OhmyNews Founder on Citizen Journalism Today
In Online Press Gazette, Oh Yeonho, founder of OhmyNews, gives status update on citizen journalism, saying:
“I believe blogs are personal media and traditional media are mass media, but OhmyNews is the middle of this. Where the mass media has problems; where the personal media is blooming, there is the possibility OhmyNews can work. For that reason, I think there are many countries where the OhmyNews model could work.”
He adds:
“The ordinary citizen cannot approach politicians, so staff reporters can cover that type of story,” says Oh. It is in travel journalism, movie reviews and real-life human-interest stories that citizen journalists really come into their own.
This collaborative production process between media professionals and other citizens is OhmyNews’s major selling point, which Oh says sets his site apart from blogs.
“Bloggers and online citizen reporters are different in some respects because bloggers are personal media. We are a kind of confederation or alliance of bloggers edited by staff reporters and fact-checked, so we have more credibility than the bloggers.
“We are a news organisation: the facts are very important; credibility is very important.”
