The Singapore Stomp
Ok. I don’t doubt that Straits Times’ UGC website, Stomp has been very successful, but I do find it hard to take seriously and I truly despair for Singapore’s youth is this is how they get their news.
Admittedly, I know little about the media industry in Singapore -maybe stories about public displays of affection, Sushi left abandoned on sanitary items and $115 crab legs are common-place?
Seriously, the ‘news’ on this site makes Today Tonight look like the BBC.
To be fair though, Stomp is more about social networking than journalism and is marketed as being a platform for Singapore’s citizens to create their own version of the news.
But with stories like the one above the most popular on the site, I can’t help but think that Stomp says more about Singapore’s excessive conservatism than it does about the real news going on in the country or elsewhere in the world.
Singapore’s media environment is highly regulated. Censorship is common, internet access is restricted and private ownership of satellite dishes is not allowed.
Hopefully initiatives like Stomp will help to liberate the media somewhat, but since Stomp is still owned by the ultra-conservative Singapore Press Holdings, it seems unlikely that it can ever be a truly democratic medium for user-generated or citizen journalism.
Here’s a lecture from Jennifer Lewis, editor of Stomp (warning, almost an hour long):
September 26th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
First of all, Great Post!!
And most importantly I can’t help but agree with your statement on STOMP not being a powerful enough in liberating Singaporean media.
It’s more of a ‘we (STOMP) shall tell you what information we need from you’ rather than the typical citizen journalism model.
October 25th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
[...] (SEPTEMBER 26): For a more scathing (and rather funny) look at STOMP, check out this post by ALJ301 student [...]