Friday, March 30, 2007

QotW9: Stomp

As the world gets more heavily involved in the Internet, it is apparent that whatever people do in reality is now practiced online too. That includes news write-ups or discussions about current affairs and societal issues. The freedom people get in cyberspace however, is the power to do or say things that, given their status or qualifications, they would not have been able to carry out in reality. An example of the restrictions we have in reality is the inability to exercise free speech or make known our experiences and thoughts to the public without getting ourselves into too much trouble with the press or government. Today, to counter that, we have this amazing thing called “citizen journalism”.

Citizen journalism, also known as “participatory journalism” is termed as the act of citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information" (Citizen journalism, 2007). In essence, it is about normal people like you and me playing journalists and reporting the latest happenings that could be of interest to the public. According to Gillmor (2004), this is only possible “because of new publishing tools available on the Internet”. Today, we have access to the Internet from our desktops at home, laptops when we are outdoors, and even mobile phones when we are out without a laptop. The only other thing we need for citizen journalism to take place is a platform for sharing news. With the emergence of the Internet and more social networking sites such as web logs, message boards, chat rooms, mobile computing, and Wikis, participating in citizen journalism is now made so easy that almost anyone can practice it. So much so, it has become "Every Citizen is a Reporter" (Oh, 2000).

STOMP is an example of such an online community in Singapore, which clearly shows that “[t]he Internet has enabled citizens to contribute to journalism, without professional training” (Citizen journalism, 2007). Stomp is like a chatroom and a forum as well as announcement centre merged into one. It caters to the local population and even have different sections for people with different interest areas. Some examples are “the gym” for people interested in fitness, “vain pots” for people interested in beauty and fashion, and “foodie groupie” for food lovers. With this in place, people can then report on anything at all and and have others responding or adding on to their reports or comments. Because STOMP is highly interactive, people find themselves getting involved at a higher level and start having the desire to contribute too.

In addition to getting involved, since these citizens are normal people like you and I, the reported news tend to be crafted in a more personal style taking the perspective of the witness. This makes the news very different from the “crafted” news from official organizations in the media. According to Edward M. Fouhy (1996) of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, "It is an effort to reconnect with the real concerns that viewers and readers have about the things in their lives they care most about -- not in a way that panders to them, but in a way that treats them as citizens with the responsibilities of self-government, rather than as consumers to whom goods and services are sold. It takes the traditional five w's of journalism -- who, what, when, where, why -- and expands them -- to ask why is this story important to me and to the community in which I live?"; the news becomes less intimidating and more friendly, it becomes something we as citizens can relate to better.

Although STOMP appears to be quite an ideal form of citizen journalism for Singapore, it has potential for growth and further development. I have discovered that people talk about anything at all and sometimes, there can be not much of a focus and that read becomes a mere waste of time. Thus, I feel that perhaps moderators could monitor the reports more closely and more often to ensure smoother and more satisfying discussions as well as information update. In addition to that, more exposure could also be given to other bloggers with interesting reads instead of just focusing on the same old handful of bloggers like XiaXue and Dawn Yang. Perhaps normal citizens could have their blogs published for others to read and find out more too. The lack of freedom within STOMP prevents it from being more than what it could be.




References

“Citizen Journalism” (March 29, 2006) From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved March 29, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism

Gillmor, D. “We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People” (July, 2004). Retrieved March 29, 2007 from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tip

STOMP (2006) From Singapore Press Holdings
Retrieved March 29, 2007 from
http://www.stomp.com.sg/

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Qotw8: Blogs – Highway to Democracy?

As we dabble in cyberspace and bring our lives to the “second life”, we engage in online chats instead of phone calls, blogs instead of written diaries, emails instead of the tradition of sending handwritten letters. With all these going on, it isn’t surprising to see serious topic of politics jumping onto the bandwagon and going online too.

The Internet today is place for everyone and reaches out to all kinds of people of all demographics and from all walks of life. Thus, it is essentially the most important tool today for anyone to get his or her message across to an audience. In the advent of the growth of cyberspace and the explosion of the Internet age, politicians and government bodies have taken the initiative to bring their campaigns as well as thoughts online to reach a wider spectrum of audience.

Although Singapore has only recently caught the “political blogging” wave, one local blogger, mrbrown, has already carved out a name for himself in the blogosphere. He is already one of the top bloggers in Singapore and is loved by many for his wit and satires poking fun at social issues as well as the government on his blog (http://www.mrbrown.com/) entitled, mrbrown: L'infantile terrible of Singapore.

The person hiding behind the pseudonym of mrbrown, is actually Lee Kin Mun. He used to write a weekly opinion colunm for the TODAY paper in Singapore but got fired after writing the article, titled "S'poreans are fed, up with progress!" with regards to the rising costs of living in Singapore. Prime Minister Mr, Lee Hsien Loong responded to this by saying that "mrbrown had hit out wildly at the Government and in a very mocking tone", and that the government had to respond to such criticsms for fear of them eventually being treated as true (mrbrown, 2007). He felt that it was not the job of journalists or newspapers to campaign for or against the Government. Also, the Government was very unhappy that mrbrown’s opinions were circulated in a mainstream newspaper rather than on his blog, which has a much narrower and more limited audience” (Giam, 2006).

Mr Brown is widely loved by Singaporeans and his podcasts “attracts some 20,000 downloads per day” (mrbrown, 2007). It was no wonder why so many Netizens held a protest in favour of Mr Brown when he was dismissed from TODAY. Fortunately, no further action was taken against mrbrown and he continues to blog and has been at it for years since his first entry on February 27, 1997.

