Citizen Journalism is the act of citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information" ("Citizen Journalism", 2006). Everyone can be a citizen journalist; it is not just exclusive to certain members of the public. Citizen Journalism represents the voices of the public sphere which sometimes fails to catch the attention of the media.
STOMP stands for ‘Straits Times Online Mobile Print’ and it integrates content and activities in the three platforms of print, online and mobile. One the one hand, it delivers content which helps develop new communities of local Singaporean that bond together with similar interests. It is a great way to offer the community better and deeper coverage than is possible with a lone professional reporter. It creates vigilance among the public and also acts as a social interaction tool, as news is captured and compiled on a website where various members of the public are able to view. One point to note: As Singapore’s culture differs differently from the western cultures where Singaporeans tend to be more old fashioned and conservative, Citizen journalism in Singapore just might be classified an invasion of privacy. However, is this form of a new breed of journalism the ideal form of journalism or would it even be effective in bringing news to the public?
A car crash, illegal parking, couples fighting in the open, public displays of affections (PDA) or ugly Singaporean behaviour; these make good fodder for gossip and are more often than not, the selling point of STOMP. In my opinion, these are not to be considered as "news stories". They are merely gossip articles that should be thrown in the same category as tabloids and other skanky news. I mean, who really wants to know what couples do in public? Or view Singaporeans going at it again (in the true essence of what Singaporeans are known for)? It's a waste of time to even bother reporting these pieces of "news" and they should not even be considered as "news-worthy". Let's just leave proper news reporting to the professionals okay?
News reporting would only go hay-wire if news content could be left to individuals (many of whom do not now the least about writing and journalism) to decide what is news-worthy, or what goes into the content and what makes up the scope of the online paper. Citizen journalism should be simply left as just that - articles which citizens post online simply for the sake of airing their views or venting their frustrations and incidents which left them bitter. And the proper news writing should be left to teh professionals, the gate-keepers who decide the agenda of the news content.
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