The Singapore Socio-Political Blogosphere: Is it a Habermasian Public Sphere?

Steven McDermott

September 2007

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‘This dissertation is submitted in part-fulfilment of the degree of MRes in Social

Research undertaken by me in the Department of Sociology at the University of

Aberdeen, and it is solely written by me.’

Signed...........................................................

Date...................................

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CONTENTSSummary 41. INTRODUCTION 7 The Internet 7 The Internet and Singapore 8 Outline of the Dissertation 82 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 12

Introduction 12Non-Democratic Theory 12The Singaporean Case 14The Habermasian Public Sphere 16Blogs as a Public Sphere 17Conclusion 17

3 SINGAPORE BLOGOSPHERE AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION 18Introduction 18Blogs and the Singapore Blogosphere 18Political Participation 20Conclusion 22

4 ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS 23Introduction 23Technological and Organisational Determinism 24Being in Context 25Textual Presence and Absence 26Ethics of Virtual Ethnography 28Research of Online and Offline Communities 29Network Ethnography 29Conclusion 32

5 RESEARCH DESIGN AND FINDINGS 33Introduction 33Research Questions 33Method 34Data Collection 37Data Analysis 37Results 38Discussion 42

Conclusion 436 CONCLUSION AND LIMITATIONS 44

7 REFERENCES 478 APPENDIX 52 Appendix 1 Figure 1: Matthew W. Hurst (Data Mining). 52 Appendix 2 Examples from the corpus 53 Appendix 3 Results table from QSR Xsight 2 60

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Summary

This paper analyses the socio-political implications of blogs in Singapore. The study is situated within

the wider framework of the internet being heralded as the greatest force for democratisation the world

has ever seen (Pitrodi 1993), and at the same time another means of disseminating propaganda, fear

and intimidation (Rodan 1997). Pitrodi's claim that the internet will create democracy is founded on

an increase in political participation that it allows. Here it is argued that the increase in political

participation that the internet allows does not necessarily result in democratisation. The non-

democratic nature of Singapore society inhibits the development of an online Habermasian public

sphere. However, rather than acting as a tool for the dissemination of propaganda, fear and

intimidation, the internet acts as a means of reinforcing the dominant ideology of social cohesion or

survivalism. My specific research questions are: How involved in creating a counter public based on

an alternative ideology is the Singapore socio-political blogosphere? Which blogs are central to this

process? Which blogs are more interconnected? Are there cliques? What styles of discourse appear in

the Singapore socio-political blogosphere?

The 'authoritarian' nature of the Singapore regime is outlined by applying non-democratic theory. The

normative ideal of the Habermasian public sphere is applied to blogs in general and then to the

Singapore socio-political blogosphere. It explores the extent to which the internet is being used by

Singaporeans to construct a public sphere open to all.

This ethnography of the Singapore socio-political blogosphere looks in detail at how the social events

are experienced and in turn shaped by social actors. As a researcher with extensive experience of

living in Singapore and as a member of the Singapore socio-political blogosphere for over four years,

I question how the Singapore socio-political blogosphere is developing in relation to the dominant

ideology of 'survivalism' in Singapore.

The textual data that is analysed is collected using two overlapping approaches. The first is a list

compiled by the bloggers within the network and the second approach utilised online software for

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creating maps of online social networks. The data, analysed using Fairclough's (2003) critical

discourse analysis approach is that of a corpus of twenty-nine articles written about an event that

occurred within the Singapore socio-political blogosphere in July of 2006.

Hines (2000) argues that there is a place for an ethnographic approach “as a means to question

assumptions inherent in the predictions of radically different futures”. The methodological

considerations of doing an online ethnography are investigated including an attempt to overcome the

technologically determined focus of previous research. The researcher is clearly visible within the

network of bloggers being analysed and also appears in the textual data. The IP addresses and real

names of those involved are not made known unless they appear in the textual data. The Singapore

socio-political blogosphere in terms of the styles or characters being used by bloggers in their texts

are wide and varied with bloggers shifting between styles, akin to a 'citizen' style.

Although Singapore socio-political blogosphere is close to the Habermasian ideal of the public

sphere, it is a flawed one at present in that it does not provide an alternative to the dominant ideology

of 'survivalism'. I uncovered a total of eight different styles of discourse employed by the various

bloggers within the corpus of data. A politician style of discourse occurred 49 times, personal 39,

citizen 28, academic 22, journalist 19, activist 10, expert 9 and priest 1. The most dominant form of

ideology was that of social cohesion which scored 127 occurrences followed by a discourse of

globalism (48) and anti-globalisation (22).

Those blogs that do engage in creating a public based on an alternative ideology are Diary of a

Singapore Mind, Heavenly Sword, MrBrown, Xenoboy, Singapore Election, A Writers Blog, i-Speak,

Molly Meek, e pur si muove and Post Hoc Ergo. The frequency at which such discourse occurs is

very limited. The blogs that are more interconnected with at least 10 or more incoming links from

within the Singapore socio-political blogosphere are Singabloodypore, Singapore Angle, Yawning

Bread, MrBrown and e pur si muove. Careful scrutiny of the map generated during the data collection

period indicates that there are no cliques.

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This study of a single event provides limited support to the position that the non-democratic nature of

Singapore society inhibits the development of an online Habermasian public sphere. However, rather

than acting as a tool for the dissemination of propaganda, fear and intimidation, the internet acts as a

means of reinforcing the dominant ideology of social cohesion or survivalism.

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1 INTRODUCTION

The Internet

The internet it is argued will contribute to democracy, as a public sphere (Schalken 2000), enhance

civil liberties (Percy Smith 1995), increase accountability (Hague and Loader 1999), and increase

associational activity (Klein 1999) and participation (White 1997; Lenk 1999). The ability to enhance

democracy is claimed because information becomes more widely available to people who are more

informed and engaged. This requires political willingness on the part of citizens, and thus, the ease for

participation and more information does not necessarily translate into wider political participation.

The argument advanced in this paper is that the non-democratic nature of Singapore society inhibits

the development of an online Habermasian public sphere.

The internet is a very wide concept that has social as well as technical dimensions, which also

includes the use of various software applications such as emails and web pages. According to Pinch

and Bijker (1984), it also contains a high degree of 'interpretive flexibility', a place to shop, host an

online exhibition of art, a job centre for those seeking employment. So as Falks (1998) argues, the

internet is the compilation of resources and experiences rather than technology. It is social actors who

are continuously constructing and re-constructing the social artefact that is the internet.

So although the hardware and the use of emails and websites are component parts of the technology

around which the internet exists, the development of the Web cannot be understood purely by

references to expansions of broadband, protocols, data lines, modems, computer terminals that

constitute the internet. People construct their own links, emails and web pages. Defining the internet

in a way that would accommodate the multitude of divergent daily interactions with it would be to

impose a definition.

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The Internet and Singapore

Although the general public had no access to the internet in 1994, as a result of various initiatives by

the government of Singapore , by 1999 46% of adults aged 18 and above, and 71% of those aged 13

or more had access to the internet. By 2001, 90% of those aged 13 to 15 were spending on average

9.8 hours a week on email, online chats, searching and cyber entertainment (Ho et al 2003). This rapid

expansion of the internet in Singapore came as a result of the weakening of Singapore's position as a

centre for manufacturing in South East Asia (Ho et al 2003). The IT2000 report called for the

development of a National Information Infrastructure (NII). The rational for doing this was explained

by the National Computer Board Chairman to take 'Singapore into the next economic growth curve

[...] by plugging into global networks, delivering competitive advantages and creating business

opportunities' (Ho et al 2003).

The Singapore government became engaged with the national effort to wire up the city-state by

setting up broadband fibre optic networks and mobile communication throughout the 1980's and 90's.

Singapore Telecom invested in fibre optic cable networks and satellite communications. The

Information Technology Institute was formed in 1986 as the research development department of the

National Computer Board as well as other initiatives were co-ordinated to fund computer laboratories

in schools and a mass media campaign to expose IT themes and trade shows. Such government

initiated and funded efforts are not a complete picture of how technologies develop. The internet and

technology are both technical and social endeavours. While the aims of the government may have

clearly been to enhance economic competitiveness, such implementations can also have social and

political consequences, local and international consequences both intended and unintended.

Outline of this Dissertation

The dissertation begins with a brief outline of the main points to be raised. The focus on Singapore,

the Singapore socio-political blogosphere, political participation and public sphere are all viewed as

concepts and are further elaborated. The Singapore context is described with reference to the

'controlled' nature of the society, and the political climate is explained with reference to Kollmeyer's

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(2003) idea that democracy is directly connected with class compromise. Kollmeyer (2003) argues

that certain indicators reflect the 'political situation'. The next section of the paper looks at literature

that relates to how researchers have taken a more technology centred approach to conducting data

collection and data analysis. The Singapore blogosphere has however been referred to as being an

anomaly, in that it does not ‘fit in’ with the wider global blogosphere. This problematic position is

one reason why this study is significant. The next section looks at how other researchers have

conducted research into the internet and online communities, not necessarily in Singapore. One study

by Ho et al (2002) looked at Singapore specifically and 'sites of resistance', now rather dated and

limited because it used content analysis to analyse the websites in 1998. A few other studies are

mentioned such as Bernal (2005) who conducted a social history of one website. This rich and

detailed study of a site has managed to move away from the US focused research of others but may be

limited due to an ignoring of the interconnectedness of online sites, and so while very detailed in

depth is rather limited in scope. This section finishes with a brief reference to gaps in the literature,

why these gaps are seen as problematic and how the current research project will overcome these

limitations. The final section of this paper conducts an analysis of the 'styles' of discourse used by

bloggers during an event that happened on 2006, how the data is collected is given particular

attention. Finally a discussion on the question of whether or not the Singapore socio-political

blogosphere can be seen as a public sphere is conducted.

Section 1 of the paper looks at the internet that has been heralded as the greatest force for

democratisation the world has ever seen, (Pitrodi 1993), and at the same time another means of

disseminating propaganda, fear and intimidation (Rodan 1997). The claim that the internet will create

democracy is founded on the perceived increase in political participation that it allows. An increase in

political participation is claimed to result from the increase in online deliberative methods, such as

focus groups, panels, discussion groups and blogs. This bottom-up participation is in contrast to

government initiated consultations. This paper also allows for the suggestion that increased political

participation may decrease democracy. Such grandiose predication of how the internet will affect

upon futures are not new. In this instance, Hines (2000) argues that there is a place for an

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ethnographic approach, “as a means to question assumptions inherent in the predictions of radically

different futures.” This paper will use the Singapore socio-political blogosphere as a case study

because Singapore is regarded by the Chinese Communist State and possibly the Association of

South East Asian Nations, “as a laboratory for one possible social future for the twenty-first century”

(Castells, 1998). An ethnography of the Singapore socio-political blogosphere can look in detail at

how the processes are experienced and in turn shaped by social actors. As a researcher with extensive

experience of living in Singapore and as a member of the online Singapore socio-political

blogosphere for over four years I intend to question the assumptions of how the Singapore socio-

political blogosphere is developing. This paper calls for a sustained participant observation of the

Singapore socio-political blogosphere to overcome the technological focus of Ho et al's study (2002),

and focus on the social agency of the people involved in shaping the Singapore socio-political

blogosphere.

Section 2, outlines the theoretical framework that is applied, a detailed look at non-democratic theory

is followed by an outline of the concept of the public sphere. Just how well do the aims and goals of

authoritarian regimes explicated Linz (1964), Diamond, Linz and Lipset (1989) and O'Donnell's

(1973) apply to the Singaporean context? It concludes by assessing how relevant the Habermasian

public sphere is when assessing the nature of online discussion?

Section 3 titled Singapore Blogosphere and Political Participation introduces the Singapore context

and the de-politicised politics and the ideology that maintains the situation. Kollmeyer's (2003)

operationalisation of democracy is used to illustrate the current level of authoritarianism in Singapore.

The Singapore blogosphere is introduced and references are made to the work Tatemura and Wu

(2005), Lin et al (2006) and Hurst (2006) that claims that the Singapore blogosphere is isolated from

the wider global blogosphere. Section 3 concludes with an outline of the concept of political

participation.

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The next section, 'Ethnographic Methodological Considerations', looks at the specific qualitative

approach that is to be used when gathering the data. A brief outline of the specific research problem is

given in order help assess the level of relevance of previous studies. Network ethnography it is hoped

can overcome the limitations of technological and organisational determinism and bring to the

foreground how the socio-political situation of various groups designs and redesigns the technology

overtime. As the research is founded on an ethnographic approach, the issues of virtual ethnography

are dealt with, such as 'being in context' and the virtual field, 'textual presence and absence' of the

researcher, the ethics of virtual ethnography and how this relates to the context of Singapore, and

finally a detailed description of related research and the limitations of that research.

In section 5 the research design includes the research questions, 'Whether Singapore blog user's have

the potential to create a Habermasian public sphere online is investigated by comparing the

differences in styles of discourse of a corpus of 29 blog posts focusing on an event that happened in

July 2006'? The section includes the method, the process of data collection including samples and

measures completed with an introduction and an illustration of the analysis of the 'styles' of discourse

and how this relates to the public sphere.

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2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Introduction

This section addresses whether or not the blogosphere is capable of generating a public sphere in a

population that has been politically de-activated. Just how well do the aims and goals of authoritarian

regimes explicated Linz (1964), Diamond, Linz and Lipset (1989) and O'Donnell's (1973) apply to

the Singaporean context? It is argued here that political participation in Singapore has been

undermined. Given that ordinary people have very little say in the social and economic decision

making processes within regimes, is the Habermasian public sphere a relevant tool for assessing the

nature of online discussion?

Non-Democratic Theory

Is the blogosphere capable of generating a public sphere in a population that has been politically de-

activated? In order to assess the nature of how and why such a policy of de-politicisation has occurred

it is necessary to assess the applicability of various non-democratic theory to the Singapore context. It

is also hoped that by doing so that the discourse involved in legitimising a non-democratic position

will be seen as generic rather than relating to a particular regime. The boundary between democratic

and non-democratic is difficult to delineate and is rightly a contested region of theory. I now turn to

three attempts to traverse this contested terrain.

Diamond, Linz and Lipset (1989, cited in Brooker 2000) have attempted to identify a 'graduated

range' or continuum of the 'less-than-democratic systems'. From non-democratic to near-democratic

with the position of hegemonic one party system placed at the centre. Non-democratic or 'pseudo-

democracy' refers to a system that has formally democratic institutions such as an electoral

competition in order to mask what is in reality authoritarian domination (1989, cited in Brooker

2000). At the other end of the scale is near-democratic or a semi-democratic system in which electoral

competition deviates from popular preference. The semi-democratic system limits citizens preferences

during elections, restricts competition between political parties, has a lack of fairness during the

conduct of elections, and limits political and civil liberties in terms of political party capabilities to

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organise and express themselves. At the centre of these two positions is the hegemonic party system

which they argue can overlap with the pseudo-democratic system. The distinctive feature of a

hegemonic party system, is that as a result of 'pervasive electoral malpractice' the opposition parties

have no real chance to compete for power. A hegemonic party system tends however to be more

institutionalised, less personalised and coercive.

