I must admit, I skipped the ‘old school’ medium of getting the latest news and have gone paperless, but that doesn’t mean I read the online version of LOCAL papers like Today, or Straits Times.
I do at times, but not often. It gets even crappier when Straits Times Interactive put in place a subscription fee to read their stuff. No thanks hor!
We all know our papers have ‘censorship’ in the sense that anything that ‘undesirable’ in Singapore interest, it won’t be published. The most recent one, was the Mr Brown saga last year June.
He was sacked from his editorial post at daily newspaper Today after government criticism on his “S’poreans are fed, up with progress!” weekly opinion column
These days I depend more on International news site or citizen journalist bloggers for a more accurate and objective news. As I grew older, I’m more aware of the on-going around me and actually gave a damn flying fcuk about our local issues.
Life is not all bed of roses, you can’t keep ‘sweeping the issues under the rug’ and censorships. One day it will snowball into a big giant mess. No I’m not out looking for trouble lah, but as Mulder of X-Files, nonchalantly put it “The truth is out there”. I just want the truth or is too much to handle for some.
How about you guys?
I wholly agree with you. With our shitty times not telling us the truth, I will stick with bloggers for local issues and rely on other overseas correspondences on live beyond Singapore.
How I wish we can do something about it… tsk tsk..
well it’s good to have a selection of local bloggers on bookmark. sometimes the papers missed out on the topic at hand on ‘purpose’
i think we can do something about it … blog it, but to cover our ass, filter some of the v.language and rephrase it so it won’t be too defamatory. haha, i wish i was anonymous at times
Well, that’s to be expected with the MDA dipping its filthy hands in all the mainstream media. I only read the papers (occasionally) to find out what’s on sale or something.
Citizen reporting will take over from the more traditional forms of reporting like in newspapers in the future I think.
With the advent of tech, everyone will be tuning in to their own podcast blogger on their mp3 or even reading up on a RSS using a HP … ahhhh the future is so exciting.
i think you can’t really censor information, somehow or rather, it will be ‘leaked’.
i just think singaporeans are hard to please, cerewet nak mampos and sometimes practise selective attention and hearing.
everything pun nak complain.
semua nak kutuk.
haha.
well we’re a complain nation what … without it we won’t be a ‘world class’ country, hehe
that’s the price for progress
I wun solely rely on citizen journalists. Most of them usually offers only one side of the story. Same goes for international media. Their perpective of our domestic affairs most of the times are not aligned with our interests, thus their judgements may seem distorted. Local media as we know are state-controlled thus that explains their one sided reporting.
I read Straits Times and Today daily. I have to hear what the government have to say.
I then source for opinions online, be it from Mr Wang, Edmund Ng, or any other bloggers out there, for an alternative view.
Then I weigh and decide whose right or wrong. At times, for their foresight and analytical decision, the government might be right and some bloggers are just out to be detractors, but not all the times. Bloggers have valuable opinions too that deserve attention.
So whatever we read in the papers or online, we have to keep an open mind before criticising.
Criticise only if we can come up with a better solution or alternative or arguments, otherwise just shut up.
Wow such a detailed reply, i think this comment of yours warrant a blog entry itself at your blog bro!
well true, i read more of netizen & international media for my sources, very little of reading of the local papers infact, so maybe my opinion is kinda ‘skewed’ and doesn’t represent the local flava? well so be it …
to me i find such local bloggers gives a more accurate representation of the issue at hand and YES some bloggers does ‘mama drama’ abit in their entry and put extra ummphh ‘info’ in it, so its really like you said, sifting through the piles of info for the truth.
aahhh…. i do agree with hairol.
as for me… i was brought up to read the papers everyday. and also to watch the local news.
it becomes a habit already actually. hehehe. i read ST and BH everyday to be updated with local news. what hairol said is quite correct… we need to keep an open mind, citizen reporting maybe biased or incorrect.
but yes…. lets see what will the future brings. mainstream media have to play catch up to stay relevant and updated.
playing ‘catch up’ is another thing, while delivering ‘relevant’ content is another
we’ll see what the future holds
the word ‘biased’ has no basis altogether.it has no meaning at all and the word ‘biased’ is a testimony of corosiveness of our self.it so happen taht we don’t agree to, we ‘kill’ them at once. the thing is,argue on the issue and dismiss it with alternative view point.i am for one say, nobody has the right to say ‘bias’ to any writers or journalists.you don’t like the style,then waht you could do is counter offer your views.
as for, one sided reporting has been not taht bad if it is a reponsible one.i remember when i was younger,day in day out,we were told to write a ‘balanced’ composition. now,these two different ways of writing seems to be at best be retort at once if your find it to be not your favourite literature.
whether it is the national news or citizen news,be it pro or anti government or the opposition,it is worthy of reading.i am for one is looking at many angle.but i can say some news are as stupid as it is and we may count them and classified as ‘bodoh’ news,not worth,reading it and ‘repairing it’ ever.
before we can say, we are world class,we must first notice the true meaning of reading and responding democratically.admit every writing is priceless.taht’s the secret of wisdomised yourself.
the future of the news is going to be much more challenging and all i can say is that it is u, by reading it or writing it,colour the various senarios.it is going to be fun all the way,so let’s enjoy every literature writings.
hence the relevency of the media have to be very vibrant indeed.
the news medium has changed. either the mainstream usual media change or be left behind