MP engaging Temasek Review a “significant” step for alternative media, says researcher
On 2 January 2010,
The Temasek Review published a letter from PAP MP and Deputy Secretary-General of NTUC, Madam Halimah Yacob to clarify her earlier stance on underemployment in Singapore.
Her gesture was hailed by many of our readers as a “positive” one since it is one of the few instances that MPs have bothered to reach out to netizens directly.
Mr Tan Tarn How, a senior research fellow on the New Media at the Institute of Policy Studies, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy called it
a “significant” step for the alternative media:
“In the past, the government has addressed issues brought up without necessarily making a link with specific websites. For instance, Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Lui Tuck Yew addressed concerns expressed online, but did so via the mainstream media than by engaging directly with individual websites,” he said.
Madam Halimah is not the first MP to engage us. A year ago, another PAP MP Charles Chong wrote to us to clarify his infamous statement on “lesser mortals” which was published in TODAY. We published Mr Chong’s letter in full here without any editing.
When interviewed by TODAY, Assistant professor Eugene Tan of the Singapore Management University said:
“On when to seek clarifications, the priority would be to seek corrections from the more prominent websites, blogs or portals……The inaccuracy in question, even if perceived to be minor by some, is deemed to be significant and important enough for Mdm Halimah to clarify her position.”
There are only two major socio-political websites in Singapore, the other being a SPH-endorsed blog.
Despite being constantly promoted by the Straits Times as a “credible” alternative news site in Singapore, its readership is barely a third of The Temasek Review now.
Both
TODAY and Channel News Asia gave prominent coverage on Madam Halimah’s unusual move to engage The Temasek Review with an article titled “Netizens hail MP for engaging blog after being misquoted”. (read article here)
(We shall leave it to our readers to decide if Madam Halimah is really “misquoted”)
It appears that certain quarters within the mainstream media are encouraging PAP MPs to engage netizens directly instead of relying solely on official channels like the REACH feedback portal which is widely decried as a “black hole” for netizens.
At last check, the REACH portal has a traffic of only 10 per cent of The Temasek Review.
Though Mdm Halimah did not “interact” directly with netizens in a sense, her letter has brought her much public goodwill and support.
We also published another article subsequently to applaud her gesture which boosted her public image and standing among the online community literally overnight.
With the new media becoming an increasingly important and influential medium of communication for politicians to reach out to the voters, the PAP will risk alienating a significant proportion of the online community if it persists in its obsolete strategy of engaging netizens only in official channels.
In Malaysia, Taiwan and Japan, many MPs keep a personal blog which is updated frequently to reach out to the young IT-savvy population.
They also have no qualms posting their thoughts and views directly on alternative news websites and socio-political blogs, some of which are run by anonymous bloggers.
Even China’s premier Wen Jiabao found fit to answer questions lobbied at him by anonymous Chinese netizens in an online “dialogue session” organized by CCTV last year.
The old school thought that one’s identity must be known and one’s articles must be perfectly “accurate” is outdated in today’s new media landscape where speed, content and readership count above everything else.
The Temasek Review will always welcome letters and feedback from PAP MPs and members.
While our editorial policy may be slanted slightly towards the opposition, we will ensure that all PAP MPs be given the opportunity to get their intended message out to netizens.
Unlike some YPAP members who resorted to hitting below the belt to fix their opponents, they can rest assured that their letters and comments will be posted on our site in full without any editing, moderation or distortion by us.
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/0...t-step-for-alternative-media-says-researcher/
