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| OhmyNews International Forum: Some Criticisms |
| James Fontanella assesses the objectives, usefulness of this past week's Seoul gathering |
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James Fontanella (Fontanella)  |
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Published 2005-06-28 15:45 (KST) |
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 | |  Italian citizen reporter James Fontanella, center left, and Vladimir Moshnyager, from France, in discussion during the Saturday morning forum sessions at COEX, Seoul, June 25. | | | ©2005 Nam S.Y. | | When Jean K. Min sent me an email with the details of my trip to South Korea I had not even written one piece for OhmyNews International. I wrote back to him and Todd Thacker, the editor, and I asked them if it was a joke. You know, nowadays you often receive a "FREE FLIGHT TO..." -- some of the most amazing places in the world and then it all turns out to be just a marketing scam.
It was not the case with OhmyNews. Both Jean Min and Todd Thacker understood my worries and assured me that it was all true: I was going to South Korea.
Todd told me that it would have been good on my side if I wrote a story before getting to Seoul. Although he did not put me any pressure, I felt guilty and immediately went into action. In seven days I wrote five articles -- the number originally required to be invited. I was terrified by the idea that other citizen reporters might have looked down on me as a freeloader.
After arriving in Seoul and getting to know the other citizen reporters, I found out that that would not have been an issue. I met some great people, coming from different parts of the world, each one of them special in their own way. The time spent around a table, on a bus, which took us from the alienating Orwellian "Ubiquitous Dream Hall" to the Samsung Industrial plant, and again at night behind a beer, were worthy moments which will sign the beginning of a real human connection and not a fragile virtual one.
As much as we can say that the Internet is great and it has changed the world, we should not forget, as Alex Krabbe concluded his speech at the opening ceremony, it is us -- the people -- that "make the difference" and not the Internet.
Thanks to OhmyNews all this happened. Thanks to this forum, people coming from all over the world got together and had the chance to experience and taste not only South Korea but also a bit of the whole world.
However, as often happens in forums, I felt that there were a few things which did not go as well as I expected. This might be unpopular to say, but nevertheless it is necessary.
It is surely great to have a lot of speakers coming from many different places. And it could have been interesting to visit a construction site with Seoul's mayor, though he did not seem too keen on citizen reporters -- apart from getting a few pictures with some foreign visitors and a bright young boy, Kai Jorgensen.
In reality we came to Seoul to speak about the future of international participatory journalism. We came hear to understand the problems and difficulties with this ambitious project.
Instead, when we were not being pushed to give our tribute to the sponsors, we only spoke of how great OhmyNews is and how successful citizen reporting and participatory journalism has been in recent years.
I felt that very important questions had not been answered.
Will OhmyNews eventually become like the other mainstream media or will it remain faithful to its original agenda? Will the pressure of the big corporations (Samsung, SK Corporation, LG) not overpower the great ideal? Are citizen reporters just another means to cut costs and sell a marketable product?
These have been the questions that were raised outside the conference room, but none really reached the main floor. Or better, some of these questions made it to the panel of speakers, but there was never enough time to develop a discussion.
At the heart of a successful project you need to be critical with what you do. If you say that that everything is fine, there is the unfortunate risk to relax on the small successes. OhmyNews must not lose its vision. It must be critical of its future.
Having said this, I do not want to criticize OhmyNews for the sake of doing it, rather my criticism aims to generate a constructive debate on its future, which is dear to all those who believe in the motto "every citizen is a reporter."
Let's not betray that motto. Let's have the courage to answer those difficult questions.
If this article is here it is already a good sign. It means that OhmyNews is ready to face some form of constructive criticism for the sake of a better kind of journalism, for a better and stronger OhmyNews.
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©2005 OhmyNews
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