Linz (1964, cited Brooker 2000) focused on authoritarianism which is defined as a system in which

freedom is restricted in favour of obedience to authority. With four distinctive elements to the regime

and one distinctive aim, the de-politicisation of the population, authoritarian regimes have firstly a

limited political pluralism and limits maybe severe or moderate; legal or de facto and applied only to

political parties and political groups (Linz 1964, cited in Brooker 2000). Secondly, there tends to be

an absence of a guiding ideology, which is replaced with a guiding 'distinctive mentality' which is

more emotional than rational. This however does not mean that those in charge of the regime do not

claim to have an ideology. Thirdly, the regime, after an early phase of political mobilisation, appears

devoid of political mobilisation. The fourth and final distinctive element is that a single leader or

small group exercise power within poorly defined limits which are easily predicted. The aim of such a

regime is the continued creation and re-creation of an easy to manipulate population. Formed after

severe political strife or as a result of the end of colonisation, populations that reside within such

regimes have never experienced an organised movement before. The people are encouraged to shift

their attention to private affairs as opposed to public issues. Such a position facilitates the

implementation of socially progressive or conservative policies that require mass mobilisation.

The final theory of non-democracy I intend to outline is O'Donnell's (1973) typology. O'Donnell

highlights three types of authoritarianism, the traditional, the populist and the bureaucratic. In contrast

to Linz (1964) focus on mobilisation, O'Donnell (1973) centres on modernisation. The traditional type

of authoritarianism is associated with low levels of modernisation but does not encompass monarchy.

The populist type is found amongst medium levels of modernisation. Of relevance to this paper is the

bureaucratic type which is similar to Linz's (1964) interpretation in that it focuses on the goal of de-

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politicisation. O'Donnell's (1973) bureaucratic type of authoritarianism attempts to politically exclude

and deactivate the popular sector. This type is supported by an administrative military complex of

civil service aligned with the military and some members of the middle class. Bureaucratic

authoritarian regimes can also occur under a party dictatorship (O'Donnell 1979). The technocrats and

the organised strength of social sectors are encapsulated in government dependent interest groups or

political parties. The goal according to O'Donnell is political deactivation and exclusion,

accomplished by eliminating the organisational bases, eliminating the electoral arena and suppressing

electoral activity. The ultimate goal of the bureaucratic authoritarian system is to solve major

economic and political-social problems which had played a central role in the formation of the

regime. Overcoming these problems it is argued will create severe hardship by the people of the

country and in order to ensure the success of these policies it is necessary to deactivate the popular

sector, in particular the urban lower class (O'Donnell 1979 : 73).

The Singaporean Case

Just how well do the aims and goals of authoritarian regimes explicated by the writers above apply to

the Singaporean context? The state’s intervention in Singapore society is well documented – from

material relations, to housing and the economy. The Peoples Action Party (PAP) has maintained

power since independence from Britain in 1959, by neutralising such unease of a one party state, by

forging an ideology of ‘survivalism’, the notion that the nation as a whole had to abandon politics to

ensure their economic and social survival (Baber, 2000). Increasingly trying to de-politicise politics,

the ideology has shifted to the discourse of ‘pragmatism’ and ‘communitarianism’(Baber 2000).

Singapore adopted the Winsemius Report (United Nations Industrial Survey Mission 1960, cited in

Rodan 1989) based on the idea that “owing to the dearth of local know-how and the structural

immobility of domestically based capital, foreign capital would have to be seduced” (Rodan,

1989;64). In order to seduce foreign capital from the multinationals, the Trade Union (Amendment)

Bill made strikes and other industrial action illegal, unless approved by a majority of the union

members, and banned strikes in essential services was introduced in 1966 (Rodan 1989). Social

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discipline was further enhanced by the Employment Act and the Industrial (Amendment) Act. Other

initiatives include the management committees of all community centres being dismantled and

brought under the control of the People’s Association, who report directly to the Prime Minister’s

Office. Since then, further amendments to legislation has resulted in the ruling party influencing

dating, sexuality, higher education, religion, ethnicity, the mass media and cultural production, formal

and informal (Baber 2002). All of these were legitimised by appeals to ‘survivalism’, ‘pragmatism'

and ‘communitarianism’(Baber 2002 and Chua 1995).

According to Muller (cited in Kollmeyer 2003) there is a positive correlation between rising levels of

income inequality and the probability of an authoritarian takeover of a previously democratic regime.

In Singapore, voting is compulsory, thereby complicating the use of this indicator when trying to

gauge the level of political participation. With reference to union density, Singapore ratified

Convention No.98 but not convention No.87 of the International Labour Standards Commission.

Convention 87 refers to freedom of association and protection of the Right to Organisation

Conventions. No. 98 refers to the Right to organise for the purpose of collective bargaining. The level

of union density in 1999 (Campbell, 1999 cited in Serrano, 2005) was 20.0%. However, the biggest

union in Singapore is the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) which “is a family of 63 trade

unions with more than 470,000 members in support of the labour movement” (NTUC 2006). The

NTUC chief has always been a PAP member and a member of cabinet. ‘Voter participation’ and

‘union density’, both engaged in measuring political involvement of the population, have been

encapsulated under the control of the dominant political party and the government. Like other

authoritarian regimes the popular sector of Singapore has been deactivated by the PAP in an attempt

to subdue the population to ensure the success of political and economic policies that are geared to

making Singapore more competitive in the global economy. The PAP’s continued commitment to a

perceived multiparty system means that co-option is aimed at other parties’ potential leaders and

activists. Influential or potential local leaders are appointed to the Citizens Consultative Committees

and those thinking of standing for election or openly supporting another party are deterred by fear of

retribution (Chan 1976; Milne and Mauzy 1990 cited in Brooker 2000).

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The Habermasian Public Sphere

In the Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1989), Habermas conceived of a space where

private individuals could gather as a public to express the needs of society. The Habermasian public

sphere contains four important characteristics. Firstly it is status-free and everyone has the ability to

participate. Access to all citizens must be guaranteed and they can gather unrestricted. They are not

judged by their status but by the soundness of their arguments. Secondly it is not an intellectual free-

for-all but a place of rational and critical debate. Citizens use well reasoned arguments and possess a

willingness to hear conflicting views. There is courteous turn-taking and it is well mannered. Thirdly,

participants debate areas of social interest not normally questioned in the political arena. Public

opinion is not the views generated by opinion polls but the result of rational and critical debate. And

finally, it does not come about simply as a place to engage irrational debate but to develop solutions.

It is a place where the public highlight and interpret social problems and produce solutions.

Dahlgren (2001) and Fraser (1992) argue against the idea of an overarching single public sphere

claiming the possibility of multiple public spheres. Questions also arise as to whether or not

Habermas' public sphere is merely a normative ideal. I would also like to question the idea that the

public sphere would need to be one of courteous turn-taking in favour of the idea that democratic

discussion is not necessarily consensual but more robust where dissension is encouraged.

Blogs as a Public Sphere

According to Kaye and Johnson (forthcoming), in order for blogs to evolve into a public sphere they

must meet certain criteria. They must be a status free zone in that participation should not be limited

to an elite particular demographic of the society. The blogosphere does resemble the internet

demographically and the internet however is not a status free zone in the way Habermas intended

public spheres to be (Kaye and Johnson forthcoming). So entry to blogs maybe limited but no more so

than the internet in general. The next criteria is that blog users need to exhibit political characteristics

that motivate them to take part in a public sphere. Heavy blog users, according to Kaye and Johnson

(forthcoming), are less ideologically driven. As differences and not similarities drive debate Kaye and

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Johnson (forthcoming) argue that blog users do have the potential to create a 'Habermasian type of

public sphere'. By referring to a 'type' of Habermasian public sphere they appear to argue that blogs

do not meet the normative ideal of the public sphere. The discrepancy according to Kaye and Johnson

(forthcoming) is that they often present a clear ideological focus. '[W]hat is needed now are people

with the courage to question the status quo and their own attitudes and beliefs', Kaye and Johnson

(forthcoming). The use of the term 'status quo' is rather ambiguous in this instance, are they referring

to a political status quo of the wider society or simply the blogosphere?

Conclusion

This section addressed whether or not the blogosphere is capable of generating a public sphere in a

population that has been politically de-activated. It began by assessing how well the aims and goals

of authoritarian regimes explicated by Linz (1964), Diamond, Linz and Lipset (1989) and

O'Donnell's (1973) apply to the Singaporean context? Using various indicators and a literature review

it argued that non-democratic theory is useful when assessing the goal of authoritarian regimes, to de-

politicise the population. Finally it assessed the utility of the Habermasian public sphere when applied

to the blogosphere and concluded that it is a relevant tool for assessing the nature of online discussion,

with the acceptance of conflictual discussion. According to Kaye and Johnson (forthcoming) the

blogosphere's ability to foster a vibrant public sphere, as defined by Habermas, suggests that socio-

political blogs in Singapore will result in a limited public sphere. In order for the Singapore socio-

political blogosphere to be fully regarded as a Habermasian type of public sphere, it must offer an

alternative to the dominant ideology of the wider Singapore society.

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3 SINGAPORE BLOGOSPHERE AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION

Introduction

‘Theories in social science tend to come from rich detailed investigation, and

only later are tested on simplified aggregated data. This subject of inquiry is

still at the stage where we can learn most from detailed ethnography and

participant observation’ (Howard, 20011).

This section will begin by conceptualising the Singapore context in relation to political circumstances,

as it is felt that the current political and social discourse is effecting how the internet and the

blogosphere is being shaped by forces in Singapore. These forces include the laws and media that

help shape the discourse of democracy and globalisation. This section then moves on to refer to

literature that has isolated the Singapore blogosphere as an anomaly that remains separated from the

wider global blogosphere. After a review of literature that focuses on the concept of political

participation and references to the role of different models of democracy and the arguments for and

against participation, the perceived limitations of these studies will be described. This section will

finish with a reference to perceived gaps in the current literature and possible significance of the

current research as an attempt to fill those perceived gaps.

Blogs and the Singapore Blogosphere

A blog or weblog is a type of content management system or more importantly a website that has

some of the functions of a traditional website. The main difference is that blogs organise their content

into 'posts' or 'articles' which are shown on the page in reverse chronological order. They contain

personal opinion or facts. Blogs are continually updated and adding a new post or article is as simple

as sending an email. Blogs tend to be informal and readers are able to view posts when they want to

by visiting the site or having it delivered to their email inbox or a designated site by feedreader. Blogs

tend to be authored by one person or a small group of individuals and readers can leave feedback or

comments positioned within the post if the blog owner has activated the comment function. Blogs

1 Howard, P. (2001) ‘Can Technology Enhance Democracy? The Doubters’ Answer’, Journal of Politics 63(3): 949–55.

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tend to inherit the authors identity and personality and are ideal for providing a flow of time-sensitive

information, such as commentary and analysis of a particular event (Holtz 2006).

The term 'blogosphere' refers to a group of blogs or all blogs and their interconnections. They are able

to connect to each other through hyperlinks, comments and trackbacks. As bloggers tend to inter-link

heavily and read each others blogs they may have an influence on each other. So the blogosphere is a

collective term that encompasses all blogs as a community or social network (Holtz 2006). As a result

of the high level of interconnections blogs may have developed their own culture.

Pole (2000) argues that the studies conducted on the blogosphere can be grouped into three

categories; descriptive accounts, analysis of the meeting of blogs and politics and explorations of

bloggers and political participation. Chang et al (2005) and Nardi et al (2005) provided descriptive

accounts of bloggers who are engaged in the activity in order to document their personal lives,

provide commentary, articulate ideas and maintain community forms. Hewitt (2005) and Posner

(2005) who study the intersection of blogs and politics, argue that bloggers have a confrontational and

competitive relationship with the mainstream media and that bloggers act as a check on the

established media. Wallsten (2005) argues that bloggers amplify the opinions of mainstream media

and other elites. Drezner and Farrell (2004) also assess the links between the mainstream media and

bloggers and conclude that bloggers are motivated by material incentive, personal networks, expertise

and speed. While the research outlined above is of significance to this paper, I feel that the research

conducted by McKenna and Pole (2004), which I now turn to, is of greater relevance.

McKenna and Pole (2004) showed that bloggers in the United States used their blogs to

predominantly engage in political participation. They suggest that blogging turns individuals who

were moderately politically active into more active political participants. According to McKenna and

Pole (2004), the functions that are specific to the blogging technology, such as commenting,

trackbacks, linking and the blogrolls (a form of linking) facilitate political discourse and participation.

McKenna and Pole (2004) by focusing on the nature of the technology and in the context of the

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United States seem to argue that the facilities of commenting and trackbacks have an affect on the

social actors who are engaged in the social practice of blogging.

The Singapore socio-political blogosphere is chosen as a case study as it appears to be an isolated and

distinct community. Defining a core group of users who continually return to a particular site of

online interaction is needed and various attempts at defining, visualising and extracting these

communities have been attempted. Examples include Lin et al (2006), who used blog ranking and

their social connections to devise a visual representation of blog communities. Lin et al (2006)

established communities by assessing the level of mutual awareness through the various actions of

bloggers, such as commenting on each others sites or using trackbacks to inform the writer of an

article that they have linked to it. Lin et al (2006) have defined the Singapore blogosphere as a

‘community with no obvious central topic’, and stated that it was a rather closed community, or rather

closed off from the wider global community of bloggers. Hurst (2006) using the same data as Lin et

al, created for the WWW 2006 Workshop, highlighted the same group of blogs as Lin et al (2006).

Again the Singapore blogosphere is isolated from the more global blogosphere2.

Political Participation

According to Parry et al, (1992) political participation is not just about taking part in elections but also

involves the signing of petitions and taking part in protest meetings. This might include taking part in

the processes of formulation and implementation of public policies. Kaase and Marsh (1979) seem to

cast a wider definition and argue that political participation is the voluntary action by private citizens

in an attempt to influence political decisions and choices. Verba and Nie (1972) and Verba et al

(1995) define it as an attempt by private citizens to influence the choice of government officials and

to communicate information to those government officials. Hardin (cited in Parry et al 1992) argues

that political participation is “the desire to be there.” The term 'political' is also not without its

problems of definition and to simply equate it with the government or public affairs is, according to

Deth (2001), to narrow a definition as clearly delineating government affairs is difficult.2See Figure 1. In Appendix the Singapore socio-political blogosphere is the small cluster in the bottom right hand corner which consists of a core group of users during 2005.

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According to Karakayapolat (2004), the various modes of political participation include but are not

limited to voting, campaigning, communal activity, contacting officials or representatives, direct

action and political violence. Traditional methods of political participation include asking questions at

council meetings or the drafting of consultation documents. Consumerist methods would involve

filling out satisfaction surveys, complaint schemes and opinion polls. Deliberative methods include

but are not limited to focus groups, citizen juries and taking part in visioning exercises. Forum and

panels are also classed as a separate method of political participation, with online methods classified

simply as all the other methods but conducted electronically.

Needham (2002) highlights the difference between top down initiated participation or consultation

and bottom up participation beyond elections. Needham states that “participation is usually taken to

involve a higher degree of engagement and control than consultation which is more likely to be

government controlled and advisory.” This bottom up participation is vertical rather than horizontal

communication and can include offline contact between individuals and is not limited to just online

participation. The relationship between participation and democracy is also central to my research and

throws up the question of whether or not participation can decrease democracy as well as increase it.

