Essential Reading

Opening words

This blog is not an online newspaper, nor does it aspire to be one.

If it reads like one, it can only be for two reasons. The first is that it is my area of training, and the second is that the writing that goes into it attempts to capture some heart-felt expressions of everyday Singapore life.

Indeed, I have often wished that our newspapers would be able to do that, but a long history of adherence to the “objective truth” has rendered them somewhat, in my personal opinion, incapable of representing subjective voices crying to be heard.

Hence, this blog will be subjective, biasly so if necessary; because sometimes, representation is more important than what we assume is right and good for everyone.

That said, I would not dare to call myself a journalist. That is a title I reserve in my heart for a unique league of professionals who are willing to put their careers, sometimes their lives, on the line, so that, through their writing, there can be greater awareness and understanding in the world. Their spirit of “holding up a mirror to the world” is something that I hope to emulate in my writing, but not something that I can effectively do, given the time and resources that I have.

So there you have it – a two-bit writer always failing to measure-up fully, because I can only and would always give my two-cents’ worth!

The media

Is my main interest, even more so than my other favorite, the environment. In my heart, I have always seen myself as a media student, despite having graduated a good five years ago! I seem to get a perverse joy out of researching it during my studies, so this is really me getting into it again after a very long and rusting break!

In time, I hope to be able to uncover more about its rather ‘mysterious’ status in Singapore, so that all who write publicly can begin to press some real limits, instead of being exasperated about the fuzziness of media regulations here. Should you know of any useful info that can help me piece this puzzle together, do send me a note.

More than anything, it will be a way for me to ‘argue’ for my writing on this blog, for I already have this feeling that I will be offending people in good time… Nevertheless, I believe in being socially responsible for what I write, although I can almost guarantee that you will have no case of libel or prejudice against my writing. In any case, if you do feel my writing to be a personal offense to you, please drop me a note first before serving me a lawyer’s letter. If you can explain beyond a reason of a doubt why my writing is offensive to you, I would in all earnest delete the entry and apologise in the very same blog.

This blog

Is public, period. I don’t pretend that it is a private journal. Indeed, the whole point of me wanting it to be public is to get some feedback that will help with my journey.

I am also interested to find out when the Singapore government’s “soft touch” approach to such public online material will get hard on things, at which point it will be aroused enough to react (huh, what sexual puns?).

But if you think I’m only interested in churning out complain pieces, do note that I do not usually have that much negative energy in me! I love writing too much to use it for anger only. But do expect to see some harsh comments on social issues.

The name "Mediated Society" is a term I have reclaimed (or perhaps refreshed) from my 2000 thesis - Social Discipline and The Media: Creation and Governance of the Singapore Public. Go figure, and yes, when I said I was rusting, I really mean that long ago! N