On June 12^th, 2009, protests began in Iran, specifically in the major cities of Isfahan and Tehran. They didn’t end until February 11th, 2010. Understandably, any protest requires a reason for conflict. In this case, the people of Iran gained worldwide support and interest after the highly favoured Mir-Hossein Mousavi lost in the presidential election to current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. These two men had very different political agendas, as Mousavi was lobbying for a new progressive Iran with law, justice, and freedom at its core. On the other hand, Ahmadinejad was pushing for policies that were unfriendly to human rights activism. The voters were outraged when they heard the results of the election as they believed that the election was manipulated.  Most citizens were convinced that their ballots were not counted nor included in the election.

With such a large controversial issue happening in our world, reporters jumped at the opportunity to report on this story. Unfortunately, international reporters were not allowed into Iran to take footage and conduct interviews about the protests and controversy. Therefore, Iranian people had to turn to social media, namely twitter, to update the world on the protests. Those angry at the presidential outcome in Iran went onto the streets to show their outrage at the lack of democracy being showcased in their country.

Although international reporters were restricted from reporting on the story in person, they aided the spread of information by using hashtags and IP addresses into their twitter posts to allow Iranians to read and keep updated with opinions and updates from the international community.

This movement was given the title, “The Twitter Revolution.” While it is clear why this movement was given a nickname with twitter in the title, I feel that it is important to describe how the Iranian protests would be considered a revolution. A revolution is defined as “a fundamental change in power or organizational structures.” We have witnessed these changes in world events such as the French Revolution in the 1980s, when political upheaval caused a societal change of thought. The government went from the philosophy of absolute monarchy to enlightenment, citizenship, and human rights. It is important to remember that the Twitter Revolution in Iran was put in the category of “revolution” for a reason; to demonstrate the historical importance of this event.

What is interesting is how the media focused on the movement’s use of twitter as a mode of dissemination of information instead of focusing on how there was a minimum of 2,500 arrests in Tehran, with more than 30 civilians dead. Society is sometimes so focused on the evolution of technology that we seem to forget why and how these social networks are needed. Technology is inarguably a powerful mode to communicate, but it should not overshadow the historical, political, and social impacts that these events are creating. This being said, journalism changed during these events as people were shown that networks such as twitter do have tremendous power to educate and update on important global events.

– Emily Chan

The History.

Oh Yeon-ho had an idea. You could say that he had a dream. This dream was born from his accomplishment of working for a Korean newspaper as a staff reporter for 11 years. Oh used this dream to create OhmyNews, the first ever citizen journalism website based on the news. On February 22nd, 2000, Oh’s brainchild was created in Korea; for and by Korean citizens. Public citizens were suddenly given agency to write articles and submit them to this online database, based on the idea that “every citizen is a reporter.” Along with receiving payment for their work, writers received self-promotion and a chance to get their work edited and published online. OhmyNews began with just four staff members, but at its peak the website managed to receive two million views per day.

This success allowed the creation of an English version of OhmyNews on May 27th, 2004. Merely five years after the initial release, this expanded globally in April of 2005. Unfortunately, their success dwindled by 2008 from a lack of financial support, which produced a loss of $625,000. As Oh’s appeal for public funding in July 2009 was unsuccessful, he decided to stop paying writers for their contributions.

2006 brought on the first of three yearly forums that brought together journalism schools from various destinations around the world, and on November 24th 2007, OhmyNews created the School of Citizen Journalists in Korea. By 2010, however, OhmyNews closed their news website and instead opened a blog focused on citizen journalism. This blog is still running and focuses on a variety of topics, including politics, culture, international affairs, and more.

Like many organizations and inventions, unfortunately, there will always be criticisms. OhmyNews’ criticisms lie with issues of lack of trust, accuracy, and credibility with the non-professional writers. These “amateurs” also take away from the journalists who are professional, which understandably adds to the backlash that OhmyNews receives.

The Impact.

Debatably because of Oh’s invention, Korea is now the most wired country in the world. Although this fact cannot be proven, many believe that OhmyNews was the driving force to inspire non-online newspapers to take advantage of the Internet. Furthermore, the introduction of political debates and discussions into their articles helped promote the social democracy of Korea. Along with promoting two-way citizen journalism, it also allowed young people to become empowered in their ability to express their views and opinions.

 The Connection.

The reference above to Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) may have been corny, but their stories are more similar than expected. Both men had a vision, and both men completed their vision with the help of others. To compare Oh’s inventions with UBC’s own School of Journalism, there are various similarities that are worthwhile to point out. For example, based on an article by Marc Edge, both UBC and OhmyNews experienced a lack of funding that threatened the creation of such an institution. Furthermore, while both had an issue of lack of private funding, Oh’s lack of funding led to the dismantlement of payment for contributors, and UBC’s luck paid off by attaining a private donation of $3 million from Sally Aw Sian.

To conclude, many independent citizen journalists have since created their own websites to share their gift by a similar means as Oh. Mark Fonseca Rendeiro, to show one example, created a blog to share his articles and podcasts focusing on online journalism, social movements, and global conflicts.

Although OhmyNews was arguably not as popular as initially dreamed in 2000, its various trials and errors has created an impact of promoting the philosophy that “every citizen is a reporter.”

– Emily Chan.