ALJ301

OHMYNEWS

Koreas leading form of internet based new developed by Oh Yeon-ho in the early 2000’s. With 67% (33 million) of Korea’s population currently using the internet there is a wonderful base for news and views on the internet to be consumed en mass. With South Korea having has the world’s highest number of broadband connections per capita and with, I assume the most comprehensive and complete service available the idea that the worlds best online news source comes from Korea is not hard to believe. It is a distant relative to the pitiful internet services we are provided with in Australia.

Oh my news is ahead of its time in many areas. Oh Yeon-ho- came up with the idea that every person can be a journalist, this is now copied all over the world by almost every media organisation.

At the time of its origin Korea had strict media laws limiting personal opinions etc. After various revolutions Oh developed ohmynews with great success and it is now supported by nearly 70% of the population.

Oh Yeon-ho- rivals Rupert Murdoch, and can claim to be the founder of modern journalism and a dependence on the internet for news, whether it is good or bad is irrelevant.

Oh seems to have every angle covered, advertising, content, civilian reporters, feedback, advertising, editing and I would assume a huge level of censorship, imagine the crap that would get sent in from the millions that view and would have an idea to contribute!!

Question is why has this not transported in western culture on such a scale, there are obvious roadblocks in the quality and availability of the net to western countries particularly Australia. Another reason is eastern countries seem to follow the leader much more than western countries where free speech is much more liberally applied

The other question that comes to mind is the presence of competition. It appears that while there are rules on limiting media ownership, if of 70% of all people in korea are following ohmynews. How is this not a monopoly of media control and ownership?

But the best point from this weeks reading is the way journalism is being taught all over the world. With the seismic shift from print to online media, theory is becoming increasingly old and stale, I know! Every tertiary education institution has to update, and begin teaching what are becoming the worlds leading forms of media.

Wonderful point something for us all to think about:

Traditional media were (is) “really in trouble,” Min said. “It’s a critical time.” Many senior English-language journalists in Seoul confirmed that journalism education in South Korea was too theoretical. Students graduated without experience of a newsroom or evidence of having done journalism (usually demonstrated through clippings of published stories). The demand for jobs among recent graduates far exceeded the number, so newspapers could pick and choose. They usually based selection on grades rather than practical experience.

http://english.ohmynews.com