One criticism of so-called "citizen journalism"--news coverage by amateur journalists--has been the writers' lack of credentials. Now the group in the forefront of the citizen journalism movement, Korea-based OhMyNews, is addressing that issue by opening a citizen journalism school near Seoul.
The new school offers classes in writing, interviewing, and journalism, including photo, video, and internet journalism. The aim is to improve professionalism and consistency in the growing tide of user-generated content (UGC) online.
If you're a traditional journalist and think it sounds interesting you can go through OhMyNews's "reeducation program" to clear your head of embedded thinking. There are also classes for media executives and PR types, aimed at helping them understand, nuture, and make the most of the citizen journalism/UGC movement.
The OhMyNews news-gathering team tops 50,000 worldwide. Ironically, the company was founded by a professional journalist who understood the power and potential of UGC back in 2002.
So far, citizen journalism efforts in the US haven't been as successful as those in Asia. I don't think that's any reason to dismiss its potential significance. On the contrary, it's a great business model that captures the democratizing spirit of the web. The online medium is a huge, real-time laboratory of social innovation. We all need to learn from each other's experiments.
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