The End of
Journalism:
th
20
Century
“Every Citizen is a Reporter”
2:22 p.m. on the 22nd of
February, 2000
New Concept:
“Every Citizen is a Reporter”
Trajectory of human communications
Blogs
Citizen journalism
Bulletin boards
The Scale of
Diffusion
Interactivity
WOM at pre-industrial town -
Newspaper -
Radio & Television
- Internet -
Mobile phones
Digital divide alongside age in Korea
Print & TV
News
News makers &
News sources
Internet
News
News makers &
News sources
OhmyNews was founded on the premise
of “Citizen Reporters”
“Every citizen's a reporter. Journalists aren't
some exotic species, they're everyone who
seeks to take new developments, put them into
writing, and share them with others.”
– Oh Yeon Ho, founder and CEO of OhmyNews
OhmyNews was founded on the premise
of “Citizen Reporters”
“OhmyNews does not regard straight news
articles as the standard. Articles including
both facts and opinions are acceptable when
they are good.”
– Oh Yeon Ho, Speaking with Japan Media Review
Number of Citizen Reporters explodes from
727 to 37,000+
35000
30000
25000
General
Election
2000
20000
15000
Presidential
Election
2002
10000
General
Election
2004
5000
0
Feb.2000
Sep. 2000
Mar. 2001
Nov. 2001
Oct. 2002
Mar. 2003
Nov. 2003
Apr.2004
Citizen Reporters – Who Are They?
By Gender
M ale, 76.6%
Female, 23.4%
*As of Dec. 09 2003
Citizen Reporters – Who Are They?
By Occupation
Small businesses,
5.9%
Journalists, 7.1%
White Collar,
15.5%
Freelancers, 5.1%
Teachers, 4.3%
Others, 42.4%
College Students,
19.7%
*As of Dec. 09 2003
Citizen Reporters – Who Are They?
By Age
30~39, 34.5%
20~29, 38.4%
40~49, 14.4%
10~19, 8.5%
50~59, 3.2%
60~, 1.0%
*As of Dec. 09 2003
Why they write for OhmyNews
 Eyeballs; thousands of readers (current record is 100,000 views)
guaranteed for their story
 Instant feedback from readers; up to 3,500 readers’ comments
recorded depending on nature of the story
 Sense of empowerment by participating in changing society
 Monetary rewards; 20,000 won for top story, 10,000 won for
sub-top and 2,000 won for ingul story
*Readers can tip writers using a mobile phone payment system
 “News Guerillas of the Month”, “News Guerillas’ Day”
What they write for OhmyNews
Topics they have easy access to:




Essay-style musings on daily life
Columns on various political and social issues
Film and book reviews
Media criticism mostly on reports by conservative
established media
 On any given day, they submit 150 to 200 stories,
over 70% of the news content for OhmyNews
It’s not bulletproof but a system is in
place to guarantee credibility

Background-check for every single netizen before they can sign up as
an OhmyNews citizen reporter

No news can appear on the main page until they pass through factcheck and screening process by OhmyNews copyeditors – we reject as
many as 30% of 150-200 stories submitted daily for various reasons

Sensitive stories that contain claims that potentially damage news
makers’ reputation get more thorough fact-check and sometimes entail
even on-site visits

