Margaret’s 3rd year journalism blog

Stomp Singapore: Citizen journalism on the rise

Citizen journalism is becoming more prominent throughout the globe. Similar to OhMyNews in South Korea, Stomp of Singapore Press Holdings in Singapore has seen a significant take off.

User generated content has become more frequent as the technology in basic commodities such as mobile phones has rapidly improved.

Most images that are sent through to Stomp each day can be found on the site. Some of the more newsworthy images can even be used for one of the SPH newspapers, emphasising that citizen journalism is becoming a part of everyday news. A positive aspect of citizen journalism is that it allows news agencies to gain images and information that would have otherwise been absent.

Similarly this is common for sites like Channel 9 and the BBC where users can contribute photos and which are added to the news ‘In Pictures’ page. An example is these exclusive use generated photos of skaterboarders dangerously riding through Sydney’s Lane Cove tunnel. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/slideshow.aspx?sectionid=6573&subsectionid=146378§ionname=slideshows&subsectionname=skaters

Stomp Deputy Editor, Felix Soh says the site is ‘not serious journalism’. Like many online news websites, it seems to target a younger audience. For example, today the main story on the homepage is about a teenage couple who were kissing for half an hour. It’s accompanied by pictures and a video of the pair frolicking in the park. (http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/singaporeseen/viewContent.jsp?id=35255)

Clearly, although Soh says this allows for journalism that would not normally make it into newspapers, this also highlights the concern that if such sites gain significant ground, the future of quality journalism and hard news is at stake. If such sites targetting young readers with gossip and entertainment type stories prove to be overwhelmingly popular, other news sites will be forced to mimic them and sacrifice real news. This is already a growing issue with entertainment news finding its way more regularly on the home pages of Australian news sites such as The Age.