Are bloggers who write about political matters full time, dumb and naive?

[CannonFairy]

I know Online citizen is run by a lawyer who works full-time in a law firm but runs online citizen as a hobby, Temasek review is run by an computer consultant, Temasek Times was ran by a medical doctor, Breakfast Network is run by a trained journalist. Alex Au is a business man runs a spa i heard. These people are professionals who can survive if they shut down their websites. These are smart people because they get paid by internet advertisement , sponsors and get the recognition for contributing to change for this country.

The other bloggers who don't write about political matters are counting the money. They write about happy things most of the time, from makan to fashion . The famous one Xia xue. But political bloggers can only cheer once every 5 years when PAP lose some percentage points .

Other full time political bloggers in Singapore just spend their time writing anti Lao Lee and anti Xiao Lee essays i wonder how they survive or form family in this expensive country unless they are paid for by politicians or political parties. if PAP don't topple,these bloggers can eat white bread dip in milo and plain porridge with dark soy sauce every day, then occasioanlly save up go geylang shag some cheap old pros . Unless they are born with golden spoon.

i heard Malaysian opposition party machineries are so well oiled that DAP can afford to hire full time writers just to hammer Barisan . What about Singapore?

 

[Leongsam]

Many bloggers do it because they enjoy penning their thoughts. They don't need the money. It's just a hobby.

 

[ray_of_hope]

I know Online citizen is run by a lawyer who works full-time in a law firm but runs online citizen as a hobby, Temasek review is run by an computer consultant, Temasek Times was ran by a medical doctor, Breakfast Network is run by a trained journalist. Alex Au is a business man runs a spa i heard.

Thus far none of these people/blogs have made one iota of a difference to the political situation in a way they want.
However, publicly they will likely tell you directly the reverse.

 

[Thick Face Black Heart]

If you want to "count the money", you have do what Xiaxue does.

And yes, the political bloggers don't make any difference to our political development. They are all preaching to the converted. Facebook has taken over as the main medium by which ideas are disseminated, and even then, it is again the converted preaching to the converted.

 

[metalmickey]

If you want to "count the money", you have do what Xiaxue does.

And yes, the political bloggers don't make any difference to our political development. They are all preaching to the converted. Facebook has taken over as the main medium by which ideas are disseminated, and even then, it is again the converted preaching to the converted.

I don't really agree with that. Blogs may preach to the converted, but Facebook is different.

On Facebook, everybody has a name. Anybody who says something on Facebook is a friend, or a "sorda" friend. It's only through facebook that I started realising which of my friends had which political affiliations. It's a means by which you share your ideas and thoughts with people you sorda know. Let's say that I wouldn't have known without facebook that my former boss is sorda anti-PAP.

And that's a much more powerful pull than just a random stranger putting something on the web. Don't forget that Facebook played a very big role in the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

 

[CannonFairy]

Thank you everybody for the replies.

Bloggers who write about political matters on a full time basis ,are almost no different to the folks sitting in kopitiams. The former has the computer skills to go internet and articulate their views . Now the internet is so common, everyone can be editor or publisher up till the point that the values of editorial ship is worthless. In the old days, it is an achievement to be able to rise up to the ranks of editor in newspapers. But of course that old man detest journalists,it is well known.

Nowadays anyone can start a blog and brand themselves as editors. Full time political bloggers merely air their views, views that may or may not come from themselves . That is why I stated initally that I have doubts on their capability to survive in Singapore. If a full time political blogger is let's say, a former parlimentarian, then his views on political affairs carries some weight. But realistically a former parliamentarian won't be so down and out to be a political blogger full time. If assuming a full time political blogger is a retired trained certified civil engineer, then his views on transportation matters or HDB building cost deserves more attention.

if a political blogger who writes full time is a nobody with no professional skills, no political experience,lack of real life management experience to see things from macropicture, why should their views even be considered.

 

[Thick Face Black Heart]

if a political blogger who writes full time is a nobody with no professional skills, no political experience,lack of real life management experience to see things from macropicture, why should their views even be considered.

