Chapter 1:
The first chapter of Dan Gillmor’s book We The Media focuses mainly on the history of modern news and communication; beginning with recollections of newspapers and pamphleteers, moving forward to the invention of the telegraph and radio, and finally coming to rest on modern media methods like television and the internet. Gillmor describes how newspapers were not always objective and says that William Randolph Hearst’s voluble opinions may have had a hand in starting the Spanish-American War.
Gillmor goes on to detail the strengths and foibles of modern media, telling of television’s desire for stories that follow the adage, “if it bleeds, it leads.” With the creation of major news networks came inevitable absorption of smaller papers by those owned by large corporations; consolidation of media ownership began to occur. Gillmor seems to have a clear memory of his first computer, as well as the integration of computers into homes everywhere and how the slow evolution of news began to take hold of the world.
Although media was adapting to the new technology, radio news began to struggle against television networks and, in the past two decades, internet news sources. With the growing popularity of the internet came a new breed of journalists- independent writers keeping tabs on the news, who were not necessarily professionals. These were the first bloggers, adventurous explorers of the early internet.
Gillmor ends his first chapter by describing the feelings of himself and colleagues on September 11th, 2001: calling the day “frozen in time,” he says that the destruction of the twin towers sparked a new heat within journalists.
Chapter 2:
In 1999, Dan Gillmor was shown his first experience with HTML, one of the coding languages of the internet. Gillmor recounts the experience of editing the first blog he had ever seen and how new the idea of editing his own web page seemed to him at the time.
During the 2000 elections, Gillmor says he was in Hong Kong struggling to find good coverage of the election. After searching through local media outlets with disappointing results, he realized that he could get his information from sources closer to home- webpages of both localized and national American papers that were covering the election in real time.
Gillmor postulates on ways to keep up with ever-evolving technology and the ways in which it will transform media as we know it. “At their heart, the technologies of tomorrow’s news are fueling something emergent,” he says, referring to the ability of grassroots journalism to help spread information and the desire to learn.
Grassroots journalism has contributed to the popularity of mail lists, weblogs, wikis, sms, mobile cameras, rss, social networking sites, and multiple other methods of communication and information sharing that join people across the world together in a tightly knit community.
Chapter 3:
In this chapter, Gillmor states what he calls the “three new rules of public life” set forth for newsmakers:
1) Outsiders of all kinds can probe more deeply into newsmakers’ businesses and affairs. If journalists are to explore all areas of that which is newsworthy they must have access to all the information they need.
2) Insiders are part of the conversation; information is readily available. The public has the right to know everything.
3) What news gushes forth can take on a life of its own, even if it’s not true. This certainly applies today- rumor has the terrible power to evolve into a monster in the public forum, and can ruin careers and personal lives.
Gillmor talks of the power of the individual to stand up for themselves via the internet, and how their ideas can spread and gain popularity through such a forum. He goes on to state the power and importance of the public’s ability to capture and instantly send media such as photographs and video wirelessly- something that’s still evolving technologically. Gillmor warns that such close watch on society by these types of media may lead to a “big brother” type of public fear- but adds that such possibilities are far from becoming realities just yet.
This chapter ends with a brief discussion of viral marketing, hacking, alternate online identities, corrupt journalists, and the fact that more changes are going to come to modern media.
Chapter 4:
Gillmor starts out the chapter by explaining journalists’ role as truth-tellers; while they may feel they have the last word in what’s shown to the public, their power as a main source of information has gained some new company. Using the internet, sources can post their own versions of interviews. By being honest and open with information, the exchange between journalists and their sources can operate more freely.
This chapter seems to mainly give advice to those two sides of the news, warning journalists to listen more, spread more information (especially on a blog, if possible), initiating conversation with their audience, and to take a careful and honest approach when dealing in public relations and marketing.
Chapter 5:
This chapter begins by giving examples of the power of internet advertising and grassroots campaigns, e.g. Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential bid and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2003 election. Gillmor talks about internet advertising and the astonishing results it can yield, including the $6.4 million raised in 2000 for John McCain’s presidential run.
Gillmor talks in detail of Howard Dean’s efforts to expand his supportive base using the internet. Although his self-promotion worked to an extent, as he certainly became quite popular and raised a lot of money, it wasn’t enough to win him the election. Gillmor also discusses the liberal website Moveon.org, and their efforts to involve people on a personal level.
Chapter 6:
Old media, it seems, is trying desperately to catch up to the new ways of news communication. This includes the sad but inevitable evolution of written news from print to screen, radio to television, and every form of communication that falls between the two that is becoming modernized. Gillmor does have some criticisms to offer to new media: that includes the lack of contact information for many reporters posting their articles online, the failure of parent sites to take notice of or care about their bulletin boards or comments, etc. Gillmor himself has asked the online community for help at times, or so he claims, when working on an idea for a column. “My online readers… are never shy,” he says, which seems true of most internet users, as the mask of anonymity can allow people to speak much more freely.
Gillmor discusses the dangers of blogging when one works for a professional news organization, citing several firings of reporters from news sources like CNN and the Houston Chronicle. Additionally, he cites the symbiotic relationship between blogger and audience; without an audience, a blog is irrelevant, and without that blog the audience loses information. Therefore, audience and author must be willing to work together. This can include amateur news capturing, as in pictures and videos taken on cell phones or computers, and citizen reporters.
The chapter ends with Gillmor’s assesment of journalism education’s integration of new media into its teachings. Schools must do more to teach their journalism students about the internet, blogging, and all forms of modern media. If they don’t learn now, technology will evolve past them and they may never catch up.
