Citizen journalism is "participatory journalism," which is the act of citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information"(Wikipedia, Citizen journalism).
Journalism started out with the average joe who wanted to tell the rest of the world what he saw, heard and went through. This man, lets give him a name, JOE, went around his town telling people what he learnt. JOE believed that it was everyone’s right to know the news of what was happening in the town. JOE then thought that he should start a medium where by news can be told for everyone to know or hear. Journalism from people walking around the town screaming out the news, has transformed to newspapers, television and radio and more recently the Internet.
CYCLE
Do you see the cycle? Citizen journalism to professional journalism and now back to citizen journalism. We started out with ‘citizen journalism’ and now we want it back. Why? The plain reason would be that we, the public want to get news that we want to know and what is important to us. We do not want a higher authority to tell us what to think, what to read and what we can know. We are a new generation of the world’s children who do not want to be told on what to do or how to do them.
So is STOMP a citizen journal? NO NO and I don’t know if I have said this, NO! A citizen blog is one that does not moderate the news going into the website. However, it is a good start to citizen journalism here in Singapore.
‘The Straits Times Editor Han Fook Kwang explained, "In the new media environment, newspapers have to be more than just passive providers of news. They have to engage their readers in areas, which appeal to them. We have to provide readers with new avenues to express themselves, to enable them to interact with us, and among themselves."’
Kevin Lim mentioned in class that Asians are less likely to write about issues that really matter. We, unlike our Western counterparts prefer hairy rocks to political issues! The main reason to this issue may be the fact that we are taught to follow the leader and follow without questions. We Asians are a high-power society, where by power is exclusive and above all!
STOMP claims to publish everything they receive except (ah ha the catch!) political and sexual content. What good is citizen journalism if not all the news one sends is actually published?
IMPROVEMENT
STOMP can improve if it allows all content to be published. I believe that STOMP will work better if The Straits Times and inevitably the government did not own it. Its word by the JOE to another JOE!! Another good way to make the website more ‘happening’ would be to add prominent citizen bloggers. By having bloggers who report on everyday happenings, STOMP will get more following from the public.
“Citizen journalism” (March 28, 2006) From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Retrieved 14:59, March 28, 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 28, 2007 from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?hile=WeTheMedia.html&tipe=text/html#chap9
STOMP (2006) From Singapore Press HoldingsRetrieved March 28, 2007 fromhttp://www.stomp.com.sg/
1 comment:
Haha, I don't think we really prefer hairy rocks, but that we tend to use less words and more imagery. Perhaps we're trying to be efficient? Anyway good job pouring your thoughts on Stomp.
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