QotW9: Citizen Journalism in Singapore

Some of us may have recalled watching The Arena (13th March 2007, 8pm on Ch5) when students debated on whether bloggers have become more influential than journalists. It is indeed a controversial issue as we have people who hate the idea of blogging and thus dislike people who do so, and others who embrace the latest hype over blogging. Citizen journalism, in most countries, has expanded greatly through the use of blogs.

What is Citizen Journalism?
Also known as “participatory journalism,” (“Citizen Journalism,” 2007) citizen journalism is the act of citizens “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information” (Bowman & Willis, 2003). Essentially, it is not about what professional journalists are reporting to us in the news, but more of what we citizens view situations to be and what we believe. Thus, the term “we-media.” As Bowman and Willis (2003) have put it, “...journalism finds itself at a rare moment in history where, for the first time, its hegemony as gatekeeper of the news is threatened not just by new technology and competitors but, potentially, by the audience it serves.”

View this chart for the rise of citizen media:
(Bowman & Willis, 2005).

What is STOMP?

STOMP stands for Straits Times Online Mobile Print and was created by the Singapore Press Holdings. The website (http://www.stomp.com.sg/) allows citizens to engage in discussions on current affairs and interest topics through e-mailing them, or the use of mobile phones.

When you first load the STOMP webpage, you may be overwhelmed by the amount of pictures and some advertisements. Sure, it does catch one’s attention. A section called “Talkback” allows people to speak their minds and share their views/interests on any topic. Apart from that, STOMP has a “Court Room” page where information on court cases most talked about is posted. In addition, other sub-categories like “Singapore Seen,” “ST Foodies Club,” “Star Blog” and “Stink” add on to the features of this webpage. There are just so many things to be found on STOMP, you have to visit it to know what I mean.

The Question: Is STOMP an Ideal Form of Citizen Journalism for Singapore?
I would say that STOMP is indeed a form of citizen journalism for Singapore. Although Singapore may seem like an amateur to such a practice, the rate at which it is spreading throughout the country is rapid.

However, I would not claim that STOMP is an ideal form of citizen journalism for Singapore. A quick browse at STOMP would leave you with the impression that it is not a site that deals mainly with important current affairs but more of interesting, funny and light-hearted issues happening in the country. Sections that allow users to compete in talent contests and have ranking of most popular/talked about contest entries, plus STOMP eBay, give me the feeling that they are attempting to put too many things/features into one site. With a slight slip, STOMP might just fall into the category of a leisure website or a social networking site. Of course, for starters, STOMP has indeed succeeded in getting Singaporeans to actively participate in online discussions.

According to Dan Gillmor (2004), “As the pace of life has quickened, our collective attention span has shortened…The situation is made worse by the fact that most of us don’t stop long enough to consider what we’ve been told, much less seek out context, thereby allowing ourselves to be shallow and to be led by people who take advantage of it.”

How to Improve STOMP?

I think that to improve STOMP, features like STOMP eBay and MMSing Contests should be removed or placed on a separate domain. If the aim of STOMP is to encourage citizens to engage in discussions on current affairs and some other small talk, then these features are but a distraction that causes its users to stray from engaging in citizen journalism. Once again, this is only my opinion.

Also, since STOMP is a part of the Straits Times, people would be more cautious of what views and opinions they post. This is especially so for political issues. Users of STOMP should be taught to understand how to post opinions wisely and non-offensively while still maintaining their freedom of speech. This would then be a start to building a good foundation to encourage more citizen journalism here in Singapore. From gaining experience in STOMP, users may then branch out and set up their own blogs, thus engaging in citizen journalism.

In addition, it would be better if STOMP could cater to citizens of all ages rather than focus on attracting the younger crowd. All in all, we must remember that “A shallow citi­zenry can be turned into a dangerous mob more easily than an informed one” (Gillmor, 2004).

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References:

Bowman, S. & Willis, C. (2003). We Media. Retrieved March 31, 2007, from http://www.hypergene.net/wemedia/download/we_media.pdf

Bowman, S. & Willis, C. (2005). Neiman Reports: The Future is Here, But Do News Media Companies See It? Retrieved March 31, 2007, from http://www.hypergene.net/blog/weblog.php?id=P327

Citizen Journalism. (2007). In: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 31, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Citizen_journalism&diff=118429022&oldid=116903986

Gillmor, D. (2004). We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Retrieved March 30, 2007, from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tipe=text/html#chap1

QotW7: Twit, Twitting, Twitted.

Introduction

To me, an online community is not very different from a real-life community. I picture it as a group of people who interact or associate themselves with one another probably due to shared interests or other reasons. The only things that are missing are physical presence of the community members and the lack of social cues.

An online community (aka virtual community) is “a group of people that may or may not primarily or initially communicate or interact via the Internet. Online communities have also become a supplemental form of communication between people who know each other in real life” (“Virtual Community,” 2007). However, do remember that community has a dynamic meaning (Fernback & Thompson, 1995).

