Week 8- Stomp!
Stomp, Straits Times Online Media and Print, is Singapore’s answer to citizen journalism. It’s a bit like OhmyNews with a twist, combining user-generated content with the knowledge and skill of educated journalists has proved to be a powerful influence over Singapore’s public attracting 300,000 visitors every year.
The site is fun and exiting with bright colours, bold fonts and seems to be aimed at a younger demographic strengthening the relationship readers and also appeal to non-readers.
How Stomp operates is different to that of OhmyNews, (discussed in week 5) in the way that user-generated content is utilised. People can send in photos or stories that perhaps would be overlooked in some of the mainstream national papers.
These can be sent via mobile phone, SMS, e-mail, phone call etc., and content is sorted though and deemed newsworthy or not by educated and experienced journalists most times the issue or story is re-written by a journalist to produce consistant stories of a newsworthy style in terms of grammar, editing and ethical codes.
However in this editing process they are careful to not change the intention of the article, checking that the citizens who send in the pictures or stories are happy with the changes and the intention or message of the article has not been lost.
As the push continues for fair and accurate news reporting so does the need for citizen contribution, Stomp is a cleaver way of taking the citizens perspective and interests into a mainstream news outlet without sacrificing the professional elements that comes with journalistic writing style.
Check out this video I found on YouTube on Citizen Journalism, it makes things crystal clear.
