STOMP

What is “citizen journalism”? In Singapore, that's STOMP. A website run by Singapore’s largest newspaper, The Straits Times, STOMP is a website which allows normal Singaporeans to contribute stories.

Now, I read that many Singaporeans are against the website with an online petition calling for its shutdown. The petition has been gaining momentum on social media and has currently 8,013 supporters. The main complain they have seems to be fabricated content posted by contributors to the STOMP website.

Now I'm not a big fan of STOMP but I don't get this petition at all. Yes, there's wrong stories posted there but there's wrong things posted on Wikipedia also and I do see any online petition to shut that down. I mean that's what you're going to get if you allow anyone to post things online. I post anything I want on my blog and though I try, I'm sure I got things wrong before. It comes with the territory when you do things as a hobby (even if it's a serious hobby) with no editor hovering above you.

More importantly, if you shut down STOMP...where else is there for Singaporeans to post their stories? STOMP isn't just a website for “citizen journalism” in Singapore, it's the ONLY website for “citizen journalism” in Singapore! If not STOMP, where else is there?

Netizens supporting the petition to shut STOMP down should ask that question too. STOMP is by no means perfect but in Singapore, there’s nowhere else to go.