Content submitted by Mary tagged with "korea"

OhmyNews Journalism School Doubles as Retreat

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 21/02/2008 at 19:59

The Dutch innovation organization Springwise reports that Korean citizen journalism site OhmyNews is opening a school for citizen journalists. The program will take place in a renovated elementary school located 90 minutes from Seoul. The school is deliberately designed as a retreat, to "give urbanites a rare opportunity to recharge themselves as content creators in the middle of idyllic rural setting".

classroom at the school

The purpose of the program is to disseminate the skills of journalism more widely among Koreans, a in keeping with OhmyNews' founder Oh Yeon Ho's mantra that "every citizen is a reporter." While some classes

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My Digital Activism Biography

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 19/01/2008 at 20:25

In 2006, I founded ZapBoom Consulting, a firm which looks at how digital tools like cell phones and the Internet can be used in campaigns for social change, particularly in developing countries. I have researched and written reports on topics ranging from online citizen journalism to blog advocacy and internet censorship. I have also performed in-country Internet monitoring and international conference organizing.

I first became interested in digital activism in 2004-2005 while living in Morocco. It was the fall after my graduation from Vassar College and I was working as a Programs Assistant at the National Democratic Institute in

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The Citizen Journalism Web Site 'OhmyNews' and the 2002 South Korean Presidential Election

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 15/01/2008 at 15:00
I wrote this report for the Internet and Democracy Project at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. The paper investigates the influence of the citizen journalism Web site OhmyNews during the 2002 South Korean Presidential election. It begins with a discussion of the phenomenon of citizen journalism and the importance of an independent media to democracy. It next moves to a discussion of the motivation for the creation of OhmyNews by Oh Yeon Ho and its innovative model for producing and moderating citizen-generated news. It then discusses how real world activism may have contributed to (Read more)
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Grassroots Fundraising Hits $4 Million

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 07/11/2007 at 14:12

Now we know why Ron Paul is smiling.

UPDATE: See the YouTube video below

Trevor Lyman, a supporter of libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul, decided to help his preferred candidate raise money. He bought the domain ThisNovember5th.com, the purpose of which was to encourage people to make a small donation on that day. The campaign was ridiculously successful. This past Monday, the site raised $4 million for Ron Paul's presidential campaign.

Interestingly enough, the site itself did not even collect the donations, but rather sent site visitors on the the official campaign site, RonPaul2008.com, to make their donation.

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Don't Cry for Us, Thomas Friedman

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 12/10/2007 at 1:07

Columnist Thomas Friedman is worried about the politics of the Internet generation. He wrote the following in the New York Times on Wednesday in an editorial entitled "Generation Q."

I just spent the past week visiting several colleges...and I can report that the more I am around this generation of college students, the more I am both baffled and impressed....

I’ve been calling them “Generation Q” — the Quiet Americans, in the best sense of that term, quietly pursuing their idealism, at home and abroad....

But Generation Q may be too quiet, too online, for its own good,

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Digital Activism Examples

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 29/09/2007 at 11:05

In the interest of defining what exactly grassroots digital activism is, I thought I'd create a list of some examples of grassroots digital campaigns. I'll be updating the list, so please send me your examples through the comments section.

Nosamo (2000-present): This is the fan club of Korean president Roh Moo-Hyun (the group's name means "those who love Roh"). The independent volunteer organization used a website and digital organizing techniques to support the progressive campaign of Roh, who won the 2002 is a huge upset. They are like Deaniacs except they also drafted their candidate by convincing him to

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OhmyNews Case Study: The Super-Short Version

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 28/08/2007 at 12:16

Note: In June I was hired by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society to write a case study about the effect that the Korean citizen journalism site OhmyNews has had on democracy in that country. I finished the first draft of the report last week. This is the executive summary.


Ever since Tom Paine wrote "Common Sense" in 1776, citizen journalism has been strengthening democracy. By providing an alternative to mainstream media in both content and perspective, citizen journalism keeps people better informed about public issues, allowing them to more intelligently form opinions about public policy and select

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Korea: How Voters Can Steal an Election

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 09/08/2007 at 13:03

Seoul subway cell phones: great things happen politically when everyone's connected.

Note: this is part of an on-going series of posts based on my research of the the Korean Citizen journalism site OhmyNews. Previous posts can be found here and here.

December 19, 2002, was Election Day in Korea. It was the culmination of this evolution, when the citizen media, grassroots politics, and ordinary citizens came together to shift the fate of an election. The night before, presidential candidate Roh Mo-Hyun was dealt a terrible blow. Chung Mong-Joon, a critical supporter of Roh withdrew his support for the

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OhmyNews: it's about the people

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 01/08/2007 at 20:23

I finally have a deadline for my OhmyNews case study so I went to the library today to do some serious work. I'm about a third of the way through, and one of the conclusions I'm coming to is that the real story isn't the OhmyNews citizen journalism site. The real story is the citizen journalists themselves, the thousands of people who, basically for free, devote hours to the publication of the truth for the common good.

Another OhmyNews claim to fame is how its users created a grassroots get-out-the-vote drive which resulted in the upset victory of dark horse

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A Case Study about Korea's OhmyNews

Posted by Mary in ZapBoom on 19/06/2007 at 14:26

OhmyNews founder Oh Yeon Ho addresses staff (credit: Kwon W.S.)

I was recently hired by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society to write a 30-page case study on the online Korean citizen journalism phenom OhmyNews. This is really good for me because usually I learn about digital citizen activism by experience (Free Alaa, Free Monem) rather than by study.

This project is forcing me to ask and answer the hard questions about how and why online citizen actions succeed. For instance: What are the particular characteristics of Korean society that has allowed online citizen journalism

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