''OhmyNews'' () is a South Korean online news website. It was founded by Oh Yeon Ho on 22 February 2000. The site's motto is "Every Citizen is a Reporter", which reflects its status as the first news website in Korea to accept, edit, and publish articles from its readers in an

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

-style. About 20% of the site's content is written by the 55-person staff; most articles are written by freelance contributors.

Political position

''OhmyNews'' is consistently considered liberal and progressive. This is in contrast to the somewhat more moderate liberal Hankyoreh and Kyunghyang. It is also considered anti-imperialist, anti-racist, and anti- xenophobic. However, anti-China/anti-Japan government left-wing nationalist media is common among South Korean liberals. The site is also generally critical of the 'hegemonic nationalism' of the Chinese and Japanese governments, and supports 'resistance nationalism'. The site strongly criticizes and opposes anti-Japanese and anti-Chinese sentiment that is expressed as racism rather than anti-imperialism. ''OhmyNews'' is not anti-American, but often criticizes U.S. foreign policy. It opposes improving Japan-South Korea relations and is particularly negative about cooperation in the military sector. In 2022, an article on ''OhmyNews'' criticized the U.S. effort to improve Japan-South Korea relations to counter China as sacrificing South Korea.

History

''OhmyNews'' was influential in determining the outcome of the 2002 South Korean presidential election. 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 22 February 2006, ''OhmyNews'' and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese 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 28 August with a famous Japanese journalist and 22 other employees working under ten reporters. These journalists' articles were the object of much criticism; on 17 November 2006, the newspaper ended the citizen-participation aspect of the paper. The South Korean newspaper admitted that ''OhmyNews Japan'' had failed. 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 12–15 July 2006. "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." During the declaration of martial law in 2024, an ''OhmyNews'' live stream captured Democratic Party deputy spokesperson Ahn Gwi-ryeong confronting a soldier with a rifle, which was seen by millions on X (formerly twitter).

Financing

''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." 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. 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. 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. On 8 July 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.

''OhmyNews International''

In September 2010, ''OhmyNews International'' changed its format from citizen journalism to becoming a forum about citizen journalism. Verifying facts from around the world became too difficult. The old site is an archive and does not accept new articles.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:OhmyNews 2000 establishments in South Korea Asian news websites Anti-racist organizations in Asia Anti-imperialist organizations Jongno District Korean nationalist organizations Left-wing nationalism in South Korea Left-wing newspapers Liberal media in South Korea Magazines published in South Korea Newspapers published in South Korea Online companies of South Korea Progressivism in South Korea Publications established in 2000 Internet properties established in 2000 South Korean news websites