20 TODAY • Wednesday • April 16, 2008

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Editorial Director

TODAY
Managing Editor
Night Editor
Production Editor
P N Balji

Walter Fernandez
Yvonne Lim
Clement Mesenas
Voices
Hop on the bandwagon
Editor-At-Large Conrad Raj
Chief Sub-Editor Richard J Valladares
Design Edric Sng

Section editors
Foreign Pauline D Loh
Voices Agatha Koh Brazil
Business
Plus
Barry Porter
Phin Wong
Govt should consider new
Sports Leonard Thomas media for better interactivity
Special Projects Lim Kwee Lan
Online & Technology Ariel Tam with Singaporeans
Customer Service Angela Chia Letter from
Marketing & Promotions Joni Ng
NICHOLAS GUAN YONG SHENG
I REFER to the article, “PM Lee on In-
Alert us. ternet lessons” (April 14). I applaud Prime
Seen something newsworthy in Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s statement that
your neighbourhood? Call the Singapore’s laws should evolve to keep up
MediaCorp Hotline at 6822 2268.
with new media as this is extremely nec-
essary for the growth of our modern nation.
Have your say. The Government has always advocat-
ed change to bring about improvement. It
Have a view to share? Email us at
news@newstoday.com.sg with your has always shown support in promoting
full name, contact number and address. this need of change. However, I find the Gov-
ernment lacking in one aspect of change
with regard to new media.
Get your copy. I do agree that the Government must
Contact our circulation department be careful with the use of the Internet as
at 1800 myToday (1800 698 6329) to a communication channel. However, their
subscribe for delivery of the newspaper. willingness to adopt new media as an al-
ternative communication channel seems
Advertise. to be overly cautious. I find this a pity as
new media has so much to offer. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Abdullah
FAIZAL
networks. They do so because they have de-
To be seen in Singapore’s second most
read English newspaper, call 6359 7359. We have been fortunate enough to Ahmad Badawi conceded that his party’s ig- veloped a trusting relationship with bloggers
observe several examples of political figures norance of the Internet has contributed to and their friends on social networks.
in other countries leveraging on new media its poor showing in the recent elections. On Facebook, for instance, allows an or-
to aid their political campaigns. One good ex- the opposition side, Mr Anwar Ibrahim was ganisation to create a business page on
CORRECTION
ample would be Barack Obama’s extensive sharp enough to harness the power of new which the organisation can post related
In the article, “Boardroom controversy use of new media such as YouTube, Facebook media. He maintains a blog and even a Face- content and interact with users on a more
at Swissco” (April 15), we reported that
and MySpace to drive his campaign. book account to allow him to connect with personal basis. It often costs little or noth-
Swissco independent director Kwah
Thiam Hock sits on the boards of six In addition to his strong new media Malaysians on a more personal level. This has ing to create a presence on new media.
listed companies. His sixth directorship utilisation, he implements the use of a Cus- won him many supporters around Malaysia. Furthermore, the potential of free viral
is at ECICS Ltd, which is not a listed tomer Relationship Management software The Singapore Government could per- marketing is superlative in new media be-
company but a wholly-owned subsidiary to track online activities related to his web haps draw lessons from these campaigns that cause of its high-trust interactivity. The
of mainboard-listed IFS International. campaigns. His sleek and effective use of employed new media as an effective commu- key to engaging users on new media is a de-
We are sorry for the error. new media has gained him much populari- nication tool to interact with the public. velopment of trust by catering and inter-
ty amongst voters in America. The reason why new media is so effective acting sincerely.
is because of its ability to allow users to interact It would be a pity if the Singapore Gov-
with the content creators and each other. ernment does not hop on this new media
More people are turning to the Internet to gath- bandwagon to interact with Singaporeans
er information from blogs and even social in a more personal and effective manner.