Japan Media Review
OhmyNews Makes Every Citizen a Reporter

http://ojr.org/japan/internet/1063672919.php

The pioneering South Korean news site posts hundreds of stories every day -- most are written by housewives, schoolkids, professors and other "citizen journalists." Founder Oh Yeon-Ho says his site is changing the definition of journalism -- and who can be a journalist.
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Yeon-Jung Yu Posted: 2003-09-17
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Three years ago, a crew of four people quietly launched the South Korean "citizen journalism" Web site OhmyNews. Since then, the site's full-time staff has grown to 53 -- including 35 full-time reporters and editors -- and the number of "citizen reporters" writing for the site has grown from 700 to about 26,700.

Citizen reporters submit about 200 articles every day, and about 1 million readers visit OhmyNews each day. The site mixes straight news reporting and commentary. Its influence at the grassroots level has been widely credited with helping President Roh Moo-hyun win the popular vote last December.

San Jose Mercury News tech columnist Dan Gillmor wrote recently of the site: "OhmyNews is transforming the 20th century's journalism-as-lecture model -- where organizations tell the audience what the news is and the audience either buys it or doesn't -- into something vastly more bottom-up, interactive and democratic."

Oh Yeon-Ho, president and founder of OhmyNews, says his site changes the definition of journalism, of what a news story is and what a reporter is.

When it first launched, "the conventional media did not understand it, and there was an atmosphere that treated OhmyNews as heresy, saying, 'What the hell is that?,'" he said.

Oh Yeon-Ho is the author of five books and a doctoral candidate in journalism at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea. In 1999, he received his master's degree in journalism at Regent University in Virginia. In 1988 he received his bachelor's degree in Korean language and literature from Yonsei University in South Korea.

From 1988 to 1999, he was a reporter and director of the news department for the alternative monthly magazine Mal. In 1986 he was imprisoned for one year for taking part in student protests against the South Korean government. He was born in the South Korean countryside in 1964.

I had confidence that citizen participation in journalism was something that citizens currently desired. But I could not imagine that the fire would spring into a blaze in such a short time.
Oh Yeon-Ho met recently with Japan Media Review associate editor Yeon-Jung Yu in his office in Seoul to talk about how the site got started -- and where it's going next. This is an edited excerpt of their conversation.

Q: The publication process of OhmyNews might be different from that of newspapers. Would you briefly explain it?

A: The citizen reporters and the full-time reporters write articles, the articles are reviewed by the editorial department, some of them are placed on the top, some are placed in the middle, some are placed at the bottom (of the front page).

Usually (the news is first posted) at 9:30 a.m., so that readers can see it after they come to the office, next at about 1 p.m. after lunch, and then at about 5 p.m., just before they leave the office.

Q: Was there a moment when you thought, "This is it!" when you launched OhmyNews?

A: Yes. In Korea, readers' dissatisfaction and distrust with the conventional press had considerably increased. Citizens' desire to express themselves greatly increased. Thus, on the one hand, discontent with the conventional press, on the other hand, citizens desire to talk about themselves. These two things were joined together.

The reason the Internet was highly attractive was that I had little money and the Internet meant launching was relatively easy at first -- easier than paper newspapers. So I thought the Internet was the space where a few people who possessed nothing could bring about results using guerrilla methods.

I thought up our motto, slogan, or concept -- "every citizen is a reporter" -- when I was a reporter for the monthly, Mal. Because the magazine Mal was not mainstream media but alternative media, I had to have that kind of determination or attitude. Only when I was armored with the philosophy of "every citizen is a reporter" could I equally compete with the reporters of the mainstream media.

The motto "every citizen is a reporter" has modesty as well as confidence. That is, no matter how small the alternative media I was working for as a reporter, I could be arrogant because of the fact that I was a reporter. And, even though I had a reporter's license, it had the meaning that I was not above a general citizen. So "every citizen is a reporter" means on the one hand, confidence, and on the other hand, modesty.

We do not regard objective reporting as a source of pride. Articles including both facts and opinions are acceptable when they are good.
So, while I was a journalist for Mal, I continuously thought about things like how I could change journalism -- so that not only professional journalists, but also citizens participated in it. I thought of the idea for more than 10 years. However, because there was no Internet at that time, because there was no such concept as the Internet, it seemed it would cost too much if I made it with paper. Then the Internet came out and I thought, "Ah, I could do it through this space!"

Q: As a pioneer, you might have faced unique difficulties. If so, what were they and how did you overcome them?

A: First of all, (OhmyNews) was the complete demolition of conventional media logic and of the concept of journalists. "Every citizen is a reporter" means destruction of the concept of reporters and also the destruction of the concept of articles.

The conventional media did not understand it, and there was an atmosphere that treated OhmyNews as heresy, saying, "What the hell is that?"

Among the various difficulties, the real one was the problem of funding. At first it was impossible to find investors. For two years -- no, three years -- every month we had a deficit of about 20 million won (about $17,000). We agonized about this a lot. Since last October, we have barely managed to turn a profit.

Q: Can you describe how fast OhmyNews grew?