Arguments for increasing participation include those put forward from an instrumental,

developmental, liberal and communitarian perspective (Beetham 1996). Arguments against

participation are founded on notions that full participation by all private citizens is not desirable

because of a 'tyranny of the majority', or because social and political inequalities will be reproduced in

a context of full participation (Beetham 1996). The role of participation within different models of

democracy is also problematic because within a direct deliberative model of democracy the political

elite participate fully to the detriment of those who are not members of the elite, and within a

consumer model of democracy citizens are excluded from 'high politics' (Schumpter 1976). Direct

models of democracy are interpretations of democracy whereby the will of the majority directly

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influences policies. The deliberative model emphasises public debate and would require a 'public

sphere' to enable open debate amongst citizens.

Conclusion

Technology and tendencies towards technological determinism seem to dominate the work of Lin et al

(2006), Hurst (2006) and Adamic and Glance (2004). Karakayapolat (2004) noted the technological

focus and filled some of the literature gap by providing an institutionalist approach, which may give

too much to the organisational determinist stand point in the processes involved in online political

participation. An ethnographic approach should address the issues of technological and

organisational determinism and bring to the foreground of the discussion the social shaping and

socially constructed nature of the blogosphere and political participation.

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4 ETHNOGRAPHIC METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Introduction

This research employs network ethnography. I have been a participant observer for 4 years in the

Singapore blogosphere and will consider issues around the notion of being in context and time or

presence and absence, ethical considerations, network ethnography and online versus offline

approaches to ethnography. The participant aspect is carried out by blogging or rather producing an

online web presence. The observer aspect of the method involves data collection, textual, visual and

audio data, as well as the analysis of that data from other sites. As well as the limitations and benefits

of various forms of methods used in online research there are also theoretical and methodological

issues to be considered which are touched upon when looking at the problems of technological and

organisational determinism. Ethical considerations are central to any ethnography and the current

geographic and online nature of the community highlights certain concerns. According to Hine (2005)

there does exist considerable anxiety about how far traditional research methods are appropriate for

studying technologically mediated interaction. If methodological solutions gain authority from

references to precedence, just how far has the current heritage of research methodology applied to

online communities advanced to be viewed as verified methods? What gaps exist in our current

understanding when applying these methods to online communities?

This subject matter is still at the stage where we can learn most from detailed ethnography (Howard

20013).Technological advances are not new but technological determinism is a dominant theme when

trying to understand these innovations. An ethnographic study of the Singapore socio-political

blogosphere can help to understand the ways in which the various styles of discursive practices are

created by social actors. Rather than adhering to technological determinism this study is an attempt to

bring social agency into the discussion.

3 Howard, P. (2001) ‘Can Technology Enhance Democracy? The Doubters’ Answer’, Journal of Politics 63(3): 949–55.

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Technological and Organisational Determinism

According to Howard (2002), ethnography is the systematic description of human behaviour and

organisational culture. When researching a physically decentralised social network or community

made up of individuals who form a community but are not necessarily members of a formal

organisation, how do you avoid organisational as well as technological determinism? To argue that

the network and hierarchy are determining the culture is to have slipped into organisational

determinism. Someone or something, like a law or the digital divide which is not engaged in the

online community, may still retain power in shaping the online community. To avoid organisational

determinism the researcher must consider broader social, culture and political phenomenon in which

the blogosphere is contextualised. The intention of this research is to construct fieldwork that does not

simply result in organisational determinism. The next concern is that of ‘Technological Determinism’

– that technology influences society but is not in turn affected by society. This is an idea founded on

two assumptions: Technology progresses from less to more advanced configurations or rather that

technological progress proceeds from lower to higher levels of development, social institutions must

adapt to the ‘imperatives’ of the technological base..

Determinism is an interpretation of history, “which makes it seem as though the end of the story was

inevitable from the beginning by projecting the abstract technical logic of the finished object into the

past as a cause of development”(Feenberg 1992). Determinism confuses our understanding of the past

and limits our imagination or ability to envisage different futures.

Feenberg (1992) argues that technology is a social object, technology is more than its explainable

functions, and it has interpretable meaning. Technology has ‘social’ meaning and a ‘cultural horizon’.

It might be argued that once the ‘object’ is fixed in its design, that it becomes a debate over the

‘goals’ and that the engineer has the last word. The focus on goals by managers, engineers, strips

technology of its social context. However technology is a historically evolving phenomenon.

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What the object is for the groups that ultimately decide its fate determines what it becomes as it is

redesigned and improved over time. Technology then can only be studied by studying the socio-

political situation of the various groups involved. In this instance the socio-political situation of

Singapore is important when conducting an ethnographic study of the Singapore socio-political

blogosphere outlined above..

Being in Context

I have been a participant observer for 4 years in the Singapore socio-political blogosphere. A problem

encountered when in the field is that of defining the boundaries of the field or community. This

problem is not unique to the study of online virtual communities. As Atkinson, (1992) states the field

is produced (not discovered) through the social transactions engaged by the ethnographer. The

boundaries of the field are not given. They are the outcome of what the ethnographer may encompass

in his or her gaze'. The nature of community in a physical setting implies that it is socially constructed

and so the reference to online communities as virtual communities is posited on the notion and belief

that there are real physically posited communities to make comparisons with. According to Renninger

and Shumar (2002) there are three features of the virtual world that result in a community being

referred to as a virtual community. Firstly a core group of users who continually return to a particular

site of online interaction need to be identified, secondly temporal and spatial possibilities need to be

considered and thirdly the linking of conversations between websites, archiving discussions and

thereby allowing for the possibility of future discussions around the same resources.

Ethnographers in the ‘traditional’ sense are able to get out there and spend time learning about people

in their native or natural context. The online ethnographer will encounter the same obstacles or

learning paths such as gaining access, maintaining relationships when getting out there and spending

time with people in online communities. Defining a core group of users who continually return to a

particular site of online interaction is needed and various attempts at defining, visualising and

extracting these communities have been attempted. Examples include Tseng, Tatemura and Wu

(2005), who used blog ranking and their social connections to devise a visual representation of blog

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communities. Lin et al (2006) and Hurst4 (2006) have managed to isolate the Singapore socio-political

blogosphere (see section 3 above on Blogs and the Singapore socio-political blogosphere)

The map or visual representation and that of Lin et al (2006) appear to be technologically and

organisationally deterministic. But relying on post codes, or geographic maps to define a community

in the physical world is also beset with the same issues. The data upon which figure 1 (see appendix

1) and the work of Lin et al (2006) have been created and the algorithms upon which they are founded

are still questionable and under negotiation. Just how far has the current heritage of research

methodology applied to online communities advanced to be viewed as verified?

The discussion now shifts to the ethnographer being located in the textual data being collected from

the Singapore socio-political blogosphere.

Textual Presence and Absence

The participant aspect is carried out by blogging or rather producing an online web presence within

the community highlighted by Lin et al (2006) and Hurst (2006). Such an undertaking will include

issues that are not particular to online research. The research settings which I have briefly introduced

above involve gaining access and getting along with other core members of the community, as well as

getting out of the setting. As I am already a member of the Singapore socio-political blogosphere,

complex issues regarding gaining access have already been negotiated and the textual data generated

during that process have been archived to be analysed at a later date. Rutter and Smith (2005) have

referred to the automation of most of the data collection process for a technically aware social

researcher. The recording of field notes is also a process that has been computerised. As texts are the

key elements in ethnography and within textual anthropology, in this instance textual data forms the

raw data. The researcher as a participant in this instance seems to be in the generated text produced

by the ethnographer, be that blog posts or comments on the sites perceived to be within the

community.4See Appendix Figure 1: Matthew W. Hurst (Data Mining). Interactive version available at http://datamining.typepad.com/data_mining/2006/07/interactive_map.html

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The representation of the online community or blogosphere is at the textual level, and can only exist

at the textual level. Of course an ontological position of such a claim is linked to epistemological

assumption that multiple interpretations of any text are possible. It will however be asserted that

interpretations of texts by researchers and analysts maybe helpful. It is hoped that the goals of blog

producers and how the readers use the texts can be arrived at through ethnographic work coupled with

an analysis of the various styles of discourse and ideologies they employ.

As the members of the online community are geographically dispersed, being in their presence would

involve a lot of international travel. Something that is well beyond the means of most research

budgets and a large task for a team of researchers let alone a single researcher. Online research

requires the researcher to become a member of a core group of users who continually return to a

particular site of online interaction. Regular or daily interaction is required in order not to be seen as

an outsider and to fit into the daily routine of other participants. Interacting daily within the group

allows time to learn and understand as an outsider enabling the researcher to add to questions and

follow alternative directions of research. Being able to blend in and acquire a feel for the norms of

behaviour of the community is also crucial. It is felt that to become a member of an online community

would involve the creation of a website that was linked to by the other members of the community.

The observer aspect of the method will involve data collection, including textual, visual and audio

data, as well as the analysis of that data from core sites or nodes within the Singapore socio-political

blogosphere. A large amount of the ‘observer role’ can be automated via the use of technology and

web archiving software. Data archiving of texts, maps and photographs or screen grabs of sites can be

automated. The habits, customs and myths although made manifest in textual data will require the

understanding of the technological and organisational setting as well as the culture being created and

re-created by the people who populate the Singapore socio-political blogosphere.

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Several issues are however to be considered when conducting online ethnographic research, as well as

the suitability of various forms of methods used in online research there are also methodological

issues to be considered which will be discussed in the following section.

Ethics of Virtual Ethnography

According to Hine (2005) there is considerable anxiety about how far traditional research methods are

appropriate for studying technologically mediated interaction. As with offline ethnography, the issues

of misrepresentation, consequentiality and anonymity play an important and somewhat key role in the

present research design. It is also important to understand the wider offline environment in which the

ethnographic research will be conducted when considering ethical issues.

The Singaporean state’s influence on society is well documented and researched.5 The internet is said

to facilitate existing social trends while at the same time opening efficient modes of social control

(Lyon, 1994; Lyon and Zureik, 1996). An ethnographic approach, it is hoped, will make the views and

attitudes of the day-to-day users of the technology explicit and uncover how they interpret the

engendering and endangering repercussions of engaging with the emergent properties of the blogging

community. As levels of social control are high in Singapore it is paramount that I protect the

anonymity of those involved in the various daily interactions throughout the process of conducting the

research.

I must also consider the repercussions of being a ‘lurker’ when merely engaged in observation and

also the issues of copyright law when archiving the particular documents posted by various members

of the blogosphere. It is hoped that standard anti-plagiarism practices should overcome any copyright

law issues. There is also the issue of ‘researcher effect’ to be considered when actively engaged with

the Singapore socio-political blogosphere as an active member. The ethical disclosure of the

researcher’s identity will need to be considered, which will result in a diminished claim of validity.

5 See, Chua, 1995; 1997; Chan 1971; Rodan, 1989; 1993a; 1993b; Tremewan, 1994; Salaff, 1998; Tamney, 1996; George, 2000; Gomez, 2000 for a comprehensive introduction.

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The researcher should not cause harm as a consequence of the research. In this instance it is felt that a

public dissemination of the actual names or IP addresses of the participants would infringe such

ethical guidelines. Since the blogosphere is in the public domain the researcher is exempt from

gaining informed consent. However Reid (1996) argues that researchers should ensure to minimize

the harm caused during the process of dissemination from ‘dis-inhibited exposure’ that many feel on

the internet. With the ‘authoritarian’ nature of the Singaporean state well documented these ethical

concerns and guidelines will have to be carefully scrutinised before the dissemination of the research

findings, if at all.

It is also necessary to consider the ethical consequences of the researcher placing himself in a rather

contentious position. The researcher intends to become an active participant in the field as any

traditional ethnographer would do. This process of negotiating the field from an ethical position will,

it is envisaged, be an aspect of the texts generated by the researcher when making decisions and

postings within the online community.

Research on Online and Offline Communities

Trying to generate a holistic approach to ethnography according to Hine (2000) is rather pointless as

every account is always selective and partial. However Wilson (2006) has taken the approach that the

way forward maybe discerned through an “integration of ethnographic methods, both traditional

(offline face-to-face) and virtual”, as they “can be helpful in developing rich and comprehensive

understandings of relationships between online and offline…” (Wilson 2006, p.309). However this in

no way undermines the importance of ethnographic approaches to internet research as stressed by,

Markham (1998), Miller and Slater (2000), Mann and Stewart (2002, 2003), and Kendall (1999), as

well as Hine (2000).

Network Ethnography

Wilson(2006) has also referred to the shift from oral interaction within the ethnographic approach to a

more text based approach. As a result of this shift to texts in particular circumstances of production

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and consumption; it is felt that ethnographic work should be conducted at multiple sites. One

approach to doing this is ‘network ethnography’.

Howard (2002) has put forward what is viewed as an amalgamation of social network analysis and

ethnography for the study of ‘new media’ including that of online communities or as he refers to them

‘epistemic communities’. It is argued that social network analysis is better at defining a core group of

members of a group and expanding on that number than traditional ethnographic approaches. Network

ethnography is the process of using ethnographic field methods on sites or nodes selected by social

network analysis. The field site may not necessarily be physical in nature; it could refer to a

conference site or trade show as well as an online community like the Singapore socio-political

blogosphere that I have referred in this research. According to Howard (2002), “network ethnography

allows the qualitative researchers to think strategically about the selection of cases by empowering

them to define the universe of cases themselves”. Howard (2002) also argues that such an approach

will undermine inherent problems of the qualitative approach such as sample bias and maintain a

balance between technological and organisational determinism on the one hand and the social

construction of culture on the other hand.

Miller and Slater’s (2000) work is a study of offline – online relationships embedded in the cultural

life of Trinidad and Tobago. They argue that the ethnographic approach is one in which the researcher

spends a lot of time and a multi-faceted approach in a social setting. They both spent only five weeks

actually in Trinidad but do make it clear that they have extensive experience of living in Trinidad

prior to their study. They also managed to include house-to-house surveys that had been conducted for

other research projects conducted in Trinidad and one conducted for the purpose of their work for the

entitled study. This sustained relationship with the Trinidad context they argue enables them to

understand the Trinidadian situation. While physically in Trinidad they attempted to conduct

fieldwork in a number of locations, reformed old friendships, and took part in informal chats with

people in internet cafes. This offline field work occurred as well as taking part in online chat rooms

linked to Trinidad.

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A substantive attempt to ‘categorise’ the emergence of ‘sites’ of resistance in the Singaporean context

was conducted by Ho et al (2002), and the purposes of the current study is not intended to undermine

their approach. Their approach consisted of content analysis of various websites linked to Singapore

and they concluded that “the rapid expansion of the internet in Singapore,” facilitated the virtual

terrain of the ‘alternative’ public sphere of Singapore. Such references to the internet facilitating an

alternative are references to an analysis that is limited by a technological determinism and an imposed

dichotomy between, the ‘real’ and the ‘virtual’ in terms of understanding communities. The creation

and disappearance of these ‘sites’ of resistance is accredited to the shifting ebbs and flows of state

intervention while society attempts to negotiate this technology as it is in turn shaped by these social

forces (Ho et al, 2002). The focus on state intervention, technology and possibly an organisational

determinism also seems inherent in their conclusion. It is hoped that taking a network ethnographic

approach to the same online community will account for the social agency of the people involved in

shaping the Singapore socio-political blogosphere.