Alex Au and The Heart Truths (both gay bloggers incidentally) write very well-researched pieces, full of supporting facts and proper referencing to sources. Top notch commentary too. I don't know whether they make a lot of money through advertisements (I think Alex does not) but they could if they wanted to.

Currently in Singapore only the plagiarising websites which copy and paste articles from everywhere are making advertising revenue. But a lot of it is probably eaten up by server and hosting costs.

 

[rushifa666]

young people are savvy with technology but not facts. someone needs to tell them the truth. operation spectrum for example and how both nathan and lky worked for the japanese. people must never forget

 

[steffychun]

their articles failed to reference properly have little argument and would get an F9 in GP

 

[metalmickey]

Nowadays anyone can start a blog and brand themselves as editors. Full time political bloggers merely air their views, views that may or may not come from themselves . That is why I stated initally that I have doubts on their capability to survive in Singapore. If a full time political blogger is let's say, a former parlimentarian, then his views on political affairs carries some weight. But realistically a former parliamentarian won't be so down and out to be a political blogger full time. If assuming a full time political blogger is a retired trained certified civil engineer, then his views on transportation matters or HDB building cost deserves more attention.

if a political blogger who writes full time is a nobody with no professional skills, no political experience,lack of real life management experience to see things from macropicture, why should their views even be considered.

First, quite a few people in this forum, I am told, are actually pretty well educated. It's just fun to be a beng sometimes.

You're repeating the argument that bloggers have less "credibility" because they are not "experts".

This is not how the internet works. All the information is out there. Everybody has a small piece of the jigsaw puzzle. If you know absolutely nothing about the world (not something to brag about because our public library system is one of the best I've seen) then you need somebody with knowledge and credibility to tell you like it is. But otherwise, you can always read something and decide for yourself if it makes sense. After reading about five articles on the same topic, written by different people, you already should have some idea what to believe, and what not to believe. You should have some notion about which arguments make more sense, and which ones less.

I remember an old article which explains nicely the difference between reading blogs and reading newspapers:

http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/how-media-illiteracy-is-promoted/

As for whether that person is a former parliamentarian, I would rather talk about politics with the average cab driver than with Tin Pei Ling. Maybe there are only a handful of parliamentarians or ministers. But they work in offices with hundreds of people, each of whom know about 20% of what one of them knows. And they can blog about things, and draw on their knowledge to do so. Real life example: Edward Snowden, the guy behind the National Security Agency leaks, who in spite of being good enough to draw a six figure salary at one point is not exactly a super high ranking officer. But he has enough information that when he spills it out to the world, he can turn the whole world upside down.

We have adopted the British political system, but we haven't had a hand in inventing it, and we hadn't gone through the social experiments that led to it. We do not fully understand the philosophy that lies behind "one man one vote", or behind "everybody can participate in politics" or "nobody is smarter than the combined knowledge of the masses".

Anybody can see the macro picture. Or you can come to a forum like this, write about your view of the macro picture, and wait for somebody to tell you what he thinks.

Conversely you should not put too much emphasis on a single point of information, where an all-knowing mainstream media publishing tells you the real truth. We already know that they will cheat and lie if and when it suits them. Blogs are a good antidote to that. People in power will stop at nothing to maintain that power. The ability to read an article, and separate out what you believe and what you don't believe is a crucial skill to have in the internet age.

There is no need for bloggers to be full time or permanent. That is not how the system works. The blogger will have a period of time where he airs his views. He can maybe sustain the momentum for 1-2 years and maybe after that he drops out. Then somebody else will start another blog somewhere and pick it up.

The internet has been a world wide phenomenon (dating this at 1995) for almost 20 years now, Singapore has had it since around that time, and you should already know how it works.

 

[metalmickey]

young people are savvy with technology but not facts. someone needs to tell them the truth. operation spectrum for example and how both nathan and lky worked for the japanese. people must never forget

Talk so much cock. Just set up a blog and do it.

Singaporeans are so like that: always saying "somebody should do X". And then they sit on their ass and do nothing.

It's not as though all that information is secret. Everything you said is out there on the internet. The online citizen has published countless articles on spectrum.

