"We the Media, has become something of a bible for those who believe the online medium will change journalism for the better." -Financial Times
Big Media has lost its monopoly on the news, thanks to the Internet. Now that it's possible to publish in real time to a worldwide audience, a new breed of grassroots journalists are taking the news into their own hands. Armed with laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras, these readers-turned-reporters are transforming the news from a lecture into a conversation. In We the Media, nationally acclaimed newspaper columnist and blogger Dan Gillmor tells the story of this emerging phenomenon and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make--and consume--the news.
Gillmor shows how anyone can produce the news, using personal blogs, Internet chat groups, email, and a host of other tools. He sends a wake-up call to newsmakers-politicians, business executives, celebrities-and the marketers and PR flacks who promote them. He explains how to successfully play by the rules of this new era and shift from "control" to "engagement." And he makes a strong case to his fell journalists that, in the face of a plethora of Internet-fueled news vehicles, they must change or become irrelevant.
Journalism in the 21st century will be fundamentally different from the Big Media oligarchy that prevails today. We the Media casts light on the future of journalism, and invites us all to be part of it.
Dan Gillmor is founder of Grassroots Media Inc., a project aimed at enabling grassroots journalism and expanding its reach. The company's first launch is Bayosphere.com, a site "of, by, and for the San Francisco Bay Area."
Dan Gillmor is the founder of the Center for Citizen Media, a project to enable and expand reach of grassroots media. From 1994-2004, Gillmor was a columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper, and wrote a weblog for SiliconValley.com. He joined the Mercury News after six years with the Detroit Free Press. Before that, he was with the Kansas City Times and several newspapers in Vermont. He has won or shared in several regional and national journalism awards. Before becoming a journalist he played music professionally for seven years.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 From Tom Paine to Blogs and Beyond The Corporate Era
From Outside In
Ransom-Note Media
Out Loud and Outrageous
The Web Era Emergent
Writing the Web
Open Sourcing the News
Terror Turns Journalism's Corner
Endnotes
Chapter 2 The Read-Write Web Mail Lists and Forums
Weblogs
Wiki
SMS
Mobile-Connected Cameras
Internet “Broadcasting”
Peer-to-Peer
The RSS Revolution
Making Sense of It All
Endnotes
Chapter 3 The Gates Come Down Spreading the Word
Truth Squad
Looking Deeper
Bubble, Bubble, Tout and Trouble
Swarming Investigators and Spies
Watching Journalists
Turning the Tables
Endnotes
Chapter 4 Newsmakers Turn the Tables Learning by Listening
Blog It
The Celebrity Blog
Talking to the Audience
Fine-Grain Pitching
Some Rules for New-World PR and Marketing
Endnotes
Chapter 5 The Consent of the Governed Business as Usual
What's New Is Old
Electing a President
Dean Meets Meetup, Blogs, and Money
Cash Cow, and Catching Up
Open Source Politics
A Changing Role for Journalists
The Tools of Better Governance
Endnotes
Chapter 6 Professional Journalists Join the Conversation Traditional Media's Opportunity
Authority from Linking, Listening
Asking the Former Audience for Help
Case Study: Promoting, Then Reporting, Activism
Case Study: The Citizen Reporters
Newsroom Tools
Teaching New Tricks
A Question of Trust
Endnotes
Chapter 7 The Former Audience Joins the Party Citizen Journalist: Bloggers (and More) Everywhere
Evolutionary and Revolutionary
Nonprofit Community Publishing
Alternative Media Flourishes
The Wiki Media Phenomenon
Business Models for Tomorrow's Personal Journalism
New Business Models: The Tip Jar
Endnotes
Chapter 8 Next Steps Laws and Other Codes
Creating the News
Sorting It Out
Syndication Takes Off
The World Live Web
Probing APIs and Web Services
Okay, but Whose “Information” Do You Trust?
Dinosaurs and Dangers
Endnotes
Chapter 9 Trolls, Spin, and the Boundaries of Trust Cut and Paste, Right and Wrong
New Ways to Mislead
Who's Talking, and Why?
Trolls and Other Annoyances
Spin Patrol
Citizen Reporters to the Rescue
A Flight to Quality?
Plain Old Common Sense
Endnotes
Chapter 10 Here Come the Judges (and Lawyers) Defamation, Libel, and Other Nasty Stuff
Jurisdiction
Email and Free Speech
Misusing Other People's Work
Copyrights and Wrongs
Forbidden Links and Other Outrages
Endnotes
Chapter 11 The Empires Strike Back Governments Get Nervous; Big Business Gets Nosy
The Copyright Cartel
Eye of the Beholder
Charm and Toughness
The Tech Industry Sellout
The End of End-to-End?
Return of the Jedi Users
A Deregulatory Rescue?
The End of Scarcity?
Endnotes
Chapter 12 Making Our Own News A Creative Commons
Day-to-Day Changes
Endnotes
Appendix Epilogue and Acknowledgments
Outline and Ideas
Drafts and Other Postings
Acknowledgments
Endnotes
Appendix Web Site Directory
Glossary
Colophon
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