Is This the Future of Journalism?

In some ways, Oh says, OhmyNews is a "special product of Korea." Koreans had relatively little public access to open and free dialogue and a large portion had grown dissatisfied with the mainstream conservative media. In addition, Korea's small size makes news coverage more manageable--one of Oh's professional journalists is rarely more than a few hours away from where a citizen journalist is reporting. Korea is also, in Oh's words, "a unipolar society, where the entire country can be engulfed by just a couple of issues." And finally, the nearly 70 percent penetration of broadband Internet access in Korea allows users to engage more readily; Oh can also experiment in multimedia offerings such as OhmyTV and Web radio.

Despite these unique factors in Korea, Oh strongly believes that there is a global need to broaden the definition of news consumption and has recently launched OhmyNews International in English.

Will he find a willing audience in the United States? American television audiences are already familiar with "citizen witnesses" supplying news footage, from Rodney King to September 11. Online, from eBay to Craigslist.org, individuals are self-publishing commercial enterprises, and Weblogs have become a national hobby. On a more organized scale, About.com offers how-to advice from hundreds of self-posting experts around the nation, and Wikipedia.com is a self-posting encyclopedia where more than 6,000 active contributors have submitted 600,000 articles on countless topics.

So is a more active participation and interaction with news far behind? Oh thinks so. But he is quick to caution: "Technology itself cannot change society. Korean citizens were ready to participate. Only prepared people, who can use the merits of technology, can make a difference."

© 2004