Marrying the professional to the amateur: strategies and implications of the OhmyNews model

Editors: Meikle, G. and Redden, G.

Pages: 195-209

Publisher: Palgrave Mcmillan

Place of Publication: Basingstoke

ISBN: 9780230233454

Abstract:

This chapter presents a detailed case study of OhmyNews – its success story, the socio-political drivers of this success, and its operation mechanism – in order to explore its implications for journalism. Moving beyond mere statistics, I will review and re-evaluate the success of OhmyNews in a more contextualised way. Then, I will examine the news production process of OhmyNews, its key editorial and administration strategies to point out that, despite its much-touted motto, "Every citizen is a Reporter", OhmyNews is essentially a hybrid news cooperative based on a cleverly, creatively managed marriage between citizen reporters and trained, skilled, and experienced journalists, which is fundamental for its success. Finally, the implications of this model for the future of journalism are explored, particularly in relation to the ‘journalism is dead’ debate.

Source: Manual

Preferred by: An Nguyen