Dan Gillmor’s “We the Media” exposes the transformation of journalism from a hierarchal top-down structure to a democratic grassroots bottom-up fashion. He chronicles the evolutionary changes of storytelling as well as the revolutionary changes to communication technologies. Gillmor predicts the future of news reporting and production will be more conversational with blurred lines between producer and consumer. Put simply, the communication network will serve as a continuous feedback loop giving a voice to the voiceless.
Chapter 1 recollects the early days of personal journalism—Gillmor is quick to point out the concept is nothing new and people have been rabble rousing since Ben Franklin’s day. Gillmor further reveals “There have been several media revolutions in U.S. history each accompanied by technological and political change” (2). He then goes on to outline the effects of transformation (i.e. “yellow journalism” and muckraking to the corporatization of journalism by media conglomerates). Gillmor sheds light on the cultural impact of the emergent web and how it transformed communication particularly the way news is aggregated and disseminated. The Cluetrain Manifesto understood the web’s potential and its authors explained how the Internet was affecting businesses. Chapter 1 closes with a glimpse into the advantages of open source software and how the philosophy benefits journalism.
Chapter 2 moves on to discuss the implications of the read-write web and how this technology supports the “we the media” stance. The chapter unveils the strength behind participatory media and what happens when regular people start taking an active role in the cultural consumption process. Gillmor addresses the fundamental technologies that enable the read-write web way of life. The Internet serves as platform for a vast storage of information. Thus, people who want to join the process and be more informed need not look further than the web. The internet breathed life into the Grassroots journalism approach (think blogs, mail lists, forums, wikis, SMS, p2p, and RSS). Gillmor delivers in-depth details about these communication innovations through the remainder of this chapter.
Chapter 3 stresses the need to break down the barriers of hierarchal top-down media dissemination. The title of the chapter “The Gates Come Down” alludes to the leveling effect that the web brought. Now individuals (i.e. blogs) and not just big media shape culture and news. Gillmor lists three new rules for public life: first, outsiders can create formidable truth squads, 2. insiders are part of this process and information now overflows via new forms of technology, and lastly, not just truth flows through this vast ocean of information. The key point is individuals have reach and the Internet helped give them this capability. Journalism is no exception to these changes. Overall, the sun is setting on paranoid secrecy and giving rise to a more transparent field of journalism where openness is inevitable.
