The Mainstream Media does not get blogs

Reading the ST and wondering if, after all that hullabaloo, they still don't get the present shape of the online community.

About you-know-who--from ST (Apr 24), "Headliners" (subscription required):

The 21-year-old made racist remarks about Indians and Filipinos in his weblog, and got Internet users hot and bothered...

(Filipinos? Huh? [UPDATE: Ok, I recall it now...see the comments]) Anyway, word is that PSC is still investigating. This bit is the clincher:

But bloodthirsty Net users are asking for his scholarship to be taken away. Others want to know if it's safe to speak their minds on the Internet.

I see, so the web reaction is either "we have found a witch, may we burn [him]?" or "I wonder if it's safe to speak my mind on the Internet?" [ADD: Singapore Ink has more to say about the precise reading of the second disjunct.]

There's more--also ST (Apr 24), "Webthreads--A weekly roundup of the most interesting Web discussions by Singaporeans" (subscription required)--on the reactions to the CZ-affair on www.spug.net:

Netizens are now engaged in fierce debate about racism and what should happen to the scholar...'Removing his scholarship is the very least they can do,' wrote escro. ren78 took a softer line: 'Can we not be a little understanding of the fact that even scholars make mistakes?' Lucien, in turn, worried about the underlying racism: 'Will anything change? What does it say about us?'

As for the casino/integrated resort debate at www.sgforums.com:

dragg said it is 'evident we are losing our edge and there are just not enough jobs to go around'. bumbleb said critics 'should at least go through the Government's stand properly and rationally'. ShutterBug said: 'Long after the high-rolling visitors have left our shores, the locals will be mopping up the bill for the broader fallout.'

I see, so the threads at SPUG and sgforums represents the sum of "web discussions" on the fallout of the CZ-affair and the casino debate/decision, eh? Why didn't they say so earlier, so that I didn't have to go through all that trouble for nothing.

UPDATE: JeffYen, the chief moderator of the SPUG forum has a theory that hits the nail on its head:

I think the problem is due to the possibility that the person/s who does the web column in ST has his/her pulse on the forums, only, and is not aware of blogs like this one. [On the other hand, the SPUG] forum is a regular stop for them...

Also, I don't believe that the 'reporters' are interested in getting the real story when they quote the forums. They just take a soundbite and fly with it, to make it as sensational as possible. But, that's nothing new.

I think they would be absolutely astonished by the 2 symposiums, if they have actually seen it...

MSM: they don't get blogs because they don't care, and they don't need to care. shrugs.

Elsewhere, Singapore Commentator links (thanks) and asks some soul searching questions in light of recent pertubations (the infant* affair) in the Singapore Blogosphere:

Personally, though, I am more interested in looking at the issue from another angle: Why is there a lack of serious blogs in Singapore? No, this is not exactly the same question as: Why are Singapore blogs so "infantile"? While the prevalence of so-called "infantile" blogs may crowd out serious blogs, I think the lack of the latter is an issue in its own right.

And I suspect that this may be a more accurate statement of the sentiments underlying the take from Singapore Ink and A Life Uncommon as well. But I'll let the Commentator continue first:

In particular, I think that blogs written by experts on their areas of expertise are especially valuable, because they form the anchors around which other serious blogs can congregate, just as blogs also tend to congregate around mainstream media. However, Gilbert Koh has given one reason why we can’t expect much from one potentially important source: government officers; they can only blog about "infantile" concerns, and maybe poetry (I presume Koh did not officially write poetry for the government).

In the meantime, the lack of such expertise among blogs means that the mainstream media can usually ignore the Singapore blogosphere with little consequence, as they routinely do — see "Blogs as intellectual platforms" and "The Mainstream Media does not get blogs".

That's got to be right; but I'll add these qualifications--the blogs have not actually made such a wave as to become impossible to ignore (a la Rathergate), nor are there rival MSMs that are ready to pounce on a mistake by one of their own when it is exposed by the blogosphere (again, a la Rathergate). This means that in all likelihood, blogs will enter into the mainstream of national discouse through a slow developmental (e.g., as the present generation of mostly younger regular blog writers and readers enters the work force) rather than catastrophic process.

Earlier posts on this subject:

Straits Times and the Blogs (Feb 25)
Straits Times and the Blogs II (Mar 1)
The Blogs and Straits Times (Mar 2)
The Blogs and Straits Times II (Draft) (Mar 3)

[Technorati: singapore, mainstream media, blogosphere, blogging, blogs, blog]