chasing the news

25/02/2010

Tried to initiate a discussion on Twitter among several Twitter friends who are enrolled in the same New Media course: “Why can’t the National University of Singapore, with a large pool of well-educated, intelligent, erudite youths, produce an impactful, credible news agency, be it online or in print form?”

One of them suggested that NUS students, like Singaporeans in general, are apathetic and don’t really care enough that their school doesn’t have credible newspapers.

That cuts little ice with me. Sounds to me like a convenient excuse. I see many NUS students eager to step up and volunteer for a cause they deem meaningful. Many also start campaigns with their own free time and see it through. So why not write for a newspaper and do it well?

There’s The Ridge, which comes in print form, once a month; there’s Hooked, which is only in online form and also goes out once a month. Both are affiliated with the Student Union and are “official student publications”.

For more “independent” voices that do not associate themselves with the school administration (and are hence more immune to censorship), there’s The Campus Observer, which was started in 2007, and The Kent Ridge Common, started slightly more than a year ago. The latter lauds itself as “the NUS students’ independent news source”, although it also keeps an eye on news that affects Singapore as a whole. Both are online-based.

I feel there’s too many publications here fighting for a limited pool of both good student journalists that are willing to work for free or nothing more than a handful of CCA points, and readers genuinely interested in seeing school publications flourish. Both do not come by easily, especially the former. There’s a really big difference between student journalists and student bloggers – one moves around, asks questions that truly matter, and reports the facts for his readers. The other just writes what he feels. Right now, there’s too many bloggers enthusiastically penning down what they feel about this and that and too little reporting going on. And even if there’s some attempt at reporting, readers usually go away with more questions than answers.

I’m no expert in journalism, and I still have tons to learn myself as a greenhorn, but here are my humble suggestions – since The Ridge and Hooked are both affiliated with NUSSU, can’t NUSSU merge them and achieve economies of scale?

Of course, that might not improve the standard of journalism in the newly-merged paper, which leads one to question where should students of Communications and New Media classes work for – The Campus Observer, or an official NUSSU publication? For the good of NUS-based publications, maybe they should be given the choice to work for either, and be graded on their performances.

For unofficial publications like The Campus Observer and The Kent Ridge Common, my editor has always believed that they should set up a business model, rake in money and pay their writers and editors. That way, they’ll attract far more, and better student journalists than before. I agree with her.

Until that happens, I think we’ll continue getting articles and publications that are a shadow of their true potential. Which is sad, actually. Because I do want them to flourish.

2 Comments

sisyphus

25/02/2010

So tired.

Night falls. Head home late straight from the office, struggle to stay awake at the keyboard so there’s less work to do the next day, hit the pillows with furrowed brows, close my eyes and open them again to find morning has come by too fast, hit the keyboard again, repeat the process for another day.

Sometimes, Sisyphus springs to mind.

How I long for a long, good sleep. Last week’s hotel staycation already feels like a billion light years away.

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the crimes of the previous generation

24/02/2010

I want to watch this!

THEY are the children of the damned, descendants of Nazi Germany’s most brutal monsters.

Now, for the first time, they have come together to talk on film about how it feels to have relatives responsible for the worst crimes in history.

Hitler’s Children is a searing TV documentary focusing on these tormented souls who look, talk, eat and breathe like everyone else… and yet feel as if they were spawned by the devil.

Bettina Goering, 53, is a great niece of Adolf Hitler’s second in command Hermann Goering.

He founded the Gestapo secret police and organised the Blitz on Britain that killed thousands.

She had herself STERILISED so she would “not pass on the blood of a monster”.

1 Comment

she couldn’t have phrased it better

22/02/2010

Quote of the day, by a 15-year-old on abstinence until marriage:

“I want to save my hymen for the right one.”

Best!!!!

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an apt summary

22/02/2010

Highlight of Budget 2010:

MM Lee wasn’t in the chamber during the Budget announcement.

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show me the money

21/02/2010

Folks, I’m sure you know this anti-gambling ad:

Well, it’s not too difficult to spoof it! Here’s a recruitment drive for loanshark runners, probably the highest-paying, yet most challenging job for a whole generation of bored, cash-strapped teenagers out there.

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mummies all around

21/02/2010

A and I visited the National Museum today to check out the Egyptian mummies.

The exhibit was done up nicely, as I would have expected it, but we were frankly disappointed by its scale. I mean, we were expecting more mummies and sarcophagi than just half a dozen…

If we had to pay $15 each as “adults” I think we would have went away feeling even more miffed.

I heard from other friends and acquaintances that Egypt has a surfeit of mummies, but refuse to give the extras away!

Thankfully, there were other freaks on show. Real-life ones.

These two young clowns were putting together their Art? Geography? model in the middle of a busy Starbucks.

Like, hello!!! Did it ever occur to them to do it somewhere else, like at home?!

They were also freely pasting Starbucks straws onto their model. No staff stopped them or put in a word about how they were needlessly taking up a table for proper patrons in the busy cafe.

Truly, this takes the cake when it comes to doing homework in an F&B outlet.

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pourquoi?

21/02/2010

A’s sister just asked her whether the ‘let’s’ in ‘let’s go’ requires an apostrophe or not.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

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the essay question for today

21/02/2010

Life is unfair. Discuss.

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post it again

20/02/2010

I’D POST IT AGAIN!!!

This beats ALL the other Hitler / Downfall parody videos!

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