February 22, 2010
Despite the massive media hype surrounding the government-run
REACH portal as a feedback channel for Singaporeans on current
affairs and policies, its readership and traffic have continued to
drop.
According to the latest statistics from web traffic company
Alexa.com, REACH’s traffic has declined by about 40 per cent in the
last one month with a concomitant drop in its traffic ranking to
over 4,000.
During the same period of time, the monthly traffic of Temasek
Review has increased by 14 per cent and its ranking has approached
200, making it the most visited alternative news sites in
Singapore.
At the present moment, the readership of Temasek Review is
almost 20 times that of REACH.
The state media has been busy promoting REACH to Singaporeans
including a two-week long feedback exercise on the Budget to be
delivered by Finance Minister Tharman today.
In a recently concluded “feedback”, REACH claimed that the
“majority” of Singaporeans agree with the recommendations put forth
by the Economic Strategies Committee.
However, with such a low readership, one cannot help but wonder
if the polls conducted by REACH are really reflective of public
sentiments on the ground.
REACH has come under increasing criticisms from the online
community that it is nothing more than a “black hole” where
feedback, criticisms and proposals frequently end up with no
response from the relevant authorities.
Some are of the view that REACH is just a “PR exercise” to show
that the government “cares” when its real purpose is to serve as an
outlet for Singaporeans to vent their frustrations.
On average, the Temasek Review receives between 1,200 – 1,500
comments from its readers daily, many of which are dramatically
opposite of the “feedback” posted on REACH.
Singaporeans who are dead serious on providing honest feedback
to the government should make their voices heard at the next
general election instead of wasting time lending credibility to
REACH.
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/02/22/reachs-readership-continues-to-fall-despite-massive-media-hype-and-propaganda/