Tag: bloggers

Random Discourse – Bloggers, Blogging and Integrity

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There was a recent brouhaha regarding a ‘food blogger’ and a restaurant in Joo Chiat on Yahoo Singapore’s ‘Fit to Post’ section. As usual, in matters such as this everyone has a side to take, even though they don’t usually realised or admit they are taking sides.

I usually take sides as well… my own side that is.

As fellow blogger chillycraps said in a separate discussion, no one can actually say they know the truth other than those in the matter itself. From what I have gathered online, it is clear to me that both the restaurant and the blogger failed miserably in conflict resolution. It’s the word of the restaurant against that of the blogger and vice versa.

Since I mentioned the matter of conflict resolution, it means there is also a ‘public relations’ (PR) aspect in this matter. The fact that this conflict didn’t get resolved amicably do reflect badly on the PR person (or people) of the restaurant. The restaurant’s PR also seems to be out of touch with blogging scene when in their press statement it actually mentioned something about a blogger’s society / association, oblivious to the fact that the last time an association came around it went down with a bang. That said, I am in no position to determine whether the statement is sincere or otherwise, and I personally believe that there is no way to measure that so it’s high time for those who makes a fuss over that to get off their high horse and let the matter rest.

nadnut brought up the point of the PR’s failure. Knowing her to be a straight-talking person I know she has no other sinister objective or personal agenda in bringing this matter up. However, I am not quite sure about some of the people who readily agree and jump on the bandwagon. As I have mentioned, everybody takes sides in a matter – and it is usually their own. When someone appears to be on the same side, it simply means that part of the stand one has taken is in alignment with their agenda or personal objectives.

The reason I have such a Machiavellian view is that I have heard quite a bit of bad mouthing about the PR sector in general. While all of this is hearsay and I personally have not worked with any PR person (not to mention it will never happen since nothing on this blog will interest them), all that bad mouthing has caused me to be alarmed. It almost appear to me that beneath all that niceties, every PR person is manipulative and they all have a dark and sinister facet hidden from the public eye.

Anyway, it wouldn’t be objective if I only talk about the PR. So I’ll also talk about bloggers in general. While I am not accusing the blogger in this particular incident of anything, I have the general impression that some bloggers and in specific some of those so-called social media proponents have always act like they have a chip on their shoulders. It is my considered opinion that having bossed their way around in cyberspace long enough, they are so caught up by their own fame and false sense of invincibility to the point they take that into their real life. Thus, I really do not mind seeing some bloggers eat the humble pie just so they get a dose of reality.

On a side note, while I was browsing through some of the comments made by other bloggers on this matter, I read something a blog post making a point that ‘Blogging integrity’ is a false image that self-righteous (low traffic blogs) people is selling. It’s only saving grace was that it was not writtern by any of the ‘top bloggers’ in Singapore because if it was I wouldn’t have hesitated to start a whole new front in this to bring some traffic to these dead parts.

The premise that any person promoting blogging integrity is either jealous of the success of other bloggers or are just using that to promote themselves above the rest is utterly pathetic. It not only failed to address the matter of blogging integrity but it launches into an attack on not just the bloggers who promote it, but also their popularity! WHAT. THE. F@#$?!

It is crystal clear that this blogger is trying very hard to justify receiving the freebies and all the reviews on her blog. When she lashed out at those blogging about scandals as lacking in integrity, I was disappointed to see that she failed to touch on the fact that a blogger’s integrity is actually determined by the readers. After all, those who thinks I lacked integrity have already stopped reading my blog a long time ago and they would be completely indifferent to what I write!

Meanwhile, I have heard whispers of conspiracy claiming this to be an attempt by the traditional media to discredit the ‘new’ aka ‘social media’. It would be plausible if it was reported by one of the papers under the Singapore Press Holdings, but it is difficult to classify Yahoo as a form of traditional media completely since it has always been published electronically. That’s not mentioning that Yahoo Singapore seems to be embracing blogs and taking the ‘social media’ phenomenon in the local scene quite seriously. I sincerely do not know where this is coming from!

