North Korea and the Future of Journalism

After serving as CNN’s Asia correspondent for 11-plus years, Rebecca MacKinnon plunged into the blogosphere last spring as a Kennedy School Shorenstein fellow and has yet to surface. She continues her study of the “intersection of blogs and conventional media” as a Berkman Center fellow at Harvard Law School. More than just an academic observer, MacKinnon explores these issues in her personal blog, “RConversation — the musings of a recovering TV reporter-turned-blogger,” www.RConversation.com.

In February 2004, she started North Korea Zone, www.NKzone.org, as an “experiment in interactive, participatory journalism.” Since American reporters are mostly barred from entering North Korea, she thought a collective effort — drawing on firsthand accounts of professionals and informed amateurs — could help penetrate the secrecy enshrouding the “world’s most mysterious country.”

About 500 people visit NKzone each day, including American military personnel, policymakers, and journalists. Since coverage of North Korea — and international matters in general — is so scant, there will always be some folks who crave more than the “usual media diet,” MacKinnon says. “All the journalists I know who follow North Korea look at my blog.”

Obviously, a blog about North Korea will never appeal to a mass audience, she acknowledges, nor could it be profitable. “Consider it a public service for those who want to know more.”