STOMP = citizen journalism ?

Citizen journalism, also known as "participatory journalism," is the act of citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information. (Wikipedia , 2007, citizen journalism) “With the evolution of the Internet, websites are no longer just a "read only" medium but a "read-write" medium. We now, than ever before, have access to a broader variety of current information, and we can use it with increasing sophistication (Gillmore, 2004)”. Yes it is true that with the advent of technology, the internet is not the only medium that we can get information, but also we can participate in this medium.

In a 2003 Online Journalism Review article, J. D. Lasica classifies there must have some elements to prove the media as citizen journalism.1) Audience participation, 2) Independent news and information Websites 3) full-fledged participatory news sites 4) Collaborative and contributory media sites 5) other kinds of “thin media’. The first element , “Audience participation” which is basically about the users comments on the attached stories, personal blogs, photos or video footage captured form personal mobile camera, or local news written by residents of a community .In the STOMP there are some sections such as “Star Blog” where you can make a comments on the personal blogs, and “ Singapore Seen ” where the slogan is "You generate the content. You write the reports. You take the photos. You shoot the videos" ("Singapore Seen", 2006).

The second element is called “Independent news and information websites”. It is something about consumer reports and the drudge report. “ST Foodies Club” and “ST Digital Club” are the sections in the STOMP where allows the citizens to write their personal experiences and how do they view on the individual restaurants or the digital product that they bought .This is a kind of consumer reports that allow to consumers to write about their experiences.

These are the examples of some elements that mention in STOMP. Other than that the rest of the elements are not really provided in the STOM . Therefore, I personally think that STOMP is a sort of citizen journalism but it is not a ideal form of journalism.

IMPROVEMENT

I think the most recent article posted showing up first and so on . Instead of readers to scroll through the headlines to find something that interests them . They should provide some categories in the first page where all the best articles can be posted and the voting system among the personal articles to find the best article of the week .

REFERENCES

Gilmor, D. (2004). We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. United States: Oreilly Publishing. Retrieved March 28, 2007 from the World Wide Web:http://download.nowis.com/index.cfm?phile=WeTheMedia.html&tipe=text/html

Wikipedia. “Citizen journalism”. (2007). Retrieved on 28 March 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_journalism

"Singapore Seen". (2006). [On-line]. Retrieved March 28. 2007 from the World Wide Web:http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/index.aspx