As a possible alternative to conducting an ethnographic approach I would quickly like to cite the

following ‘experiment’ conducted on the political community. Adamic and Glance (2004) in their

study on the political blogosphere during the 2004 US elections collated data from the posts of “40 A-

list blogs over a period of two months preceding the US presidential elections of 2004”. They

endeavoured to get a representative sample of the political blogosphere by gathering as much data as

possible in a one day snap shot of over one thousand blogs. In order to get at the 'heart' of the

blogosphere they took data of the two months preceding the election. In order to minimise ‘bias’ they

collected data from the top 20 blogs of those listed as being Democrats and 20 from those listed as

Republicans. They then continued to assess the strength of the ‘community’ by counting the number

of links within the group and the level of reciprocity of links. I provide an alternative approach to

studying online communities that moves away from such technological and organisational

determinism and incorporates my own and others understanding of the community.

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Bernal (2005) conducted a social history of Eritrea online and explored the ways in which new forms

of technological and geographical mobility are changing capitalist production, what it is that makes

up publics, public sphere, community and nation. Bernal’s study focused on one particular site6,

which discussed the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Although the current study intends to study

multiple-sites, Bernal’s study is one precedent of online ethnography. In Bernal’s study she concludes

that the promises made by the likes of Pitrodi (1993) that the internet “the greatest democratiser the

world has ever seen”, that when assessed such claims seem overly optimistic. Sites or communities

that generate a lot of interest very quickly tend to lose the interest of the participants. They generate a

lot of electronic traffic but little else. Even though everyone has access to knowledge production and

can participate in deliberation in an online public sphere and individuals are able to question

knowledge production, this deliberation formed in the online community must be linked to

government decision making to have any real claim of being the ‘great democratiser’.

Conclusion

The suitability of applying the ethnographic approach to the study of a Singapore socio-political

blogosphere is presented in this section. The major concerns with research conducted on online

communities and in particular of the Singapore socio-political blogosphere are that they led to

technological and/or organisational determinism. As well as filling the gap in previous research with

its focus on the US, it is felt that an ethnographic approach that involves an element of participant

observation should bridge the gap and bring the representation of the social agent into the debate.

6 Http://www.dehai.org as of the 11th September 2007

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5 RESEARCH DESIGN AND FINDINGS

Introduction

According to Fairclough (2003, p159), “styles are the discoursal aspect of ways of being, identities”.

Fairclough (2003) goes on to argue that styles/identification are distinct for discourse/representation

and genres/action (further analysis of the two latter types of analysis to be carried out at a later date)

and they are not wholly independent from them. McIntyre (1984) suggested that a large part of what

makes a culture distinctive is its number of 'characters'. These 'characters' exist at a higher level of

abstraction and generalisation. How do personalities, or personal identities, invest the 'character' of a

politician, manager or expert onto a social event? The social event and its relationship to social

practices and social structures all interact to determine the effectiveness of the agent. The extent

people communicate with each other as social agents, argues Fairclough (1999) and Touraine (1997),

can be linked to questions of citizenship and the public sphere, effective citizenship and public space

dialogues of citizens on matters of a social concern. The moving and shifting from one character to

another, crossing the norms and boundaries of expected agency is a 'citizen' character (Fairclough

2003).

Styles are evident in linguistic features such as phonological features including pronunciation,

intonation, stress, rhythm and of greater relevance to this study vocabulary and metaphor such as the

use of adverbials such as 'awfully', 'bloody', 'sodding'. The analysis of the corpus will focus on

modality and evaluation, commitments to truth, moral obligation and to values. Modality means the

speakers judgement of the probabilities or the obligations, involved in what he or she is saying

(Halliday1994). Fairclough (2003) believes that modality textures identities, what you commit

yourself to is an important part of what you are.

Research Questions

Whether Singapore blog user's have the potential to create a Habermasian public sphere online is

investigated by comparing the differences in styles of discourse of a corpus of blog posts focusing on

an event that happened in July 2006.

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1. How involved in creating a counter public based on an alternative ideology is the Singapore

socio-political blogosphere?

1a. Which blogs are central to this process?

1b. Which blogs are more interconnected? Are there cliques?

2. What styles of discourse appear in the Singapore socio-political blogosphere?

Method

As a participant in the Singapore socio-political blogosphere since 2003 I feel that because of Lin et

al's (2006) and Hurst's (2006) data mining approach to defining and analysing the communities that

this area would be better served by using participant observation, especially when trying to

understand the nature of the culture and topics of discussion involved.

A list of events focusing on the intervention of the Singapore government in internet communication7

has been developed by Dr Cherian George, Assistant Professor at Nanyang Technological University

and Yee Yeong Chong (Mykel) a postgraduate student in the Department of Sociology at the National

University of Singapore. The event I have chosen ( MrBrown/Bhavani 2006) is currently under

consideration to be included on this list of events. I intend to conduct the same analysis of the other

events in the same manner at a later date.

In order to get a representative sample of the Singapore socio-political blog community and to gather

in-depth information on the styles of discourse of blog posts, for approximately one week following

the MrBrown/Bhavani event I collected a corpus of texts from the top 51 influential socio-political

blogs of July 2006. I started by gathering a large set of socio-political blog addresses, or URLs, by

downloading a list of socio-political blogs8 compiled by a group of bloggers, a group of

undergraduate students and others. From this list I removed blogs that had not been in operation from

the period of July 2006 to July 2007 to ensure that the blogs I searched were in operation for the

period of the MrBrown/Bhavani event.

7 List available at http://calibratedcoercion.wordpress.com/case-files/ as of 7th July 20078List available http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pQcRq80yuyWXeqpakIg2ibA as of 2nd August 2007

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Then using issuecrawler9 I harvested the URLs and used them as start nodes for a social network

analysis. A social network analysis of the URLs indicates which blogs are in the network, and the

map10 below also indicates the level of 'centrality' in the network and the wider cluster of blogs of

which it is a member. The lines refer to incoming links from the network to that site or node and the

size of the node indicates the relative number of incoming links it receives. The most central blog or

node within this cluster of Singapore socio-political blogs is singabloodypore.blogspot.com, the

previous URL address of my own site. Using this map, isolating .org URLs and aggregator sites such

as myapplemenu.com and political party sites such as wp.sg (the official Workers Party site) I then

compiled a list of 51 Singapore socio-political blogs that were active for the 12 month period (see

(Map 1 of the Singapore Socio-political Blogosphere July 2006 to July 2007.)

9http://www.issuecrawler.net/index.php10 An interactive version of this map is available online at http://singabloodypore.rsfblog.org/images/singaporesociopoliticalblogs.svg as of 2nd August 2007.

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table 1). The 51 blogs were then ranked according to technorati ranking, authority and other blog

citations to highlight the most important blogs. A small group of blogs had no ranking information

available and are listed at the bottom of table 1.

Table111containing the name, URL address, blog citations, authority and technorati ranking, plus date (where available) and URL address of first article related to the MrBrown/Bhavani event in July 2006..

11 Interactive version available online at http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pZP_kym6FilKhwNAAKOvmNQ as of 2nd August 2007.

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Socio-political blogs that contain archive for July 2006 – Data Survey 17th July 2007Blog Technorati Technorati Date of Article

Blog Title URL Reactions Authority Ranking URL1 mrbrown: L'infantile terrible of Singapore. http://www.mrbrown.com 8336 1158 1752 03/07/062 mrbrownshow 2686 359 10729 Not available3 Mr Wang Says So http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com 838 289 14500 06/07/064 i-Speak: Gayle Goh (no longer active) http://i-speak.blogdrive.com/ 740 162 31029 15/07/065 Intelligent Singaporean http://intelligentsingaporean.wordpress.com 593 146 34923 Not available6 Singapore Angle http://www.singaporeangle.com/ 1078 141 36063 07/07/067 The Online Citizen http://theonlinecitizen.com 579 132 38852 Not available8 Singabloodypore http://singabloodypore.rsfblog.org 307 99 54074 03/07/069 Xenoboy http://xenoboysg.blogspot.com/ 702 86 64204 03/07/0610 Molly Meek http://mollymeek.livejournal.com/ 667 84 65889 03/07/0611 e pur si muove http://diodati.omniscientx.com/ 628 81 68624 05/07/0612 Diary of Singaporean Mind http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/ 511 64 89244 06/07/0613 The Legal Janitor http://shianux.jiyuuu.org 381 60 96068 Not available14 Singapore Election Watch http://singaporeelection.blogspot.com 603 56 104209 07/07/0615 A Writer's Blog: My Life, My Thoughts http://ephraim.blogspot.com/ 250 55 106180 07/07/0616 Singapore Patriot http://singaporepatriot.blogspot.com/ 206 41 149268 04/07/0617 Singapore Politics http://singaporegovt.blogspot.com 240 34 183558 Not available18 A Gecko's Tale http://samaryn.com/ 192 31 202961 Not available19 Singapore: New Media, Politics & the Law http://singaporemedia.blogspot.com/ 130 29 218186 04/07/0620 Singapore Alternatives http://singaporealternatives.blogspot.com 203 28 226661 Not available21 The Anti Neo-Democracy Theorist http://antineodem.wordpress.com/ 55 26 245308 Not available22 Heavenly Sword http://heavenly-sword.blogspot.com/ 110 22 292563 04/07/0623 Winter is Coming http://nedstark.wordpress.com 111 19 342102 Not available24 Ringisei http://ringisei.wordpress.com/ 54 18 360079 Not available25 A Singapore Odyssey http://melvintansg.blogspot.com/ 40 18 362285 Not available26 Chemical Generation 145 17 382845 09/07/0627 Yaw Shin Leong @ WP http://yawshinleong.blogspot.com 42 16 407748 Not available28 Urban Rant http://urbanrant.blogspot.com 91 15 434196 07/07/0629 Jeff's Blog http://jeffyen.blogspot.com 62 14 464037 Not available30 Celluloid Reality 25 14 465230 04/07/0631 Thoughts on Public Policies and Politics http://szemeng.blogspot.com/ 57 13 497342 09/07/0632 Words of the Lion Heart http://leounheort.blogspot.com/ 91 13 499310 Not available33 Dansong http://dansong.blogspot.com/ 34 9 698766 07/07/0634 Zuco's Blog http://blog.gerek.org/zuco.php 30 9 700100 Not available35 The Police State http://thepolicestate.blogspot.com 31 8 776409 Not available36 The Young Republic http://youngrepublic.blogspot.com 55 7 870149 03/07/0637 Singaland http://singaland.blogspot.com 31 7 870149 10/07/0638 Vox Leo - A Singaporean Voice http://voxleo.blogspot.com/ 16 6 986914 Not available39 The Moley Prophet http://www.sovietmole.com 51 5 1139478 Not available40 Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc http://noself.blogspot.com/ 23 5 1139478 12/07/0641 The Ken Tang http://thekentang.blogspot.com 28 5 1141660 02/07/0642 Convex Set http://convexset.blogspot.com 17 5 1141660 07/07/0643 i-do-not-speak http://i-do-not-speak.blogspot.com/ 24 3 1784147 Not available44 JB Jeyaretnam's Blog http://blog.jbjeya.org/ NA NA NA Not available45 Singapore Kopi Tok http://singaporekopitok.blogspot.com/ NA NA NA Not available46 Disgruntled Singaporean http://disgruntledsporean.blogspot.com/ NA NA NA 09/07/0647 Nofearsingapore http://nofearsingapore.blogspot.com NA NA NA 05/07/0648 The Kway Teow Man http://kwayteowman.blogspot.com/ NA NA NA 05/07/0649 No political films please, we’re Singaporeans http://singaporerebel.blogspot.com NA NA NA 04/07/0650 Yawning Bread http://yawningbread.org NA NA NA 00/07/0651 Hear ye! Hear ye! http://aaron-ng.info/blog/ NA NA NA Not available

Key: NA – None Available

1st article http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2006/07/today_sporeans_.html

http://www.mrbrownshow.comhttp://commentarysingapore.blogspot.com/2006/07/frightening-day-for-journalists-in.htmlhttp://i-speak.blogdrive.com/archive/193.html

http://www.singaporeangle.com/2006/07/on-rectification-of-mrbrown.html

http://singabloodypore.blogspot.com/2006/07/let-battle-commence.htmlhttp://xenoboysg.blogspot.com/2006/07/o-bhavani.htmlhttp://mollymeek.livejournal.com/2006/07/03/http://diodati.omniscientx.com/2006/07/05/brown-out-today/http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html

http://singaporeelection.blogspot.com/2006/07/sad-day-for-free-speech.htmlhttp://ephraim.blogspot.com/2006/07/my-take-on-mrbrowns-suspension-i-guess.htmlhttp://singaporepatriot.blogspot.com/2006/07/political-humour-should-be-seen-in.html

http://singaporemedia.blogspot.com/2006/07/when-bloggers-enter-msm.html

http://heavenly-sword.blogspot.com/2006/07/analyzing-mr-browns-original-article.html

http://chemgen.blogspot.com http://chemgen.blogspot.com/2006/07/fall-and-rise-of-mr-brown.html

http://urbanrant.blogspot.com/2006/07/reporters-without-borders-comment.html

http://celluloidreality.wordpress.com http://celluloidreality.wordpress.com/2006/07/04/the-mr-brown-saga-of-the-other/http://szemeng.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html

http://dansong.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.html

http://youngrepublic.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.htmlhttp://singaland.blogspot.com/2006/07/intolerant-government.html

http://noself.blogspot.com/2006/07/shooting-fish-in-barrel-as-promised.htmlhttp://thekentang.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.htmlhttp://convexset.blogspot.com/2006/07/to-be-human-in-world-of-humans.html

http://disgruntledsporean.blogspot.com/2006/07/thinkers-and-ostriches.htmlhttp://nofearsingapore.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_archive.htmlhttp://kwayteowman.blogspot.com/2006/07/poor-mr-brown.htmlhttp://singaporerebel.blogspot.com/2006/07/no-laughter-in-politics-please-were.htmlhttp://yawningbread.org/arch_2006/yax-621.htm

Data Collection

I created a corpus of blog posts from all 51 blogs (table 1). This was done by searching via their

archive facilities to retrieve a single page for each blog discussing the MrBrown/Bhavani event.

Where archives were not provided on the site I manually attempted to retrieve the archive by entering

the URL into the 'waybackmachine' at Archive.org12 during a two week period in July of 2007. Some

of the blogs which were not retrievable because they either no longer existed, had moved to a new

location or had no archive posts for July 2006. I managed to retrieve a total of 29 posts including the

original post by MrBrown. The posts that I collected usually contained trackbacks and comments.

Due to time constraints I was not able to include them in the final corpus on this occasion. It also

means that the data I analysed is limited to those found within the network of the Singapore socio-

political blogosphere. However I hope to return to the trackbacks and comments at a later date. I have

included in appendix 2 a sample of 5 blog posts taken from the top ranked sites in order to illustrate

the data analysis method I used.

