By Joanne Lee
Straits Times Online Editor
joannel@sph.com.sg

 

NEWS on former beauty pageant winner Ris Low hit the Internet like a storm again today when she appeared in a district court for a probationary hearing on over sixty charges including credit card fraud last year.

And yes, it is "news".

The ex-Miss Singapore World has been fodder for public attention since a much-circulated Razor TV video clip started making the rounds as part of the beauty contest's media hoopla. The reason: Her heavily-accented Singlish, interview answers and coining of the (since widely-used) adjective "boomz".

The video of the 19-year-old "went viral", as they say in the online world, and both the original video and subsequent copies on YouTube literally exploded all over social media networks like Facebook, Twitter and blogs. Her barely-understandable diction and shockingly-frank replies were commented on by hordes who sent it out to their friends, who sent it out to their friends, who sent it out to their friends.

Then, the newspapers found out that she had been charged with credit card fraud and dismissed by her former employer, when she was a medical clinic assistant, and she was forced last week to give up the crown.

Everyone was fascinated at the video clip, aghast at the fraud charges and riveted by the abandoned crown. The term "Ris Low" was even a trending topic on Twitter for hours the day she gave up the crown - a reflection of the Internet buzz on that microblogging website alone.

Now, however, public interest is splintering. While many are still curious, a few are saying: The girl is not news, anymore. Move on.

Critics are accusing the media of picking on Ris by digging out the information on the fraud charges.

Said 'shioshio' on ST.com yesterday: "She made lots of mistakes but local media spare no effort to keep bashing her, which i think is over doing it."

More vehemently on Twitter, 'lucian' said: "@stcom Please leave Ris Low alone, you low-life scum."

Now that she's given up her crown, people are asking who is she and why is she still getting all the newspaper inches and broadcast headlines.

Well, the answer is simple: Remove the gown and crown, and people are still interested in the unfolding details of a teenager who has caught everyone's imagination. It's a riches-to-rags story of someone who was, undoubtedly, looking for fame - but instead found infamy.

Is it news? You bet.

What is news after all? Conventional journalism training defines it as information that is of interest to as wide a public as possible. It boils down to: Not "dog bites man", but "man bites dog". If it's a man who almost represented the country, all the more reason it is news.

Throw in an event organiser's bungled attempt at damage control, a cat fight between the dethroned beauty queen and her possible pageant replacement, someone defending the 60-odd charges with a defence built on bipolar disorder, and Miss Low has been a news item that undeniably meets the definition above.

The social impact of it all, meanwhile, has been a story in itself. And it's a developing one too.

Many a Singaporean I've spoken to recently has told me they've learnt a great deal apart from the details of Miss Low's pre-pageant doings. Namely, how a hitherto unknown teenager went from complete obscurity to word-of-the-day practically overnight because of online video sharing, Facebook updates and Twitter.

"You mean the 'boomz' video was when she wasn't even Miss Singapore World yet? You mean all this was available to the whole world before she was even chosen to represent Singapore? You mean people were watching it even before it was in the newspapers here?"

Yes. Yes. Oh yes!

Not a few went on to express views ranging from "the participants should all get media training" to "the organiser should be responsible if they are putting these kids up to represent the country". As a result of such discussion, people are now talking about standards of spoken English/Singlish, the culture among the youth of "it's all about me" (quote-unquote Miss Low) and even the effects of mental health conditions like bipolar disorder.

That's impact and it is all that due to a news story that started online then spread to the offline world - a trend that usually occurs the other way. The Ris Low story has become a very local case-study of the reach of online social media with implications yet to be absorbed by news makers and their managers.

Is it news? Yes, and in more ways than one. In a word (that I'll never use again), it's boomz.

Read Nicholas Yong's blog entries: To boomz or not to boomz and What does 'boomz' really mean?

Read also:
Ris has to retake exam
Not allowed to shop alone