Chapter 4-6 of Gillmor’s “We the Media” continues to satisfy tech junkies and communication scholars insatiable hunger for the world of changing media. The key theme in Chapter 4 is talking AND listening to your audience. Whatever your company/industry may be, exploit the available technologies—RSS, blogs, forums, chat rooms, wikis, etc. and join the online conversation that’s occurring. We are in a media revolution of open communication that’s not only right but necessary for survival. Businesses need to realize the multi-dimensional audience and use the net-based tools to reach them. Gillmor exhaustively stresses the capability of RSS to monitor changes. Another advantage of RSS is the ability to be found, all one needs to do is “write” yourself into being online. In other words, put yourself out there and through these new innovative technologies let your audience find you. Gillmor preaches to the PR industry the necessity of “from the edges” communication. He concludes Chapter 4 with some “rules for new world PR and marketing.”
Chapter 5 encompasses citizen media and politics citing Howard Dean’s triumphant rise and fall via the web as an example of the changing times. The Internet has transformed the political arena and helped facilitate engagement while reinforcing active citizenship. Put another way, new technologies have a democratizing effect and help bring back civic activity into the hands of the people. This chapter discusses the 2004 presidential election at great length to illustrate the impact of the Internet. The web not only helped keep supporters up to date and involved, but let the media stay informed too. Again, a major focus is the notion of decentralizing the power to a “bottom-up” exchange, or as Gillmor calls it “edge to the middle” movement.
Chapter 6 reviews professional journalists’ role in the conversations. This chapter echoes much of Chapter 4’s argument with respect to audience participation as an integral part of the new business model. In this chapter, Gillmor breaks down how the news industry can adapt to this evolutionary process. He highlights the advantages of linking content (“web-linking), asking the audience for help, and the importance of higher education for journalists (which is really a call for conservative slow-moving schools to abandon their hesitancy to accept change and join the media revolution). It’s important to note that traditional media should not see these changes as a threat, but rather an opportunity or gift—a real chance to do bigger and better things.
