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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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TODAY'S TOP STORIES |
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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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