All said, I really hope that this matter will soon blow over. To many nondescript bloggers out there, blogging is nothing more than a hobby, if not an online / public diary to put down some of their thoughts. Many would talk about the blogger community but many nondescript bloggers really don’t give a flying hoot about what other bloggers are writing. In general, a large part of the social media scene has gone unnoticed while the PR sector creates a whole pantheon of celebrity bloggers. A lot of hype is then generated around them which in my opinion is nothing more but a traditional media strategy (which I believe some self proclaimed guru would disagree with me).

I’ll leave it for the readers to decide on which form of social media has more credibility or integrity. For e.g. between the spontaneous blog posts of a first time young mother about her baby and her opinion of different brand of diapers and blog posts coming from celebrity mother-bloggers invited by a PR-firm to the launch of a new diaper product, the choice is really yours on whose posts to take seriously.

Recommended Reads:
Blog@Ridz.sg – Thinking out loud: I am Singaporean. So what?
My Queenstown – Alexandra Hospital Part 3/3: Civilian Hospital
Times Of My Life – Holland Water – Hor Lan Shui

Just ranting…

One comment

I had a conversation with a fellow blogger earlier today on Windows Live Messenger, and we talked about some bloggers being hard up for publicity events. In it I mentioned that such events may never obtain the kind of success locally as it had elsewhere.

For starters, I told him I felt that way because I ain’t really interested in such blogger’s events. I also have a very small social circle as far as bloggers are concerned so it is even more unlikely I will be invited. Most of my friends and acquaintances are known primarily through more conventional means – e.g. in gatherings and functions or from courses and friend / colleague introductions. I also have to admit my blog is hardly interesting nor does it have the reach and audience base to warrant any attention. Furthermore, I find certain people active in Internet PR or social media hypocritical, pompous, shallow and repulsive (and that feeling is mutual). It sometimes give one the feeling they are more interested in gathering personal power or pursuing a personal agenda instead of doing what they claimed to be doing.

Not being sour grapes here (since I was lucky to be invited to two of the events), it appears to me that all these publicity activities are not very successful nor useful anyway when one consider the effect of the event vs effort put into the event.

First of all, I see a lot of the same old faces attending these events and thus only they write about them. And surprisingly, the more well known local bloggers are normally never present in these events. One may argue that the objective is achieved more by the quantity and not necessarily by the quality of the bloggers invited. But some bloggers really wrote nothing meaningful or useful of the event. Many a time, when one look at their posts, their knowledge of the event / product is obviously questionable, not to mention also their main objective of attending the event. In the worst case scenario, the entire ‘report’ can sometimes be nothing more than an orgy of cam-whoring. And in one such example, the photos only caught my attention because of Wong Lilin, and by then my attention is no longer on the event itself.

As far as that particular event is concerned, the organiser can some what be blamed for giving the wrong impression to those invited. If I am not wrong, dk told me that Mediacorp and SPH thought a TV series is being launched and sent the reporters for entertainment instead of the ones for gadgets. In the end those reporters end up focusing on the celebrities who are present. But what sealed its fate is when whatever bloggers’ reports produced also failed to pass on the relevant information.

Now, that’s only one of the ways how a publicity event fails to meet its objectives. In some other cases it may simply be just attendees not even writing about the event after attending. You will come to know they are there but didn’t blog because you see them in the photos of other bloggers. And that shows another serious problem… what happens if they maybe the only people reading one another’s blogs actively and constantly, with not much real traffic beyond that?

Anyway, can we blame the bloggers for not blogging about the event when they also have a life of their own beyond? After all, it was never explicit that a blogger must write about the event after they have attended. But it is my considered opinion that failing to do so would defeat the objective of the event – i.e. to have bloggers participate in the publicity drive and to reach out to their readers.

So, the combination of freeloaders at events, the lack of quality reports from attendees, plus the possibility that everyone is only linking to everyone else who are present at the event, would be sufficient enough to kill such events locally.

Consider then.. how to build a reputation as some one who can effectively utilise this form of media, when sooner or later it becomes obvious to corporates and companies that the reach from this is not only negligible but their writings (just like my piece here) are really worth shit on their own to be of any good? Where only the bottom line matters, why should more money and effort be spent to take seriously such ‘outreach’ programs locally?