Telemundo’s KVDA Launches Web Camera In Newscasts.

San Antonio Spanish-language television station KVDA has made broadcast history by integrating viewers into its newscasts through home-placed Web cameras. The project provides a way for local residents who normally would not be heard on the news to make their points of view known.

“KVDA has taken an exciting step into the future by moving into new ways of communicating and interacting with our viewing audiences,” says Emilio Nicolás Jr., KVDA Vice President and General Manager. “Our goal is to allow our viewers to comment about what’s happening in the San Antonio area and to ensure that officials and experts are held accountable by the people they’re supposed to serve.”

Funded by the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, the Web cam project involves pre-selecting community citizens to participate as interactive “correspondent reporters.” Correspondents receive a computer, broadband Internet access, and a Web cam (a video camera with a built-in microphone, which sits atop their home computers). When a story on the “Sesenta Directo” newscast involves an issue affecting one or more of the correspondents, a station coordinator will contact the correspondents to ask them to appear on the news that evening. During the newscast, the correspondent will be cued to click on a few icons to be connected “live” to the program. The correspondent’s image is then web cast to a large screen situated between the two KVDA anchors.

The KVDA reporter on the story and/or an official or expert will share the screen with the community correspondent. Various community participants or correspondents will provide input from different points of view, depending
on that evening’s topic or issue.

KVDA has 40 computers ready for eventual hook-up. Currently, the station has Web cams set up in two homes in the West and South Side neighborhoods, with the others to be installed in the near future. Community correspondents will be chosen for their active participation in the community and their knowledge about a variety of issues such as health, civic participation, crime, jobs, and safety.

“Not only will we be able to focus on issues important to a majority of KVDA viewers, we will be able to add commentary from the average person who actually lives out these situations on a day-to-day basis,” Nicolás explains.

The San Antonio Telemundo affiliate, KVDA-TV, is the first-known station in the world to install computers and Web cams in viewers’ homes for the purpose of integrating residents into a news broadcast.