________________________________________________________________________ Waters et al., 2006 1 Mapping Media Influence on the Electoral Process in Peru Nigel Waters, Chantal Hansen, Heng Sun, Jing Gao, Maria Palacios, and Carmen ReMartinez Department of Geography, University of Calgary 2500 University Dr. NW Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4 e-mail: nwaters@ucalgary.ca Tel: 403-220-547-8655 Fax: 403-282-6561 Abstract The Mapping the Media in the Americas Project is a three-year collaboration between the Carter Center in Atlanta and the Ottawa-based Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL). In Canada and in eleven South and Central American countries we are mapping socio-economic data, electoral results and the locations of the media (TV and Radio Stations and newspapers). This information is entered into an ArcIMS website that is eventually transferred to a University in the country concerned. The aim is to allow political parties and non-governmental organizations involved in monitoring the democratic process to determine the influence of the media on the electoral process. This influence is demonstrated by visualization and the modelling of electoral results using geographically weighted regression. This paper describes our work in Peru. Introduction The Mapping the Media in the Americas Project is a three-year collaboration between the Latin American Research Centre at the University of Calgary, the Carter Center in Atlanta and the Ottawa-based, Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL). The project was initiated in September 2004 and will be completed by the end of August 2007. The goal is to build interactive, web-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) that include data on socio-economic variables for the highest resolution geographic divisions. In addition, within the GIS, data on the location of the broadcast and print media are recorded. These data include the location of TV and radio station antenna and the offices of leading newspapers. Where available, data on campaign contributions are included. Finally, the results of the most recent federal or national elections are added. The intermediate goal is to build models that visualize and predict the influence of the media on the electoral process. The ultimate aim is for transparency in the electoral process so that those campaigning for elected office can use their financial resources in the most effective manner. The research process involves a number of distinct steps including gathering spatially explicit data, building the GIS, migrating the GIS layers to a user-friendly, interactive, GIS-based website, launching the product in the country of origin and then providing training and on-going support so that the website remains up-to-date and an effective resource for enhancing the electoral process. The aim is to complete the research process in Canada and eleven Latin American countries.