Saturday, March 31, 2007

QotW9: "For the Kaypohs, By the Kaypohs"

What is citizen journalism?

Some have called it networked journalism, open source journalism, and citizen media. Communication has changed greatly with the advent of the Internet. The Internet has enabled citizens to contribute to journalism,without professional training. Mark Glasser, a longtime freelance journalist who frequently writes on new media issues, gets to the heart of it:

"The idea behind citizen journalism is that people without professional journalism training can use the tools of modern technology and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others. For example, you might write about a city council meeting on your blog or in an online forum. Or you could fact-check a newspaper article from the mainstream media and point out factual errors or bias on your blog. Or you might snap a digital photo of a newsworthy event happening in your town and post it online. Or you might videotape a similar event and post it on a site such as YouTube."
(Wikipedia: “Citizen Journalism”, 2007)

STOMP

STOMP (Straits Times Online Mobile Print) is a recent initiative by The Straits Times inviting the Singapore community to provide news by the people, for the people. It integrates content and activities in the three platforms of print, online and mobile. These three platforms will enable STOMP to interact and engage with Singaporeans in exciting new ways. STOMP promises to deliver content which is interactive and which will help develop new communities of Singaporeans bonded together by shared interests. It encourages audience participation through free access to the website, and as for SMS (Short Messaging Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), the normal telco charges apply to users.

Does STOMP (Straits Times Online Mobile Print) fit into what is classified by Lasica, J.D. (2003) as a medium for citizen journalism? Of the four types of citizen journalism cited in Wikipedia, STOMP would most closely be categorized under ‘audience participation’. The following are a couple of examples of audience participation found in STOMP: -

E.g. #1 - Photos or video footage captured from personal mobile cameras

STOMP’s ‘Singapore Seen’ features snapshots of newsworthy images captured in Singapore. More than likely, most of these photos are taken using mobile camera-phones and conveniently sent to STOMP via MMS.
Currently, three of the most talked about pictures / reports (as judged by the number of comments) are “Daily school band practice torturing neighbors”, “What (butt) cheek! Exposure is disgusting, and “Noisy students at library tell others to shut up”.

E.g. #2 - Personal blogs

Six celebrity bloggers pen their thoughts on a topic of choice every Monday. STOMP users even get to interact live with these stars via the comments section beneath their blogs.

STOMP – The ideal form of citizen journalism for Singapore?

In my opinion, STOMP is a fun and innovative channel that introduces the concept of citizen journalism to Singapore; and Singaporeans are still learning to get used to this relatively new form of media. However, presently, many of the contributions (e.g. “’J-pop’ babes walking down the street”) appear to deal with rather superficial matters. The issues that are reported or photos that are captured reflect a certain immaturity of these contributors. These report headlines tend to create sensationalism rather than offer much benefit to other readers (e.g. the exposed butt cheeks and UFO-like sightings in Sentosa. As suggested by Gillmore (2004), “the downsides are plain, including the consequences of erroneous information and potential invasions of privacy” (p.56).

For citizen journalism to thrive in Singapore, it has to evolve into serving a greater purpose. Like Gillmore states, “the positive uses are also evident” (p.56). Of the ten topics featured in ‘Singapore Seen’, only three could be deemed as beneficial for the community. They are the reports of the freak car accident, the mysterious massive traffic jam, and the “helmet-less” construction worker. Reports like these inform, remind and warn readers about the importance of practicing safety.

Like I’d already mentioned, what STOMP is doing now is a great start. But continue like that for long and we could probably end up with an online version of the New Paper, filled with gossip, scandal and sensational stories for the ‘kay-pohs’ out there to remain in the know.

STOMP ought to begin introducing elements in its site that educate its users to report on things that matter. Unfortunately (or fortunately), for the moment, the feature I find most didactic to me is ‘English As It Is Broken”. Yay. Tanks to STOMP, now my England can be velly powderful orlaydy.


References

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

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

www.stomp.com.sg

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