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| Minut.ee: Embracing Estonia's IT Edge |
| The name signifies the site's goal to provide information to readers every minute |
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Seo Jin-seok (internews)  |
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Published 2007-06-26 15:06 (KST) |
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Estonia has a fast-growing economy and receives great attention from the world despite its short history of independence from the Soviet Union. (It became independent 16 years ago.) With a small population of 1.2 million inhabitants, it is recognized as an ideal model for developing countries in Europe because of its excellent Internet infrastructure and the people's liberal and open mindset.
Moreover, this country is emerging as a popular tourist country thanks to its beautiful cities and favorable nature. Estonia, today, is given a great deal of praise and recognition.
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FROM THE SECTION |
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| With its world-level Internet infrastructure, Estonia surprised many other countries by pioneering the adoption of Internet voting systems in local and general elections. It has emerged as a leading player in the information technology industries after developing diverse computer programs, which now enjoy global popularity. One may wonder how this well-established IT infrastructure contributes to enhancing citizen journalism for the people.
In fact, the number of media working for citizen journalism is not so great. Because the young generations in Estonia usually exchange information in private spaces such as individual blogs, an organized form of citizen journalism may not be so much needed.
Minut (www.minut.ee) is probably the only media in Estonia which could be categorized as citizen journalism. Having started in April 2001, Minut benchmarked the activities of Slashdot, the largest online discussion Web site in the world. However, Minut has managed to successfully create its own characteristics and atmosphere after working in the field for a few years, and the number of visitors of Minut is gradually growing.
As Minut pursues a pure online media, it does not have a physical office. Because no contact information was provided on the Web site, arranging an interview with the chief editor was somewhat tricky. But, after writing an inquiry e-mail for an interview through a Web page where citizen reporters uploaded their articles, it took less than 10 minutes to receive an answer from Minut, and we could finally interview the chief editor.
During the interview, Mihkel Pukk, the chief editor of Minut, explained why he created this Internet newspaper.
"We launched Minut for readers who were fed up with the established media in Estonia supporting only one direction or violating neutrality in reporting political issues. Minut aims at providing diverse information and views."
Indeed, political partiality does not necessarily mean pro-socialism, which previously existed during the Soviet era. Pukk points out that the practice of the global major media advocating the causes for the war on terrorism by the U.S. is nothing different from the puppet media during the totalitarian regime in Estonia. Although the established media have not acknowledged Minut as a colleague media in the field, they implicitly show their interests in the activities of Minut.
The peculiar characteristic of Minut is that it focuses on international news rather than on national news. Minut collects news sources from foreign media and translates them for Estonian readers in their own language. Because of this characteristic, it is sometimes criticized as merely copying foreign newspapers rather than covering news by its own reporters.
Despite this criticism, Minut is growing more popular because readers can get information about global issues and topics that are not well known in Estonia. A female citizen reporter, whose ID is Mannu, regularly writes articles on Korean food, an unfamiliar topic for most Estonians. In her cooking series, she introduces recipes of gujeolpan (nine dish plates), Korean chop suey, bulgogi (barbequed meat), yukhoe (raw seasoned ground beef), etc. Indeed, Minut is a unique place where people can learn about "corner" events and diverse information underreported by the established media in Estonia.
People of all ages and all occupations can send in their articles. The editing committee consisting of volunteer editors will review and select articles to release on the Web site. The editing committee takes responsibility for the selected articles, concerning fact checking and credibility. Citizen reporters are not paid for their articles, nor are the committee members. The average number of articles released on the Web site right now is relatively low: about five a day.
As mentioned, Minut does not have an office and all meetings, including editorial meetings, take place through Internet messengers. At present, the number of regular contributors to the newspaper is just about 30.
Pukk says that Minut allows citizen reporters to include personal opinions within the boundary of commonsense. He argues that the crucial aspect of citizen journalism is to have unrestricted, free views and to maintain the quality of the articles. In this respect, the independence of citizen journalism can be realized only if freedom of speech is guaranteed.
Minut was named after the Estonian word for "minute." A minute is a basic measurement of time. The name was chosen because Minut seeks to provide information to readers every minute.
Although Minut is still tiny and a novice in the field, having overcome many issues of finance and administration, it could become a notable player in the media field one day, given its promising growth pace. The motto of Minut well presents its aspirations and hopes: "Kick your ass to bring news!"
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©2007 OhmyNews
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