According to Wellman and Gulia, a community is “more than the sum of a set of ties: its composition and network structure affects how it supplies companionship, supportiveness, information and a sense of identity” (1996).

With the emergence of online communities, people are able to interact electronically behind the use of pseudonyms. In an online community such as deviantART, forums are put within the site to enable its users to interact with one another in a forum respective to their interests. In most online communities, users have pseudonyms (but some may choose to use their real name; The WELL requires users to communicate using their real names), pictures/avatars, and users tend to gather in groups within the community or link to one another (if possible).

In online communities, members have the power to control the amount of information they release and create a selective self-presentation (Griffin, 2006). With an online identity comes the need for reputation management—“the process of tracking an entity's actions and other entities' opinions about those actions” (“Reputation Management,” 2007).

Here is a diagram that I made which shows examples of online communities. This list is not exhaustive.

Twitter

For this blog assignment, we were told to sign up for an account on Twitter.com. Here is my Twitter profile: http://twitter.com/mandycola



On the surface, to me, Twitter is like a massive tag-board. Let’s look at the different aspects of Twitter and see if it is an online community:

1) In a nutshell, Twitter users are able to hide behind a pseudonym as they post messages on what they are currently doing/reply to their friends’ messages. Messages on Twitter, however, are only allowed to be of 140 characters. This makes messages short and thus resembles that of a tag-board (usually found on blogs). In short, people choose to sign up for Twitter using either their real names/pseudonyms. Also, they are able to post short messages. In online communities such as forums, members also have pseudonyms and are able to post messages to allow interaction. In addition, Twitter users have avatars similar to that of online forum members and are able to customize their profile pages.

2) Twitter users are able to explore the list of other users and add friends to their list. These friends then appear on the profile page of one another. Here, we can see how Twitter allows its users to link to one another, possibly resembling smaller groups/cliques within the population. Thus, Twitter is similar to online communities such as blogs or MySpace where users can also link to one another and the links between users are also displayed on the blog/profile page. By definition, online communities often divide into cliques or form new communities (“Virtual Community,” 2007).

3) What kinds of messages do Twitter users post? In general, Twitter is to enable users to constantly/conveniently post updates on their whereabouts/what they are doing. Thus, in a way, messages on Twitter are like shortened versions of diary entries. You may think that this makes Twitter more of a blog instead, but don’t forget that blogs are also forms of online communities.

4) Not only do Twitter users post short messages available for viewing by their friends/public, they are also able to send “Direct Messages” to other users. This function allows users to socialize and converse about any other topic. Looking at social networking sites (another form of online community) such as Friendster, we see that Friendster members are also able to send private/personal messages to one another, which is usually how they get to socialize.

5) Twitter users are able to mark messages of other users as their “Favorites” which will also appear in a list accessible from one’s profile page. This function is alike that of the online social bookmarking service—del.icio.us. On del.icio.us, members create a list of their favorite bookmarks of any topic they like. Thus, the “Favorites” function of Twitter resembles that of del.icio.us (also an online community).

Conclusion

After studying the functions and aspects of Twitter, I would say that it is an online community. In detail, Twitter is like an online community where each of its functions resembles that of other existing online communities as I have pointed out previously. Recalling what our guest speaker Benjamin Koe (http://eok.net) mentioned: An online community is free, fun and open. Indeed, Twitter is FREE, FUN and OPEN. Not to forget, it is also highly ADDICTIVE.

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Reference:

Fernback, J. & Thompson, B. (1995). Virtual Communities: Abort, Retry, Failure? Retrieved March 15, 2007, from http://www.rheingold.com/texts/techpolitix/VCcivil.html

Griffin, E. (2006). Social information processing theory of Joseph Walther. A first look at communication theory, 6th edition, pp. 142-155. McGraw-Hill Companies.

Reputation Management. (2007). In: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 15, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?

Virtual Community. (2007). In Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 15, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Virtual_community&diff=115277136&oldid=115277042

Wellman, B. & Gulia, M. (1996). Net Surfers Don’t Ride Alone. Retrieved March 15, 2007, from http://www.acm.org/~ccp/references/wellman/wellman.html
title=Reputation_management&diff=113442073&oldid=111797891

Muttons In The Morning

(Picture: DJs Justin Ang & Vernon)
On the way to school today, I was tuning in to 98.7FM, a program called Muttons in the Morning. They were getting listeners to SMS their thoughts on blogging and why they do/don’t practice blogging.

There was 1 interesting response that I remember hearing. This guy was called up and he said something like, "I think blogging is a childish act. These people think that they can post photos and info about themselves hoping to get a shot to fame." What a misconception. Another girl’s response was due to her concerns on privacy. Most people who dislike it are skeptical about it.

Indeed, if not for our COM125 module, I don't think even half the class would be blogging. As much as some people dislike/don't have the interest in blogging, claiming that it is a "childish act" is way extreme.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think at least 50% of the bloggers in the world do not engage in blogging hoping to get a shot at fame. Fame is like a positive (or negative, depending on how you look at it) externality that happens to only a fraction of the bloggers in the blogosphere.

