We the Media Author: Dan Gillmor Pages: 299 Publisher: Oreilly & Associates ISBN: 0-596-00733-7 Summary: An intriguing look into the future of journalism and news reporting Review Date: 28 February, 2005

During the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign a CBS News television show presented a set of documents casting a negative light on George Bush's service in the National Guard. Soon, however, it became apparent that the documents were most likely a forgery. But it wasn't the big media outlets that broke that story. It was the bloggers.

Events like these are becoming more and more common as the web provides a means by which just about anyone can have a printing press with a potentially global audience. The former "audience" now has capability to become "citizen reporters" with increasing ease. The emerging tools of the trade are blogs, wikis, SMS, RSS feeds, news aggregators, camera phones and such. In his book We the Media, Dan Gillmor explores the rapidly changing face of the media, and the rise of grassroots journalism facilitated by the ease of publishing and accessing Web content. It's an exciting time to be online, and there are a lot of corporations and media outlets that still "don't get it" when it comes to the power and influence provided by these tools. In my opinion, every media exec, indeed, everyone who works in journalism, ought to read We the Media. Their very livelihood may eventually depend upon how well they understand and harness the power of this new journalism.

Gillmor takes us on a journey through this changing landscape, first giving us a brief history of publishing, and then introducing us to the above-mentioned tools that are laying the foundation of the "read-write" web. Gillmor discusses the weighty potential of these tools, the various ways in which they are being used, and the people who use them. He covers the corporate response to these tools and their influence, the problems of patents and copyright, of corporations unwilling to accept that the foundations of the media empires they have built are crumbling beneath their fingers in the face of today's digital technologies. Unwilling to accept that the power of information dispersal is slowly but surely being eroded from corporate strongholds and finding its way into the masses. At the heart of it all this is the Internet, and the greater and greater ease with which more and more individuals are able to interact with it. Throughout the book, Gillmor provides example after example of how the balance of power in news reporting is shifting.

The book is written in language non-geeks can understand and I recommend it to geek and non-geek alike. As a geek myself, I found the book compelling and very interesting. I thoroughly enjoy finding new ways to combine technologies to provide better services, and more easily accessible information. As "idea fodder" the book is a wonderful collection of ways in which these emerging technologies have been brought together to enable the masses to communicate, to organize, to uncover, and to connect in ways only dreamed of even a decade ago.

Overall the book is a good read. There are a lot of people who could benefit by reading it if for nothing else to get a glimpse of the magnitude of the subtle, but significant changes that are occuring in the media landscape. However, as like most books, it's not perfect. I found myself somewhat dissatisfied with the continuity of the book. It's almost as if the author had a large number of stories, anecdotes and ideas that he needed to put together somehow, but the result came out in some cases like a cobbled road. It will take you along the path of his ideas, and ultimately gets you to the destination, but the ride isn't as smooth and well-connected as it could have been.

With the technology involved changing at a rapid pace, and related events unfolding likewise, it would be a challenge for anyone to bring cohesion to what is happening out there. I don't think anyone fully understands the ramifications and the final destination of where all this is headed, but Gillmor, to his credit, does an admirable job at explaining the forces at work here, and the potential for powerful change provided by these technologies..

If you're interested in learning more about these ideas, the book's website is a good starting place. Gillmor there provides a blog of related items, and links to further resources.

Overall Rating: 8/10