10/12/2009

What is public interest?

We had been hit by a continuous barrage of articles that were deemed news worthy during the Aware saga and the recent Miss Singapore World scandal. The amount of information and effort spent on these two issues, the number of space allocated to report on them, must have given the public the impression that these were two very serious issues that were affecting the lives of Singaporeans, or at least Singaporeans were nosey and lapped them up with glee. We had a few reports of the LUP in opposition wards and the prominent role played by grassroot leaders over the role of elected MPs. There must be many interesting angles to look at this development, from the constitutional, political and party politics angles. I am hoping that this will be news worthy enough for the issue to be discussed at least for a month with the main media giving it an in depth coverage, front page and centre spread. Looks like this issue is of not much public interests and has died a natural death after a couple of reports and a letter from Low Thia Khiang. Not news worthy. Does not affect the lives of Singaporeans or our political system and culture.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

On the other side of the coin, it could be a reflection of what the public is interested in.

Newspapers have to ensure revenue covers costs. To publish news of little interest will affect their bottomline.

But then, as usual, we expect them to do what we want. Who cares if they can't afford to pay their reporters.

It's our national papers. The government should not talk profitability. But don't they dare waste taxpayers' money on a mainstream newspaper with a dwindling readership.

Anonymous said...

If the Main Stream Medias are to glorify the MUP, LUP or Home Improvement in Opposition Wards,

it could lead to more constituencies becoming Opposition Wards.

It is just plain commonsense.

patriot