OhmyNews
OhmyNews (Hangul: 오마이뉴스) is a South Korean online news website with the motto "Every Citizen is a Reporter". It was founded by Oh Yeon Ho on February 22, 2000.
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Available in | Korean |
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Owner | Oh Yeon Ho |
Revenue | US$70,000 |
URL | www |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | Required |
Launched | February 22, 2000 |
Current status | Online |
Part of a series on |
Liberalism in South Korea |
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It is the first news website in Korea to accept, edit and publish articles from its readers, in an open source style of news reporting.[1] About 20% of the site's content is written by the 55-person staff, while most of the articles are written by other freelance contributors who are mostly ordinary citizens.
Political position
OhmyNews is a liberal[2] and progressive[3][4] media. OhmyNews is a media that shows liberal-leaning bias, unlike the somewhat moderate liberal Hankyoreh and Kyunghyang,[5] it is generally known as the left-wing.[6]
OhmyNews is an anti-imperialist and anti-racist, but anti-China/anti-Japan government left-wing nationalist media that is common among South Korean liberals. OhmyNews is very critical of the 'hegemonic nationalism' of the Chinese and Japanese governments, and supports 'resistance nationalism', but opposes xenophobia. OhmyNews criticizes racism prevalent in Korean society against Chinese and Japanese people. OhmyNews very strongly criticizes and opposes the phenomenon in which anti-Japanese and anti-Chinese feelings are expressed as racist hatred rather than anti-imperialism among some South Koreans.[7] OhmyNews is not anti-American, but criticizes foreign policy in U.S. policy.[8]
OhmyNews opposes improving Japan-South Korea relations, it is particularly negative about cooperation in the military sector. OhmyNews criticized the U.S. attempt to improve Japan-South Korea relations to check China as sacrificing South Korea, a victim of Japanese imperialism.[9]
History
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OhmyNews was influential in determining the outcome of the 2002 South Korean presidential election.[10] After being elected, President Roh Moo-hyun granted his first interview to OhmyNews.
OhmyNews International is an English language online newspaper that features "citizen reporter" articles written by contributors from all over the globe. Its content is almost 100% citizen reporter.
On February 22, 2006, OhmyNews and Japanese firm Softbank signed an investment contract valued at US$11 million. In 2006 OhmyNews started to build a Japan-based citizen-participatory journalism site called OhmyNews Japan, launched on August 28 with a famous Japanese journalist and 22 other employees working under ten reporters. These journalists' articles were the object of much criticism; on November 17, 2006, the newspaper ended the citizen-participation aspect of the paper. The South Korean newspaper admitted that OhmyNews Japan had failed.[11] In July 2008, all staff of OhmyNews Japan were dismissed, and by the end of August operations had ceased on the site.
The 2nd Citizen Reporters' Forum was held by OhmyNews in Seoul, Korea from July 12–15, 2006.[12] The 3rd International Citizen Reporters Forum was held by OhmyNews in Seoul from June 27–29, 2007.
On November 24, 2007, OhmyNews opened a "citizen journalism school" to serve as a "collaborative knowledge center" for classes in journalism, digital cameras and photojournalism. It is located 90 minutes from Seoul in the refurbished building of an elementary school. The faculty will include OhmyNews editors and other journalists from print, radio and television. There is in-school lodging and dining capacity for 50 guests.
On August 1, 2010, OhMyNews of South Korea announced a change in its format from an "edited citizen journalist news site" to a "blog dedicated to covering and discussing the world of citizen journalism itself," starting the following month.
"Curators are important to our operation. They are given a great deal of trust. In order to maintain credibility amongst our team members, new curators join through recommendations of existing curators. And even amongst the curators we have different levels depending on their experience and contributions. This is to maintain a steady level of quality and credibility with our readers."[13]
Financing
Critics argue that Ohmynews is losing original features as alternative–independent media in financial independence. Oh Yeon-ho said, "70 to 80 percent of our revenue came from corporate advertising and sponsorships. In contrast, contributions from readers only totaled five percent of total revenue." Oh also said, "We have not received a cent from Lee Myung-bak government for central government advertising."[14] However a government report to National Assembly in 2009 revealed that Ohmynews received 120 million won (approximately 100,000 dollars) for government advertising from February 2008 to July 2009.[15] An Ohmynews report also indicated that they had received about 870 million won (approximately 900,000 dollars) for government advertising from 2003 to 2007 by introducing government official reports to National Assembly.[16]
An alternative medium Pressian reported Oh's comments, "I respect Samsung as major business partner," and introduced about 20 percent of the total advertising and cooperation revenue of Ohmynews is coming from Samsung for years, the biggest business corporate of Korea.[17]
On July 8, 2009, Oh Yeon-ho revealed that Ohmynews was losing up to 700 million won yearly, and appealed to website users to join a voluntary subscription scheme.[14]
OhmyNews International
In September 2010, OhmyNews International changed its format from citizen journalism to becoming a forum about citizen journalism. OmN became a victim of its own success; verifying facts from around the world became too difficult. The old site[18] is an archive and does not accept new articles.[19]
References
- MacIntyre, Donald (May 29, 2005). "TIME The People's News Source". Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- Jeff Kaye, Stephen Quinn, ed. (2010). Funding Journalism in the Digital Age: Business Models, Strategies, Issues and Trends. Peter Lang. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-4331-0685-9.
