Major media corporations like CNN and BBC are increasingly relying on photographs and videos sent in by their viewers to enhance their content offering, while smaller, independently operated sites transmit messages and information from remote areas, often sidestepping heavy censorship. Citizen journalism, it seems, is here to stay.
In another example of media conglomeration, last week in the US, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) voted to lift a 30-year-old ban on companies wanting to own both a newspaper and a television or radio station in the same city. This disturbing trend towards media monopoly means that corporate media have increasing power to influence culture, governments and the ways we obtain accurate information about the world. How can we ensure democratic and accountable journalism? Citizen journalism, that’s how.
The idea that ordinary, uncertified individuals can report publicly on the world around them has grown exponentially since the advent of the Internet. While professional journalists have not always received formal training for their jobs, the fact that they are employed by a media institution is what earns them their credibility. Should they, however, remain our only trusted source of information? From the Malaysian government issuing a warning to its people not to trust blogs, to an Israeli human rights group handing Palestinians web cameras to document and post the reality of their daily lives on the Internet, for better or for worse, more and more citizens are becoming amateur journalists and putting their perspective out there. And now, in the vicinity of Seoul, South Korea, comes the first-ever Citizen Journalism School.
In November, OhMyNews Citizen Journalism School opened about 90 minutes outside of Seoul to provide courses focused on digital media, citizen journalism, user-created content and technology. A development coming out of the OhMyNews website, a popular South Korean citizen journalism website, the school is located in a revamped rural elementary school surrounded by Buddhist temples and old military bases. This “new collaborative knowledge center” is designed to offer 60,000 citizen reporters and “netizens” workshops in Internet journalism (writing, camera work, html), intensive journalism preparation for people wanting to apply to professional news organizations, special classes for media executives wanting to start their own venture, writing classes for publicists of NGOs and even “re-education” classes for professional journalists.
By providing training to ordinary citizens, the OhMyNews school may be blurring the line between what constitutes “professional” and “amateur” journalism. If it means that a greater variety of people will have the know-how to give their two cents worth about the world around them, it can’t be bad.
This article was published Friday, January 4, 2008.
