Friday, March 30, 2007

QotW9: Seen, Sent, Shamed?


What is Citizen Journalism?
Citizen journalism is “the act of citizens playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information" according to Bowman and Willis (as cited in “Wikipedia: Citizen journalism”, 2007). It is unlike civic journalism, which has an obligation to society that goes beyond the reporting of news or facts (“Wikipedia: Civic journalism”, 2007).

Having learned about blogs, peer-to-peer, and wikis while researching for my numerous essays and research papers, I have come to realize that the aforementioned are all forms of citizen journalism. In my opinion, blogs come closest to citizen journalism. After all, “they are clearly written by human beings with genuine human passion” (Gillmor, 2004). These ‘voices’ are from numerous individuals that are part of the greater society at large, and are thus relatively representative of the general public.


Is STOMP an ideal form of citizen journalism in Singapore?
Judging by the deluge of information, photographs, and videos on STOMP.com.sg; I have come to the conclusion that despite the fact that citizen journalism has become an almost integral part of our daily lives – especially since the advent of mobile phones with photo-taking and video-recording capabilities, many of us still underestimate its prevalence and overlook its reach. It is little wonder then that many have fallen and continue to fall ‘prey’ to trigger-happy citizen journalists.

Seemingly straightforward, citizen journalism with regards to STOMP actually raises some ethical issues. For example, would taking videos of unwitting offenders of social etiquette be counted as a gross invasion of privacy? Furthermore, as spontaneous as citizen journalism is, would it not be less objective since the citizen journalist is hardly likely to interview all parties involved. In fact, it is more likely that these ‘journalists’ would impose their own moral values upon the subjects of their ‘news’ instead of hearing the other side of the story.



Unknowingly mooning the world, literally.

STOMP was started shortly after the latest General Elections, a possible attempt by the Singapore government to emulate its political rivals and their successful ventures into Internet campaigning. As the online subsidiary of the national English paper, STOMP, like its hardcopy counterpart, is more or less within the government’s iron fist. Politics – always a touchy subject in Singapore, and its effects on citizen journalism with regards to STOMP during the next general elections waits to be seen.

Thus, STOMP is a form of citizen journalism in Singapore, but it is definitely not an ideal one. It is the former because it encapsulates what citizen journalism is all about – spontanaity, indignation, a desire to bring certain issues to the attention of others. However, it falls short in that it is hardly political, an area that requires greater openess in Singapore, and toes the line of the privacy issue.

How would you improve it?
While the political issue would be harder to deal with, the issue on privacy could be easily remedied. For one, citizen journalists should protect the identities of their ‘news’ subjects and not use STOMP as a veritable wall of shame. They should also be wary of what they post, bearing in mind that STOMP is a national forum of sorts. After all, what is a citizen journalist to do if he is sued for invasion of privacy? In short, having a respect for the privacy of others and self-censorship is imperative.



Shaming a parking offender

Another improvement that can be made is to include a political page. As far as I can tell, citizen journalism in relation to STOMP extends only to the mundane goings on in Singapore. Where are the videos of Meet-the-MP seesions? Or interviews with members of the opposition party?

In conclusion, citizen journalism is alive and well in Singapore through STOMP, but it still has a long way to go before it becomes an ideal form of citizen journalism.


References
Citizen Journalism. (2007, March 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 29, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism

Civic Journalism. (2007, January 30). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 29, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civic_journalism

Gillmor, D. (2004, July). We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Retrieved March 28, 2007 from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tipe=text/html

2 comments:

Kevin said...

Felicia, good argument.

You might be interested to take a look at this article, which reminds us of the political restrictions placed on mainstream media.

There's a double standard happening as highlighted on Cherian Geroge's blog. He write that the mainstream media entities have to abid by tougher laws, while the bloggers are free to publish as they wish.

While it's a dilemma, I believe that bloggers are in a way slowly legitimizing the openess of media, and that we might soon see mainstream media given a more liberal stand.

FelSong said...

Cherian George! My Dad mentioned that I should check out his blog as well.=)

Erm...do I get the full grade? LOL. I think you mentioned that we only get a full grade if you don't comment. *Paranoia*