Submitted by John Stauber on
"For years, people will be debating
what made [South Korea] go from conservative to liberal,
from gerontocracy to youth culture and from staunchly
pro-American to a deeply ambivalent ally - all seemingly
overnight. ... But for many observers, the
most important agent of change has been the Internet. ... In the last year, as the elections were
approaching, more and more people were getting their
information and political analysis from spunky news
services on the Internet instead of from the country's
overwhelmingly conservative newspapers. Most influential by far has been a feisty three-year-old
startup with the unusual name of OhmyNews. ... 'The professional news culture has eroded our journalism,' [founder Oh Yeon Ho] said, 'and I have always wanted to revitalize it. Since
I had no money, I decided to use the Internet, which has
made this guerrilla strategy possible. ... Pat Robertson and I are very different in temperament and
ideology, but we are very similar in strategy,' said Mr.
Oh ... . 'They are very right-wing and
wanted to overthrow what they saw as a liberal media
establishment. I wanted to overthrow a right-wing media
establishment, and I learned a lot from them.' "
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