 

[rushifa666]

from your long winded two paragraphs of nonsense who's talking cock now?

 

[da dick]

I don't really agree with that. Blogs may preach to the converted, but Facebook is different.

On Facebook, everybody has a name. Anybody who says something on Facebook is a friend, or a "sorda" friend. It's only through facebook that I started realising which of my friends had which political affiliations. It's a means by which you share your ideas and thoughts with people you sorda know. Let's say that I wouldn't have known without facebook that my former boss is sorda anti-PAP.

And that's a much more powerful pull than just a random stranger putting something on the web. Don't forget that Facebook played a very big role in the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

facebook also a very good way to find people to arrest. don't be stupid.

 

[metalmickey]

facebook also a very good way to find people to arrest. don't be stupid.

Damn, I didn't think that I would be quoting rushifa, but think about operation spectrum.

In the pre-Facebook era, you could arrest a bunch of guys you didn't like, and then you could cook up some cock and bull story about them and I think a lot of people out there gave the PAP govt the benefit of the doubt.

In the Facebook era - let's see the recent incident of Mr Demon Cratic Leslie Chew. Yes, he was arrested, but he got to tell everybody his side of the story. I think even more people started reading his comics after his arrest. He was actually protected because of all this publicity, and he could tell his own story, or at least his own side of the story. In the end, I don't think he went to jail, which might have happened in the good old days, if he distributed the comics by other means.

You have to understand that any form of publicity is a form of protection. If the public is on your side, the govt may not want to whack you. Just think about sticker lady.

 

[dominiquemes]

A nice hobby but make sure to recruit strong moderators to maintain the effectiveness of the forum

 

[koKSia]

Damn, I didn't think that I would be quoting rushifa, but think about operation spectrum.

In the pre-Facebook era, you could arrest a bunch of guys you didn't like, and then you could cook up some cock and bull story about them and I think a lot of people out there gave the PAP govt the benefit of the doubt.

In the Facebook era - let's see the recent incident of Mr Demon Cratic Leslie Chew. Yes, he was arrested, but he got to tell everybody his side of the story. I think even more people started reading his comics after his arrest. He was actually protected because of all this publicity, and he could tell his own story, or at least his own side of the story. In the end, I don't think he went to jail, which might have happened in the good old days, if he distributed the comics by other means.

You have to understand that any form of publicity is a form of protection. If the public is on your side, the govt may not want to whack you. Just think about sticker lady.

Leslie Chew asks for money from his readers. Another one is Gilbert Goh. I am sure some are paid by the hands who cannot be seen. Only a handful do it out of pure interests. Almost all are fame whores one way or another.

 

[The_Hypocrite]

I contribute and write alot of political stuff in the forum so do many forumners,,we dont get paid. As a matter of fact boss sam admitted that he pays PAP IBs for posting pap propaganda..so tell me, how does that work?

 

[metalmickey]

Leslie Chew asks for money from his readers. Another one is Gilbert Goh. I am sure some are paid by the hands who cannot be seen. Only a handful do it out of pure interests. Almost all are fame whores one way or another.

So what? Thing is, they write something that people want to read. Then it's almost the same as you're buying a book from a shop. If people believe in what they're writing, then they're representing the people who pay them.

So you kaopeh for what? You're not learning the right lesson: the right lesson is that you could be the same as them, writing for a living, or for some extra cash on top of a real job. As long as you have the talent and the ability, you will not starve.

 

[PoliticalDialogue]

Virtually all the sociopolitical bloggers have their own particular line and agenda. That is fine as long as their analysis is based on facts.

 

[CannonFairy]

Alex is a businessman I think. I am not saying that their political commentaries are lousy.

Alex Au and The Heart Truths (both gay bloggers incidentally) write very well-researched pieces, full of supporting facts and proper referencing to sources. Top notch commentary too. I don't know whether they make a lot of money through advertisements (I think Alex does not) but they could if they wanted to.

Currently in Singapore only the plagiarising websites which copy and paste articles from everywhere are making advertising revenue. But a lot of it is probably eaten up by server and hosting costs.