TODAY: Bloggers get a battering from mainstream media
Excerpt:
IF you read the local newspapers over the weekend, you'd have seen many column inches devoted to blogs — how useless and inconsequential they are, and then how dangerous they are. A few bloggers' feathers were ruffled by one tabloid's investigative piece titled "Blogheads or what?", which drew a comparison of the contents of American and Singapore blogs. Blogger "Sheylara" (www.sheylara.com) retorted, "you can't help but sense the strong disparaging undertone just yelling out between the lines of this particular article … It is saying that Singaporean bloggers are second-rate compared to US bloggers". On top of that, there was the inimitable journalist Sumiko Tan weighing in on the Internet and blogs as well.Read more here.
posted by Mr Miyagi at 8/03/2005 03:36:00 PM
22 Comments:
Can you blame the local press' cynicism on local blggers when that fat-ass Kenny Sia launches an unprovoked attack on my idol, Furongjiejie ! XX and SPG aint got nothing her, Kenny you vicious lardball !!! Long live FRJJ !!!!
I find many sg blogs are simply infantile and inconsequential - the bloggers write about what they eat, where they go shopping and things like that. And many were in terrible english.
Some people seem to use the word fuck indiscriminately and so often that it becomes meaningless and loses its significance.
Some others use foul language to scold people who were merely doing their jobs (policemen, LTA planners for examples)but when others do the same to them in their comments, they get offended.
i've never liked sumiko tan, always thought of her as kinda airhead-ish. however, after this, my hatred for her knows no bounds. one article was bad enough, but it seems like all she can write about now are her pseudo-intellectual rants on internet and blogging. i think she actually gets her rocks off of appearing to be all philosophical and shit.
that's quite funny now you mention it. One of the more illustrious Aussie mags here actually has a bathtub of stories. And by that I mean a literal bathtub- y'know. Faucets, rubber duck.
You know how the local press is, all they do is to publish official statements from government agencies. Either that or they have journalists who whine incessantly (Sumiko Tan), lectures people with a holier-than-thou tone (the Chua sisters, Sumiko Tan) etc etc.
It's no wonder that they are very afraid of the onslaught of the denizens of blogosphere.
Real news, real views, real diversity.
You hate people just because of your own perception or because people wrote things you don't like? What rubbish!
I generally agree with Sumiko wrote.
I think 'denizens of blogosphere' can only be taken seriously if they are prepared to reveal their real names and faces. Otherwise, how can we take someone seriously if he hurls accuses, and spews nonsense hiding behind a false front.
ha,ha, there is nothing to fear about
so-called blogsphere. most bloggers just play play only
if the providers charge a monthly fee or if they require you to post your real name, email etc, then i doubt many will continue blogging. maybe only serious ones.
Dear Anonymous #4,
You resemble your comments. How cool is that?
Dear Qui Ann and Anonymous #5,
My name is Benjamin Lee, I am 36, and my email address is bsylee@gmail.com, but I do not expect to be taken seriously.
Your theory spoyr already.
The way I see it, this could be anywhere from truly enlightening to completely pointless and stupid.
Dear Mesdames and Messrs Anonymous #4, #5 and Qui Ann, (who whilst criticising the anonymity of bloggers, have chosen to remain so yourself):
The anonymous Pamphleteer (or it's modern incaranation as an anonymous blogger) is a old and hallowed institution, with a long tradition of public service in effecting social change by a combination of scrutiny,scathing wit and parody.
More famously, the British ignored the effective of numerous free and independent publishing presses in the troublesome colony known as America. They regarded an anonymous writer publishing under the name "Prudence Makepeace" as a gadfly and irritant, what with her petty concerns about the price of tea and other worrying taxes imposed by the British without the requisite parlimentary representation.
You would be interested to know that Ms Prudence Makepeace was the nom de plume of Benjamin Franklin, of whom you may have heard.
The rest is, as the British are so fond of saying, history.
True. If even people who make comments in blogs dare not reveal their true identity (myself included), how do we expect people to listen to us, the blogsphere people?
Then if every time someone writes something unfavourable or critizes blogs or bloggers, we get angry and upset and start to dislike this person and hates that person, it just shows our narrow-mindedness and intolerance.
You are one of the few who reveal the true identity but I see you are responsible and don't 'anyhow' say things, unlike some annonymous ones.
My logic is still valid.
Mr Benjamin Lee, if the provider charges you a fee every month (lets say $10 ~ $30 depending on size)for your blog, would you still continue?
Supreme irony that our 147th ranked press choose to have the bimbotic blogger, Xiaxue as one of its columnist !
Perhaps some others as well as Xiaxue were approached to be one but, for various reasons, the others rejected.
I dislike much of her writings (actually I didn't read much.) but I admire her courage to be visible.
dear anonymous,
what makes your comments more valid than other's 'anyhow say things'?
small places tend to breed small minds.
Some bloggers have the illusion that their blogs are unique and influential and when they get a 'battering', they feel hurt and small.
I think blogs are as significant as mosquito shit.
Sorry creatures like Miyagi and other foul-mouthed blogsphere scumbags are just that -infantile and inconsequential. Shame on you fellas - go get a life instead of trying so hard to be hip and supercool in blogsphere. You think that a liberal dose of the f-word plus your pseudo-angmo postings will make you out to be mightier than what you truly are - you wretched, miserable nitwits!!
This really is very sad to see. Some blogs don't pretend to be backed by AFP, Reuters or such. These blogs provide opinion, whether factual, objective or otherwise, but a blog is a repository of someone's opinion and not intended to be a bible-truth version of events.
And yet journalists, vicious Singaporeans assume bloggers should be the pristine, serious, mature members of the citizenry that they presume themselves to be.
What complete and utter hogwash. And by now, the powers that be have successfully painted bloggers as infantile, pointless, attention-seeking denizens of the internet who are, according to comments on this very site, losers.
Don't you all find it funny that a Singaporean's worst enemy are their fellow Singaporeans? I find it uproariously funny, if not tragic.
So, yes, there are bloggers that will immediately annoy, like Xiaxue. There are those that would draw sarcastic comments like the in-your-face Sarongpartygirl, and yet more blogs that would draw yawns.
But, get this: they're blogging to please themselves. Not you, not the NST and certainly not a washed-out, single 40-something with a penchant for blubbering about life like a Singaporean version of Ally McBeal.
She should get a life, and so should you puerile detractors.
But every time the press has an unfavourable report about blogging, bloggers, Mr Miyagi included, seem to be offended. Doesn't this give the impression that they only want favourable reviews.
Furthermore, people like junno used such strong words like "hatred knows no bounds" for a journalist as if she has killed and dismembered his loved one. Isn't this extreme intolerence.
Mr Miyagi how comes you allows aninnymous pipples to write comments? They're so brave when hiding behind the quote-unquote "evil" mask of anonymity, as Sumiko puts it.
BTW I was not in newsroom!!!!! Aiyah!!!! Never mind, I was an intern (still counts but then got blackballed for being insubordinate...), I think that counts. I will get Kannan Chandran to defend me!
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