Data Analysis

Fairclough (2003) highlights different types of modality which can be associated with different types

of exchange and speech functions. He highlights the characters of politicians, management gurus,

experts, priests and academic styles of speech. There is the knowledge exchange where statements are

made as to the authors commitment to truth; an assertion of truth such as 'the window is open', a

modalised example is 'the window may be open', or denial, 'the window is not open'. Questions

whether the author elicits the other's commitment to truth include but are not limited to non-modalised

positive: 'Is the window open? modalised: 'Could the window be open? And non-modalised negative:

'Isn't the window open?' There is also the activity exchange where demand can take the form of

prescription as in 'open in the window', modalised, 'you should open the window' and proscriptive,

'don't open the window! Offering a commitment to act by undertaking, 'I'll open the window,

modalised offering, 'I may open the window' and refusal, I won't open the window'. (For a greater

illustration and explanation see Fairclough 2003 pp.164-190). Fairclough (2003) argues that when

12http://www.archive.org as of 11 th September 2007

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people are confronted with politician, academics and expert characters, the way in which those people

breach the rules about questions or statements to get across points is how they interact with them as

citizens.

Results

The following five examples are included to give a detailed illustration of how I analysed all 29

articles in the corpus . The results are on table 2 below and details are available in appendix 3.

MrBrown's article first appeared in the Today

Newspaper and then online. This post dated the 3rd

of July 2006, (see appendix 2 for all 5 articles)

titled 'S'poreans are fed, up with progress' opens

with the reference to speaking on behalf of all

Singaporeans; it shifts through 'I', 'our', 'you' and

'yours'. In terms of references to other agents,

mass media, family are all utilised with the government being the excluded agent and therefore

backgrounded with the subject of the statement on rising incomes having no agent nor does the

government appear as the object in whom “we are very thankful”. Proscriptive and prescriptive

statements are made, “we are not able to”, “as sure as”, “we could”, “you will not”, “we are going to”,

a style which is more associated with the politician character. Representations of the situation shift

from from globalism, “being outsourced”, to the knowledge based economy “to make us a smart

nation”, “our country to do well economically” to a finishing representation of technological

dynamics juxtaposed with a social cohesion representation, “just happy to make ends meet”. The style

of discourse moves through politician, expert and personal.

Mr Wang Bakes Good Karma published two posts

on the 6th of July 2006, the first titled 'A

Frightening Day for Journalists in Singapore' and

the second containing a press release from

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Reporters Sans Frontiere (RSF) a non-governmental organisation on the same day. The first post

reads as a call to action and is supportive of MrBrown, using a number of adverbials and adjectives

such as “frightening”, “humorous”and “popular” assigning a mood to the event. The agent creating

this mood is “the Ministry for Information and Communication and the Arts” is mentioned explicitly

but Ms Bhavani is not. The writer of the post appears as MrWang and the reader is brought into the

event in a call to action in “you can write to them too”. The second post on the same day, 'RSF's

Opinion' The RSF press release is value laden, with proscriptive as well as prescriptive assertions,

“unconstructive” [sic], “it is not the job”, “is disturbing”, “have a right”,”amusing”and “most

popular”. In the title of the press release from RSF, the RSF is the backgrounded agent with all other

agents explicitly referred to “government official”, “Lee Kin Mun” (aka MrBrown) and “Krishnasamy

Bhavani” is referred to as speaking on behalf of “her” government. MrWang concludes again with a

call to action, “speak up now”, “sending an email”, “you who write”. The two posts shift from an

activist character, to journalist and back to activist.

I-Speak's post dated Saturday the 15th July 2006

opens with a personal diary like style including

personal facts. Takes an affective stance of

“Thoroughly disgusted” on the MrBrown/Bhavani

event and refers directly to both main agents

although Bhavani is accredited with speaking for

MICA. Prescriptive terms such as “should”, “better”,

“presently does” with “had thought” referring to the writers interpretation/representation of

MrBrown's claimed (by MICA) anonymity. Values are evident in the use of “is meant to”, “a check”

inferring that checking the government is a justified function of the mass media. MrBrown's

representation is not supported fully with value statements such as “its bitter” and “its not objective”.

MICA's representation is aligned with the discourse of globalism/neo-liberalism as in “oil selling at”.

Asserts that MrBrown has been “publicly shame[d]”. Social cohesion discourse is also utilised, “out

national strategy”, and “nation-building” as to be based on principles of participation, “participative,

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open and inclusive”. I-Speak then returns to a diary like style, affective, principled values. “Peaceful

discourse” or rather consensual dialogue is asserted as good, and therefore conflictual discourse is

negative. A discourse of 'fear' appears in the last paragraph “if they can crack down on one blogger,

they can”. The post finishes by including the reader/agent and the post has shifted from a personal

style, to political knowledge assertions and finally returns to personal.

Singapore Angle is a group blog, meaning that it

has a group of possible writers. On this occasion

the post was published by ringisei on the 7th July

2006. The introductory paragraph reads like the

academic style, “This post”, statements are

hedged, “not convinced”, “speculate” and “more

likely”. It summarises the ongoing event, “most of”,

“have expressed”, “a few”. Represents the reaction

of others “Goh Meng Seng” and reactions to previous events “to be even less”. “Only reprimanded”

with the term “only” a valued interpretation of an event and “is still” with reference to being published

as a positive. With terms such as “cited” appearing in the text again reads in the style of the

academic. Assertions in the negative appears, “it has not”, and a hedged assertions, “This could be

due to”, appear to dominate the style.

Singabloodypore.blogspot.com again a blog that

has a group of contributors. On this occasion the

post dated the 3rd July 2006 was posted by soci,

also known as Steven McDermott. The title of the

post is prescriptive, “Let”. The opening sentence is

hedged twice, “appear” and “may have”. A

proscriptive assertions is used in the second sentence “it is really not”. The post then includes the

entire reply from Ms Bhavani from the Today Newspaper on the 3rd July 2006 titled “Distorting the

truth mr brown?” which is a strong commitment to truth, a common style of the politician character.

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The writer equates herself with the government, “our IT plans”. High level commitment statements

are made with “confirmed” representation “that globalisation” caused the income decline, later

reasserted in “must also now”, prescriptive, “inevitable” aligned with an ideology of globalism.

Strong commitment to globalist representations of events. Proscriptive assertions are “distort the

truth”, “polemic”, “dressed up as”. The style of a politician is reinforced by calls for “alternatives”

and “solutions”. A non-modalised negative high commitment to truth is asserted in “It is not the role”

and concludes with a statement that denies the backgrounded agent, MrBrown, commitment to truth

with “he is no longer...but a ...” The post by soci concludes with hedged values and MrBrown also

backgrounded. The mass media is present as agent and devalued. The post when written by soci

adheres to an academic style with values. The section from Ms Bhavani is a politician style.

41

Ideology Occurrences Styles of Discourse OccurrencesAnti-globalisation Politican 49negative 5 Academic 22unfair 4 Expert 9social justice needed 6 Priest 1welfare 4 Citizen 28rights 3 Journalist 19

Total 22 Activist 10Globalism Personal 39Supports Discourse of Globalism 12 Lawyer 2Inevitable 6Competing on a global scale 4Disagrees with globalism 6Progress and Technology 11Consumerism 4Processes 1knowledge based economy 4

Total 48Social CohesionRefers to 'greater good' 3Questions the 'discourse' 50Democracy 8Agrees 'social cohesion' argument 19Disagrees with 'social cohesion' 24Accountability 5Sarcasm 18

Total 127

Table 2. The occurrence of the three types of ideology and the 9 styles of discourse

Table 2 shows that I uncovered a total eight different styles of discourse employed by the various

bloggers within the corpus of 29 articles of data. A politician style of discourse occurred on 49

occasions, personal 39, citizen 28, academic 22, journalist 19, activist 10, expert 9 and priest 1. The

most dominant form of ideology was that of social cohesion which scored 127 occurrences followed

by a discourse of globalism (48) and anti-globalisation (22). (For a detailed breakdown of these

occurrences please see appendix 3 Results table from QSR Xsight 2 on page 59.)

Discussion

The Singapore socio-political blogosphere seems to not be involved in creating a counter public based

on an alternative ideology. The ideology of social cohesion is the most dominant form within the

Singapore socio-political blogosphere, followed by globalism, both component parts of the discourse

of survivalism. However those blogs that do engage in creating a public based on an alternative

ideology are Diary of a Singapore Mind, Heavenly Sword, MrBrown, Xenoboy, Singapore Election,

A Writers Blog, i-Speak, Molly Meek, e pur si muove and Post Hoc Ergo. The frequency at which

such discourse occurs is very limited. The blogs that are more interconnected with at least 10 or more

incoming links from within the Singapore socio-political blogosphere are Singabloodypore, Singapore

Angle, Yawning Bread, MrBrown and e pu si muove (see Map 1 above). One blog, Commentary

Singapore appears on the map but is no longer active, Intelligent Singapore is an aggregator of other

blogs and The Void Deck although it appears in the map is a website. For cliques to be visible (see

Map 1 above) they would appear as a small clustered group disconnected from the wider Singapore

soci-political blogosphere and careful scrutiny of the map indicates that there are no cliques.

Multiple styles of discourse are evident in the illustrative examples of 5 posts above and from the

corpus of 29 articles in total from the Singapore socio-political blogosphere on the MrBrown/Bhavani

event. The dominent style is that of politician which confirms their inclusion in the sample to begin

with. However what is key is the shift in single blog posts of styles of discourse. Within the entire

corpus from the Singapore socio-political blogosphere there are multiple styles evident.

Representations, which are more closely associated with ideology, are limited to globalism and social

42

cohesion, which is the dominant ideology expressed by the Ministry of Information, Communications

and the Arts.

Conclusion

Singapore socio-political blog user's have the potential to create a Habermasian public sphere online

and the shifting from one style to another indicates the 'boundary' breaking nature of their agency b y

shifting between styles of discourse within posts and that they have a citizen approach to their writing.

They are however not creating a counter public based on an alternative ideology to the dominant

ideology of survivalism, pragmatism and communitarianism which appear in the form of 'globalism'

and 'social cohesion'.

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6 CONCLUSION AND LIMITATIONS

Singapore is generally a 'controlled' or authoritarian society. The Singapore socio-political

blogosphere is however not an anomaly, in that it does ‘fit in’ with the wider global blogosphere's

focus on political participation, questioning the technologically centred work of Lin et al (2006). This

study supports the work of Ho et al (2002) who looked at Singapore 'sites of resistance' and concluded

that the sites had the potential to be a public sphere. The final section of this paper conducted an

analysis of the 'styles' of discourse and ideologies used by bloggers during a single event that

happened in July 2006.

Pitrodi (1993) argued that the internet is the greatest force for democratisation the world has ever seen

and this study supports this to a limited degree in that it possesses the potential. Rodan (1997) argued

that the internet in Singapore is another means of disseminating propaganda, fear and intimidation.

This study found that even though Pitrodi's claim that the internet will create democracy is founded on

an increase in political participation. In this instance, the increase in political participation that the

internet allows does not necessarily result in democratisation. The non-democratic nature of

Singapore society inhibits the development of an online Habermasian public sphere. Rather than

acting as a tool for the dissemination of propaganda, fear and intimidation (Rodan 1997), the

Singapore socio-political blogs act as a means of reinforcing the dominant ideology of social cohesion

or survivalism.

A detailed look at non-democratic theory was followed by an outline of the concept of the public

sphere. The aims and goals of authoritarian regimes explicated by Linz (1964), Diamond, Linz and

Lipset (1989) and O'Donnell's (1973) apply well to the Singaporean context. It concluded that the

Habermasian public sphere is useful when assessing blogs in general and the nature of the Singapore

socio-political blogosphere in particular. The aims and goals of the Singaporean regime, the continued

de-politicisation of the population have not been undermined, and will not be undermined while the

blogosphere continues to reinforce the dominant ideology of survivalism.

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The section titles 'Singapore blogosphere and Political Participation' introduced the Singapore context

and the de-politicised politics and the ideology that maintains the situation, 'survivalism'. The

Singapore blogosphere was introduced and references were made to the work of Tatemura and Wu

(2005), Lin et al (2006) and Hurst (2006) who claimed that the Singapore blogosphere is isolated

from the wider global blogosphere and was a ‘community with no obvious central topic’ This study

highlights the socio-political blogosphere within the wider Singapore blogosphere that has the

potential to be viewed as a public sphere. In the state controlled climate of Singapore, blogging on

socio-politically relevant events is a political activity. It is engaged in a political activity that does

have a 'central topic', the continued expression of survivalism and the limited references to alternative

ideologies.

The next section, 'Ethnographic Methodological Considerations', looked at the specific qualitative

approach that was used when gathering the data. Network ethnography can overcome the limitations

of technological and organisational determinism and bring to the foreground how the socio-political

situation of various individuals during a series of events. As the research is founded on an

ethnographic approach, the issue of 'being in context' and the virtual field, 'textual presence and

absence' of the researcher, were dealt with. The researcher appears in the map (see above) as a central

member of the social network and also appears in the textual data that was analysed. The ethics of

virtual ethnography were adhered to in that only names of those in the public domain were referred to

and those operating anonymously were protected by withholding IP addresses and real names.

The research design section provides a limited snap shot of the Singapore socio-political blog user's

and concludes that they have the potential to create a type of Habermasian public sphere online. The

dominant ideology however remains unchallenged. This conclusion may be due to the limited corpus

and the selection of one event. The focus on styles of discourse and shifting between them, thereby

breaking the normative expectations of discourse, highlights the 'citizen' character of the individual

bloggers. To assess further the alignment of the Singapore socio-political blogosphere to the

45

Habermasian public sphere it will be necessary to include analysis of discourse/representation and

genres/action, of a greater number of events over a longer period of time.

This study of a single event provides limited support to the position that the non-democratic nature of

Singapore society inhibits the development of an online Habermasian public sphere. However, rather

than acting as a tool for the dissemination of propaganda, fear and intimidation, the internet acts as a

means of reinforcing the dominant ideology of social cohesion or survivalism.

46

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APPENDIX 1

Figure 1: Matthew W. Hurst (Data Mining). Interactive version available at..

http://datamining.typepad.com/data_mining/2006/07/interactive_map.html

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APPENDIX 2

mrbrown: L'infantile terrible of SingaporeThe mr brown blog containing his popular and satirical Singapore National Education Series and other funny musings on the dysfunctional side of Singapore life.

« A village outing: Three generations shopping at Far East Plaza on a Sunday morning | Main | browncast: singapore flunks courtesy »

Monday, July 03, 2006

TODAY: S'poreans are fed, up with progress!

Latest TODAY column: S'poreans are fed, up with progress!

Excerpt:

THINGS are certainly looking up for Singapore again. Up, up, and away.

Household incomes are up, I read. Sure, the bottom third of our country is actually seeing their incomes (or as one newspaper called it, "wages") shrink, but the rest of us purportedly are making more money.

Okay, if you say so.

As sure as Superman Returns, our cost of living is also on the up. Except we are not able to leap over high costs in a single bound.

Cost of watching World Cup is up. Price of electricity is up. Comfort's taxi fares are going up. Oh, sorry, it was called "being revised". Even the prata man at my coffeeshop just

raised the price of his prata by 10 cents. He was also revising his prata prices.

So Singaporeans need to try to "up" their incomes, I am sure, in the light of our rising costs. Have you upped yours?----------Full column:

S'poreans are fed, up with progress!

