on the ways La Silla Vacía (Colombia), a leading project on political journalism, covered the peace process and the preliminary discussion about the Referendum (2016). It thus focuses on media coverage in a time when nation-building efforts were at their peak, before their rapid downfall. We describe how La Silla implemented various information strategies and materialized ideas of a healthy democracy aided by digital journalism. However, we also suggest it came across some troubles: La Silla’s trust in a rational paradigm was contested by the unexpected results of the ballot box at the Referendum.