Journalism is meant to educate and share.
But, these days, everyone fancies themselves journalists because it doesn’t cost anything now to have your views heard in a public space.
Unfortunately, many “citizen journalists” don’t really care about educating and sharing. They’re only interested in digging out dirt and sensationalising mundane happenings to attract views.
This always ends up with innocent people having their privacy invaded or their feelings hurt.
It’s very depressing.
This week for Star Blog, we were asked to share our views on public displays of affection. I talk about how “citizen journalists” are making it tough for Singaporeans to be affectionate.
hey Sheylara,
They gave you an arguably crappy topic and you found a real interesting angle!
There is something about the “citizen journalism” you see practised that just gives me a queasy stomach feeling. Is it voyeurism? Some kind of vicarious drug?
There also seems to be an insidious expectation that just because you blog, you necessarily must have pretensions to the high art of journalism. That’s just patently false. Sure, some do have the ambition, while others are just happy to chat to themselves and their friends in a public forum. Much like an overheard conversation at Bugis.
You should write more on this. I for one would be real interested to hear what you think. Why is it like this? Is it just “growing pains” and naivete? Is Singapore leading or lagging in developing a mature blogging/citizen journalism culture? (Don’t mention the ABS!!)
btw, I prefer to comment on your blog here because stomp makes my eyes water;-) … a designer’s nightmare on elm street!!
pratalife: Thanks for your comment. :) I would love to write more on this… but it’s a hassle writing serious articles cos you need to do the research and get all your statistics and quotes and whatnot right. Haha. Nowadays, that kind of thing is a luxury I have no time for! :P
But I suppose I might just do it if I bugs me enough. There are many issues that bug me. I just don’t have the time to write about them.
Why don’t YOU write something? You seem to have pretty sound views on the whole issue. :)
a good read :)
I hold similar views regarding to what extent is PDA inappropriate.
Honestly, I think there are truckloads of voyeuristic crap on STOMP.
Do you know that there’s an initiative to shutdown STOMP? I wrote a post about it and compiled a list of really lame “news” on STOMP. ^^
Stomp out STOMP