Comments, opinions and an occasional ramble
Power to the bloggers
Today I attended the Industry Advisory Council (IAC) meeting by my department. A short background for those who do not know what the IAC is about, basically my department (the Communications and New Media Programme) meets with communications industry professionals once a year to seek feedback on the relevance of our curriculum to the industry. In addition, there are panel discussions from the industry professionals about on-going trends in the new media industry.
The organisations represented on the IAC are pretty impressive. They include Singapore Airlines, Singapore Press Holdings, Lenovo Asia Pacific, IDA, MDA, Universal McCann, Singtel, George Lucas Educational Foundation, International Game Developer’s Association of Singapore (IGDA), Proximity Singapore, PR Communications, Red Shoe Communications, Institute of Policy Studies and Wordsmith Consultancy. I think it’s a pretty impressive list.
What I found really interesting and heartening is that almost all the organisations were unanimous in their assessment of new media. They think that new media is powerful. Blogs came up for mention several times. I think Stephen Forshaw, the Vice-President of Public Affairs in SIA probably summed things up best when he said that with new media, reputation that organisations carefully build up for years can be gone in a matter of hours, not days. He raised the case of Dell, where one blogger complained, some bloggers picked up the complaint to comment, and subsequently, even more bloggers picked up the complaint to write about. It became a self-sustaining negative viral campaign, and Dell’s image went down the drain in a matter of hours.
I’m very glad that at the very least, private companies appreciate the power of the blogosphere. Now that anyone has the ability to be a publisher, it is very difficult to control publicity online once the spread starts. Like a contagious flu bug, good and bad news will jump from one blog to another, one discussion forum to another, and from blogs to forums and vice-versa. It’s a public relations nightmare, especially when you have a high percentage of population with access to the Internet. In the past, a public relations practitioner could probably have some degree of ability to control damage from bad publicity by dealing with the media outlets, which usually isn’t that many. However, I’m fairly certain that it’s impossible to do damage control with thousands, if not tens of thousand of blogs.
What I learnt today, coupled with the internet “counter-insurgency” initiative announced by the government a couple of weeks ago is that everyone agrees (directly or indirectly) that bloggers are collectively powerful. Notice the word collective. One blogger cannot make a difference. When many bloggers band together, there’s strength in unity. Yet, even though the collective strength of bloggers are so powerful, it would be wishful thinking on the part of anyone to try and even attempt to control this monstrous strength. This is because the blogging community is an extremely fragmented bunch. Everyone has a different agenda. It is almost impossible to make everyone agree, unless they want to agree. Therefore, the power of blogosphere has manifested only on a few occassions where an incident strikes a common chord with majority of the bloggers (think Wee Shu-min).
I think Singaporean bloggers should celebrate their status as a blogger, because we are a part of this massive global revolution in communication. For too long, we have been deemed as frivolous by the mainstream media and government leaders. It is time to change that mindset.
Power to the bloggers.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Aaron Ng on 15/02/2007 at 1:25 am, and is filed under Perspective, Technology. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 3 years ago
I am actually waiting and seeing about how the blogosphere reacts to its new-found sense of power.
After years of denial and making the blogosphere seem like a place of zero credibility and for dishonest people which do not agree with our politicians’ happy, saccharine family images, the ‘counter-insurgency’ shows something.
They are afraid of the blogosphere.
But can we handle that power? Will we see a surge in anti-establishmentism? Or will there be more people willing to discuss rationally?
THAT remains to be seen. I am always wary of discovering such power…because power corrupts. I wonder if the Blogosphere will be corrupted by this fresh sense of power, and leave the politicians saying ‘we told you so’ before introducing legislation.
Or will mentalities change at all?
about 3 years ago
Web 2.0 (not just blogging, but social networking sites, YouTube and more) is definitely re-defining media – budding bands rely on MySpace for PR, lively forums (like these) can change political winds, and even my local symphony has blogs to garner more interest. We are but the agents of change.
2 cents on momentum and abuse of power: It’s all about checks and balances – bloggers may be an underground force that crumbles reputations and spreads epidemics of cynicism, but the blogging community is diverse enough that there’s always someone somewhere to call on another’s bullsh*t, and who thinks differently. Feedback to the feedback, y’know. A prolific blogosphere only breeds more discerning and critical readers/bloggers. Bloggers are only powerful if they share a common agenda, as explained in the original post (democracy in action), but are different enough to not collectively abuse/misuse the ‘newfound power’. Which is good… cos a mob mentality is bad news.
about 3 years ago
Hi guojun,
I don’t have a crystal ball to gaze into, but I think that while the latent potential is there, it is very hard for the entire blogosphere to move in one direction due to its fragmented nature. The only fear I have is that someone knows how to overcome the fragmented nature and is able to quietly manipulate this power for his/her end. It might be a tough job, but I’m not discounting this possibility. That’s what we really need to fear. Perhaps what’s causing the government such discomfort is that they have yet to grasp how to control/manipulate this power, and there might be someone who might actually beat them to it.
about 3 years ago
Hi Meow,
Yes, I agree that Web 2.0 is really defining the way things are moving. The true network nature of the Internet is finally manifesting itself. Previously, we know the Internet is a network, but we only know it as a network of machines. Now, it’s a network of relationships, and this is what makes the Internet truly powerful. I might not be willing to do something on my own, but if others in my network are doing it, I might just do it. The potential for collateral action is enormouss. And, exciting.
about 3 years ago
No no no…we are weak and powerless and tired and sleepy – dun come disturb us….
about 3 years ago
Change mindset if you will, it’s only “truth” that matters – the truth that is willing to fight and conquer. Ever heard how microsoft paid cash to edit online wikipedia items which suppose to be FREE?!
