5/01/2008

The fascinating world of internet

Blogs and forums are sprouting out daily in cyberspace. There must be several thousands of local blogs and forums out there, from students talking about their school and social lives to hobbyists, food and gourmets, pornography and social political sites. It is blossoming with each day passing. There must be plenty of interesting and exciting things said or happening in cyberspace. OK, I shall not deliberately avoid mentioning Stomp, CNA, P65s and other sites that are being promoted by the msm. All of them are competing for readership. With such a vibrant community existing in cyberspace, the strange thing is that there is no interest in the msm to cover this ground. All we get to hear occasionally is a brief mention of Mr Brown, Yawning Bread, Mr Wang and maybe TOC and no more. Oh, maybe about someone selling food or comics. And if there is any article on internet and cyberspace, it is about something that not many people will not bother, or about blogs existing in Siberia or Timbuctoo perhaps. I read something in the ST talking about starving a dog in Nicaragua and Bonsai Kitten where kittens are stuffed in bottles by Tan Shzr Ee. To be fair, she was skirting around to talk about the meaning internet rants and kpkb. She said people argued that internet activism is ineffective because it was easy and cheap, and would be ignored. She disagreed. She said 'internet furores create a sense of greater awareness, or at least an opportunity for one to find out more.' Views in cyberspace are intentionally and deliberately ignored for obvious reasons. They present a serious challenge to not only the approved truths, but also posed as a serious challenger for readership with the msm. No business enterprise will promote the interests of their competitors or give credits to them. That is expected. Will msm give greater coverage of cyberspace one day, devote a page or a column for it? Not much of a chance if they can help it.

3 comments:

  1. The govt also uses the internet. Why not?

    BBC Hardtalk.

    Redbean, this is an interview worthy of analysis on your blog.

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  2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kishore_Mahbubani provides a pseudo-analysis lol

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  3. thanks matilah and anonymous for the references. seen both which were about the same issue.

    my comments. kishore said west does not understand asia. this is hogwash. the west understood asia completely but ignoring what they see for their own political and economic interests. they are using human rights to bash asia and to contain asia. but i agree with his statement that the west is the problem exactly for this reason.

    i also disagree with him when he said the spore govt won election because of economic growth and raising standard of living and will go on and win all elections because the people support the govt. this was true in the last 3 decades. it is now a fallacy.

    and sackur pointed out to him why, the draconian defamation laws etc to destroy opposition politicians. and kishore went in circles to avoid answering this question. given a choice, with reasonable opposition candidates, i personally think the govt will be voted out in the next election.

    but kishore scored by dragging the conversation into a wider asia versus west devt and away from the lack of credible oppositions in politics here. the latter, everyone knows he failed to answer and has no answer.

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