The Impact of Online Politics
With the rise of the Internet age, Governments and Politicians all over the globe are turning to online platforms readily available on the Internet to perhaps, inform, educate, gather insights from citizens, publish upcoming political discussions pertaining to country matters, and most importantly, allow citizens to voice out their concerns, and ideas of feedback for the government to observe and take notice of what is going through the minds of the people.
Ever since the Internet became publicly available in Singapore in 1995, different activist groups have sought to use the medium in a bid to overcome the neglect, bias, and censorship of the local mainstream media's coverage of the opposition parties. In other words, these groups believed that if they used the Internet to provide alternative political content, it might mitigate the censorship and bias in local mainstream media coverage of opposition parties especially during elections.
Government Building Capabilities to Tap on New Media at Next GE
The Internet is a Niche Platform for distributing Political ContentGovernment Building Capabilities to Tap on New Media at Next GE
The Internet has emerged as the platform for civil society, opposition parties, international organizations, and the individual activists to produce and distribute alternative political content. For example, let us assume they are discussing about the PAP government and politics in Singapore that would otherwise not be available on the local mainstream media because of omission, bias or censorship.
However, with the Internet, Political content requires almost zero censorship mainly because the distribution of political content and control of these discussions, are derived from the people, and it is the people consisting of the opposition parties, organizations, and the activists who decide what is to be said, and what is discussed.
The Need for Censorship
Sometimes, what politicians say may not be as fruitful as the the media portrays it, on one hand it may appear as a debate of "Bullshit", on the other hand, some issues are lead to unfriendly exchange of words which resulted in scenes which were indeed, erased. No doubt, this was done for the benefit of others.
However, with the Internet, Political content requires almost zero censorship mainly because the distribution of political content and control of these discussions, are derived from the people, and it is the people consisting of the opposition parties, organizations, and the activists who decide what is to be said, and what is discussed.
The Need for Censorship
Sometimes, what politicians say may not be as fruitful as the the media portrays it, on one hand it may appear as a debate of "Bullshit", on the other hand, some issues are lead to unfriendly exchange of words which resulted in scenes which were indeed, erased. No doubt, this was done for the benefit of others.
The volume of such information and the innovation surrounding its production and distribution is mirrored by the rise in Internet home penetration in Singapore during each election year. In 1997, it was 14%, in 2001 it was 57%, and in 2006 i saw 71%. The projections for 2011 is 86.66% and 2015 is 91.38%. To grasps this idea, the rising level of Internet penetration projected for the coming years, further establishes that the Internet will continue to be a significant medium through which alternative political content will be disseminated during and in-between elections.
Elections & Social Networking Sites
The year 2006 was a landmark year for the new media and citizen journalism in Singapore. The government’s “light touch” approach to regulating the Internet was probably one of the factors that emboldened many Singaporeans to step up and push the political boundaries through their blogs, podcasts (online sound clips) and vodcasts (online video clips). There were too many developments in the new media in Singapore in the past year to capture in one article. Nevertheless, this piece of information in my blog merely highlights just a few of the more significant happenings in Singapore fuelled by this phenomenon.
Social networking platforms such as Facebook and MySpace and an upcoming known as Twitter have emerged as the next big thing on the internet. They are already used extensively by politicians, organizations, nationwide, and elsewhere. Candidates in Singapore would presumably be allowed to use these to put up information about themselves and their positions, as such use would fall within the "positive list" of permitted uses of websites under the Parliamentary Elections (Election Advertising) Regulations (PER). Therefore, people are engaging themselves and getting involved actively online so as to somewhat get the attention of both the Government and organizations.
More intriguing is whether social networking platforms would get around the PER's current restrictions on using e-mail to spread campaign messages. The regulations allow parties to mail to their own mailing lists, but parties can't encourage chain letters: an e-mail is not supposed to invite readers to pass it on to all their friends. This prohibition limits the powerful viral potential of e-mail communication.
The interesting thing about Facebook is that the viral quality is built in. These platforms introduce you to friends of friends in a way that doesn't seem to be captured by the PER, which was formulated back in 2001. Furthermore, what is technically being passed around is not a campaign message but the electronic version of a business card, which again falls outside the scope of the PER. However, this particular type of business card can of course be linked to substantive content, including campaign ads.
In Conclusion
Of course, with technologies evolving round the clock, Politicians are constantly keeping up with the trend and adapting to new media to reach out to everyone including you and myself for their elections and discussions of politics in Singapore.
As what our minister said, President Barack Obama used New Media for his elections, and he demonstrated that this is where everyone is headed, this is where everyone is, and we will go there together.
The question now is whether the government will try to cover social networking in the next round of regulatory innovation, or if it will retreat. To think of it, they might embrace it and try to capitalize social media, but with the Internet always seeing new social networking tools, that would take them a few more presidents before they will succeed.
Sources: - http://theonlinecitizen.com
Elections & Social Networking Sites
The year 2006 was a landmark year for the new media and citizen journalism in Singapore. The government’s “light touch” approach to regulating the Internet was probably one of the factors that emboldened many Singaporeans to step up and push the political boundaries through their blogs, podcasts (online sound clips) and vodcasts (online video clips). There were too many developments in the new media in Singapore in the past year to capture in one article. Nevertheless, this piece of information in my blog merely highlights just a few of the more significant happenings in Singapore fuelled by this phenomenon.
Social networking platforms such as Facebook and MySpace and an upcoming known as Twitter have emerged as the next big thing on the internet. They are already used extensively by politicians, organizations, nationwide, and elsewhere. Candidates in Singapore would presumably be allowed to use these to put up information about themselves and their positions, as such use would fall within the "positive list" of permitted uses of websites under the Parliamentary Elections (Election Advertising) Regulations (PER). Therefore, people are engaging themselves and getting involved actively online so as to somewhat get the attention of both the Government and organizations.
More intriguing is whether social networking platforms would get around the PER's current restrictions on using e-mail to spread campaign messages. The regulations allow parties to mail to their own mailing lists, but parties can't encourage chain letters: an e-mail is not supposed to invite readers to pass it on to all their friends. This prohibition limits the powerful viral potential of e-mail communication.
The interesting thing about Facebook is that the viral quality is built in. These platforms introduce you to friends of friends in a way that doesn't seem to be captured by the PER, which was formulated back in 2001. Furthermore, what is technically being passed around is not a campaign message but the electronic version of a business card, which again falls outside the scope of the PER. However, this particular type of business card can of course be linked to substantive content, including campaign ads.
In Conclusion
Of course, with technologies evolving round the clock, Politicians are constantly keeping up with the trend and adapting to new media to reach out to everyone including you and myself for their elections and discussions of politics in Singapore.
As what our minister said, President Barack Obama used New Media for his elections, and he demonstrated that this is where everyone is headed, this is where everyone is, and we will go there together.
The question now is whether the government will try to cover social networking in the next round of regulatory innovation, or if it will retreat. To think of it, they might embrace it and try to capitalize social media, but with the Internet always seeing new social networking tools, that would take them a few more presidents before they will succeed.
Sources: - http://theonlinecitizen.com
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