Singaporeans 'not engaging' in political dialogue on Web
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By Nazry Bahrawi, TODAY | Posted: 27 June 2007 0724 hrs
The virtual world may offer opportunities for open political discussion but most Singaporeans are not participating.
This is according to the preliminary findings of a yet-to-be-completed study, conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), on the behaviour of Singapore voters at last year's General Election.
"There are some blogs that are politically engaged but, if you look at the content and the total number of blogs, they are not that many for a country that is so wired up and so high up in terms of computerisation," said IPS deputy director Arun Mahizhnan, during a discussion at the 16th Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (Amic) annual conference yesterday.
"With regard to the contents of the blogs, only a few can be characterised as serious political engagement," Mr Mahizhnan said, citing Mr Alex Au of Yawning Bread and Mr Lee Kin Mun, also known as mr brown. "But there are not many others like these two."
When it comes to managing new media, Mr Mahizhnan believes authorities face a dilemma.
He told TODAY: "On the one hand, it (the Government) wants to promote information communications technologies (ICT) in Singapore, but on the other hand, it is also concerned about ICT abuses. So, it tries to put certain controls, but unfortunately, the Internet is not easily controlled by any one government or one organisation."
Mr Mahizhnan believes the way forward is to accept that there will be a divergence of views in the digital world. As such, he believes the focus should be on building a socially immune system. Hailing groupings such as the Parents Advisory Group for the Internet (PAGi) as exemplary, he said: "The move for society to build its own defences has to be a many-pronged approach, both top-down and bottom-up."
But will new media have any impact on regulations governing the mainstream press in Singapore?
Another panellist, Associate Professor Tey Tsung Hun who teaches at the National University of Singapore's law faculty, takes a cautious stand. He said: "It is unlikely that we will see any changes in the legislative framework governing the print media in the next two to three years. There is no reason to change the law unless there is evidence that it is not conducive to the Government's aspiration to develop Singapore as a media hub."
But panellist Au was hopeful. Citing the advent of gay websites, he said at the session: "Here is maybe an example where new media can lead to social change which, in turn, in due course might lead to a loosening of regulations governing mainstream media." -
http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com/2007/05/best-of-times-worst-of-times.html
An interesting post by Elia Diodati - the State of the Singapore Blogosphere, May 2007. Among other things, it summarises the recent departures of several well-known bloggers from the blogosphere. The tentative conclusion is that the Singapore blogosphere is currently in bad shape.
I don't quite agree - there's one element which Elia Diodati didn't notice. In April 2007, there was a massive increase in my readership numbers. Emphasis on "massive". The main driver was the ministers' salary increase. I believe that many other Singapore blogs probably enjoyed a huge increase too.
My theory is that every time one of those types of events occur - eg a James Gomez election saga or the ministers raising their own salaries - a considerable number of Singaporeans flock to the Internet for alternative views, and end up discovering the blogosphere for the first time. In other words, the blogosphere gets a new big crowd of readers.
More importantly, if past experience is anything to go by, these new readers don't go away either. Instead they stick around for more and more. For example, in May 2006 (General Elections), my readership almost doubled, compared to April and March 2006. However, after the General Elections were over, readership numbers did not fall to the pre-May 2006 levels. Instead they stayed constant or resumed growing at a gradual rate.
In other words, controversial events drive up the readership of the Singapore blogosphere. And even after the controversial event is over, the new readers stay around. I guess they discover that many things on the Internet are more readworthy than the Straits Times. So the reach of the blogosphere just keeps expanding over time.
So, if you're new, Mr Wang says hello and welcome. However, do go visit other blogs too because Mr Wang has to start studying for his exams. In other words, Mr Wang won't be blogging very much for the next few weeks. -
I think they must be naive and self delusional to underestimate the power of the internet in the long run.Political activism is not just confined to Singapore. When the trends change overseas, Singaporeans would also emulate them. Techniques and strategies would become more advanced and developed.
I wont be surprised if there would be political films to champion a political cause against government policies in future like this one in US.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiEl1EcqnAY
And Youtube can spread like wildfire when the right note is struck. Wasnt Mr brown's podcast on Bar Chor Mee a good example?