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| Happy Seventh Birthday OhmyNews |
| Twenty-first century media will be different but who is going to hold the power in the end? |
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Jay Hauben (jhauben)  |
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Published 2007-02-22 13:59 (KST) |
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The French novelist, Victor Hugo, in his novel Notre Dame de Paris set over 500 years ago, commented how the emergence of the printed book challenged the cathedral and the church as the conveyor of authoritative ideas. Hugo wrote:"The archdeacon contemplated the gigantic cathedral for a time in silence, then he sighed and stretched out his right hand towards the printed book lying open on his table and his left hand towards Notre Dame, and he looked sadly from the book to the church: 'Alas,' he said, 'This will kill that' ... the book of stone, so solid and durable, would give way to the book of paper, which was more solid and durable still." Today a similar scenario is being envisioned, debated and tested in practice. "Will," as Michael Hauben wrote in 1994, "the new online forms of discourse dethrone the professional news media?"
The pioneering work begun by Oh Yeon-ho when he founded OhmyNews seven years ago today on Feb. 22, 2000 is one answer to Hauben's question. Oh's aim was to encourage "every citizen to be a reporter" and to make available a spectrum of news and views not contained in the conservative mainstream media in Korea. (See "Welcome to Korea and OhmyNews.")
Today, throughout the mainstream media industry, the effect of the Internet is being taken seriously. Every major and most minor newspapers, and every major radio and TV news program has a Web site and many are considering or experimenting with how to introduce increased reader input and citizen reporting.
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FROM THE SECTION |
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| These efforts are in general commercially driven by the fact that the readership of main stream media is declining and the Web is increasingly becoming the main source of advertising revenue for newspaper companies.
 |  | |  OhmyNews CEO Oh Yeon-ho | | | ©2007 OMN | In a parallel development and more importantly is the fact there is a challenge to the authority and centrality of mainstream media. That challenge is coming from efforts of citizen journalism, like that of OhmyNews, where staff and citizen reporters contribute as part of their roles as citizens of their societies or citizens of the net, netizens. Here lies the controversy.
Samuel Freedman, a New York Times journalist and professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism sees citizen journalism as "one of the trendiest terms of the moment ... part of a larger attempt to degrade, even disenfranchise journalism as practiced by trained professionals." Who would "treat an amateur as equally credible as a professional?" he asks.
His fellow Columbia Journalism School professor Nicholas Lemann voices his agreement in The New Yorker ("Amateur Hour: Journalism without Journalists," Aug. 8, 2006). Lemann argues that, "The content of most citizen journalism will be familiar to anyone who has ever read a church or community newsletter."
A response published in OhmyNews International did not agree that citizen reporters or journalists are amateurs only reporting community or personal news. The writer pointed out that online newspapers like OhmyNews in South Korea attract serious citizen reporting which tries to serve as society's democratic watchdog, a role which mainstream media has more and more abandoned.
From the very beginning the OhmyNews Korean edition mixed staff journalist and citizen reports and gave all articles professional editing. According to Oh, "Only those citizen reporters who are passionately committed to social change and reporting make our project possible."
Erik Larson built the Danish citizen Web site flix.dk starting in 2003, modeling it on OhmyNews. Larsen sees journalism fulfilling a higher social purpose than mainstream media is currently serving. He writes that, "without critical high quality commercially independent journalism, society loses its headlights and moves into the future like passengers on a bus riding at night at high speed with its lights turned off." (See "Media War in Denmark: Which Way Forward," [PDF] Page 3)
Larson shows deep respect for journalism as a profession, but he agrees with John McManus who wrote the book, "Market-Driven Journalism: Let the Citizen Beware." Larson writes, "'Market driven' journalism slowly but steadily undermines the work conditions for journalists who seriously want to pursue the task of being 'democracy's watchdogs.'" Larson has adopted Oh's combination of professional editing and citizen reporting giving every citizen a chance to get her or his voice heard and a chance to influence the daily news agenda.
There is a sense that a new journalism is needed because the mainstream media has failed. Ronda Hauben, a featured writer in OhmyNews and researcher interested in the social impact of the internet, sees OhmyNews as part of a vision of a 21st century press that broadens what is considered news and also who is encouraged to produce the news.
"Interesting times we live in," writes Larson. "A media revolution is unfolding right before our eyes." Twenty-first century media will be different but who is going to hold the power in the end, which will be dominant, market driven journalism or citizen journalism?
Happy seventh birthday and thank you OhmyNews
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This article is based on an editorial written for the issue of the Amateur Computerist on subject of citizen journalism. The issue is available as of 2/22/07 at http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACn15-1.pdf
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©2007 OhmyNews
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