QotW9: STOMP - Citizen Journalism

STOMP (Straits Times Online Mobile Print) is an online portal set up by the Singapore Press Holdings. Here, the online portal makes use of the three platforms consisting of online, mobile and print, to involve the public in the updates of Singapore (Stomp, 2006). This form of publishing comments and views is some what like citizen journalism.

What is citizen journalism? Also known as “participatory journalism”, are citizens “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information” (Citizen Journalism, 2007). STOMP allows such citizen involvement. Blogs may already allow citizens to voice out about almost every topic available; however, STOMP allows more citizens to be heard and allows those whom are lazy to own a blog to go to the online portal to share their views and to participate. Reason being, not many may know who blogs and what the bloggers blog about. Having STOMP allows citizens to broaden their circle of connections and readings, to share their similarities with those in common. To a certain extent, the above mentioned makes STOMP an ideal form of citizen journalism of Singapore. Why STOMP is not a complete ideal form of citizen journalism is because it is more restricted in terms of what topics can be published and what can be said even though more citizens are encouraged to take part. There is a restriction in STOMP whereas blogs can be used, as and how you want to use it. STOMP also seems more of chat forum instead of citizen journalism because yes the citizens may participate in contributing to the articles on the online portal; however, the topics mentioned are not what newspapers would publish for the public to view as an article.

We may have magazines and newspapers to write in but do we actually think that every entry would be published? I doubt so. With STOMP, you have can publish your views, comments on topics such as love, food and more. Remember, STOMP has restrictions too but at least more citizens are allowed to give it a try rather than totally ignore the situation. To me, STOMP is some what like a multi-ownership blog. According to Gillmor, he is “not convinced that Big Media is doing the most important thing: listening” (Gillmor, 2004). Just like how STOMP may be there to let you publish comments related to topics that are allowed to be mentioned, yet are the comments really taken into consideration.

This leads to how STOMP could improve. STOMP is great in a way that the citizens’ views have been taken into consideration by allowing citizens to take part in the online forum. At least the thought of the citizens’ well-being is established. If only actions were to be taken to reduce the restrictions and prove to the public that improvements have been made based on the citizens’ posted comments. There is no proof if actions have been taken, but it is good enough to know that the higher authorities are ready, or willing to listen to the citizens’ views. Indeed, a step to greater improvement.




REFERENCES

STOMP (2006) From Singapore Press Holdings Retrieved March 30, 2007 from http://www.stomp.com.sg/

Citizen Journalism. (2007, March 28). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 30, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism

Gillmor, D. (2004). We the People: 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#chap3

QotW7: Twit - ter "the" - Twitter

Is Twitter an online community? Yes, Twitter is an online community. Here is what an online community means before I reason out why twitter falls under the category of an online community.

When we think of the term, online community, we usually think of it as a place where people communicate and exchange views. According to Wikipedia, an online community, also known as the virtual community is said to be “a group of people that may or may not primarily or initially communicate or interact via the internet.” (Virtual Community, 2007) Not only that, it plays the role of allowing people who already know each other to communicate online.

With such advanced technology, many ways of communicating on an online community is applied. For example, the use of pseudonyms where you need not use your real name in order to chat and share ideas. Everyone has control over the information they want to share and receive. Just like LetsSingIt.com, forums are used for such purposes. Also, rules as usual are stated in order to maintain the harmony going on within the community. “The advance of technology brings nations together and narrows the differences between the experiences of their people.” (Fernback & Thompson, 1995) Here, people from different parts of the world can come together just by contributing in an online community. The online community is open to just about anyone as long as you have internet connection.

Now, why is Twitter an online community? I signed up for Twitter on Thursday afternoon to get a feel of what it is like just because it is required for this assignment. Had it not been for the experience, I would not have got a feel of how an online community really works. First of all, I do not own a Friendster account just because I fear the computer at times, in whether it will break down on me any time soon. Twitter seems straight forward for me as every step such as signing up, leaving messages and adding friends are clearly showed. Twitter seems like a blog, yet not really a blog because it has limited words for you to leave comments. However, Twitter allows connects you to many of your other friends just like how Friendster does and how blog shows links to others. With such similarity, it brings a step closer for Twitter to fall under the category of an online community.

In Twitter, you have a section for your personal profile, the ability to add friends from any part of the world while communicating and exchanging ideas just like the functions of MSN - “Without regard to race, creed, gender or geography.” (Wellman & Gula, 1996) That is exactly how we have come together on Twitter, especially for class com 125. Everyone is now in some way or another linked.

In conclusion, Twitter is an online community just because it is similar in its functions and how it works when compared to other online communities. With ongoing interaction of the individuals in the community, it is no doubt an online community.




REFERENCES

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

Wellman, B. & Gulia, M. (1996). "Net Surfers Don't Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities." Retrieved March 15, 2007 from http://www.acm.org/%7Eccp/references/wellman/wellman.html

Wikipedia (2007). Virtual Community. Retrieved March 15, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_communities

QotW6: Stop Peeping

First of all, we need to know what privacy means. Many individuals out there might have a different idea of what privacy is about. To me, privacy is about not intruding into the personal affairs of another and only reading materials, copying materials and taking personal photos of the other when permission is granted. For example, no one likes people to read the messages stored in their handphones. “Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to keep their lives and personal affairs out of possible view, or to control the flow of information about themselves.” (Privacy, 2007)

Without having this topic for assignment, I would not think that many of us would think about the term, privacy. “When you have it, you don’t notice it. Only when it’s gone do you wish you’d done more to protect it.” (Sullivan, 2004) Due to the technology advancement, our views on privacy have changed, “Increasingly obtained not by shared experiences or fixed social status but by self-revelation.” (Rosen, 2004)

Since most of us are almost familiar about blogging, I shall use that to bring in privacy with relation to my first blog entry, ‘About Me’. As we can see, I did not mention specific details about myself. Examples would be my birth date, which part of Singapore I stay in and most importantly, a front photo of me. The picture I chose for my blog is just my side view, almost covered up by a mug. Now, why did I do that? Reason being, I feel vulnerable if someone I do not know of actually knows my name and personal information. They might know my likes and dislikes when I could even possibly not know their name. I would rather disclose such information only to the people I know and see if it is worth mentioning. Other than that, I would prefer an equal share of information about each other than me not knowing anything about the other while the other knows something about me.

People should ask when they want to find out a particular information about the other, rather than sort to means like peeking into the belongings of that person. Of course the extent of privacy all depends on an individual. Some may love to disclose, share more daily happenings about themselves on a blog, while others like me would choose to keep a low profile. I find it more interesting to get to know more about the other person through face-to-face conversation instead of using means of spying, ‘detective’ style approach.

Also, the term privacy makes me think of paparazzi. Like how they intrude into the lives of celebrities even of they were seen drinking coffee at Starbucks. We may ask when to draw the line of privacy. This depends on the comfort zone of the individual. Only you can decide what to do about the prevention of the invasion of privacy.


REFERENCES

Privacy (7th March, 2007). In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 10th March, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Privacy&oldid=113354124

Rosen, J. (19th July, 2004). "The Naked Crowd". Retrieved on 10th March, 2007 from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA5FF.htm

Sullivan, B. (17th October, 2006). "Privacy Lost: Does Anyone Care?". Retrieved on 10th March, 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/print/1/displaymode/1098/