Chuck Olson reporting in Korea

This week I’ve been going to Korea virtually via Chuck Olson of Minnesota Stories. He’s at the OhmyNews International Citizen Reporters’ Forum 2006 in Seoul, South Korea. I’m sure the actual conference is interesting but I’ve been digging the protest pics he’s been taking. Farmers and others are up in arms over the FTA (Free Trade Agreement). They’re protesting in Seoul at the same time the conference is going on. Chuck has pics on flicker. I’m looking forward to his video.

I see this as return to the roots of so called citizen journalism. In the early 1990′s a group of people formed an online media outlet to report the real news of protests and lefty politics that the main stream media wouldn’t report. They were among the first in the US and the world to point out corporate media bias and do something about it. They’re called IndyMedia. They’ve helped many people, including myself, become the media. They lit the spark that is podcasting and vlogging, IMHO.

So here we have an excellent vlogger going to a conference about media making taking pictures of the quintessential marginalized news story – political protest. GO CHUCK!

Note: I say ‘so called citizen’s journalism’ because I don’t like the phrase. Using just the word citizen excludes immigrants, legal or otherwise. It also smacks of government control. We can all be media makers no matter our condition in life!