The Straits Times today devotes several pages to the phenomenon of citizen journalism, and includes a big fat quote from yours truly. Not surprisingly, though, ST left out one additional point I made: that I do not consider STOMP to be citizen journalism. Here's what I wrote to the reporter:
"And to answer an unasked question, I don't consider STOMP to be citizen journalism, because it puts the public on tap, not on top. It merely introduces greater interactivity to traditional journalism. Citizen journalism in the proper sense does its own agenda-setting. Citizen journalists decide what questions need to be asked and what topics to pursue. They don't just answer questions decided by mainstream editors."
The Review package celebrates STOMP as if it is the cutting edge of citizen journalism in Singapore, and makes it seem as if those interviewed agree with this premiss. I hope the above quote clarifies that I don't. To me, it is not the source of facts or opinions that distinguishes citizen journalism from the mainstream - just because a story or picture comes from a reader does not make it a piece of citizen journalism. Instead, it boils down to who selects and decides what stories to pursue and publish. Editorial decision making is what separate journalism from gossip. STOMP, like the rest of ST, is edited by professional ST journalists, not ordinary citizens.
Citizen journalism has unrealised potential in Singapore. (See my earlier post below.) Most promising, I think, are the special interest areas or "beats" in which considerable expertise exists outside of the media. A taste of things to come is found in Mr Wang Says So, who uses his legal training to provide legal analysis that is often superior to ST's; Dawn Kua's blog on animal issues; and Chua Ai Lin's Singapore heritage mailing list. (Thanks to Sarah for pointing me to these. If you know of other "expert" Singaporean blogs in specialised areas, I would love to receive your recommendations.)
Saturday, July 08, 2006
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i didnt even bothered to read about that few few few pages of article related to that...they give me the feeling that they are just trying abit too hard to advertise STOMP...
Anonymous said...
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sammyboymod/messages?msg=108393.1
Everybody knows SPH has just launched this STOMP website for youths.
Actually, it is a scam to distract youths from private blogs and forums that is Pro- Alternative Parties and centralised all the "Youth Issues" into one website controlled by the authorities.
Even Video is allowed to be uploaded. They hire all the Pro PAP bloggers like Xiaxue and Dawn Yang to spread the gospel.
Whill this STOMP website worked for PAP ?
This STOMP website is PAP's first trial run to manage,deal and fix the internet.
Will Youtubes and Blogspots truimph over STOMP?
In long run, Singaporeans might only be able to identify with STOMP and everyone MUST go that website to upload videos and speak your mind.
Like how NS men can only go NS Portal to do NS stuff.
This STOMP website might be a competitor against blogs like Yawning Bread, Gayle Goh etc
Youths today and voters of tomorrow might in the end get distorted information about Singapore politics again.
Until STOMP allows us to upload videos like WP crowds,AP Speeches and Chiam See Tong's Long March to Town Council clips, this STOMP website is considered PAP website.
STOMP is to reinforce people already inside the matrix so that they will never get out.
Maybe someone can try uploading Chiam's clips into STOMP and see what happen ?
The internet war has just begun and it is still early days.
STOMP was not really mean for us seasoned internet pros.
It was meant for those youths who are about to become seasoned internet pros.
The catch here is that these youths will read Pro PAP news instead of listening to us critisizing PAP.
Then PAP will have a internet following in 10 years time .
Whatever motive PAP have behind in creating STOMP should be self-defeated and make redundant.
STOMP advertisements are relentless and everywhere.
If PAP succeeds, the consequences are unthinkable.
Imagine an entire generation has already passed by for 40 years, hoodwinked into the matrix by SPH and Straits Times without bothering to think of the credibility of the news they read.
I do not wish to see the new generation with internet, sms, mms, 3G etc be also hoodwinked for another 40 years into matrix by the very same media, medium and tools they use to access information.
I can bet on STOMP being a useful tool and gathering point for Pro PAP videos, pictures and stories for GE 2010/2011.
PAP is starting to manage the internet.
I have a feeling they are trying to STOMP out real citizen journalists' blogs.
This may be relevant - Sivasothi a.k.a Otterman posts nature-related news in Singapore at Habitatnews and Raffles Museum News. The media has picked up on some of the posts for stories.
He also has a collective feed of all nature blogs posted at The Singapore Naturalist.
At the risk of being a shameless self-promoter, I sometimes write about Singapore, sometimes about science. Once in a while I write about both.
It's just the ST attempting to latch onto "new media" so that it doesn't appear too antiquated. The real question is whether Singaporeans are sophisticated enough to realise that what the ST is doing is really not what "new media" is truly capable of.
Unfortunately, the ST hasn't done the most basic of things: make its articles open to all without a subscription.
I can't agree with you more that this is not citizen's journalism despite the few pages to try to highlight this fact. If it is citizen's journalism, then there shouldn't be an editor. The blogging world at large is the citizen's journalism. I did not read all the pages because after a few paragraphs, I already had the feeling that this is an advertisement and not a feature story
Hi Cherian,
Hope that all are well. We met during the IPS Post Election forum.