A: Yes, the number of staff grew from four to 53. The citizen reporters numbered 727 people when we first published, now the figure has almost reached 27,000. During the early days, citizen reporters submitted about 10 articles a day; now they submit about 200 articles.

The number of visitors when it was first published was about 600. During the general election, the peak reached 2 to 3 million, of course now, because the general election is finished, the number has fallen. About 1 million a day. But this is not very accurate. In many ways, it is true that OhmyNews grew in a short time.

Q: Then did you expect such fast growth?

A: I did not expect that much. I had confidence that citizen participation in journalism was something that citizens currently desired. But I could not imagine that the fire would spring into a blaze in such a short time.

Q: I heard that a weekly paper of OhmyNews came out.

A: Since last April, we do it as an offline complement (for readers who cannot use the Internet and) for the readers who look for some unique power or the charm of a paper newspaper. Also, because there are some advertising sponsors who say "We don't do Internet advertisements, we only do paper advertisements."

The Internet was the space where a few people who possessed nothing could bring about results using guerrilla methods.
Q: What is the reason that you insisted on an Internet newspaper?

A: As I said earlier, the Internet is an open space where the concept "every citizen is a reporter" can be best realized. Internet space does not have any limitations of either time or space, does it? Paper newspapers have limitations of time and space. Wherever there is a limitation of time and space, this cannot help but limit the participants, isn't it so? But where there is no limitation of time and space, anyone can participate. So it is the most proper place to realize "every citizen is a reporter."

Q: How do you adapt to the rapidly changing Internet culture and technology?

A: I had been ignorant of technology because I grew up in a real countryside. I was the kind of person who hated technology. Even until I was a high school student, I was the kind of person who gathered firewood carrying a coolie rack in mountains. Even now, although I use the Internet a lot, it is not that I understand technology much. I newly hired a vice president who is good at that.

Q: Do you affiliate with mobile communication corporations?

A: We are doing so now (distributing content to cell phones and other mobile devices). That is also one of our sources of revenue. We started this about two months ago. The readership grew to 40,000 in two months, so the reaction has been pretty good.

The age of competing through the name card "I am a New York Times reporter" has gone. When a New York Times reporter writes an article and an ordinary citizen writes an article criticizing it splendidly, then the citizen becomes the winner.
Q: What is your philosophy on newspapers? What standards should good newspapers meet? What kind of newspaper do you want OhmyNews to be?

A: In terms of the title of OhmyNews, the "Oh" in OhmyNews is an exclamation. "Oh!" Like when you say "Oh, my God!"

When I define news, news makes reporters run. But better news makes reporters' hearts beat. So "Oh" came from that. When reporters' hearts beat, the exclamation "Oh" comes out, doesn't it? So I named OhmyNews to mean that when a situation that makes one's heart beat.

"MyNews" means you write your own news.

Q: In another interview, you said, "We put everything out there and people judge the truth for themselves." This seems different from the view of traditional journalism, where objective reporting is valued.

A: We do not regard objective reporting as a source of pride. OhmyNews does not regard straight news articles as the standard. Articles including both facts and opinions are acceptable when they are good.

Thus, we not only break the concept of "who reporters are," but also break the formula of "reporters are supposed to be like blah, blah, blah." To us, every citizen is a reporter, and citizens have no practice writing straight articles, so how could they do it? They just communicate in their own ways.

If you ask a shopkeeper to communicate in the professional reporter's format, he would not be able to, would he? So we teach them to break the formula for articles because the formula for articles was made by professional reporters working for paper newspapers.

Of course, I do not mean that someone should never use the article format made by the professional reporters of paper newspapers. We also use them a lot, actually.

Q: Some question the quality or objectivity of OhmyNews. What do you think about that?

A: Professional newspaper reporters might think like that. In some articles, some parts where the quality or objectivity is questionable do exist. Even elementary students write for us. Housewives also write.

When a professional looks at an article by a non-professional, it is possible that he thinks the quality of the article is not good enough. Yet, for the same article, is it not possible that another reader might think it very coarse but beautiful?
Q: Then are there no eligibility requirements to become an OhmyNews reporter?

A: We have never had that. When a professional looks at an article by a non-professional, it is possible that he thinks the quality of the article is not good enough. Yet, for the same article, is it not possible that another reader might think it very coarse but beautiful?

I mean that fluency does not always make an article good. In this way, an article can be considered in a different way, and among our citizen reporters, professionals from all spheres, such as professors, lawyers, and government employees, are also citizen reporters. There is an infinite variety. Therefore, it is right to claim that the OhmyNews articles are of variable quality, but it is not right to think that the quality is not competent.

Q: There is criticism that OhmyNews supports a specific party or President Roh. What would you say about that?

A: During the general election, (many said) we supported the individual, Roh Moo-hyun. It is true that we reported the Roh Moo-hyun phenomenon a lot -- that is, we covered Roh Moo-hyun's popularity with young voters, and the hope many had that we would change something in the old politics through Roh Moo-hyun.

If there were no OhmyNews, shaping that kind of current could be less complete. There is a perception that that kind of young people's desire, the desire for the reformation of politics, erupted through the space called OhmyNews. We evaluated the news value (of the youth political movement and of Roh Moo-hyun, and decided) they were very new and had sufficient news value, so we reported on it a great deal.

