I have a confession to make. Before today, I’ve never read STOMP. Seriously. I mean, I barely have to time to cover the Straits’ Times and the New Paper’s football coverage, and then I usually read Newsweek at my desk when I’m pretending to study. Plus there never seems to be anything really, really noteworthy or worth checking out. Thus, this is quite a new thing for me.
What is STOMP? For starters, the acronym stands for Straits Times Online Mobile Print. Utilising those three elements (online, mobile and print), STOMP is able to interact with readers and contributors, and engender discussion of current affairs in Singapore. (STOMP, n.d.) It should be noted that STOMP actually set out to be more of a forum, more of an online community, as opposed to a focal point for citizen journalism. On their About Us page it says
“The Straits Times Editor Han Fook Kwang explained, "In the new media environment, newspapers have to be more than just passive providers of news. They have to engage their readers in areas which appeal to them. We have to provide readers with new avenues to express themselves, to enable them to interact with us, and among themselves."
"STOMP will enable us to do this. We want STOMP to become a forum of lively discussions - whether the topics are weighty national issues or where to get the best bak chor mee."Through this interaction, The Straits Times aims to strengthen its relationship with readers and reach out to non-readers.”
What is citizen journalism? It’s essentially user-generated content, but with the added element of having been collected, reported, analysed and disseminated by aforementioned users. (Citizen Journalism, n.d.) In other words, the public doing what the newspapers do, often (but not always) online.
With that in mind, let’s take another quick look at STOMP. The citizen journalism part mainly appears to be Singapore Seen, which seems to consist almost entirely of news stories sent in by civilian contributors, who they call STOMPers. The other sections like Talkback and EPL Stomping Ground are more along the lines of online communities, and others like StarBlog and STOMPCast are pretty self-explanatory.
So with Singapore Seen, viewers and contributors send in SMS or MMS of interesting things they’ve seen around Singapore. Be it a car wrapped around a tree from the impact of a crash, secondary school bands driving residents crazy, or some guy who should really invest in pants with a higher waistband, the content is as wild and varied as the contributors themselves.
However, as Mr. Lim noted in class, the content can be somewhat ‘low-brow’. A quick look at Singapore Seen’s main page tells you that the three most discussed topics are an inconsiderate secondary school band, noisy (and blissfully unaware of irony) students in a library telling others to shut it, and the chap who needs higher pants. Contrast this with what happened in September 2002, when members of Slashdot initiated an investigation into one of Microsoft’s ad campaigns, which featured a woman who’d supposedly switched from a Mac to a PC and was completely satisfied. (Yes, go ahead and smirk, Mac users.) Slashdot members were the first to notice irregularities in Microsoft’s ad, and because of their collection, analysis and subsequent publication of such information, the truth eventually emerged. (Gillmor, 2004) Another example would be the Killian documents controversy, where bloggers and Netizens effectively dismantled an attempt to discredit President George W. Bush’s military record. (Killian Documents, n.d.)
So where does that leave us? As a form of citizen journalism, yes, STOMP is fairly suitable. It has the benefit of being affiliated with an established and internationally recognized newspaper, and an active and enthusiastic community to draw upon. But I would say that the level of journalism is still in its infant stages, and STOMP has the potential for a greater level of reporting than what it currently exhibits. Not to take anything away from the current contributors, who are to be commended for their sharp eyes and excellent sense for what’s close to the hearts of the man on the street. But it could be so much more. Since STOMP’s quality is inextricably tied to the stories, and thus the contributors, I think that STOMP could raise citizen journalism in Singapore to a new level by encouraging its contributors to search out and analyse deeper issues, and by attracting a wider audience e.g. Singaporeans living overseas could talk about issues which affect them or experts who can dissect current affairs brought to light by contributors.
I personally would like to see STOMP be the one that sheds light on situations similar to the ones a couple of paragraphs up, and I believe that one day it will happen. Rock on, STOMPers.
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References:
STOMP, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, March 29th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STOMP_%28online_portal%29
Citizen Journalism, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, March 29th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism
Gillmor, Dan (2004). Truth Squad. In We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People (The Gates Come Down) Retrieved 23:20, March 28th, 2007, from http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tipe=text/html#chap3
Killian Documents, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, March 30th, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
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