Like Elia Diodati, we have to do our own publicity as well. Personally I work on two blogs:
1. Singapore Entrepreneurs : An apolitical blog that focusses on entrepreneurship and venture capital in Singapore and for Singaporeans who are based in overseas. There is a team of 11 entrepreneur bloggers.
2. Singapore Angle: A blog which nine of us from different blogs, for example, Kway Teow Man (STOMP), the Void Deck, Heavenly Sword, The Legal Janitor, Wayne Soon, Soon Sze Meng, Dansong and Ringisei. Most of us are academics and professionals in our own areas.
My opinion is that group blogs are not so much highlighted in Singapore as compared to US and UK. A lot of press has been hyped on personalities and Singapore politics rather than interest group blogs.
Cherian, some recommendations for you
If you can forgive a little bit of self-promotion:
Sayoni Speak - www.blog.sayoni.com.
We specialise in GLBT, and specifically lesbian issues, and we have a wide range of fairly good-quality writers contributing on a regular basis.
There's also yesterday.sg, a group blog on heritage issues.
*gah* Well, I did tell you that I can't drive, navigate, gearshift and think at the same time..
http://xenoboysg.blogspot.com/2006/06/stomping-eye-balls.html
sometimes i think ur themes are pretty similar to xenoboy.
Well, the irony is that while most commenters here take for granted that ST toes the govt line, it was ST that scooped Today itself with the story of Mr Brown getting canned.
By silently censoring Mr Brown, Today has lost some of the respect it used to command for being willing to push the envelope in a way that ST could not. In this case, silence is far from golden. A statement of any sort, no matter how terse, would have allowed them to retreat from the battlefield with their honour intact, even enhanced. Mr Brown and Miyagi's Friday podcast was a class act. By giving in to the govt without even a mea culpa, however, the Today management has only made themselves look gutless.
Of course, the ST, too reveals its civil service-like characteristics by going to press with a Saturday Review special on STOMP that makes no mention of the Mr Brown controversy. Yeah, I know, the deadline for these kind of specials is usually a lot earlier, and it's real tough to re-write all these articles overnight, but still, how can the govt's actions not have an impact on the media landscape that STOMP is trying to get into ? They've go to be able to react faster than that ! Putting their head in the sand isn't going to cut it !
As an ex-journalist and editor myself, I'm very glad you've clarified your quotations and also pointed out the creativity that ST editors have used in quoting you. Stomp is not citizen journalism. It's not journalism, period. It's a marketing tool that's hoping to capture new audiences by capitalizing on the local popularity of blogs and capture new advertising revenue in a medium that is still considered to be both new and hot. What's really sad is the overplayed coverage of Stomp in the pages of ST. It is one thing to want to market one's own products. But Stomp is not news. Of course, ST has of recent made it a habit to cover itself -- look at the recent article on foreign correspondents. A blatant and shameless way to try to promote their own writers. ST should stop wasting column inches on promoting itself, its writers and its products and start acting like a real newspaper.
I'll drink to that chubby. I'm a part of a S'pore cosplay club doing their PR, and I've been approached by STOMP to "add my voice to theirs" by simply up-and-moving all of the club's work and forums over there to drum up support for "both sides"
uuhh.... and who's in charge of the forums that we're maintaing then?
"Oh, the mods there."
Thanks. No thanks.
Hi Cherian,
This is Harold Fock. Been a long time since we last spoke. Agree with your views on citizen's journalism (or more accurately, the lack of it) but it is really, really tough to do what you envision. It is easy to snap a picture of an event but it is much tougher to provide a critical analysis of an event (when most of the time, you aint the expert).
Having said that, there must be an agenda in citizen journalism. I heard of a blog site that publishes photos of Singaporeans who park badly or misbehave on the road (with name plates intact).
I have started a site "BeyondSG". www.beyondsg.typepad.com It is really about flat world and how we are learning to cope with globalization and connectivity to the world. George Yeo has also decided to be a regular guest columnist there. No PAP. No YP stuff. Just things we see, learn in our respective travels and our roles. My hidden agenda, if there is one, is to share with Singaporeans how flat the world is (as per Thomas Friedman's the World is Flat) and how humble we should be when we deal with the world as so many countries are racing past us. It is still evolving and i dont even know what shade of citizen journalism my site is. (0.5/10)??? haha
As for comments (and conspiracy theories) above about STOMP, hey, the kids and youths are so smart these days, any attempt to control the net medium wont work. And for goodness sake, the site better be entertaining, otherwise, it is a yawn yawn, 3 seconds and I click Forward. Cool is the new Mr Big on the Net.
I am a businessman now and zero bandwidth for anything "political". Need to pay the bills for myself and my staff :-P
Take care!
Harold
Haha! Stomp has just repeated its acts of shameless self-promotion one year later (around June 9), again featuring only itself as the citizen journalism portal in Singapore. :-p
STOMP is basically a propangandic mouthpiece of the corrupt PAP political party.
It is already well known that there is massive corruption in the government which of course,allow the PAP to hold full power of the government therefore rendering the latter as a mere pupput of the pro-communist party.
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