The Singaporean mainstream media still doesn’t get it
The past 2 weeks have been interesting. First, TodayOnline published a piece about blogging and freedom that clearly set the benchmark for professional journalism. It was again, one of those ‘lectures’ devoid of any useful information or analysis that only a professional journalist could come up with.
With great creativity and artistry, the reporter played with the words of mr brown and Mr Miyagi, quoting them out of context. mr brown and Mr Miyagi were not happy, posting their full replies on their blogs. As a result of that Nobel-Prize-in-Literature-winning effort, the bloggers at Singapore Ink jumped the gun, before realising that the mainstream media was merely back to its usual standards of professional journalism.
Fearing that he would be subjected to the same high standards of professional journalism, Steve McD posted an email from an ST reporter, soliciting for answers to questions that baffled and confounded me.
1. Your blog has posted the Singapore Rebel documentary online for download. You said you did not put it up, then how did it get on your site?
2. Have you considered taking it down, given that the film might have violated the Films Act, and your blog might be dragged into it for distributing/showing the film?
Surely, the Straits Times, the pinnacle of professional journalism, have reporters who understand how the interweb/infobahn/information superhighway works? Ah yes, our good-natured and fun-loving editors at the Straits Times must have been pulling Steve’s leg… after all, we know what lovely people they are, don’t we? These professional journalists… aiyoh, so cheeky. Pretending to have absolutely no clue what hyperlinks are.
And barely before Mr Miyagi’s nostrils have stopped flaring, not wanting to lose to Today in journalistic creativity, the Straits Times also engaged in exquisite wordplay with Singapore Ink, who also proceeded to post their replies and opinions on their blog. Shakespeare would have been proud of their professional journalism.
Another interesting discovery, is that not all stupid people are journalists. Ephraim Loy for example, has quite a serious ‘womb complex’, that is, he thinks he’s still living in his mummy’s tummy. SingaporeAngle and Singapore Ink seem quite astounded. I, for one, am not.
While blogging encourages one to speak up – which is a good thing and what the Government advocates – there has to be a limit. Bloggers should be educated on ethical blogging methods to prevent them from inadvertently breaching the laws. Perhaps the authorities can address this issue, to prevent other such cases? It’s time Singaporeans took a responsible approach to blogging.
Yes yes, good ol’ authorities. Why stop at blogging? Why not just ask them to direct every single decision we make in our lives? We can always trust them to tell us what we can or cannot do. Yup, no point living life if there’s no one telling us how to live it, no? As long as we slavishly obey everything that we are told to do, we will always be safe, secure, and warm, just like in our mother’s womb…
Then Singapore Ink spots another one of those articles from ST that manages to claw its insipid way to the depths of professional journalism. Yes, a second lecture in a matter of days. The ST P&I (Propaganda & Indoctrination) Department must have been working overtime, the poor things. I almost felt sorry for them when Singapore Ink fisked the op-ed in all its professionalisty-journalisty-goodness. Almost. Instead I point you excitedly in their direction.
The cherry on top must surely be this special post by the Dean, School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, and Director, Singapore Internet Research Centre.
In particular:
The final quirk in this is that the bloggers are really not journalists. And so while it is a laudable fight, surely Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Fronti?res) cannot defend those who do not measure up to the standards of professional journalism. To defend these bloggers as if they had the same standards as a professional journalist is an insult to the industry from which the organization draws its membership.
I’m sorry sir, but wherever you are, I hope you wake up soon. It seems that this world of professional journalism you live in does not exist. You must not have heard of Eason Jordan or Dan Rather, or read any of the above examples of professional journalism from our local mainstream media. For someone who is the Dean of a school that teaches Communications, is that not rather strange? Skim through the examples I’ve given, and you’d be hard-pressed to find any evidence of that professional journalism you speak of.
Sir, professional journalism is a fiction. Journalists are human beings, like you and me, imperfect and fallible. The unfortunate fact however, is more often than not, they have to write about things in which they do not have the requisite specialist knowledge. To make things worse, some of these journalists are actually stupid. Stupid in the sense that somehow their minds have failed to evolve any ability at logical reasoning. The combination of stupidity and the sheer superficiality of understanding on the subject matter that they write about is a deadly one. Especially when they demand the trust that they have done nothing to earn.
The currency of the blogosphere is truth. It is through truth that a blogger buys the trust of his/her readership. It is through truth that the blogger earns the credibility that they seek. At any moment a blogger is revealed to be lying, readers would evaporate, and the blogger would be consigned to the cesspits of the blogosphere. Do professional journalists face similar pressures? Or do they face pressures of a different sort?
The blogosphere self-corrects to reveal truths, for the same reason why the open-source method of production has rendered the GNU/Linux operating system the most flexible and extendable one existing.
Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.
And here I give you the blogosphere’s variant of Linus’s Law.
Given enough eyeballs, all lies are shallow.
How do you think I found the mistakes, inaccuracies and atrocious reporting by the various mainstream media sources in the above examples?
The most important insight that mainstream journalists have failed to grasp, especially in Singapore, is that the truth not only pertains to the objective truth that we all try to reach when writing about things, but also the truth about the biases and prejudices of the writer himself/herself.
Professional journalists cloak themselves in their supposed neutrality and ethics. Bullshit. The objectively neutral journalist is a fiction. Bloggers are honest about their biases and prejudices. Professional journalists are not. It is an insult to bloggers that you wish us to adhere to the very standards that these so-called professional journalists have cast aside.
