This paper begins by examining the case of a progressive daily newspaper called Hankyoreh, which was prominent in South Korea in the 1980s. In those days, author Cheon Young-Cheol states, many journalists protested against military authorities; as a result, some went to jail and some lost their jobs. The funds for establishing Hankyoreh came from a fund-raising campaign by the people. In 2004, Hankyoreh is just one of many major daily newspapers in South Korea. Young-Cheol argues that "The emergence of the Internet provides people with a real opportunity to produce and deliver news at a reduced and affordable cost. For this reason, media power, which had been monopolized by capital and authority, is changing. The Internet newspaper is a fine example of how the Internet is changing the concept of media ownership."

The author distinguishes 2 types of Internet newspapers: the electronic papers associated with the mainstream print medium, and the independent Internet newspaper that publishes only through the Internet. As an example of the latter type, Young-Cheol discusses the independent OhmyNews. Launched in 2000, this citizen-participatory alternative Internet paper includes politics, society, culture, international affairs, education, the economy, information technology, and sports and entertainment. The main objective of OhmyNews is media reform by citizens. Its slogan is 'Every citizen can be a reporter'; at the time of this writing, about 70% of the stories are written by more than 26,000 registered citizen reporters. Anyone who registers with the website, which attracts approximately 2 million readers daily, can participate. In a survey carried out by OhmyNews in September 2002, 74.8% of these 'news guerillas' were male and 43.6% were in their twenties. University students made up 22.4%, office workers 14.6%, and journalists 8.3%. Articles submitted by these citizen reporters are fact-checked by full-time staff; only a handful are re-written or republished. Pay varies from nothing to just under $16, depending on how a story is ranked by the editors.

The author, who is one of these 'news guerillas', argues that "The emergence of citizen reporters has broken down the monopoly of information control and ownership by political/economic elites and has significantly contributed to the democratization of the media. In fact, OhmyNews has changed the concept of the reporter..." Interactivity is a key feature of OhmyNews: Every news article in OhmyNews has a 'comment' function that is designed to provide citizens with another opportunity to participate in news-making by providing his or her own array of facts and presenting them from a different viewpoint. In this context, Young-Cheol concludes that OhmyNews "offers a public sphere in cyberspace for critical debates and discussions. Through citizen reporters and the comment system, people produce news, debate issues and discuss perspectives. Issues that cannot be covered in the mainstream print media can be taken up for discussion here. OhmyNews is certainly moving media power from the ruling class to the people, the citizens".

Posting from the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) dated February 26 2004, detailing the contents of WACC's Media Development.