Whenever Oh Yeon Ho of OhmyNews speaks all this citizen journalism malarkey and how to organise and monetize it makes sense. Martin Stabe (Hi Martin) reports for the Press Gazette - another publication I sometimes write for,
"Citizen participatory journalism is not about tactics — it's about philosophy. Professionals should change their mind. If they change only their tactics, it will not work well. The philosophy should change. The readers can be equal to professional reporters in news production because in my definition, a reporter is not some exotic species, some special person. The ordinary person can be a reporter. They have his or her own news stories and they can deliver it..."
...Perhaps, Oh suggested in a speech at a conference in Istanbul two years ago, OhmyNews is a "special Korean product" made possible by a unique confluence of conditions in contemporary South Korea.
But today, Oh sounds more optimistic. "I believe the possibility is everywhere," he says, pointing to the growth of blogging in many countries as a sign that greater public participation in journalism can work.
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