By Dan Gillmor
First Edition
January 2006
Pages: 334
ISBN 10: 0-596-10227-5 |
ISBN 13: 9780596102272
In We the Media, nationally acclaimed newspaper columnist and blogger Dan Gillmor shows how anyone can produce the news, using personal blogs, internet chat groups, email, and a host of other tools. He tells the story of this emerging phenomenon and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make--and consume--the news. 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.
Full Description
"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.
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"So, just about the time we thought it might be best to burn all the presses & put an end to book publishing forever, we came across one of the best books on the subject, Dan Gillmor's "We The Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People". What he describes as a transformation of journalism & some regard as a mutation of journalism we can all regard as a rapid evolutionary sea change that's of fundamental importance to us all. Appropriate here is the book's wonderful job of not only explaining & describing that, but also documenting it. We sit on the shoulders of many of the agents of change as change happens. We see the edges of the path (even factors like libel or insurance play a role since most citizen journalism is voluntary, unpaid & based more on passion than experience). We watch the fundamental tenets of professional journalism reborn in the lessons that these grassroots practitioners learn from their bruises. "We The Media" earns a rarely awarded Newstips Squeal of Approval."
-- Martin Winston, Newstips Electronic Bulletin
"So, just about the time we thought it might be best to burn all the presses & put an end to book publishing forever, we came across one of the best books on the subject, Dan Gillmor's We The Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. What he describes as a transformation of journalism & some regard as a mutation of journalism we can all regard as a rapid evolutionary sea change that's of fundamental importance to us all. Appropriate here is the book's wonderful job of not only explaining & describing that, but also documenting it. We sit on the shoulders of many of the agents of change as change happens. We see the edges of the path (even factors like libel or insurance play a role since most citizen journalism is voluntary, unpaid & based more on passion than experience). We watch the fundamental tenets of professional journalism reborn in the lessons that these grassroots practitioners learn from their bruises. We The Media earns a rarely awarded Newstips Squeal of Approval."
-- Marty Winston, Newstips, Inc.
"If you plan to think any time during the 21st Century, this book is a must read [and] well-worth the investment. Reading this whole book was a good investment of my time, simultaneously demonstrating that 'traditional' technologies are by no means dead...I'm also impressed with O'Reilly as a publishing house. With a core of advanced-level programming tomes, their offerings now cover the social implications of digital technology."
-- Bayle Emlein, MCC
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