There is a conclusion posted at the bottom of this post, which I can respond to by asking that if I had never raised the topic in the first place on Thursday, April 21, 2005 would more politically orientated bloggers have emerged? The original assertion was a descriptive interpretation not a prediction.
Aside from the debate it is great to see researchers taking a keen interest in the fascinating Singapore Blogosphere.
By Hwee Hwee Tan RMIT University
It all started when ...
Singabloodypore said, "Yes I am aware of some very mature blogs written by anonymous bloggers, to name just two, the likes of Wannabe Lawyer, Singapore Commentator stand out but go read the likes of MrBrown, Xiaxue and other certain blogs that shall not be named, and it is full of infantile sub intelligentia nonesense. I am very sorry for leaving Mr Miyagi out of the list."
A blog post that sparked off an online and offline debate on the voice of Singapore blogosphere ...
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Is Singapore blogosphere infantile?
I set out to explore the issues arising from Steve's critique of Singapore blogosphere through a series of interviews with three seasoned Singaporean bloggers. This section captures selected excerpts and audio files from these interviews.
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Are we infantile?
By no means representative of the entire blogosphere or for that matter the featured bloggers in entirety, this section draws on selected texts from Mr Brown, Mr Miyagi and Xiaxue, in an attempt to provide a flavour of the voices of these celebrity bloggers.
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Beyond Tomorrow
The concluding section of this documentary reviews the role of bloggers in the recent Singapore Election, alluding to emerging issues that will continue to shape te ambivalent future of Singapore blogosphere.
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Related Links from the Site:
Group dynamics in Singapore blogosphere
The voice of popular blogging
Inscribing cyber politics in Singapore – satirical politics of the personal
Infantile bloggers - politics of the personal?
Whilst these developments may appear to disprove Steve McDermott's critique of the Singapore blogosphere, it remains unknown whether blogs in Singapore will persistently serve as alternative sites to diversity the political discourse in Singapore. Rather than heralding the democratic potential of blogs, I would argue that blogs are by nature more of a self-serving means of expression than a representation of popular will. Hence, it remains to be seen whether in a closely monitored Police State, a centralising structure such as Tomorrow and the emergence of celebrity bloggers may serve to amalgamate the collective intelligence rather than privilege the voice of a dominant collective in the Singapore blogosphere. http://raws.adc.rmit.edu.au/~s3090325/beyondtomorrow.html
3 comments:
A recent entry in Tomorrow may prove Steve McDermott right. It's totally devoid of content. Just antics to get noticed. And it gets 1400 reads and 59 comments when I looked. Infantile is defininitely the word.
See: Tomorrow Sg Hates Blinkymummy
I used to run an annual contest called the "Shitblog Awards" from my site, wwww.evilatheist.com which featured the worst blogs people have ever seen and then they would send it to me. Being from Singapore, most of the blogs I received were from Singapore so yes, the bad is DEFINITELY BAD. But we also have great blogs like singaporeelection and others. I mean, I am no fan of "celebrity bloggers" and I don't think that anyone deserves cult status by just stating in reasonably coherent language what he/she did that day. We used to call them "attention whores" but now we call them "celebrity bloggers", but that doesn't mean that ALL of Singapore's blogs can be classified as infantile any more than say blogs from Tokyo or Texas. Singaporean blogs are as good as, and often as bad as, blogs from say Bombay or New York.
My own "blog" (much as I despise the term), has been called different things by different people. I have had people (and their parents) threatening to fling defamation suits at me over their names appearing in the Shitblog Awards and at the same time, a couple of university professors I know have encouraged me to keep up the good work, so I don't know. Infantile in the eyes of the beholder?
Hades, the Evil Atheist
http://www.evilatheist.com
Fuck the state and fuck the bloggers who presume to be the "new authority"
And WHO pray tell, is the arbiter of maturity or immaturity?
In my very own psychotic mind, anything which destabilises the state is a damn good thing—including natural disasters, nuclear war and deadly viral epidemics.
On with the show!
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