7/31/2007

Citizen journalism

It is reported that NowPublic, a citizen website in Vancouver, now has 120,000 contributing 'reporters' in more than 140 countries. Though the figure is definitely exaggerated, but even a 10% active contributors will mean a figure of 12,000. Thats very good. Redbeanforum and Mysingaporenews have quite a lot of readers and some contributors. It will be nice if everyone do a little reporting and contribution and we can grow a bit bigger. Everyone is a citizen journalist. It is not just reporting, but expressing a different view point on things and events. The age of citizen journalism is here. Technology has make it so convenient and efficient for anyone who has something to say to say it, without having to be vetted or edited to suit someone else agenda. Citizens must exploit this new tool to the fullest for personal development, satisfaction or to better the life of the people or the cities or countries they are living in. Gagging of public voices is a thing of the past.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

If we are to be "online reporters" on your blog, how does one submit a post??

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

hi anon.

the easiest actually is to use the forum format in redbeanforum.com. jsut register and post.

in the case of a blog, i think i will have to include your nick as a co contributor. read that some times back. now got to figure out how to do it.

blog is a bit limited in its capability and flexibility. and a few new responses to old posts did pop up once a while but too far deep in to response.

and for all of us here, i think we are quite reasonable in out comments without trying to get ourselves hanged. so posting here or in redbeanforum should not be an issue.

cheers.

Anonymous said...

Can include vuglarity & blasphemous slurs or not? ;-)

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

don't lah. if we want people to take us seriously, then we need to be reasonable and logical. we have to find our niche in cyberspace.

talkingcock has a niche, mr brown has a niche, ypap has a niche. our niche need not be the same as them. if we can present ourselves as sensible people talking and exchanging views, we will attract other like minded people here.

we need to build up a core of forumers. now we have malaysians and indonesians and fts with us. and elle and speed are from uk. not forgetting matilah from oz/phuket: )

this is a good start.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

hi all,

we have all had a good round of practice posting here and i am very comfortable with the things we posted. and all of you have done quite good restraint by not going too wild.

if we are going to make our voices heard, we can improve on our posts. and redbeanforum is the better site. we can be heard if we want it. look at ypap the last few days, not many posts. we are even doing better here.

so how, want to make an effort to post at redbeanforum?

Anon.Dimwit said...

Got include me or not?
Eh? Like never hear my name leh?! ;)

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

sure you are included, dimwit. everyone here is included. and new ones too.

but can everyone just post here to confirm that we will do most of our postings at redbeanforum? it is more convenient. any new post, no matter how old is the thread, will pop up at the top. easier to follow and reply.

we can still keep this blog alive but divert traffic to the forum.

cheers.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

fuck the journalism lah. Who say's journalism is something to be "proud" about?

This is all about EMPOWERMENT of the individual—i.e. the idividual comes first—the main purpose.

The ONLY purpose of govt is to SERVE the individuals' interests. Govt is not supposed to BULLY individuals.

In the age of personal empowerment, the state and government are becoming less relevant. However, govts are not going away quietly, they are struggling for survival and thus are resorting to 'tactics" like banning websites, locking up "cyber dissenters" and bloggers, and increasing the powers of the courts and the police.

However are free people we can say:
FUCK THE GOVERNMENT

Why?

Because The Government IS OUR SERVANT, it works for us, and therefore we can SCOLD IT if it misbehaves.

Anonymous said...

Can include vuglarity & blasphemous slurs or not? ;-)

don't lah. if we want people to take us seriously, then we need to be reasonable and logical. we have to find our niche in cyberspace.

Huh? We got hear wrongly?
What are we hearing here?
Wait long long la, Red Beanie!

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

citizen journalism or reporting or the people's voice or view or whatever is only a cliche. what is impt now is that the people has a voice and this voice cannot be gagged.

and we the people must use this voice positively. people will be irritated that's for sure. but we need to be careful and not be carried away by this new found tool.

a journey of a thousand miles start with one step : )

the internet is going to be the biggest revolution in communication and information transfer for this century. it is immediate, fast and free from any interference except the author himself. it will transform many things, how people see things, hear things and react to things and events.