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September 01, 2006

Japanese Citizens into “Netizens”?

First launched in 2000 by Oh Yeon-ho, this online newspaper owes its content to ordinary people acting as citizen reporters.

Called “Netizens,” these online users have adopted a social purpose and practice to spread the Internet as a participatory environment to all who want access.

 

OhMyNews plans to recruit 5,000 citizen reporters by the end of the year. 1,000 have already joined the project and produced 20 articles published in the first issue. Well-known Japanese journalist Shuntaro Torigoe has been appointed as chief-editor of the new online newspaper.

 

Yeon-ho has said that OhmyNews Japan will have a different focus than in . has declared "political and ideological neutrality" in order to fit the socio-political environment, while OhmyNews emphasized "open-minded progress" in order to change the distorted environment in the conservative-dominated media.

 

Many young people and other progressive forces were part of the democratic coalition that backed the relatively unknown politician Roh Moo-hyun for the presidency in 2002. OhmyNews played an important role in the successful election campaign.

 

Will OnMyNews make a similar breakthrough in Japanese politics?

 

OhmyNews Japan Debuts

OhmyNews Service Launched

Posted by Buzz Webster at September 1, 2006 05:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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