Using corporations as example of power and change… is a hypocrisy at large. Corporations exist for one reason only: to maximize profit. Neither history nor logic gives any reason to think that profit-maximizing leads to meaningful freedom and democracy. Corporations such as SPH, MDA, Temasek, GIC are undemocratic internally and usually hostile to democracy externally. PAP has done a great job silencing individuals and masking the important issues by placing public emphasis on capitalist dictatorship and environment in which corporations are able to generate massive profits by exploiting the environment.
Aaron Ng here is obviously pretending as though he’s one of the bloggers changing the face of Singapore Politics. He has no idea what it means to take up an activist role in this digital democracy age, because he is busy being “centrist blogger” in a state of dis-equilibrium.
about 3 years ago
Then would John like to enlighten us on what consitutes an activist role?
about 3 years ago
John,
First off, it takes 2 hands to clap. I am assuming that it was true that Microsoft paid money. On that assumption, why are you blaming Microsoft and not blaming wikipedia? Is the problem the corporation, or that some elements of new media allowed themselves to be corrupted by corporations? If you are not even clear on this, your argument falls apart.
Secondly, youu are cherry picking examples to prove your point. You claim SPH, MDA, Temasek and GIC are profit seeking entities that are not democratic internally. Can you make a similar claim for Hyflux, Creative and UOB? Are you telling me that the latter 3 organisations do not seek profits? And, can you say with the same degree of certainty as you speak of SPH, MDA, Temasek and GIC that these organisations are “democratic”? And, since we are on the point of democracy, please define democracy. Whose definition of democracy are we talking about? And, what makes YOUR definition of democracy the correct definition?
Lastly, on what basis can you claim that I am pretending? Further, on what basis can you claim that I want to change the face of Singapore politics. And, on what basis can you claim that I have no idea what an activisit role is? How do you know we are in a digital democracy age? Just because some people said so?
Anyway, thanks for trolling. It was a good piece for exercise for me to practise meta-philosophy by taking apart your arguments completely.
about 3 years ago
An activist’s role is to fight to give every individuals every choice and option. What Arron Ng is doing is giving far too much credit to corporations that govern our media and economic life, taking away our freedom of choice.
Most of the most important internet developments were not created by corporations, but by private users like us. While e-commerce is an important element, it is not the most significant factor in the development of the internet, nor should this new medium of communication be laid at the feet of corporations to exploit to bring the “truth”.
If Aaron Ng wants to play a big part in the new media, I’m pretty sure sitting on the fence is not going to be a viable strategy for revolution.
about 3 years ago
Then what in ur opinion is a viable strategy for ur said revolution?
about 3 years ago
hey aaron,
in beating the anonymous ‘someone’ to manipulation of the Net – personally, that is something we should live in fear of as well. I hope the politicians realise that there are some things they cannot put an iron grip on, because the more they attempt to, the stronger the backlash is going to be.
Case in point would be when Deep Throat exposed the spies on the Net. I’ve written about it. So have you. So has most other bloggers who have something more to say than what happens every day.
As for us, we have to remain commonsensical. Ideals are good, but without an everyday rational look at things, we will be following Nietzsche and his Superman soon. Common sense is the best way to counter manipulation, unless someone introduces subliminal programming into the Net…
about 3 years ago
Dear Aaron,
As you have correctly said, we need to be collective in our efforts to have some fundamental changes in our current situations here. Some of us are best in doing small things, some are best in doing bigger things. We need to know our limits and work within our limits to change as a collective. One simple effort can be multipled as we go along. We will be collective in time to come.
We do not have to prove to anyone and answer to anything that goes nowhere at the end of the day. Please remember that some people cannot handle the truths.
When the fund donors of kidney patients realised that their money is very badly managed, they did only one simple thing collectively: stop giving. It is the truth that triggers the collective response.
We need to do simple things collectively, in the world of blogosphere.
And I can tell that they are concerned when they saw that we can be collective, after the truth become very clear.
about 3 years ago
In discussing public opinion, content as well as source credibility are both important factors. While it is understandable that bloggers prefer to remain anonymous, I hope that A-list bloggers will shed their masks and show consistency in real life with the views they espouse online.
We hold public figures and politicians to scrutiny to be accountable for the power they wield in society. It is my humble opinion that the blogging community should increasingly become more transparent as they become more empowered in influencing public opinion as well..