Internet Journalism

when we think of citizen journalism, STOMP comes to mind, TRS (The Real Singapore) surfaces too and we have negative thoughts of such websites. Personally, I think that these websites are trash, they did contact my mother before because of some incident, asked permission if it was okay to publish the story but I did not bother following up on whatever they did. It's quite scary though that a sinple Facebook post can actually trigger STOMP journalists to jump on the story. I am highly skeptical of it in Singapore, although other countries seem to be truly benefitting from the perception of the "common man" through shaky videos and what not of protests and events.

I found this video on the "best" moments of citizen journalism picked out by the news presenter and it highlights the edge of citizen journalism highlighting the plight of the people or bringing a different perception of the same situation. Many a time, media is regulated and what the media wants to present is heavily affected by their framing, just which part of the story do they want to show, photos can be misleading at times. As such, we have resources from the people on the ground, showing exactly what is happening and reporting their side of the story.



Sometimes, it may be as simple as just a video posted online without any voiceovers or glamorous newsrooms. Online citizen journalism in my opinion is pretty trashy. Little do we find quality information or educated, well-thought through opinions of others. Instead, we Singaporeans can be seen belittling each other online and shaming one another for the unruly behaviors of others.

I feel that the Opinion section of The Straits Times, although printed, offers a much better source of "citizen journalism". There, you find quality information and opinions that are highly substantiated. Like these people actually MAKE SENSE. Many times, only good articles sent to The Straits Times get published, as such these people take pride in their work and churn out quality reviews. I personally love to read this section as it offers a great deal of different perception of the people and I always learn something new after reading this section!

if you ever have the chance to, pick up the physical newspaper and flip to the opinions section! they are usually filled with words but amongst the words are great knowledge for us! Many of us simply miss out in my opinion, the most valuable part of the newspaper :)