Hey Media, who’s your owner?

Start of a new month calls for another blog post obviously. The hot topic of today is about Government VS Private media ownership – whether it matters in the Singapore context. The relationship between the media and the audience was clearly established in my previous posts. Now, it’s important to understand the relationship between the Media and its owner.

Private Media

Individuals or people from a private organization are ones in charge of private media. This means they finance it themselves without government interferences. So, those people get to rule the media and show the information they want to show you be. The United States of America is one such example where 6 major companies own 90% of America’s media. This kind of media usually has a liberal sense of point as they can say what they want, be it, supporting or opposing the government.

Due to this, diversity of content information is observed due to differing viewpoints between private media. Sometimes it’s a positive outlook as it provides thinking in a new limelight, Like the US media coverage for Vietnam War showing the negative aspects of the war (innocent people being killed) while the US government was promoting that the war was beneficial.

However, too much freedom is not a good thing as well since it can go haywire anytime. Going against the boundaries of state-related or religious related information can create disputes, riots and even death. Even then, the freedom of speech is being used in movies and documentaries to show people what the world is really like and possibly make a change in them. For example, 13 Reasons Why, an American programme by Netflix, showed us the brutal truth of suicide, depression, sexual assault, homosexuality and what not. However, it received a lot of controversies as it was too hard on the eye and cases of suicide following the style of the programme.

Then again, as I mentioned, this media is outsourced by the private group and thus they must find a way to earn more money and thus the use of entertainment. Shows like Big Brother, Keeping up with the Kardashians and other programmes get us hooked to them unknowingly. We are provided with so many reality shows and programmes for entertainment and relaxation purposes nowadays, it almost seems like we are distancing ourselves away from the reality?

         

Government-owned Media

The name is self-explanatory and so the media tend to support the government and its views. This will make the country trust their government more and less of the private media due to its reliability, people tend to think that information through this type of mainstream media is credible. But the government are smart in letting you know, what you want you to know and not what you are supposed to know.

China is known for its notorious censorship laws using firewalls to restrict media, banning websites like Google, Facebook, YouTube and even Wikipedia and arresting those who break the censorship laws. This is because the media was used to propose propaganda from the government and thus China had to protect its political sentiment what better way to protect? 

Hence, the freedom of expression in China is very low and rather have a concentrated way of thinking as they are not exposed to other viewpoints. Even in movies, China screens limited foreign films as most are banned for reasons such as homosexuality, opposing China’s policy, race and religion. Some notable films that were banned are Deadpool, The Dark Knight, Avatar, Love, Simon and so on.

  

Hey! Not all government-controlled media are as such. Our Singapore is one such example. Even though our major media corporations, MediaCorp Pte Ltd and Singapore Press Holdings are legally known as privately owned entities, they are still linked to the Singapore government and thus tend to take a pro-government stance. Yet, we can express our opinions and thoughts with the limitations of sensitive to political, racial and religious views. Websites like Stomp, Mothership.sg and SGAG let us voice out what we feel and even makes a parody of certain viewpoints.

Singapore is also known for its stringent censorship laws but not too extreme like China. Ah Boys To Men movie series was directed to educate us about the pre, during and post life of National Service, the problems faced, how they were tackled and in the end how NS shaped the boys into men. Films like Love Simon, that contains homosexuality was rated R21 in Singapore as the topic is still a touchy subject to us and thus rated as such. On the bright side, at least it was not banned. 

However, when anything that seems to impact on the social stability of Singapore is observed, censorship is enforced to maintain the peace and stability. Like the infamous Amos Yee, who wanted to express his opinions but did so by hurting the sentiment of Singapore such as disrespecting Mr Lee Kwan Yew’s passing, Islamic beliefs and openly talking about Pedophilia. Thus, he was arrested multiple times and now has fled the country.

So do I feel if media ownership matters in Singapore?

In Singapore, we are given the freedom of expression and speech and if we do not cross the limits, it will be fine. No matter who owns the media, in the end, the last say has to be from the government. We still have a diversity of content, objectivity in our content and can think proactively in a different limelight without blindly believing everything we see or hear, we are pretty much safe in peace and harmony. And honestly, we are happy as long as we get the information we want to know which so far, we are provided with.

Remember to think carefully when it comes to media. Adiosss!