The last question that must be asked is, do we take the word of an academic of an institution that supplies workers primarily to the local media duopoly, which are nonetheless mere minnows compared to the global media conglomerates?
Or do we take the word of a man who has gambled all, and won, over and over again, to have built one of the largest and most powerful media organisations in our modern era?
Do we take the word of Ang Peng Hwa:
The final quirk in this is that the bloggers are really not journalists. And so while it is a laudable fight, surely Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Fronti?res) cannot defend those who do not measure up to the standards of professional journalism. To defend these bloggers as if they had the same standards as a professional journalist is an insult to the industry from which the organization draws its membership.
Or do we take the word of Rupert Murdoch:
He said consumers wanted “control over the media, instead of being controlled by it”, pointing to the proliferation of website diaries, known as “blogs”, and message boards.
Newspaper editors simply cannot afford to ignore this, he said, or to look down on readers or ignore what they actually wanted. “Editors too often ask ‘do we have the story?’ rather than ‘does anyone want it?’
“As an industry, most of us have been remarkably, unaccountably, complacent,” Mr Murdoch said.
I report, you decide.
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Update:
What is your objection to bloggers calling themselves ?citizen journalists?? Surely it is not that fear of competition that I have spoken about?
Let me tell you now that you can frame your answers in whichever way you want, but an economic analysis of history will conclusively show that you are wrong.
These words that you use have been used before when portrait painters cursed the invention of cameras, horse-carriage drivers lamented the advent of the motorcar, weavers fumed at the mass production of sewing machines.
At every stage of human civilisation, changes in technology have put activities which have previously been in the domain of the few and privileged into the hands of the masses. It is inevitable. It is unstoppable. You can try to fight the tide of history, but the only thing you will succeed in doing is to wash yourself away beneath the sands of irrelevance.
?Journalism? as you know it is no longer the province of those who would fancy themselves the ?gatekeepers? of information. Dear vk, there is a world that exists outside of Singapore?s borders, and that world proves you wrong.
This world tells us that journalists are no different from anyone who makes a record about a perceived event. This world tells us that more often than not, journalists have no idea what they are talking about, whereas those who do have specialised skills in the area can become journalists themselves, effectively cutting out the middleman. This world tells us, that journalism can no longer be narrowly construed along the lines of traditional media. Look at the blogosphere in the US, and tell them to their face that they are not journalists.
Let us keep in mind, when radio stations first started broadcasting, newspapers feared for their doom. Let us keep in mind when TV was first invented, radio stations felt threatened too. Let us keep in mind, that there are still horse-carriage drivers, weavers and portrait painters. Therefore, no one is suggesting that the MSM has no place in the media ecosystem.
But what I AM saying however, is that MSM must come to terms that it can no longer assume its own primacy. You are mistaken when you say that blogs are auxiliary. It is only a matter of time when the lines between blogging and MSM blur, when blogging BECOMES the mainstream media, while your traditional media occupies a niche in the media ecosystem.
History is against you vk. You can try, but you cannot win.
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Update 2:
And the death knell sounds even louder as advertising revenues dry up for the mainstream media, the next phase of their demise is already underway:
The number of people who use Craigslist.org is expanding at more than 100 percent per year _ a growth rate any venture capitalist would covet.
But the people who run the 10-year-old community Web site, which gets 8 million unique users and more than 2 billion page views per month, seem to have little interest in exploiting new sources of revenue, going public or even adding to their 18-person staff.
The bare-bones site _ a trusted resource for everything from finding roommates to selling used cars in 105 cities in 23 countries, charges for very few classifieds, doesn’t serve up traditional ads and plans no major changes to its business model.
Instead, founder Craig Newmark told Associated Press editors and writers in a bureau visit, his newest fascination is community journalism.
Newmark hopes to develop a pool of “talented amateurs” who could investigate scandals, cover politics and promote the most important and credible stories. Articles would be published on Internet sites ranging from Craigslist to individual Web logs, or blogs.
Craigslist.org gets more than 4 million classified ads and 1 million forums postings each month, and Newmark _ who no longer runs it but remains one of three board members _ is often blamed for decimating classified advertising revenue at regional newspapers. But he says he has no desire to steal readers from mainstream media.
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TODAYonline – Where does freedom end for bloggers and online journalists?
mrbrown: L’infantile terrible of Singapore: Next time I dowan to speak to the press liao
My Very Own Glob {Curiosa Felicitas}: Another lesson about making your words public: Traditional Media 1, Mr Miyagi 0
Singapore Ink. ? Taking home the wrong lessons
Singapore Ink. ? Today, I use blogger shield
Singabloodypore: Films Act Related Email
Singapore Ink. ? I love the ST
Singapore Ink. ? Read the whole thing
From a Singapore Angle – Reading the ST (May 15)
Singapore Ink. ? The government should?
AsiaOne – Strange image of Singapore
Singapore Ink. ? The art of the ST editorial
Ivan?s Chimera ? Blog Archive ? Is Singapore Going After Bloggers?
The Internet in Asia – Is Singapore Going After Bloggers?
From a Singapore Angle – Talking down about journalistic standards
Guardian Unlimited | Online | News must adapt to web, says Murdoch