With a citizen blogger like mrbrown contributing to insights on politics and the societal issues of Singapore, more people who seldom read the papers are now more informed of current affairs and also of the political scene in Singapore. There is no doubt that such blogs like mrbrown’s allow for more freedom of speech and discussions of poliyical issues and also increase awareness of the political scene in Singapore. But the question is, do blogs allow for greater democracy in Singapore?

It is great that citizens can air their thoughts freely in cyberspace but sadly, there is a limit to this. Citizens may be able to use their blogs for discussions of political issues or rant about how unhappy they are with the government; it seems that we can write almost anything in our blogs! However, we need to remember that our very own private blogs are also accessible to millions of people out there and who may both agree or disagree with our opinions. To have greater democracy is to have greater “political or social equality; democratic spirit” (Democracy, 2007). Blogs may give us more space to rant but it does not necessarily lead to greater democracy. People whom the government may see as a threat may still receive warnings by the government on their blogs. Recently, the government has even taken the initiative to surf citizens’ blogs and leave comments anonymously to defend the government or dissuade a blogger from thinking in a certain way.

Despite disputes over this matter of freedom of speech, citizen rights, or the government being accused of being sneaky, there really is no wrong or right to this issue. Power to the people may sound like the ideal, however, we have to acknowledge the fact that the government is after all, ultimately the one in control. Thus, another blogger, Dharmendra Yadav, has suggested self-regulation and a blogger’s code of ethics as a solution to this problem. However, “Netizens were against the idea of any sort of regulation or code of ethics on a platform which some saw as the “last bastion of truly free expression” in Singapore” (Giam, 2006).

My take on this? I just think it’s going to be very hard to strike a balance with regards to this issue of “freedom of speech”. Blogs may encourage freedom of speech, but will this freedom of speech lead to more havoc and disruption here in Singapore? Blogs may be a tiny steppingstone to bring us one step closer to greater democracy, but there is more to it than this. Will another blogger get arrested for saying something on his blog thinking that he is protected by the unspoken rule of “freedom of speech” and democracy? We’ll just have to wait and see.

As for the matter of internet election voting, I may be a little concerned about the aspects of privacy and safety. Honestly, I feel that some things, are better done the old fashioned way.


Reference

Democracy. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved March 24, 2007, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/democracy

Giam, G. (2006). “The politics of Singapore’s new media in 2006.” Retrieved on March 24, 2007 from http://theonlinecitizen.com/2006/12/31/review-the-politics-of-singapores-new-media-in-2006/

Mrbrown. (2007, February 25). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 08:03, March 24, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mrbrown&oldid=110772983

Friday, March 16, 2007

QotW7: Twitter Fest!

Online communities are taking the world by storm and that certainly is not an exaggeration. Humans form and join online communities in cyberspace for the same reasons why they form cliques and join interest groups and clubs in reality. As stated by Cooley (1983), all normal humans have a natural affinity for community. One of the reasons being that humans have a strong need to feel accepted and be with people similar to them. People need to feel a sense of belonging in cyberspace as much as they do in reality. Because of that, “the online world of computer- mediated communication (CMC) is one of those new ways for humans to relate to one another, and it is growing rapidly” (Fernback & Thompson, 1995).

An online community consists of “a group of people that may or may not primarily or initially communicate or interact via the Internet” (Virtual Community, 2007). Online communities also focus and depend on “social interaction and exchange between users online. This emphasizes the reciprocity element of the unwritten social contract between community members” (Virtual Community, 2007). Some examples of online communities are blogs, forums, chatrooms, and online social networks like Friendster or My Space.

There are countless online communities in cyberspace which function very differently and possess their very own characteristics and mechanisms. These almost endless lists of virtual communities operate on different levels and we have to personally explore them to know what they really are about. According to Amy Jo Kim, despite the numerous numbers of virtual communities, there are essentially only two different types we see online, namely, the traditional structure online communities, and the more individual-centric, bottom-up sort of interaction (Virtual Community, 2007).

Traditional structured online communities consist of message boards and chat rooms, which usually involve the online population more often. Community members also rely on gift-giving and reciprocity to establish reputation as well as to keep the community going. More individual-centric forms of online community interactions on the other hand, consist of blogs, instant messaging and buddy lists, which place more emphasis on the individuals and not the public.

After discussing so much on what an online community is, I believe it is time to pass the verdict – Is Twitter an online community? That has been the question on our minds for the past week and countless speculations have been made. Here is my two cents worth. I feel that Twitter is indeed an online community. It possesses all the characteristics of online communities, be it traditionally structured or more individual-centric ones.

Twitter is a social network consisting of groups of people bound by a common trait (for us, it’s none other than our COM125 assignment) and people can get together to discuss about issues that interest them. What I have noticed too is that Twitter maybe classified as a social network but it is in fact somewhat like a private chatroom where only people identified as friends can join in the activities and discussions. In essence, Twitter is a combination of both traditional structured online communities and the individual-centric form of online communities. Besides just casual chatting and common interests among a particular twitter group, gifting also occurs. Sometimes our fellow classmates will respond to questions posted by another classmate or contribute by making suggestions or leaving comments. These are forms of gifting and of course, reciprocity is key too. Help from anyone in the group is expected to be offered in return when someone needs it.

Thus, as Van Vliet and Burgers (1987) argue that “communities contain the following elements: social interaction, a shared value system, and a shared symbol system”, I stand by my argument that Twitter is indeed an online community regardless of how different it may seem from conventional virtual communities.




References

Cooke, P. (1990). Back to the Future. London: Unwin-Hyman. Cooley, C. H. (1983). Social Organization: A Study of the Larger Mind. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.

Wellman, B. & Gulia, M. (1996). "Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities." Retrieved March 13, 2007 from http://www.acm.org/%7Eccp/references/wellman/wellman.html

Wikipedia (2007). Virtual Community. Retrieved March 15, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communities