Enabled by the increasing popularity of web-based easy-publishing technologies, the vibrant rise of participatory publishing – which could be ideally understood as “the act of a citizen, or a group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information (Wikipedia)” in order to “provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires” (Nguyen, 2006) – in the past five or six years, has such a significant journalistic implication, that many critics have even declared it to be the future of journalism (Nguyen, 2006).
“Personal publishing”, “self- publishing”, “do-it-yourself journalism”, “participatory journalism”, “deliberative journalism”, “alternative media/publishing”, “collaborative publishing”, “open publishing”, “social media”, and “community publishing” are some terms used for the commonly used “citizen journalism.” It was seen that with the weblog community that suddenly sprung up and the extensive use of handheld devices such as digital cameras and mobile phone with built in cameras, online posting and blogs immediately took off (2006).
Every citizen is a reporter. Citizen Journalism refers to a movement of independent- usually individual- news reporters delivering their reports to the Internet. It also refers to many people who, in the midst of a disaster or a tragedy, think to capture the moment in photographs, video, and film. The citizen journalists present during the 2004 Tsunami made history when they posted video clips to the Internet for the world to see what damage a tsunami could inflict. Similarly, photos from rescuers in areas afflicted by Hurricane Katrina helped shape public awareness of the real situation in New Orleans and the Gulf area (2006). Apart from the above-mentioned coverage, Citizen journalists are often also political activists in one way or another, and covering activist events and viewpoints is frequently the purpose of their blog.
It is seen that, “More and more, journalism is going to be owned by the audience,” said Jeff Jarvis, a prolific Blogger who heads Advance Publications’ Advance.net online operation. “That doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for pro-journalists, who will always be there— who need to be there—to gather the facts, ask questions with some measure of discipline and pull together a larger audience. What I’ve learned is that the audience, given half a chance, has a lot to say. The Internet is the first medium owned by the audience, the first medium to give the audience a voice (2004).”
STOMP (Straits Times Online Mobile Print) is a Singapore-based online portal by Singapore Press Holdings. Through the three platforms of online, mobile and print, STOMP enables Singaporeans to interact and engage in current affairs of Singapore. After going through STOMP and reading some of the articles in Singapore Seen, Star Blogs, etc, I feel that STOMP is a highly interactive forum, which is an ideal form of citizen journalism for Singapore. It gives the Singaporean public, an opportunity to post comments on how they feel about certain issues and allows them to actively participate in the discussions posted there.
STOMP has a wide variety of subjects covered in an informally written way, which makes it unique, and something that the Singaporeans can relate to. I feel their tagline “You Generate the Content, You Write the Reports, You Take the Photos, You Shoot the Videos,” elaborates on the fact that they are interactive and promote citizens to come forward and spread the information. I feel this is also a good example of a gift economy as people share and spread information without any ulterior motive and keep everyone around them informed.
Even though STOMP is a great platform for citizen journalists, I feel it has some room for improvement. I feel freedom of expression is curtailed and people should be aware of what to say and how much to say, so they do not get into any trouble, politically. I also feel STOMP should be advertised more as it is a great platform to share information and people should take advantage of it. However, since STOMP is by the people and for the people, it is more relevant and expresses exactly what the public feels. Hence, I feel this is seen as a major reason for the success and growth of this type of media.
Reference:
Nguyen, A. (2006). Journalism in the wake of participatory publishing. Australian Journalism Review, 28(1), pp. 47-59.
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#chap3
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
STOMP (2006). From: Singapore Press Holdings. Retrieved March 28, 2007 from http://www.stomp.com.sg/
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