Oh My Word! Media Dreams in Korea.
Written on November 14, 2008 – 12:45 am | by ozjourno
Every so often a dreamer is born. They don’t listen to their critics, single-minded they will just go out there and follow their dream. After all, aren’t dreams just goals with a face?
In this case, the visionary is Oh Yeon-Ho, CEO of Oh My News, the first Citizen Journalism website.
Armed with an ambitious set of ideals, including gender equality, no age discrimination & power being with the people, Oh Yeon-ho gave new meaning to giving ordinary citizens a ‘voice’ and backed it up with support to ordinary netizens.
Traditional media started to follow his lead by encouraging discussion, especially when papers went online. It became interactive; the public can comment on the story on the website therefore becoming part of the evolving story.
If the writer made front page of OhMyNews, they were paid a small amount & would gain instant credibility through being a featured writer. Money is not driving the contributors to write, it’s more than than that – it’s reputation & recognition. Job satisfaction.
However, “citizen journalism” is not without its potential problems. Maintaining trust, integrity & accuracy is one issue as shown by Jeff Howe when Apple stocks went down after a citizen journalism report on CNN.
OhMyNews started a Citizen Journalism revolution.
Also the OhMyNews team are forward thinkers. Having restrictions on cross-media ownership in Korea, OhMyNews are pushing live webcasting with uninterrupted content, podcasts & a weekly newspaper. This gives the potential of a a 3 tier approach to media, whilst still using only one platform – the internet.
These timely changes will set OhMyNews up nicely, especially if the Korean Communications Commission comes good with its plans of deregulation of media ownership, so determined are they to become a global media powerhouse.
Maybe this is something Australian officials could take note of?
Tags: citizen journalism, Korea, OhMyNews