THINGS are certainly looking up for Singapore again. Up, up, and away.

Household incomes are up, I read. Sure, the bottom third of our country is actually seeing their incomes (or as one newspaper called it, "wages") shrink, but the rest of us purportedly are making more money.

Okay, if you say so.

As sure as Superman Returns, our cost of living is also on the up. Except we are not able to leap over high costs in a single bound.

Cost of watching World Cup is up. Price of electricity is up. Comfort's taxi fares are going up. Oh, sorry, it was called "being revised". Even the prata man at my coffeeshop just raised the price of his prata by 10 cents. He was also revising his prata prices.

So Singaporeans need to try to "up" their incomes, I am sure, in the light of our rising costs. Have you upped yours?

53

We are very thankful for the timing of all this good news, of course. Just after the elections, for instance. By that I mean that getting the important event out of the way means we can now concentrate on trying to pay our bills.

It would have been too taxing on the brain if those price increases were announced during the election period, thereby affecting our ability to choose wisely.

The other reason I am glad with the timing of the cost of living increases and wages going down, is that we can now deploy our Progress Package to pay for some of these bills.

Wait, what? You spent it all on that fancy pair of shoes on the day you saw your money in your account? Too bad for you then.

As I break into my Progress Package reserves to see if it is enough to pay the bills, I feel an overwhelming sense of progress. I feel like I am really staying together with my fellow Singaporeans and moving forward.

There is even talk of future roads like underground expressways being outsourced to private sector companies to build, so that they, in turn, levy a toll on those of us who use these roads.

I understand the cost of building these roads is high, and the Government is relooking the financing of these big road projects.

Silly me, I thought my road tax and COE was enough to pay for public roads.

Maybe we can start financing all kinds of expensive projects this way in future. We could build upgraded lifts for older HDB blocks, and charge tolls on a per use basis.

You walk into your new lift on the first floor, and the scanner reads the contactless cashcard chip embedded in your forehead. This chip would be part of the recently-announced Intelligent Nation 2015 plan, you know, that initiative to make us a smart nation?

So you, the smart contactless-cashcard-chip-enhanced Singaporean would go into your lift, and when you get off at your floor, the lift would deduct the toll from your chip, and you would hear a beep.

The higher you live, the more expensive the lift toll.

Now you know why I started climbing stairs for exercise, as I mentioned in my last column. I plan to prepare for that day when I have to pay to use my lift. God help you if some kid presses all the lift buttons in the lift, as kids are wont to do. You will be beeping all the way to your flat.

The same chip could be used to pay for supermarket items. You just carry your bags of rice and groceries past the cashierless cashier counter, and the total will be deducted from your contactless cashcard automatically.

You will not even know you just got poorer. And if your contactless cashcard runs out of funds (making it a contactless CASHLESS cashcard), you just cannot use paid services.

The door of the lift won't close, the bus won't stop for you, taxis will automatically display "On Call" when their chip scanners detect you're broke.

Sure, paying bills that only seem to go up is painful, but by Jove, we are going to make sure it is at least convenient.

No more opening your wallet and fiddling with dirty notes and coins. Just stand there and hear your income beeped away. No fuss, no muss! I cannot wait to be a Smart e-Singaporean.

I also found out recently that my first-born daughter's special school fees were going up. This is because of this thing called "Means Testing", where they test your means, then if you are not poor enough, you lose some or all of the subsidy you've been getting for your special child's therapy.

I think I am looking at about a $100 increase, which is a more than a 100 per cent increase, but who's counting, right? We can afford it, but we do know many families who cannot, even those that are making more money than we are, on paper.

But don't worry. Most of you don't have this problem. Your normal kids can go to regular school for very low fees, and I am sure they will not introduce means testing for your cases.

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We need your gifted and talented kids to help our country do well economically, so that our kids with special needs can get a little more therapy to help them to walk and talk. And hey, maybe if the country does really well, the special-needs kids will get a little more subsidy.

Like I said, progress.

High-definition televisions, a high-speed broadband wireless network, underground expressways, and contactless cashcard system — all our signs of progress.

I am happy for progress, of course but I would be just as happy to make ends meet and to see my autistic first-born grow up able to talk and fend for herself in this society when I am gone.

That is something my wife and I will pay all we can pay to see in our lifetimes.

mr brown is the accidental author of a popular website that has been documenting the dysfunctional side of Singapore life since 1997. He enjoys having yet another cashcard, in addition to his un-contactless one and the ez-link one to add to his wallet.

Monday, July 3, 2006 at 12:02 AM in Musings, Popular | Permalink

All articles that directly refer to the MrBrown firing in July 2006. They are listed below in accordance with the technorati ranking of the site. Highest ranking first.

http://commentarysingapore.blogspot.com

The site moved from http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com

http://commentarysingapore.blogspot.com/2006/07/frightening-day-for-journalists-in.html

06 July 2006

RSF's Opinion The article was dated 5th July 2006 (yesterday). Looks like RSF didn't need Mr Wang to tell them about this case - they already found out.

Singapore 5.07.2006Government criticised for condemning “unconstructive” article

It is not the job of government officials to take a position on newspaper articles or blog posts unless they are clearly illegal, Reporters Without Borders pointed out today after the Singaporean newspaper Today published an opinion piece by an official on 3 July condemning a recent post by blogger Lee Kin Mun as over-politicised and unconstructive.

“This reaction from a Singaporean official is disturbing,” the press freedom organisation said. “It reads like a warning to all journalists and bloggers in a country in which the media are already strictly controlled. The media have a right to criticise the government’s actions and express political views. Furthermore, a newspaper’s editorial policies depend solely on its editors. They should under no circumstances be subject to instructions issued by the government.”

Lee, who uses the pseudonym “mr brown,” wrote an article entitled “S’poreans are fed, up with progress!” for Today’s opinion pages on 30 June in which he criticised recent government measures and the constant cost-of-living rises in an amusing and acerbic fashion.

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Krishnasamy Bhavani, a press secretary to the ministry of information, communications and arts, responded with an article published in Today on 3 July in which she defended her government’s policies but went on to criticise Lee for taking a political position.

“It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the Government,” she wrote. “If a columnist presents himself as a non-political observer, while exploiting his access to the mass media to undermine the government’s standing with the electorate, then he is no longer a constructive critic, but a partisan player in politics.”

Lee is one of Singapore’s most popular bloggers. When the government banned political podcasts during the recent elections in April, the media largely took its cue from Lee’s position that, “Prison got no broadband,” in which he seemed to discourage bloggers from violating the new rules. But he nonetheless tested the authorities himself by posting a series of “persistently non-political podcasts” on his blog.

Reporters Without Borders was not able to reach Lee for a comment.

If you feel strongly about this matter and are concerned about its implications for the freedom of expression in Singapore, you may wish to consider speaking up now and sending an email to media organisations overseas, so that they can follow up on the story. For your convenience:

New Straits Times (Malaysia): news@nstp.com.mySouth China Morning Post (Hong Kong): peter.dedi@scmp.comBangkok Post (Thailand): kowit@bangkokpost.co.th (editor's name is Kowit Sanandang)News.Com.Au (Australia): newsroom@news.com.auThe Jakarta Post (Indonesia): http://www.thejakartapost.com/columns.asp

Remember to draw their attention to the RSF article above - they are likelier to detect the newsworthiness of this matter.

And the greater the number of you who write to these organisations, the likelier they are to realise that this is a significant matter.

+++++++++Technorati: Singapore; Reporters Without Borders; media.

.... Read More.

posted by Mr Wang Says So at Thursday, July 06, 2006 links to this post 20 comments

A Frightening Day For Journalists in Singapore In his regular newspaper column for TODAY, Singapore humorist and well-known blogger Mr Brown wrote a funny article on the costs of living in Singapore. One working day later, the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts responded strongly and publicly accused him of "distorting the truth".

Days later, Mr Brown, a family man with three young children, was suspended from his job as a columnist for TODAY.

In my opinion, this reflects the frightening climate of fear under which media professionals in Singapore have to work.

Mr Wang will be forwarding this post to Reporters Without Borders to notify them of these unfortunate events. You can write to them too.

Side note - Mr Brown also created a humorous, popular and immensely well-circulated podcast entitled "Bak Chor Mee" two months ago. This podcast satirised a certain political event during the 2006 General Elections and placed the ruling party in a less-than-positive light. The podcast received direct attention and public commentary from the Minister for Information, Communication & The Arts.

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More details here.

+++++++++Technorati: Singapore.

.... Read More.

posted by Mr Wang Says So at Thursday, July 06, 2006 links to this post 31 comments

http://www.singaporeangle.com

07 Jul 2006 8:27 PM

http://www.singaporeangle.com/2006/07/on-rectification-of-mrbrown.htmlOn the rectification of mrbrownBy ringisei on 07 Jul 2006 8:27 PMHaloscan Comments (25) Ms Bhavani's rebuttal of mrbrown's TODAY article "Singaporeans are fed, up with progress!" was not unexpected - see, for example, Xenoboy's analysis of the government's reaction. This post examines some points raised by those unsympathetic to mrbrown, why mrbrown has received more sympathy than Catherine Lim or Cherian George and ends off with a comparision with the rectificatioin of intellectual and media dissent in the People's Republic of China. (Btw I'm not convinced that the suspension of his column in TODAY was directly ordered by MICA and speculate that it is more likely to be the result of self-censorship and evasion of editorial responsibility.)

Most of the hundreds of comments in mrbrown's blog have expressed varying degrees of sympathy and support for Lee Kin Mun. However a few have been rather less charitable towards Mr Lee's plight. Commenter "IrememberChiaThyePoh" is particularly bitter about how mrbrown has been feted as a martyr when others who suffered harder, longer and for ostensibly more noble causes have been forgotten - hence the implications of his or her handle. I'm not entirely sure if mrbrown wants to be martyr for the cause of civil liberties. All this outpouring may simply be pent-up demand for alternative voices that decide to read mrbrown in a way that fulfills that need whether or not it was part of his intention to be read as such.

Goh Meng Seng of the Workers' Party was rather more sympathetic to mrbrown but his anguish at how all this sympathy (possible parallels to that huge Hougang rally and all the SMSes received by Steve Chia?) failed to translate into electoral victory is both poignant and palpable: "...when I was standing right in front of the ballot boxes in the counting centre, looking at the votes given to PAP team, I knew, I have too many illusions and fantasies on Singaporeans for a start." Apparently, the public may think that it is part of the occupational hazards that opposition politicians were aware of when they entered politics and should stoically bear that burden.

There seems to be even less sympathy for intellectuals and academics who are sometimes dismissed as spouters of atas cheeminology. This is not uncommon - even university students may hold this view. Thus some bloggers adopt a deliberately folksy style or even voraciously Hokkien-expletive spouting Ah Beng persona which has been very successful in attracting readership as well as shielding themselves from potential rectification by the authorities.

What Catherine Lim and Cherian George have in common with Mr Lee is that all three were only reprimanded after their articles (Dr Lim's "Great Affective Divide" and Dr George's "Civil Disobedience vs. Calibrated Coercion" - his blog post of the Straits Times article appears to have been removed but the longer academic paper "Calibrated Coercion and the maintenance of hegemony in Singapore" is still on the Asia Research Institute website: Working Paper No.48 - PDF) were published in national newspapers. However there are some important differences.

Dr Lim did not have a blog back then and although her case is often cited as the end of then-PM Goh's attempt at a kinder, gentler image of the PAP, the commenters in mrbrown's blog have a sense of solidarity that supporters of Dr Lim did not - the web allowed them to quickly discover that they are not alone. Technology can build community on the web but it remains to be seen if it can be translated into really existing effects in individual political awareness and behaviour.

57

And while Dr George does have a blog, it has not received anything close to Mr Lee's number of sympathetic comments. This could be due to the perception in some quarters that Dr George was associated with the establishment (many years in the Straits Times vs mrbrown's long outsider credentials with the Singapore National Education series), a less populist topic (civil liberties vs cost of living) and, at the root of it, Lee Kin Mun aka mrbrown's ordinary Singaporean image. He's clearly not an opposition politician, he's not an academic, he's a husband and father who lives in a HDB flat, does his best to earn a living, like to slang a bit, zhng his car, enjoy games and gadgets - sometimes comprain gahmen why they so liddat. Thus the empathy and sympathy: "Wah lao, that could have been me."

One of the commenters also made an allusion to Chinese political history by linking to Wikipedia's entry on the Hundred Flowers campaign. I can't help but beat my drum of pedantry again to say that this comparison is not a particularly instructive one - even if there is a parallel in "speak up / spoke up / shut up".

Firstly, although PM Lee Hsien Loong outlined his vision of Singapore as an open society, the chastisement of Cherian George had already reaffirmed that the out-of-bounds markers were still firmly in place. Secondly, the Hundred Flowers campaign was intended by Mao to attack opponents within his own party by inviting criticism from the educated public. Thirdly, the Hundred Flowers campaign only really took off and spun out of control after the CCP criticized those who had failed to turn in sufficiently robust criticism.

However even in the communist dictatorship that is the PRC, Gong Xiantian, a law professor at Beijing University, succeeded in forcing the CCP to shelf a draft law on refining the protection of private property rights after circulating an open letter stating his left wing objections, couched in the CCP's own history and rhetoric, to the legislation.

A journalism professor, Jiao Guobiao, lost his job after calling for the abolition of the Propaganda Department. There has been the usual outcry from the PRC's critics though EastSouthWestNorth's take sees aspects of it as being almost a personnel issue rather freedom of speech. Howard W. French also discusses the wider trends in the PRC's clampdown on academic dissent. Nonetheless Peking Duck also notes that some observers see that the glass is half-full. In the past, critics were jailed, subjected to psychological torture (endless self-criticism exercises) or sent down to be re-educated through hard labour.

In contrast, Catherine Lim continued to publish after 1984, Cherian George still has his NTU job and mrbrown's blog is still online. Although the calibrated response against mrbrown may have generated plenty of sympathy for him, I do not think it will translate into anything significant politically - except perhaps to deepen the sullen silence, apathy and inaction of the disillusioned. And that political inaction can never truly threaten the ruling party's hold on power.

Http://singabloodypore.blogspot.comhttp://singabloodypore.blogspot.com/2006/07/let-battle-commence.html03-Jul-2006Let Battle Commence

It appears that K Bhavani may have bitten off more than he/she can chew. It is really not advisable to attempt to attack one of the most read bloggers in Singapore and not expect retaliation. And as for the charge of 'distortion' who in this world has unmediated access to reality?

Voices, TODAY newspaper, Monday, July 3, 2006:

Distorting the truth, mr brown?

When a columnist becomes a 'partisan player' in politicsLetter from K BHAVANIPress Secretary to the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts

Your mr brown column, "S'poreans are fed, up with

58

progress!" (June 30) poured sarcasm on many issues, including the recent General Household Survey, price increases in electricity tariffs and taxi fares, our IT plans, the Progress Package and means testing for special school fees.

The results of the General Household Survey were only available after the General Election. But similar data from the Household Expenditure Survey had been published last year before the election.

There was no reason to suppress the information. It confirmed what we had told Singaporeans all along, that globalisation would stretch out incomes.

mr brown must also know that price increases in electricity tariffs and taxi fares are the inevitable result of higher oil prices.