Citizen reporters tend to write softer news like movie review, travel
essays minimizing any chance of legal conflict in the first place
Tale of Two Internet News Media
New York Times Digital
OhmyNews
Use Web as…
a pipe for news delivery
a playground for readers
Use of
technology
Web as a carrier of print news to
cyber space
HTML, Web-radio, Web-TV, Mobile news
and Weekly print edition
News
consumption
I produce.
You consume and leave.
We produce.
We consume and stay.
Attitude
Modernistic elite media
Post-modernistic “We” media
Reader
participation
Limited feedback to the editor via Write as a citizen reporter, post your
“Readers’ Opinion”
comments or give money to reporters
Content
Quality news, analysis, editorials
and op-eds
Focused news on politics and social
issues by staff reporters
Essay style reports by citizen reporters
Updates
10~15 times per day
As many as necessary; 24 times per day
in case of live text casting
“Attention Netizens!”
Citizen Reporters vs. Bloggers
OhmyNews, One-stop Marketplace of
Eyeballs
“Is there something else that flows through
cyberspace, something that is scarce and desirable?
There is. No one would put anything on the Internet
without the hope of obtaining some. It's called
attention. And the economy of attention - not
information - is the natural economy of cyberspace.”
-Excerpt from Attention Shoppers! By Michael H.
Goldhaber
OhmyNews, One-stop Marketplace of
Eyeballs & Intermediary for tips
News& Opinion
Eyeballs &
Money
Citizen
Bloggers
Reporters
News Audience
Why Citizen Reporter Instead of Blogging?
 A lot more eyeballs than blogging: plenty of views and
readers’ comments guaranteed
 Professional peer review by OhmyNews editors
 Instant Fame: “Honey, I am on OhmyNews!”
 Sense of solidarity and empowerment
 Scarcity of “real estate” makes appearance on
OhmyNews all the more valuable
 Market mechanism: a thrill of competition to grab prized
spots on the main page
 Monetary rewards: fee from OhmyNews and tip from
readers
OhmyNews Editorial Process
Citizen
Reporters
(37,000+)
Essays & Columns
Film & Book Reviews
Media Criticism
Screening by
News Guerilla
Desk
Publication
Publication
Staff
Reporters
(48)
Hard News
Analysis
Columns & Editorials
Screening by
Editorial
Desk
Story contributions by citizen reporters far
outstrip those by staff reporters
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Tue Wed Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
Mon Tue
Wed Thu
3/1
3/4
3/5
3/6
3/7
3/9
3/2
3/3
News by staff reporters
3/8
Fri
Sat
Sun
Mon Tue Wed Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
Mon Tue Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
Mon
Tue Wed Thu
3/10 3/11 3/12 3/13 3/14 3/15 3/16 3/17 3/18 3/19 3/20 3/21 3/22 3/23 3/24 3/25 3/26 3/27 3/28 3/29 3/30 3/31
News by Agency
News by business wire
OhmyNews International
News by citizen reporters
Total
Ratio: Citizen reporters/Staff reporters
Stories flow in and they sparkle even more on
weekends
900%
800%
700%
600%
500%
400%
300%
200%
100%
0%
Tue Wed Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu
3/1
3/4
3/5
3/6
3/2
3/3
3/7
3/8
Fri
Sat
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu
3/9 3/10 3/11 3/12 3/13 3/14 3/15 3/16 3/17 3/18 3/19 3/20 3/21 3/22 3/23 3/24 3/25 3/26 3/27 3/28 3/29 3/30 3/31
Ratio: No. of articles by Citizen reporters/Staff reporters
Paradox of Conflicting Readers’ Demands
A Sense of
Editorial Control with
Readers’ Participation
Tricky
Balancing
Act
The Beauty of
Professionally-presented
Editorial Control
OhmyTV’s Coverage on the General Election
in April
Always-on nature of
broadband access
encourages readers
to stay for hours,
posting over 85,000
comments and
chatting with each
other during live webcasting.
OhmyNews’ Coverage on the Antiimpeachment Protest in March
OhmyNews’ Coverage on the Antiimpeachment Protest in March
Marketplace for Tip hunters (if you are):
“Thank you for the excellent writing, please take my money”
Mobile phone
Tipping
Credit card
Tipping
Versioning of premium insider information
tantalizes our readers to switch to paid subscription
Number of
paying
customers
as of Feb. 17
Income Sources
Voluntary subscription
fee and others, 10%
News Content Sales,
20%
Ad Sales, 70%
Highly efficient news operations
 Word of mouth self-promotion by citizen reporters:
as potential bloggers join OhmyNews as citizen
reporters they bring with them their own audience
thus contributing to increase in web-traffic
 Virtual newsroom: any place with Internet access
transforms into a virtual office for OhmyNews staff
where they report and edit the news remotely and
collaboratively
Why in Korea?
Digital ‘Soft’ Index
Korean Internet Usage Rate
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
10s
20s
30s
40s
50s
60s
Source: MIC as of June 2004
Digital ‘Soft’ Index
Total Number of Internet Users (Unit: million)
35
32,730,000
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1997
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
Source: MIC as of June 2004
Digital “Soft” Index
Broadband
6
E-Govt.
5
4
E-biz
3
Netizen
2
Korea
1
Japan
0
Online
Game
USA
Europe
China
VOD
Mobile
Internet
Digital Music
*Source: Asia Network Research by Institute for Hyper Network Society
Why Korea gravitated to the citizen reporter model

Negative public sentiment against near monopolistic dominance by three
conservative, autocratic papers

Pent up demand for fair and independent news media

Over 75% broadband penetration; ideal for multimedia, always-on and
interactive news service

3.6 degrees of separation; small land size and closely networked society

Uni-polar society; the entire country can be engulfed by couple of issues in a
matter of days

Politically active 20-somethings and “386 generation” (*Korean equivalent of
“68 generation” in Europe)

