Case: Ohmynews

The End of 20 th Century Journalism : “ Every Citizen is a Reporter” 2005

2:22 p.m. on the 22nd of February, 2000

New Concept:
“ Every Citizen is a Reporter”

Trajectory of human communications WOM at pre-industrial town - Newspaper - Radio & Television - Internet - Mobile phones The Scale of Diffusion Interactivity Blogs Citizen journalism Bulletin boards

Digital divide alongside age in Korea Print & TV News Internet News News makers & News sources 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+ Feb.2000 Sep. 2000 Mar. 2001 Nov. 2001 Oct. 2002 Mar. 2003 Nov. 2003 Apr.2004 Presidential Election 2002 General Election 2004 General Election 2000

Citizen Reporters – Who Are They? *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 fact-check 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 Content Reader participation Use of technology Updates Attitude News consumption Use Web as… Quality news, analysis, editorials and op-eds Limited feedback to the editor via “Readers’ Opinion” Web as a carrier of print news to cyber space New York Times Digital 10~15 times per day Modernistic elite media I produce. You consume and leave. a pipe for news delivery Focused news on politics and social issues by staff reporters Essay style reports by citizen reporters Write as a citizen reporter, post your comments or give money to reporters HTML, Web-radio, Web-TV, Mobile news and Weekly print edition OhmyNews As many as necessary; 24 times per day in case of live text casting Post-modernistic “We” media We produce. We consume and stay. a playground for readers

“ 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 Reporters News Audience Bloggers

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+) Staff Reporters (48) Essays & Columns Film & Book Reviews Media Criticism Screening by News Guerilla Desk Hard News Analysis Columns & Editorials Screening by Editorial Desk Publication Publication

Story contributions by citizen reporters far outstrip those by staff reporters

Stories flow in and they sparkle even more on weekends Ratio: No. of articles by Citizen reporters/Staff reporters

Paradox of Conflicting Readers’ Demands The Beauty of Professionally-presented Editorial Control A Sense of Editorial Control with Readers’ Participation Tricky Balancing Act

Always-on nature of broadband access encourages readers to stay for hours , posting over 85,000 comments and chatting with each other during live web-casting. OhmyTV’s Coverage on the General Election in April

OhmyNews’ Coverage on the Anti-impeachment 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

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 Source: MIC as of June 2004

Digital ‘Soft’ Index Total Number of Internet Users (Unit: million) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 1997 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Source: MIC as of June 2004 32,730,000

Digital “Soft” I ndex *Source: Asia Network Research by Institute for Hyper Network Society 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Broadband E-biz Online Game Mobile Internet Digital Music VOD Netizen E-Govt. Korea Japan USA Europe China

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

- Overcome geographical barriers - Find like-minded people - Connect with each other - Become core supporters Conservative Moderate Liberal The Web enables Netizens to….

Digital divide alongside age in Korea Print & TV News Internet News News makers & News sources News makers & News sources

Hypersurface: cyber space and real space fuse together Cyber space HYPERSURFACE 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 Location Psychographics Time Demographics Real space Cyber space

Snowballing effect of online and offline interactions among supporters HYPERSURFACE Online interaction Offline Meeting Enhanced Online interaction More desire for offline reunions Empowered Supporters Spread the word to the skeptics

Cyber warfare: the Ruling Uri Party vs. GNP *Source: Chosun Ilbo Nov. 29 2004 WHO HOW WHERE Personal Homepage Internet News Portals (DAUM, Naver) The Opposition’s Homepage Cyber Warfare Generate Supporting Arguments Copy & Paste Leave Your Comments Swarm Attacks Supporting Netizens Uri: Nosamo GNP: Parksamo Cyber Pundits Uri: Ryu Shi-min GNP: Jeon Yeo-ok

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 Prefer bottom up, democratic & distributed communication Feel comfortable with top down and authoritative voice Communication mode Mostly enjoyed college education Barely finished high school education Education Uri Party and Roh Moo Hyun GNP and Park Geun Hye Party allegiance 20~40 40~60 Age distribution Preferred medium Internet, Mobile phones, TV, Radio Newspapers, Magazines, TV, Radio Political spectrum Liberal & Reform-minded Conservative & dominated by Cold War agenda The Netizens The Old Guard

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 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.
2002 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

3 rd 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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Case: Ohmynews

by Marco Derksen on Jan 13, 2007

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