These were precisely the reasons for the Progress Package — to help lower income Singaporeans cope with higher costs of living.

Our IT plans are critical to Singapore's competitive position and will improve the job chances of individual Singaporeans. It is wrong of mr brown to make light of them.

As for means testing for special school fees, we understand mr brown's disappointment as the father of an autistic child. However, with means testing, we can devote more resources to families who need more help.

mr brown's views on all these issues distort the truth. They are polemics dressed up as analysis, blaming the Government for all that he is unhappy with. He offers no alternatives or solutions. His piece is calculated to encourage cynicism and despondency, which can only make things worse, not better, for those he professes to sympathise with.

mr brown is entitled to his views. But opinions which are widely circulated in a regular column in a serious newspaper should meet higher standards. Instead of a diatribe mr brown should offer constructive criticism and alternatives. And he should come out from behind his pseudonym to defend his views openly.

It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the Government. If a columnist presents himself as a non-political observer, while exploiting his access to the mass media to undermine the Government's standing with the electorate, then he is no longer a constructive critic, but a partisan player in politics.

"It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the Government."

I always thought the main role of journalists was to speak truth onto those in power. Once a journalist in Singapore actually manages to express views contrary to the official line, they receive personal attacks similar to the one above. And if it is not the role of journalists to champion for the government in Singapore what the hell has the Straits Times been doing for the last 4 decades?

Singapore

Posted by soci at 7/03/2006 05:09:00 PM

59

Results 09/09/2007 21:27:25

1

1 testing Democracy

Proje Analysis Framework or Heading Name Heading Name Sample Nam Sample Characteristic Va Commentary T

2 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards negative Diary of Singap Not applicable, Blogger, No Singaporeans are

3 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards negative Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No Mr Brown did sa

4 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards negative mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No There is even talk

5 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards negative Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No Time in Singapor

6 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards negative Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No What has really c

7 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards unfair Diary of Singap Not applicable, Blogger, No Mr. Brown has un

8 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards unfair mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No You will not even

9 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards unfair Singapore Elec Not applicable, Blogger, Ac Talking won'�t do i

10 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards unfair Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No A laughter of men

11 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards social justice nee A Writer's Blog: Not applicable, Blogger, No You have the righ

12 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards social justice nee Diary of Singap Not applicable, Blogger, No There are numer

13 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards social justice nee i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No I feel so proud th

14 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards social justice nee Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No Really, the conditi

15 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards social justice nee Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No mrbrown wants p

16 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards social justice nee mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No I am happy for pr

17 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards welfare Diary of Singap Not applicable, Blogger, No There are numer

18 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards welfare e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re Unless the gover

19 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards welfare K Bhavani Government Spokesperson to help lower inc

20 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards welfare K Bhavani Government Spokesperson we can devote m

21 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards rights K Bhavani Government Spokesperson mr brown is entitl

22 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards rights Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No And it also seems

23 Anti-globalisation Attitude towards rights Post Hoc, Ergo Not applicable, Blogger, No Similarly, I would

24 Globalism Discourse of Glo Supports Discour There was no rea

25 Globalism Discourse of Glo Supports Discour price increases in

26 Globalism Discourse of Glo Supports Discour Instead of a diatri

27 Globalism Discourse of Glo Supports Discour Dr Vivian Balak Member of Parliment, Not a but don't in the na

28 Globalism Discourse of Glo Supports Discour e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re [T]he Progress P

29 Globalism Discourse of Glo Supports Discour e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re Problems do not

Results 09/09/2007 21:27:25

2

30 Globalism Discourse of Glo Supports Discour Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No this is Singapore,

Proje Analysis Framework or Heading Name Heading Name Sample Nam Sample Characteristic Va Commentary T

31 Globalism Discourse of Glo Supports Discour K Bhavani Government Spokesperson that globalisation

32 Globalism Discourse of Glo Supports Discour K Bhavani Government Spokesperson blaming the Gove

33 Globalism Discourse of Glo Supports Discour K Bhavani Government Spokesperson He offers no alter

34 Globalism Discourse of Glo Supports Discour K Bhavani Government Spokesperson constructive critic

35 Globalism Discourse of Glo Supports Discour Singapore Angl Not applicable, Blogger, No I do not think it wi

36 Globalism Discourse of Glo Inevitable e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re And as the march

37 Globalism Discourse of Glo Inevitable Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No he was simply ar

38 Globalism Discourse of Glo Inevitable K Bhavani Government Spokesperson price increases in

39 Globalism Discourse of Glo Inevitable mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No our cost of living

40 Globalism Discourse of Glo Inevitable Singapore Angl Not applicable, Blogger, No I do not think it wi

41 Globalism Discourse of Glo Inevitable The Ken Tang Not applicable, Blogger, No This project, whi

42 Globalism Discourse of Glo Competing on a g Our IT plans are

43 Globalism Discourse of Glo Competing on a g e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re Our IT plans are

44 Globalism Discourse of Glo Competing on a g e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re It’s nice that one

45 Globalism Discourse of Glo Competing on a g K Bhavani Government Spokesperson Our IT plans are

46 Globalism Discourse of Glo Disagrees with gl The decisive acti

47 Globalism Discourse of Glo Disagrees with gl through the cycle

48 Globalism Discourse of Glo Disagrees with gl Disgruntled Sin Not applicable, Blogger, No our country is goi

49 Globalism Discourse of Glo Disagrees with gl Disgruntled Sin Not applicable, Blogger, No The government’

50 Globalism Discourse of Glo Disagrees with gl mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No TODAY: S'porea

51 Globalism Discourse of Glo Disagrees with gl mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No Oh, sorry, it was

52 Globalism Discourse of Glo Progress and Tec Disgruntled Sin Not applicable, Blogger, No For all our nation-

53 Globalism Discourse of Glo Progress and Tec Dr Lee Boon Y Member of Parliment, Not a we would treat it

54 Globalism Discourse of Glo Progress and Tec e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re Maybe it was the

55 Globalism Discourse of Glo Progress and Tec Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No He was simply sa

56 Globalism Discourse of Glo Progress and Tec Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No high-tech intellige

57 Globalism Discourse of Glo Progress and Tec mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No I feel an overwhel

58 Globalism Discourse of Glo Progress and Tec mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No ashcard chip emb

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59 Globalism Discourse of Glo Progress and Tec mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No Like I said, progr

Proje Analysis Framework or Heading Name Heading Name Sample Nam Sample Characteristic Va Commentary T

60 Globalism Discourse of Glo Progress and Tec mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No High-definition tel

61 Globalism Discourse of Glo Progress and Tec Singapore Angl Not applicable, Blogger, No Technology can b

62 Globalism Discourse of Glo Progress and Tec Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No Time in Singapor

63 Globalism Discourse of Glo Consumerism Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No He was simply sa

64 Globalism Discourse of Glo Consumerism mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No ait, what? You sp

65 Globalism Discourse of Glo Consumerism mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No The same chip co

66 Globalism Discourse of Glo Consumerism The Ken Tang Not applicable, Blogger, No We have further

67 Globalism Discourse of Glo Processes Dr Vivian Balak Member of Parliment, Not a we want our new

68 Globalism Discourse of Glo knowledge based Diary of Singap Not applicable, Blogger, No If the govt gives o

69 Globalism Discourse of Glo knowledge based mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No you know, that ini

70 Globalism Discourse of Glo knowledge based mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No enhanced Singap

71 Globalism Discourse of Glo knowledge based mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No We need your gift

72 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Refers to 'greater i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No to help lower inco

73 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Refers to 'greater K Bhavani Government Spokesperson to encourage cy

74 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Refers to 'greater The Ken Tang Not applicable, Blogger, No "These measures

75 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di I certainly don’t t

76 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di GOVERNMENT

77 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Dansong Not applicable, Blogger, No "All you who seek

78 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Diary of Singap Not applicable, Blogger, No Singaporeans are

79 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Disgruntled Sin Not applicable, Blogger, No encourages Sing

80 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Disgruntled Sin Not applicable, Blogger, No The mainstream

81 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re on the other hand

82 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re If one wants to ta

83 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re Isn’t the ad homin

84 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re Especially when

85 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re Criticism doesn’t

86 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No that despite the

87 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No Hoorah, our natio

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88 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No Our national strat

Proje Analysis Framework or Heading Name Heading Name Sample Nam Sample Characteristic Va Commentary T

89 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No why people who

90 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No Molly has always

91 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No But if you are ma

92 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No non-political obse

93 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No Prediction:

94 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No TODAY: S'porea

95 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No Household incom

96 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No Oh, sorry, it was

97 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No is that we can no

98 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di No political film Not applicable, Blogger, Ac She writes in offic

99 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Nofearsingapor Not applicable, Blogger, No People (journalis

100 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Post Hoc, Ergo Not applicable, Blogger, No The reason why

101 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Singaland Not applicable, Blogger, No At first it was agai

102 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Singaland Not applicable, Blogger, No When ideologies

103 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Singapore Angl Not applicable, Blogger, No demand for altern

104 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Singapore Elec Not applicable, Blogger, Ac public criticises th

105 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Singapore Elec Not applicable, Blogger, Ac They are simply t

106 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Singapore Patr Not applicable, Blogger, No the Government

107 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Singapore: Ne Not applicable, Blogger, Re the government

108 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di The Ken Tang Not applicable, Blogger, No "Basically we real

109 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di The Young Re Not applicable, Blogger, No But my value syst

110 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di The Young Re Not applicable, Blogger, No Similar logic just

111 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Thoughts on P Not applicable, Blogger, No a setback for the

112 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Thoughts on P Not applicable, Blogger, No We should ideally

113 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Thoughts on P Not applicable, Blogger, No We should ideally

114 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Thoughts on P Not applicable, Blogger, No Has the role of a j

115 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No when the Govern

116 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No In a letter drippin

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117 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No hallmark of our G

Proje Analysis Framework or Heading Name Heading Name Sample Nam Sample Characteristic Va Commentary T

118 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No discursive trigger

119 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No Distortion of truth,

120 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No Offering no soluti

121 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No There was no ch

122 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No "to stretch out in

123 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No Read this letter b

124 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Questions the 'di Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No Like a Trauerspie

125 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Democracy I wonder, since w

126 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Democracy Partisan politics?

127 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Democracy e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re he timing of the n

128 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Democracy i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No I want to be able t

129 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Democracy Singaland Not applicable, Blogger, No Subsequently, it c

130 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Democracy Singaland Not applicable, Blogger, No it seems to be try

131 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Democracy Singapore Patr Not applicable, Blogger, No For the sake of th

132 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Democracy Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No New Prime Minist

133 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co It is not the role o

134 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co Dansong Not applicable, Blogger, No There is a respo

135 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co Disgruntled Sin Not applicable, Blogger, No For all our nation-

136 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co Dr Lee Boon Y Member of Parliment, Not a to get Singaporea

137 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co Dr Lee Boon Y Member of Parliment, Not a In a mainstream

138 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co Dr Lee Boon Y Member of Parliment, Not a That they are part

139 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co Dr Lee Boon Y Member of Parliment, Not a Rather than go o

140 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co Dr Vivian Balak Member of Parliment, Not a Singapore's main

141 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co Dr Vivian Balak Member of Parliment, Not a Singaporeans ca

142 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co Dr Vivian Balak Member of Parliment, Not a lets collectively e

143 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co Dr Vivian Balak Member of Parliment, Not a working together

144 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No I'm Really Proud

145 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co K Bhavani Government Spokesperson It is not the role o

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146 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co K Bhavani Government Spokesperson but a partisan pla

Proje Analysis Framework or Heading Name Heading Name Sample Nam Sample Characteristic Va Commentary T

147 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co K Bhavani Government Spokesperson "It is not the role

148 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co Singaland Not applicable, Blogger, No This would under

149 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co Singapore Angl Not applicable, Blogger, No the commenters i

150 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co Singapore Angl Not applicable, Blogger, No Firstly, although

151 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Agrees 'social co The Young Re Not applicable, Blogger, No Finally, the gover

152 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's National Day is c

153 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's We have always

154 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Dansong Not applicable, Blogger, No The dispersion of

155 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Disgruntled Sin Not applicable, Blogger, No our country is goi

156 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Disgruntled Sin Not applicable, Blogger, No This is obvious e

157 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Disgruntled Sin Not applicable, Blogger, No If the government

158 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re Singaporean soc

159 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No Molly will person

160 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No Maybe they forgo

161 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No Looks like Molly h

162 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No And what's the dif

163 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No Silly me, I though

164 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No ashcard chip emb

165 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No dysfunctional sid

166 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Singaland Not applicable, Blogger, No An Intolerant Gov

167 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Singaland Not applicable, Blogger, No is a poignant remi

168 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Singapore Elec Not applicable, Blogger, Ac They are simply t

169 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's The Ken Tang Not applicable, Blogger, No "It is not the role

170 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's The Young Re Not applicable, Blogger, No How it is logical t

171 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's The Young Re Not applicable, Blogger, No But my value syst

172 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Thoughts on P Not applicable, Blogger, No the perception fr

173 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No It reeks with the

174 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Yawning Bread Not applicable, Blogger, Ac the government i

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175 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Disagrees with 's Yawning Bread Not applicable, Blogger, Ac power speaks to

Proje Analysis Framework or Heading Name Heading Name Sample Nam Sample Characteristic Va Commentary T

176 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Accountability Dr Vivian Balak Member of Parliment, Not a We are all entitle

177 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Accountability Dr Vivian Balak Member of Parliment, Not a stand by them or

178 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Accountability The Young Re Not applicable, Blogger, No the prime ministe

179 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Accountability Thoughts on P Not applicable, Blogger, No Is it legitimate to

180 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Accountability Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No Offering no soluti

181 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm Diary of Singap Not applicable, Blogger, No Thank goodness!