High literacy rate (98%) and Hangul’s adaptability to computer systems
The Next Step
Citizen Anchors
Oh my! News by Million Phonecams?
and it goes global with….
OhmyNews tests its Citizen Reporter
Model among Global Audience
OhmyNews International
Citizen Reporter Seminars in Brussels & Seoul
Readers of OhmyNews International are
globally distributed
The Vision: a News media with thousands
of citizen correspondents world-wide
50-50 Society:
Are we there yet?
*Supplements
The Web enables Netizens to….
- Overcome geographical barriers
- Find like-minded people
- Connect with each other
- Become core supporters
Conservative
Moderate
Liberal
Digital divide alongside age in Korea
Print & TV
News
News makers &
News sources
Internet
News
News makers &
News sources
Hypersurface: cyber space and real space
fuse together
HYPERSURFACE
Cyber space
Real space
South Korea: a densely populated economy with
over 80% urbanization coupled with 75%
broadband penetration, i.e. a Hypersurface,
Information Saliency in Hypersurface
Cyber space
Real space
Demographics
Time
Psychographics
Location
Snowballing effect of online and offline
interactions among supporters
Offline
Meeting
HYPERSURFACE
Empowered
Supporters
Cyber warfare: the Ruling Uri Party vs. GNP
Cyber Warfare
WHO
Cyber
Pundits
Uri: Ryu Shi-min
GNP: Jeon Yeo-ok
HOW
Generate
Supporting
Arguments
Copy
&
Paste
Supporting
Netizens
Uri: Nosamo
GNP: Parksamo
*Source: Chosun Ilbo Nov. 29 2004
Leave Your
Comments
Swarm
Attacks
WHERE
Personal
Homepage
Portals
(DAUM,
Naver)
Internet
News
The Opposition’s
Homepage
E-politics: Korea-specific factors

‘386 generation’, Korea’s new political leaders had been heavily influenced during
the 80’s by communication and propaganda tactics they borrowed from socialists.
They tested these viral communications techniques with the new media, i.e. Internet

The young generation shared the strong will to reform Korean society and were
ready to sacrifice themselves for this noble cause

The elderly and conservative feared a tech-savvy, younger generation and
anticipated an outbreak of their capability embodied in their political icon: Roh Moo
Hyun

Thanks to the explosion of college education in the 80s, Netizens, the younger
generation was generally well-educated

The conservatives’ favored print and TV media didn’t allow them to network with
each other as fast and efficiently as the Internet did for progressive young voters -a critical factor in galvanizing the last-minute voter turn-out on the election day

Young Netizens’ geographical proximity helped them interact with each other across
on-line and off-line borders thus forming the core supporters
They are million miles apart across the age-line…
hence the civil war inside your homes
Age
distribution
Education
Political
spectrum
The Old Guard
The Netizens
40~60
20~40
Barely finished high school
education
Conservative & dominated by
Cold War agenda
Mostly enjoyed college
education
Liberal &
Reform-minded
Uri Party and Roh Moo
Hyun
Prefer bottom up,
democratic & distributed
communication
Internet, Mobile phones, TV,
Radio
Party
allegiance
GNP and Park Geun Hye
Communication
mode
Feel comfortable with top
down and authoritative voice
Preferred
medium
Newspapers, Magazines, TV,
Radio
4 Years of OhmyNews

2000
February 22, 2000 OhmyNews site opens.
November 9, 2000 Ranked 10th in a survey of “Korea’s Most Influential Media” by Sisa Journal
and Media Research.
December 11, 2000 Named “Hit Website” for 2000 by Hanguk Ilbo.

2001

2002
October 6, 2001 OhmyNews president Oh Yeon Ho included in Kyeonghyang Sinmun’s “55
Faces that Represent Korea”
October 20, 2001 Ranked 8th in a survey of “Korea’s Most Influential Media,” performed
by Sisa Journal and Media Research.
April 30, 2002 OhmyNews weekly print edition begins.
October 21, 2002 Ranked 8th in a survey of “Korea’s Most Influential Media” performed by Sisa
Journal and Media Research.
December 18, 2002 Logs 6.23 million visitors, 19.10 million page views.

2003
February 22, 2003 Exclusive interview with President-elect Roh Moo Hyun on the third
anniversary of OhmyNews.
October 21, 2003 Ranked 6th in a survey of “Korea’s Most Influential Media” by a Sisa
Journal panel of experts

2004
February 22, 2004 OhmyNews International beta version goes online.
OhmyNews in the News

“More and more people were getting their information and political analysis from spunky news
services on the Internet… Most influential by far has been a feisty three-year-old start up with the
unusual name of OhmyNews. Around election time the free online news service was registering 20
million page views per day.” - The New York Times

“It's entertaining, it's heartfelt and it's caring. It's like blogs. It has a personal side and an emotional
side. It has human texture. It's not bland and objective like traditional news. There's a definite bias.
It's not professional, but you get the facts…. I trust it." - Don Park, blogger

"OhmyNews is as influential as any newspaper," a South Korean diplomat told the paper. "No
policy maker can afford to ignore it. South Korea is changing in ways that we cannot believe
ourselves.“ – WIRED.com

“The marriage of a fledgling democracy and broadband technology has spawned a precocious new
media child in South Korea that would have been unimaginable 15 years ago.” – Christian Science
Monitor

“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.” - San Jose Mercury News
3rd Generation Internet News Media
 Strengthen multimedia component such as OhmyTV and mobile
news service
 Globalize OhmyNews, a native Korean product  Launch of
OhmyNews International, its English language edition
 Replicate and export OhmyNews model worldwide
 Achieve qualitative development of citizen participatory
journalism  OhmyNews by thousands of phonecam reporters
 Go beyond criticism of the existing social establishment to
propose alternatives for a new society  OhmyForum
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