I believe that the media in Singapore is getting more and more guilty-conscious. I think those who are in the media industry actually do want to do proper journalism and stay true to the profession by providing the full information to the public.

Contrary to what most people believe, I think that the media is trying its best to work within the present restrictions such as self-censorship, and yet, bring us the full details without stepping on anyone's shoes. This predicament has given rise to what I call 'creative journalism'.

Let me elaborate:
According to today's report on the Channel News Asia website,

However, according to a report in the Bangkok Post website,

"Visitors from India, China and Indonesia prefer shops in Singapore to those at home, while Japanese maintain they get better service in Japan, a survey said Wednesday. ... One of the city-state's biggest shortcomings is lack of empathy from retail staff, defined as the degree of caring and individual attention given to customers, the survey found. More than one-third of respondents said that staff are insensitive and pressure customers with hard-sell tactics."

Clearly, certain facts and findings of the survey were shielded from us 'for our own good'. The fact that the countries which rated Singapore shopping better were all lesser economies compared to us and that clear shortcomings were not indicated in the CNA report demonstrate the typical style of the Singapore media industry - selective journalism.

BUT, there is a slow shift towards true journalism and it was evident during the GE2006 when quite a number of gaffes by the PAP were highlighted readily by the media. My view is that creative journalism is more than just rebelling against the status quo and bringing the details to the public. It's about not stepping out of line and still doing the job.

This is one of the clearest examples that I have found thus far:
In an article titled "Singapore polls: WP can still contest Aljunied even if Gomez dropped, says minister" there was a crucial piece of awareness information inserted which had absolutely no relevance to the article and had no relation to the preceding paragraph or the one following it.

This is a true example of creative journalism. Although it does not offend anyone by going into details, it gives the reader (the public) a chance to know there was an online petition which had a significant response. It is up to the reader to do a simple search which would lead him or her to the online petition itself.

In time to come, our local journalists would perfect this art of creative journalism and, in true Singaporean fashion, will be able to market this 'skill' to the world - way to go!

¶ 5/10/2006 12:41:00 PM