182 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm Diary of Singap Not applicable, Blogger, No Every Singapore

183 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm Diary of Singap Not applicable, Blogger, No . How dare he as

184 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm Diary of Singap Not applicable, Blogger, No If the govt gives o

185 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm Diary of Singap Not applicable, Blogger, No Mr. Brown has un

186 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm Diary of Singap Not applicable, Blogger, No It is important for

187 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm Diary of Singap Not applicable, Blogger, No Singaporeans are

188 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No The real issue is

189 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No This makes Molly

190 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No Really, mrbrown,

191 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No Like I said, progr

192 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No High-definition tel

193 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm The Ken Tang Not applicable, Blogger, No "Basically we real

194 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm The Ken Tang Not applicable, Blogger, No But opinions that

195 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm The Ken Tang Not applicable, Blogger, No "CCTVs will allow

196 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm The Ken Tang Not applicable, Blogger, No "It is not the role

197 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No The standard of t

198 Social Cohesion Attitude towards ' Sarcasm Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No Shiny, happy peo

199 Styles of Discourse Politican Dansong Not applicable, Blogger, No precipitated a vitri

200 Styles of Discourse Politican Dansong Not applicable, Blogger, No Acerbic fantasies

201 Styles of Discourse Politican Disgruntled Sin Not applicable, Blogger, No Any dissent amo

202 Styles of Discourse Politican Disgruntled Sin Not applicable, Blogger, No This is the true ca

203 Styles of Discourse Politican Dr Lee Boon Y Member of Parliment, Not a The government i

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204 Styles of Discourse Politican Dr Lee Boon Y Member of Parliment, Not a have a lighter tou

Proje Analysis Framework or Heading Name Heading Name Sample Nam Sample Characteristic Va Commentary T

205 Styles of Discourse Politican Dr Lee Boon Y Member of Parliment, Not a And that they mu

206 Styles of Discourse Politican Dr Lee Boon Y Member of Parliment, Not a The bottomline is

207 Styles of Discourse Politican Dr Vivian Balak Member of Parliment, Not a We are all entitle

208 Styles of Discourse Politican Dr Vivian Balak Member of Parliment, Not a but don't in the na

209 Styles of Discourse Politican Dr Vivian Balak Member of Parliment, Not a We are in search,

210 Styles of Discourse Politican Dr Vivian Balak Member of Parliment, Not a you are not an int

211 Styles of Discourse Politican Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No Mr Brown's real c

212 Styles of Discourse Politican Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No which is true!

213 Styles of Discourse Politican Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No Mr Brown is point

214 Styles of Discourse Politican Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No which is a truism i

215 Styles of Discourse Politican Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No MICA's interpreta

216 Styles of Discourse Politican i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No Perhaps MICA sh

217 Styles of Discourse Politican i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No Yes, it's bitter. N

218 Styles of Discourse Politican i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No “S’poreans are fe

219 Styles of Discourse Politican i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No The results of the

220 Styles of Discourse Politican i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No we understand m

221 Styles of Discourse Politican i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No mr brown’s views

222 Styles of Discourse Politican i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No They are polemic

223 Styles of Discourse Politican i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No This is reality.

224 Styles of Discourse Politican i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No the news reports

225 Styles of Discourse Politican i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No It is not the job of

226 Styles of Discourse Politican K Bhavani Government Spokesperson poured sarcasm

227 Styles of Discourse Politican K Bhavani Government Spokesperson were only availa

228 Styles of Discourse Politican K Bhavani Government Spokesperson There was no rea

229 Styles of Discourse Politican K Bhavani Government Spokesperson mr brown's views

230 Styles of Discourse Politican K Bhavani Government Spokesperson They are polemic

231 Styles of Discourse Politican K Bhavani Government Spokesperson higher standards

232 Styles of Discourse Politican Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No I think the differe

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233 Styles of Discourse Politican Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No lies in the FACT t

Proje Analysis Framework or Heading Name Heading Name Sample Nam Sample Characteristic Va Commentary T

234 Styles of Discourse Politican mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No We are very than

235 Styles of Discourse Politican mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No that getting the i

236 Styles of Discourse Politican Nofearsingapor Not applicable, Blogger, No Is this is a new di

237 Styles of Discourse Politican Reporters With Not applicable, Not applica It is not the job of

238 Styles of Discourse Politican Reporters With Not applicable, Not applica This reaction fro

239 Styles of Discourse Politican Reporters With Not applicable, Not applica It reads like a war

240 Styles of Discourse Politican Singabloodypo Not applicable, Blogger, Re Let Battle Comm

241 Styles of Discourse Politican Singaland Not applicable, Blogger, No almost absolute p

242 Styles of Discourse Politican Singaland Not applicable, Blogger, No they would lose t

243 Styles of Discourse Politican Singapore Angl Not applicable, Blogger, No Apparently, the p

244 Styles of Discourse Politican Singapore Patr Not applicable, Blogger, No I am disappointed

245 Styles of Discourse Politican The Ken Tang Not applicable, Blogger, No "Politics is the do

246 Styles of Discourse Politican Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No Like a Trauerspie

247 Styles of Discourse Politican Yawning Bread Not applicable, Blogger, Ac But meanwhile, t

248 Styles of Discourse Academic The exilic intellec

249 Styles of Discourse Academic Disgruntled Sin Not applicable, Blogger, No This incident hint

250 Styles of Discourse Academic e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re All communicatio

251 Styles of Discourse Academic e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re This statement b

252 Styles of Discourse Academic e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re Note also the use

253 Styles of Discourse Academic Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No Many argued that

254 Styles of Discourse Academic Post Hoc, Ergo Not applicable, Blogger, No Begging the ques

255 Styles of Discourse Academic Post Hoc, Ergo Not applicable, Blogger, No Assertion that the

256 Styles of Discourse Academic Post Hoc, Ergo Not applicable, Blogger, No It is a historical c

257 Styles of Discourse Academic Post Hoc, Ergo Not applicable, Blogger, No Conflating legal w

258 Styles of Discourse Academic Post Hoc, Ergo Not applicable, Blogger, No And I'm seriously

259 Styles of Discourse Academic Post Hoc, Ergo Not applicable, Blogger, No Legal and constit

260 Styles of Discourse Academic Post Hoc, Ergo Not applicable, Blogger, No An argument stan

261 Styles of Discourse Academic Singabloodypo Not applicable, Blogger, Re It appears that K

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262 Styles of Discourse Academic Singapore Angl Not applicable, Blogger, No This post examin

Proje Analysis Framework or Heading Name Heading Name Sample Nam Sample Characteristic Va Commentary T

263 Styles of Discourse Academic Singapore Angl Not applicable, Blogger, No ends off with a co

264 Styles of Discourse Academic Singapore Angl Not applicable, Blogger, No even less sympa

265 Styles of Discourse Academic Singapore Angl Not applicable, Blogger, No I can't help but be

266 Styles of Discourse Academic Singapore Angl Not applicable, Blogger, No I do not think it wi

267 Styles of Discourse Academic Singapore: Ne Not applicable, Blogger, Re establishes that c

268 Styles of Discourse Academic The Young Re Not applicable, Blogger, No Of course, unlike

269 Styles of Discourse Academic Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No Like a Trauerspie

270 Styles of Discourse Expert Dansong Not applicable, Blogger, No it’s the problems

271 Styles of Discourse Expert e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re it’s the problems

272 Styles of Discourse Expert e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re Remember, Ac*df

273 Styles of Discourse Expert e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re Very little has cha

274 Styles of Discourse Expert Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No The response fro

275 Styles of Discourse Expert Singapore Angl Not applicable, Blogger, No convinced that th

276 Styles of Discourse Expert Singapore Angl Not applicable, Blogger, No What Catherine L

277 Styles of Discourse Expert Thoughts on P Not applicable, Blogger, No K Bhavani must b

278 Styles of Discourse Expert Yawning Bread Not applicable, Blogger, Ac This is an old, old

279 Styles of Discourse Priest Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No mrbrown, Molly th

280 Styles of Discourse Citizen A Writer's Blog: Not applicable, Blogger, No About the Govern

281 Styles of Discourse Citizen Dansong Not applicable, Blogger, No He was dignified i

282 Styles of Discourse Citizen Dansong Not applicable, Blogger, No precipitated a vitri

283 Styles of Discourse Citizen Dansong Not applicable, Blogger, No Problems do not

284 Styles of Discourse Citizen Dansong Not applicable, Blogger, No The Government

285 Styles of Discourse Citizen Diary of Singap Not applicable, Blogger, No Singaporeans are

286 Styles of Discourse Citizen Disgruntled Sin Not applicable, Blogger, No n fact, there is a g

287 Styles of Discourse Citizen e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re The Government

288 Styles of Discourse Citizen e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re Problems do not

289 Styles of Discourse Citizen e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re They are also poli

290 Styles of Discourse Citizen e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re Nobody has all th

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291 Styles of Discourse Citizen e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re The government i

Proje Analysis Framework or Heading Name Heading Name Sample Nam Sample Characteristic Va Commentary T

292 Styles of Discourse Citizen Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No What's wrong wit

293 Styles of Discourse Citizen i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No In the meantime t

294 Styles of Discourse Citizen i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No How petulant, to

295 Styles of Discourse Citizen i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No However, when w

296 Styles of Discourse Citizen i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No Why so? This is b

297 Styles of Discourse Citizen Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No why people who

298 Styles of Discourse Citizen Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No And it also seems

299 Styles of Discourse Citizen Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No when politicians t

300 Styles of Discourse Citizen Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No Really, mrbrown,

301 Styles of Discourse Citizen No political film Not applicable, Blogger, Ac Landmines every

302 Styles of Discourse Citizen Nofearsingapor Not applicable, Blogger, No Now I know why t

303 Styles of Discourse Citizen Singabloodypo Not applicable, Blogger, Re I always thought t

304 Styles of Discourse Citizen Singapore Patr Not applicable, Blogger, No mr brown is a hu

305 Styles of Discourse Citizen Singapore Patr Not applicable, Blogger, No Anyone who has

306 Styles of Discourse Citizen Thoughts on P Not applicable, Blogger, No a setback for the

307 Styles of Discourse Citizen Yawning Bread Not applicable, Blogger, Ac The inutility of sp

308 Styles of Discourse Journalist Dr Lee Boon Y Member of Parliment, Not a Dr Lee Boon Yan

309 Styles of Discourse Journalist Dr Vivian Balak Member of Parliment, Not a He had been ask

310 Styles of Discourse Journalist Dr Vivian Balak Member of Parliment, Not a An article by Mr B

311 Styles of Discourse Journalist i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No Krishnasamy Bha

312 Styles of Discourse Journalist i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No Lee is one of Sin

313 Styles of Discourse Journalist i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No Daily newspaper

314 Styles of Discourse Journalist i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No The newspaper,

315 Styles of Discourse Journalist Mr Wang Says Not applicable, Blogger, No A Frightening Da

316 Styles of Discourse Journalist No political film Not applicable, Blogger, Ac has found himself

317 Styles of Discourse Journalist No political film Not applicable, Blogger, Ac He pens satires,

318 Styles of Discourse Journalist Reporters With Not applicable, Not applica Government critic

319 Styles of Discourse Journalist Reporters With Not applicable, Not applica Lee, who uses th

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320 Styles of Discourse Journalist Reporters With Not applicable, Not applica Krishnasamy Bha

Proje Analysis Framework or Heading Name Heading Name Sample Nam Sample Characteristic Va Commentary T

321 Styles of Discourse Journalist Reporters With Not applicable, Not applica Lee is one of Sin

322 Styles of Discourse Journalist Singapore: Ne Not applicable, Blogger, Re Popular Singapor

323 Styles of Discourse Journalist The Kway Teo Not applicable, Blogger, No TODAY, Voices,

324 Styles of Discourse Journalist The Kway Teo Not applicable, Blogger, No The Straits Times

325 Styles of Discourse Journalist Urban Rant Not applicable, Blogger, No (source: Reporter

326 Styles of Discourse Journalist Yawning Bread Not applicable, Blogger, Ac his characteristic

327 Styles of Discourse Activist e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re how come no one

328 Styles of Discourse Activist e pur si muove Not applicable, Blogger, Re If politics is a ga

329 Styles of Discourse Activist i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No How can anyone

330 Styles of Discourse Activist i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No he must take a st

331 Styles of Discourse Activist i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No "It reads like a wa

332 Styles of Discourse Activist Mr Wang Says Not applicable, Blogger, No f you feel strongly

333 Styles of Discourse Activist Mr Wang Says Not applicable, Blogger, No Remember to dra

334 Styles of Discourse Activist Singapore Elec Not applicable, Blogger, Ac The day we'�ve b

335 Styles of Discourse Activist Singapore Elec Not applicable, Blogger, Ac Talking won'�t do i

336 Styles of Discourse Activist Yawning Bread Not applicable, Blogger, Ac power speaks to

337 Styles of Discourse Personal A Writer's Blog: Not applicable, Blogger, No I guess I knew it

338 Styles of Discourse Personal Dansong Not applicable, Blogger, No He was dignified i

339 Styles of Discourse Personal Disgruntled Sin Not applicable, Blogger, No Well it appears th

340 Styles of Discourse Personal Heavenly Swor Not applicable, Blogger, No I became curious

341 Styles of Discourse Personal i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No I'm sorry everyon

342 Styles of Discourse Personal i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No Anyway, even if

343 Styles of Discourse Personal i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No I am shocked and

344 Styles of Discourse Personal i-Speak: Gayle Not applicable, Blogger, No i received troublin

345 Styles of Discourse Personal Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No mrbrown, Molly th

346 Styles of Discourse Personal Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No Dear readers, do

347 Styles of Discourse Personal Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No just wishes to con

348 Styles of Discourse Personal Molly Meek Not applicable, Blogger, No As Molly isn't as

Results 09/09/2007 21:27:25

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349 Styles of Discourse Personal Mr Wang Says Not applicable, Blogger, No Looks like RSF di

Proje Analysis Framework or Heading Name Heading Name Sample Nam Sample Characteristic Va Commentary T

350 Styles of Discourse Personal Mr Wang Says Not applicable, Blogger, No In my opinion, thi

351 Styles of Discourse Personal mrbrown: L'infa Not applicable, Blogger, No I also found out r

352 Styles of Discourse Personal Nofearsingapor Not applicable, Blogger, No I have just receiv

353 Styles of Discourse Personal Post Hoc, Ergo Not applicable, Blogger, No As promised...alb

354 Styles of Discourse Personal Post Hoc, Ergo Not applicable, Blogger, No when a person is

355 Styles of Discourse Personal Post Hoc, Ergo Not applicable, Blogger, No n my personal ex

356 Styles of Discourse Personal Post Hoc, Ergo Not applicable, Blogger, No I have developed

357 Styles of Discourse Personal Singabloodypo Not applicable, Blogger, Re . And as for the c

358 Styles of Discourse Personal Singabloodypo Not applicable, Blogger, Re And if it is not the

359 Styles of Discourse Personal Singapore Elec Not applicable, Blogger, Ac Sad day for free s

360 Styles of Discourse Personal Singapore Elec Not applicable, Blogger, Ac Most of you read

361 Styles of Discourse Personal Singapore Patr Not applicable, Blogger, No I read mr brown'

362 Styles of Discourse Personal The Kway Teo Not applicable, Blogger, No The KTM has be

363 Styles of Discourse Personal The Kway Teo Not applicable, Blogger, No It was not the arti

364 Styles of Discourse Personal The Kway Teo Not applicable, Blogger, No :-( Poor Mr Brown

365 Styles of Discourse Personal The Kway Teo Not applicable, Blogger, No perhaps the read

366 Styles of Discourse Personal The Kway Teo Not applicable, Blogger, No While the KTM is

367 Styles of Discourse Personal The Young Re Not applicable, Blogger, No . I am a completel

368 Styles of Discourse Personal The Young Re Not applicable, Blogger, No However I am co

369 Styles of Discourse Personal The Young Re Not applicable, Blogger, No That was how I re

370 Styles of Discourse Personal The Young Re Not applicable, Blogger, No Similar logic just

371 Styles of Discourse Personal The Young Re Not applicable, Blogger, No Of course, unlike

372 Styles of Discourse Personal Thoughts on P Not applicable, Blogger, No Postscript: I send

373 Styles of Discourse Personal Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No O Bhavani

374 Styles of Discourse Personal Xenoboy Not applicable, Blogger, No No. This time rou

375 Styles of Discourse Personal Yawning Bread Not applicable, Blogger, Ac I just came back t

376 Styles of Discourse Lawyer Thoughts on P Not applicable, Blogger, No Article 14 of our

377 Styles of Discourse Lawyer Thoughts on P Not applicable, Blogger, No The law has alwa