The mainstream media underestimated and undervalued (these stories) quite a bit. So we never feel ashamed of or answer in the negative to this implication that OhmyNews had a definite influence on the election of Roh Moo-hyun. At first, it was not that we supported Roh Moo-hyun as a candidate, an individual, but we just reported this because it was newsworthy.

Q: What do you think about the criticism that the main articles are written by full-time reporters, while the names of citizen reporters are exploited?

A: For instance, Chung Joo-young (founder and former president of the Hyundai Corporations) died. It is very difficult for an article like this to be covered by a citizen reporter quickly, isn't it? It's natural for full-time reporters to cover these stories.

But if 250 articles come up a day, 200 of them are by citizen reporters. So, as to quantity, still 80 percent are being written by citizen reporters. But from the aspect of placement, if you only consider which articles are shown on the top, this percentage would decrease.

But the thing we should think about here is that most full-time reporters inside were once citizen reporters. Among them, about 80 percent. So people who wrote well in the past, these people have now become the regular army from guerrillas. So we don't have to see things negatively, I think.

Q: What are the criteria for selecting citizen reporters' articles?

A: They might be similar to those for ordinary articles. Beginning with current events, how much sympathy the articles will arouse, how lively they are and how much social impact the articles will have.

Q: What are the criteria for the paper OhmyNews?

A: The publication process for our paper version is very simple. The concept of it is "Best of OhmyNews" rather than doing something new. It has the meaning of recycling by selecting things that were on there and would be valuable even after being transferred to paper. Thus, it is not that we pour major manpower into it.

Q: Are the topics that OhmyNews covers similar to those of other newspapers?

A: We focus on politics, society and citizens. Other topics such as culture are covered by the citizen reporters.

Q: Are you willing to head in a new direction?

A: We are trying to do Internet TV regularly. That is, we are trying to post the motion pictures that citizen reporters have recorded, just as they post articles. Nowadays, we are doing this in our spare time, we are trying to regularize it.

Q: Do you have any obstacles to further growth?

A: Since we have become a little bit bigger, it seems like the existing mainstream media are holding us in check. For instance, it seems that they exaggerate a small mistake that they might have ignored before, exaggerate the ill effects of the citizen reporter system, or intend to weaken the influence of OhmyNews, but in terms of those things we could ignore them.

Q: How much is your revenue and what is the source?

A: Our income is about 2.6 billion won (about $2.2 million) a month and expenses are about 2.5 billion won (about $2.1 million), so 10 million won (about $8,525) in the black per month. Seventy percent of the overall income comes from advertisements.

Q: What do you think of the future of Internet newspapers in Korea and the world?

A: I think that paper newspapers will continuously have a certain level of influence, yet slowly but continuously their authority will decrease. And I think the influence of Internet media will gradually expand.

Q: Can you give some advice to those who model OhmyNews, including JanJan of Japan?

A: For something like OhmyNews to succeed, the participation of citizens is essential. I mean that the network of the Internet alone is not enough, and also the mere dissatisfaction with the conventional press is not enough.

Also, the enthusiasm of the leader alone is not enough. It would be good to research how to make citizens participate and prepare on time. You can never succeed only by pouring in lots of money. Why did citizens participate even though we didn't give them much money?

But when someone writes an article, he gets paid only 1,000 won (about 85 cents), whether he writes 10 pages or 100 pages. Isn't that even less than one U.S. dollar? Nevertheless, he wrote an article for OhmyNews by investing his time and energy. Then why does he do it?

They should research why such participation was possible and make it possible in their own countries, but they could not make it by spending money. I understand there is not much participation by citizens in JanJan, this might be the central difficulty.

Q: Any final comment?

A: In my opinion, nowadays journalism is changing. The form of 20th century journalism and the form of 21st century journalism will be fundamentally different. For 21st century journalism, if a reader wants to, he can convert himself into a reporter and this is realized through the Internet.

Someone might think that this is the unique situation of Korea and OhmyNews, but I think it is not. Even in countries where they don't have OhmyNews, citizens act as reporters whether they recognize it or not. Through Yahoo discussion space or the Readers' Opinions section of The New York Times, they are already affecting professional journalists.

In the old days, didn't readers send their letters to newspaper companies and the companies edited them? It is not true now. Now citizens are publishing one-person newspapers -- blogs.

Where professional reporters once exercised their influence exclusively, now they compete with citizens, so professional journalists could be in trouble if they still try to confront general readers with their authority and arrogance.

Now professional journalists have to survive not only competition among themselves, but also from that with ordinary netizens. The only way to compete now is through the quality of their articles. That means that the age of competing through the name card "I am a New York Times reporter" has gone. When a New York Times reporter writes an article and an ordinary citizen -- whether he is a professor or a neighbor -- writes an article criticizing it splendidly, then the citizen becomes the winner.

So it is not important that I am a reporter from an authoritative newspaper company at all. I mean, now the quality of articles is important. Thus, it is necessary that the reporters quickly figure out how the world is changing and that they change themselves along with it.