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'Citizen Journalism': Bridging the Discrepancy in Singapore's www.ssoar.info ’Citizen Journalism’: Bridging the Discrepancy in Singapore’s General Elections News Gomez, James Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Zur Verfügung gestellt in Kooperation mit / provided in cooperation with: GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Gomez, J. (2006). ’Citizen Journalism’: Bridging the Discrepancy in Singapore’s General Elections News. Südostasien aktuell : journal of current Southeast Asian affairs, 25(6), 3-34. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-336844 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY-NC-ND Lizenz This document is made available under a CC BY-NC-ND Licence (Namensnennung-Nicht-kommerziell-Keine Bearbeitung) zur (Attribution-Non Comercial-NoDerivatives). For more Information Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.de Südostasien aktuell 6/2006 3 Studie ’Citizen Journalism’: Bridging the Discrepancy in Singapore’s General Elections News James Gomez Abstract The political expression of ordinary Internet users in Singapore has received the attention of some scholars but very little has been specifically written about citizen journalism during general elections. Since the arrival of the Internet in Singapore in 1995, the People’s Action Party (PAP) government has actively sought to control the supply of online political content during the election campaign period. This paper looks at how online political expressions of ordinary Internet users and the regulations to control them have taken shape during the last three general elections in 1997, 2001 and 2006. In absolute electoral terms there seems to have been no impact over the last three general elections. However, as a supplementary medium for alternative information during elections, the Internet has made some headway. It remains to be seen if this headway will have an impact on the absolute electoral results in future elections or become the target of increased control. (Received July 20, 2006; accepted for publication October 17, 2006) Keywords: Singapore, elections, Internet, Journalism, opposition The Author James Gomez is a PhD Candidate at the Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, Australia. His most recent articles include “Restricting Free Speech: The Impact on Opposition Parties in Singapore”, in: Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies Special Issue: Stability, Risks and Opposition in Singapore (2006), 23. (Copenhagen Business School, Denmark) and “International NGOS: Filling the civil society ‘gap’ in Singapore”, in: Sojourn: Special Focus on Democracy and Civil Society: NGO Politics in Singapore (2005), 20 (2) (Institute for Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore). He maintains a website at www. jamesgomeznews.com and can be contacted at [email protected]. 4 Südostasien aktuell 6/2006 Studie ’Bürger-Journalismus’ – Die Aufdeckung der Widersprüchlichkeiten in der Berichterstattung über die allgemeinen Wahlen in Singapur James Gomez Abstract Die Forschung hat jüngst den politischen Äußerungen von Internetnutzern verstärkte Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt. Bislang ist jedoch sehr wenig über die journalistischen Beiträge von Bürgern im Internet erforscht worden. Seit Einführung des Internets hat die People’s Action Party (PAP) während des Wahlkampfes versucht, eine stärkere Kontrolle der politi- schen Inhalte im Internet zu sichern. Der vorliegende Aufsatz behandelt die politischen Äußerungen und rechtlichen Kontrollen bei den Wahlen in den Jahren 1997, 2001 und 2006. An den Ergebnissen lässt sich bislang keine Wirkung ablesen. Als ergänzendes Medium für alternative Informationen während des Wahlkampfes hat das Internet jedoch Fortschritte gemacht. Es bleibt abzuwarten, ob diese Fortschritte auch Wirkung auf die Wahlen haben oder ob sie zur Zielscheibe zunehmender Kontrolle werden. (Eingereicht am 20.07.2006; angenommen zur Veröffentlichung am 17.10.2006) Keywords: Singapur, Wahlen, Internet, Journalismus, Opposition Der Autor James Gomez ist Doktorand am Monash-Institut in Australien. Seine letzten Veröffentli- chungen sind: „Restricting Free Speech: The Impact on Opposition Parties in Singapore”, in: Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies, und „International NGOS: Filling the civil society ‘gap’ in Singapore“, in: Sojourn: Special Focus on Democracy and Civil Society: NGO Politics in Singapore (2005). Seine Website ist zu finden unter www.jamesgomeznews.com. Contact: [email protected] Citizen Journalism 5 1 Introduction Whether it is the use of the Internet by civil society actors to create public space (Ho, Baber & Khondker 2002) or to examine how the authoritarian Singapore regime has responded to the use of the Internet by individuals and groups for democratic expression (Sussman 2003), the relationship between democracy and the Internet has become an important focus of study. It has prompted one set of contributors (Banerjee and Yeo 2003) to argue that context-related variables are im- portant in determining if the Internet can indeed deliver democracy socio-political contexts such as Singapore. This view is shared by another academic who argues that the capacity for new media to have a democratic impact lies in the existence of an organised political force, and the ruling party’s agenda in Singapore is to prevent precisely that from happening (Rodan 2003). Thus, non-technological factors are important to understanding why the use of the Internet for democratic expression in Singapore is much lower than in Malaysia, argues another writer. (George 2003; 2006). This paper adds to this group of studies on the Internet and democracy in Singapore, but its special focus is on elections and the online expressions of non-party affiliated individuals and groups or citizen journalism. Since the Internet became publicly accessible in Singapore in 1995, non-political party affiliated individuals and groups have been using different online “platforms” to supply alternative political content during elections. Motivated by a view that the local media is biased against opposition parties, the online medium has been harnessed by non-political party affiliated groups and individuals to provide information about the opposition not available in the local media. These online platforms have included discussion groups, mailing lists, websites, online petitions, podcasts and blogs, signaling that over the last decade online political expression during elections has evolved and diversified in Singapore. Although there is one study that has examined the supply of political content by political parties (Kluver 2004), there is no study to date that has exclusively examined the supply of online political content offered through platforms set up by non-political party Internet users during the election campaign period. Hence, this paper seeks to fill the gap by analysing how the trends in non-party affiliated political expression over the Internet have evolved during the last three general elections in 1997, 2001 and 2006. In particular it discusses the impact of the Internet and blogs during the 2006 general elections. In doing so, this paper 6 James Gomez seeks to reflect on the following questions. How has online political expression by non-political party individuals and groups during elections evolved in Singapore? How has the PAP government responded to this? What kind of impact, if any, has online political expression had on Singapore politics? Can the Internet contribute to multi-party democracy? What challenges will online citizen journalism in Singapore face in the coming years? To facilitate this research, interviews with long time users of the Internet were important to collate and analyze the information gathered. The bulk of the interviews were undertaken in 2005 as part of the author’s fieldwork for a PhD. Additional information was gathered during and after the 2006 general elections. The interviews included both face-to-face in-depth interviews and questions sent via e-mail. In interviews conducted by this researcher with Internet activists in late 2005, almost all individuals interviewed noted that blogging has become the new arena of political expression. Unlike previous general elections, the 2006 elections saw a significant surge in online political expression. Blogs in particular showed they had the potential to widen the alternative coverage through citizen reporting. This led the 2006 elections to be dubbed as Singapore’s first “Internet election”. This surge in online activity was in part due to the presence of further innovation on the Internet, such as blogs, podcasting and vodcasting. It was also in part due to many bloggers in the 2006 elections ignoring restrictions put in place by the ruling party. Because blogs are part of ongoing studies on citizen journalism in Singapore, a look at blogs from the perspective of how online political expression during elections have evolved in the city-state can be informative. Until blogging became prominent in the 2006 general elections, many aca- demics and analysts were largely skeptical about the proliferation and impact of blogs. They were also skeptical whether blogs and the Internet could have any political impact on general elections in Singapore. Associate Professor Randolph Kluver, executive director of the Singapore Research Centre had this to say before the 2006 general elections, Blogs are an interesting
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