So, why do people blog?
As far as we've learned in class, there are 5 motivations for blogging.
- to "document my life"
- as commentary
- as catharsis
- as muse
- as community forum

(Source: Nardi, B.A., Schiano, D.J., Gumbrecht, M., & Swartz, L. (2004). Why we blog. Communications of the Association for Computing Machinery, 47(12), 41-46.) -- Found in Kevin Lim's COM125 presentation slides, "The Rise of Us."

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There’s a program tonight (13th March, 2007) called The Arena where students engage in debates on certain topics. It is at 8:30pm on Channel 5. The topic tonight will be about whether bloggers have become more influential than journalists. What do you all think?

QotW6: Do Not Disturb. Privacy Please!

What is “Privacy”?


“[1] Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to keep their lives and personal affairs out of public view, or to control the flow of information about themselves.
[2] Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity although it is often most highly valued by people who are publicly known.
[3] Privacy can be seen as an aspect of security - one in which trade-offs between the interests of one group and another can become particularly clear” (“Privacy,” 2007).

As defined by an anonymous person, “Privacy is to be left alone” (Sullivan, 2006).

To me, privacy is something that people provide each other out of respect. As individuals, we are entitled to our private lives that can be defined by what we choose to do, where we choose to go and the space around us. Speaking of personal space, a closely related term called “proxemics” introduced by Edward Hall describes the physical distances between people that can be categorized as public, social, personal and intimate as the distance gets shorter (“Proxemics,” 2007).


Proxemics explains that when people you are not comfortable with attempt to invade into your personal space, you feel offended and react to it. Similarly, when another person invades your privacy, you may feel offended too. In addition, privacy is not just about physical space; it consists of private information and personal issues. However, the extent to which we draw the line to define our personal “private space” depends on the individual - “To each his own.”

Negotiating My Own Privacy

Due to this assignment, I have attempted to create a brief list of things, regarding privacy, that I value.

The Dos...
Do ask me directly if there’s anything you want to know about me/my personal life.
Do request if you need to take a look at my notebook/computer files/copy homework.
Do respect my decision if I choose not to fulfill your requests.

And Don’ts...
Don’t peek at my e-mails/conversation windows/files.
Don’t try to check my SMS inbox.
Don’t use my accounts without my permission (identity theft).

After making this list, I feel like a total fusspot. However, I think that everyone should take a few minutes to make a similar list. It is through this that you clearly understand your tolerance for privacy issues. Never let anyone take advantage of you. If you feel like your privacy is being invaded, speak up!

Privacy in School

Spending 5 days a week in school surrounded by hundreds of other students, it is without a doubt that we may run into unpleasant privacy issues.

In secondary school, my classmate used to borrow my cell phone to “play games.” It was not long after that I found out she had been reading my text messages (because she carelessly told my best friend about it). I felt really horrible then. After knowing about it, I never did let her touch my cell phone again. From this, we can see that there are precautions that can be taken to protect your own privacy before mishaps occur.

On the more serious note, schools collect a lot of data and personal information regarding not only the students but their parents too. In an article by David Shi (2006), he discussed about protecting parents' and students' fundamental privacy rights including the “right of students to control their academic records - a federally protected right since 1972.”

As the class representative in junior college, I was given the task to collect the total family income of every student in my class to see who needed financial subsidy from the school. It seemed like a really easy task at first. Knowing that such information is very private, I approached each classmate instead of passing the list around. Some were very open about it while others openly requested those around them to look away before they wrote their family income down. Also, some even waited for everyone to leave the class.

“Privacy” – A Word Unknown to the Paparazzi

When it comes to privacy, it is inevitable to not think of its top invaders: The paparazzi.

Although this affects probably only the rich and famous, it is a clear example of the invasion of privacy. With the advent of the Internet, photographs and videos are easily available online. “The internet has vastly increased the opportunities for individuals to subject themselves to the demands of the personality market, resulting in ever increasing confusion and anxiety about how much of ourselves to reveal to strangers” (Rosen, 2004).

(Click to enlarge)

Recent hot gossip articles discuss the unglamorous shots of celebrities such Ashlee Simpson and Britney Spears. It seems as though the paparazzi have shifted from racing for pictures of scandal celebrity dates to horrible up-skirt photographs. With that, comes the hype over which female celebrity wears panties and which ones do not. Isn’t this way overboard?

Conclusion

Be it whether you are online or offline, you should learn to take precautions to secure your very own privacy. Privacy is yours to keep and protect. And, if you don’t wear panties, don’t become a celebrity.

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References:

Privacy. (2007). In: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Privacy&oldid=113024808

Proxemics. (2007). In: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Proxemics&oldid=112973774

Rosen, J. (2004). The Naked Crowd. Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA5FF.htm

Shi, D. (2006). Don’t Invade Student Privacy. Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-10-17-opinion-three_x.htm

Sullivan, B. (2006). Privacy Lost: Does Anybody Care? Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/print/1/displaymode/1098/