the blink times

I contemplated if I should send this to the local press, but I held back for fear that they might just shoot themselves in the leg by publishing it. While there’s plenty of pro-digital speculations on the changing face of newspapers and journalism, I am of the opinion that it will probably take two or three more generations to lapse before they are fully consumed by blogs on cyberspace. As of now, the cracks are showing, so let’s close in on their causes.

1. Dependence on mass consumption

Andy Ho, a veteran writer for the Straits Times, commented in an article (May 21) that academic publications are “highly profitable”, because the community that fuels them with content has to pay for the exact same information to expand its research. Mr. Ho went on to postulate that consumers are all segregated according to niche interests, and argued that they will use different platforms (e.g. websites, blogs, magazines, newspapers) to find and feed on the information they need. The USP for professional journalists, is that they are able to consistently deliver content, 365 days a year.

Are these so-called unique attributes a technological obstacle for bloggers a.k.a “citizen journalists”? Certainly not. One one hand, academic journals do not work on a framework of “instant information”; all findings and theories are heavily scrutinized before they are given printing space. These publications are fundamentally esoteric and they see no need in catering to the needs of the masses, unlike the average daily. Newspapers would make a loss too, if they ever decide to evolve into more scholarly material.

On the other hand, blogs are able to reduce the time and space required to deliver newsworthy content. Objective reporting, I would argue, is highly relative, because professional journalists have also been criticised by politicians as “right-wing” or biased. If it’s all about who is writing and who is reading, there isn’t much of a distinction between blogs and papers.

2. Sensitivities to political interests

It is at this juncture that cyberspace provides the ideal avenue of escape from the control freaks that we respectfully call the “Government”. This is especially visible in Singapore’s media landscape, where disenfranchised intellectuals have developed sites showcasing alternative political views. Some people have grown sceptical of the neutrality of the press, because of the close ties shared between media conglomerates and political parties.

However, I tend to think that such arguments are somewhat an exaggeration. The Government is still wary of the press for its potential to induce social panics (e.g. sensationalism of political news) and the press, in the name of cultivating an informed public, certainly has had its share of bad times with the powers that be. Despite the above paradox, the margin of political censorship between blogs and newspapers remains huge. This has inevitably increased the proportion of citizens taking their opinions online.

As someone who uses the Internet all too often, I have certainly stumbled upon insightful blog posts that are as good, if not better than your average press commentary. But even as I look forward to the future of New Journalism, I must always bear in mind that an old couple living with me still prefers the pages of the Straits Times over the glare of the computer screen.

So let’s be patient and let nature (erm no, the media) take it’s course, shall we?