"Other than that we are pretty liberal." OhmyNews also publishes a weekly broadsheet newspaper in Korean ( circulation about 150,000 ) where the best of the web makes it into print.
- Hojeong Lee, Joong-Hwan Oh, ed. (2021). Digital Media, Online Activism, and Social Movements in Korea. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-7936-4229-5.
As a progressive political press, OhmyNews addresses issues with social significance while the mainstream media ignore or underreport them.
- Hojeong Lee, Joong-Hwan Oh, ed. (2005). AEJMC News: The Newsletter of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Volume 39. The Association. p. 33.
... State between two polarizing online news Reporting a Humanitarian Tragedy : A University of New Jersey • This paper media , the progressive OhmyNews and the Framing Analysis of Chinese Newspaper analyses how images published in ten ...
- "The Growing Role of Social Media in South Korea". Korea Economic Institute of America (in Korean). December 13, 2011. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
Another very important contribution to Roh's victory came from internet news service OhMyNews, a liberal-leaning news service originally built to provide an alternative news source for younger generations "disillusioned with the biased reporting of traditional media".
- "Defection casts light on rift within ruling party ahead of election". Korea Economic Institute of America. February 23, 2022. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
Jeong's posting came as a shock to the DPK because the former journalist who worked with left-wing news outlet OhmyNews, helped former Prime Minister Lee's campaign as his public relations chief during the party's primary.
- ""한국은 우리 싫어하죠?" 중국친구 질문에 말문이 막혔다" (in Korean). January 12, 2022. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- ""미국이 돌아왔다!" 장혜영의 이 발언 매우 아쉽다" ["The U.S. is back!" Jang Hye-young's remarks are very unfortunate.] (in Korean). OhmyNews. March 2, 2021. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
장혜영 의원이 모두발언에서 한 미국 외교정책에 대한 지지의사 표명은 현실 국제관계에 대한 무지와 낭만주의가 아닌지 우려스럽다. 지금까지 미국이 인권의 이름으로 국제개입을 했을 때 인권이 성장하긴 커녕 그 나라의 인권이 역으로 후퇴한 경우가 많았기 때문이다.
[Rep. Jang Hye-young's expression of support for US foreign policy is concerned about whether it is ignorance and romanticism about real international relations. This is because, until now, when the United States has intervened internationally in the name of human rights, there have been many cases where human rights in that country have retreated in reverse, rather than improving human rights.] - "'한·일관계 개선'에 신경 쓰는 미국의 진짜 속내". 오마이뉴스 (in Korean). December 13, 2022. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
- Mackinnon, Rebecca. "Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom". NewAmerica.net. Archived from the original on June 26, 2012. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- "일본 오마이뉴스의 고전" (in Korean). December 20, 2006. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- "OhmyNews International". english.ohmynews.com. Archived from the original on October 10, 2012. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- "About | OhmyNews International". International.ohmynews.com. February 22, 2000. Archived from the original on March 23, 2015. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- "What Does OhmyNews Mean to You? - OhmyNews International". english.ohmynews.com. Archived from the original on February 17, 2012. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- "노무현 정권,오마이뉴스에 광고집중 : Save Internet 뉴데일리" (in Korean). Newdaily.co.kr. July 10, 2009. Retrieved September 4, 2012.
- "노무현 정부 기간, 조중동이 정부광고액 1∼3위" (in Korean). September 23, 2008. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- "<오마이뉴스>도 삼성 칼럼 미게재 '후폭풍' - 프레시안" (in Korean). Pressian.com. February 25, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2012.
- "OhmyNews". Archived from the original on November 28, 2019. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- Meyer, J.D. "OhMyNews redesigning to become citizen journalism blog". Digital Journal. Archived from the original on December 4, 2017. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
Further reading
- International press react to OhmyNews
- TIME magazine profile of contributor Kim Hye-won
- Giants of Citizen Media Meet Up The Tyee, October 24, 2007
- OhmyNews Citizen Journalism School Opens, OhmyNews, November 24, 2007
- The End of OhmyNews Japan, Global Voices Online, September 18, 2008
External links
- Official website
Media related to OhmyNews at Wikimedia Commons