"Every Citizen is a Reporter"

OhMyNews.com

This website has been accredited with having helped elect South Korea's current president, Roh Moo Hyun. How did this website begin and how did it get so big? In Chapter Six of We The Media, Dan Gillmor attempts to answer this question. He says that it was begun by a man named Oh Yeon Ho (inset) of South Korea. It's basic premise is the paradigm of Gillmor's book: "every citizen can be a reporter (pg. 126)." So, Oh went to Regent University in the US to get his master's degree and returned to South Korea with the bright idea of OhMyNews.com. Gillmor says the reason it gained so much prestige so quickly was because it was one of the first of its kind in South Korea and because the country of South Korea, unlike the US, is more enmeshed with the Internet. "It's a weird nation; more than two-thirds of households are connected to the Internet, most with high-speed links. The Internet is an always-on part of everyday life, not an afterthought (pg. 126)."

The Pew Internet and American Life Project came out with a report in October of 2004 that looked into a possible corrolation between people's access to the Internet and their political interest, specifically in the 2004 Presidential Campaign. The report presents its argument based on the condition of studying Internet use independent of other possible sources of political awareness. Although they do admit to the possiblity that "Internet use is not the only factor associated with exposure to a wide range of political arguments. Education levels... are among other factors tied to the number of points of view people encounter (pg. 3)."

I decided to see for myself if this was possible drawing on South Korea as a reference point. In other words, is it even worth it to measure the impact of the Internet while disregarding other factors that could cause political awareness? I decided to check out the graduation rate of South Korea to perhaps hypothesize as to a correlation between that rate and political involvement, which would be measured by involvement in OhMyNews.com. According to the Charlotte Observer, The high school graduation rate among 25-34 year olds is a staggering 97%. According to the article, South Korea is more homogeneous that the US and the economic divide is smaller, but they used to be on the bottom of the totem pole, now they're on top. I would like to suggest a correlation, although this is mere speculation and requires further research. A reason the population of South Korea are so interested in politics and worked together to help elect Hyun (inset), is because of the site OhMyNews.com, however, this interest is due in no small measure to the educational system present in South Korea; and it should not be discounted as not affecting the Internet involvement.