A Journalist Unafraid

When it comes to web based social media, 2004 seems decades removed from the current landscape. Surely a book written in 2004, before the arrival of facebook and twitter, would have little to tell us about where things are “going.” Not so. Dan Gillmor’s We the Media: Grassroots Journalism for the People, By the People does an excellent job framing the overall direction mass media and journalism are taking and how new internet applications are driving this change. For the most part, Gillmore is enthusiastic about the possibilities for decentralized media today. He spins tales of larger than life bloggers and citizen reporters who are steadily replacing mass media outlets.

As a journalist, Gillmore is, surprisingly, unsympathetic to the diminished influence newspapers and traditional media hold. In fact, he singles out traditional media as a potential threat to innovation and future applications of citizen reporting. Keep an eye on them, he suggests, as they are likely to force copyright and protections to protect their interests.

Gillmore’s analysis of the three main stakeholder groups in modern web media is spot on. Journalists, newsmakers and former audience are a concise and telling division of the constituents. Of these, Gillmore’s understanding of traditional media’s former audience is most useful. This newly empowered group is the driving force behind the growth of news by the people, for the people. Equally interesting is his own interpretation of the journalists’ lot. Gillmore isn’t threatened by informed and verbose readers who can comment on his writing; he finds it “empowering.’ Of course, not every journalist out there may take such a prosaic view of things. Nevertheless, Gillmore does well not to dwell on the gloom and doom surrounding newspapers and traditional media.

Gillmore’s premise may be five years old, but with every passing his day, his predictions and analysis grow in validity.