Chapter 7:
This chapter begins with an example of the importance of civilian reporting, and how bloggers can sometimes cover material or events that the mainstream media overlooks. As the title of the chapter tells us, the audience becomes a part of the news- by taking reporting into their own hands, civilians can participate in the global media community. Since many bloggers are not official reporters, they have the freedom to write about a large range of topics, even recalling events of a closed meeting or off-the-record talk.
Gillmor points out that blogs are another internet medium through which people can discuss their opinions more freely behind the screen of anonymity. This is extremely beneficial for those who cannot express such opinions in real life, but can also lead to trouble for employees who write incriminating things about their companies. Others have been jailed for expressing their views on blogs. Gillmor goes on to explain the evolution of modern blogging a bit and gives opposing views on how newsworthy or trustworthy people view personal blogs and the “alternative press.” The “alternative press” includes the audience’s participation in media- homemade publications and “wikis” could not exit without the audience, which has helped the blogging movement grow to its current status in the world.
Chapter 8:
Gillmor starts the chapter by stating his two assumptions for media development in the future: he believes in journalistic values, and feels that technology at this point is unstoppable. He cites Moore’s Law, in which technology doubles in size every two or so years, eventually growing exponentially. He then discusses Metcalfe’s Law, which tells us that “the value of a communication network is the square of the number of nodes.” What I understand from that is that as the number of machines connected to one another grows, the value of the technology increases (though I may be misinterpreting that).
Gillmor makes several small predictions for the future of technology, and discusses some current services available that not many people know about. This is, he says, because of the amount of information-gathering tools available to us. He finishes up the chapter with a few recommendations of products and services, and a warning for internet users to try their best to verify their sources.
Chapter 9:
Gillmor starts out by describing the problem with the public’s ability to edit anything they can, including videos, to manipulate our sense of reality for promotional or viral purposes. Companies create viral videos and ad campaigns, which many times can seem real if an outsider isn’t aware of the tie-in. As Gillmor says, this is a problem. Similarly, he gives examples of the dangers of copying-and-pasting and the context that can get lost in such translations.
He goes on to discuss photographic forgery, photoshopping, and doctored pictures and videos and even audio. Additionally, consumers in the past have been duped, Gillmor says, by stock investors posing as outsiders with information who affect the rise or fall of their stock illegally. The guise of anonymity can be very dangerous on the internet, as one can never really be sure who they’re talking to on the other end. This can lead to deception to the highest degree.
Gillmor talks about “trolls,” those annoying people on message boards who deliberately provoke other posters to react to their statements to waste their time. In some internet forums, trolls are easy to spot, but many people get duped by them every day. He talks about spinning and how news organizations or reporters with any sort of bias can spin a story their way if they try hard enough (for example, Bill O’Reilly’s ability to make any story have a conservative edge). Therein lies the importance of the citizen reporter: to give the world their unbiased opinion, seen with no filter in front of it. A series of checks and balances exists in this way.
Chapter 10:
Grassroots journalism, it turns out, isn’t immune to the law. Although it may be practiced independently, authors can still be sued. Blogs are not untouchable. Gillmor tells us that bloggers can be accused of libel and defamation just like any other news source. Of course, just like with regular accusations of libel, actual malice has to be proven.
Several years ago, an Intel Corp. employee was caught sending anti-Intel emails to the company’s other employees. The employee was charged with trespassing on Intel’s servers, but in the end the company lost because the employee’s right to free speech was being impeded upon. Gillmor talks about copyrights and the struggle to maintain ownership of something on the internet. Things are easier to access and steal on the internet, making it a scary place to post personal art, writing, or other things that you may have copyrighted but can’t track the use of. The line of ownership blurs even more when something us used in a satirical way. Gillmor continues to discuss ownership, which reaches the boundaries of linking, coding, and copying.
Chapter 11:
At the outset of the internet’s popularity, Gillmor says that its first users felt such freedom within their new medium. Recently, that freedom has started to become more and more constrained. The government and big corporations are limiting the amount of material available through various sources. Gillmor cites China’s censored view of the internet as Google throughout the country is set to filter out anti-comminust links and photographs. This practice is done in other countries as well.
Gillmor goes on to talk about closed-circuit t.v. and the hidden security cameras that seem ubiquitous nowadays. Just as our image is screened when we walk into a store, out I.P. address is logged when we go on certain websites, allowing others access to our personal information or records of our internet activity. And anyone with a subpoena can get to these records.
Piracy is rampant, especially on college campuses, and big corporations are staunchly against a practice that they say will rob them of profit. As Gillmor put it, “the industry has cleverly, though wrongly, framed the argument as ‘stealing’ versus ‘property rights.'” The entertainment industry is constantly fighting “pirates,” although it’s my opinion that piracy helps spread awareness of and the desire to own a movie; if someone downloads a movie and falls in love with it, they may buy themselves the DVD to have it forever rather than rent it from Blockbuster, giving the rental service money instead of the company who actually made the movie.
The business of ownership and copyrights and stealing via the internet is a messy one, and to be honest, one I am not really ready to choose a side about. I can, however, agree with Gillmor’s list of three things everyone should do as a politically active customer: -Write your elected officials protesting Hollywood’s attempts to control information. -Contribute to organizations that defend our rights. -Don’t buy from companies that cheat artists and abuse fair use.
Chapter 12:
Gillmor finally urges us to take control of our media and be active in the reporting community- not to wait for change to happen but to participate in bringing it about. Blogging is one way the audience can become the main attraction; by writing and reading independent news outlets we can gain a wider understanding of the goings-on around us. The media and news outlets change every day, and we need to be a part of that to make sure such changes continues to happen to further the advances of technology.
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internet interest 