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Reviews

Review of "We the Media"

author: Dan Gillmor

reviewer: George Woolley

We the Media (hardback)
Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People
By Dan Gillmor
Hardback Edition July 2004
ISBN: 0-596-00733-7
320 pages, $24.95 US, $36.95 CA, £17.50 UK

Note:

Short Review

a Very Good Book. :) :) :) :) of 5.

This book describes a shift in the way news evolves and in the roles of the players: journalists, newsmakers and the former audience.

Generally the shift is characterized by

  • a breakdown in the roles of the players
  • a more participatory form of journalism

This shift is largely driven by technologies that encourage participation such as

  • blogs
  • mailing lists
  • wikis

The author does a very good job of telling us

  • how this shift came about
  • what some of the opportunities and challenges are
  • where he thinks all this is headed

If you care about the direction journalism is moving, this would be a very good book to read.

For more detail, you could checkout my somewhat longer review .

George Woolley of Oakland.pm and Camelot.pm

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Miscellaneous

Chapter Titles

  • From Tom Paine to Blogs and Beyond
  • The Read-Write Web
  • The Gates Come Down
  • Newsmakers Turn the Tables
  • The Consent of the Governed
  • Professional Journalists Join the Conversation
  • The Former Audience Joins the Party
  • Next Steps
  • Trolls, Spin, and the Boundaries of Trust
  • Here Come the Judges (and Lawyers)
  • The Empires Strike Back
  • Making Our Own News

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Note:

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Some Relevant Technology

  • HTML: Hypertext Markup Language
  • Internet Radio
  • Mailing Lists
  • P2P: Peer-to-Peer
  • RSS: Really Simple Syndication
  • SMS: Short Message System
  • Weblogs
  • Wikis

Notes:

  • Most of the above are defined in the Glossary at the back of the book.
  • All are relevant to participatory journalism.
  • All are discussed in the body of the book.

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Some Earlier Participation Forms

  • political pamphlets
  • letters to the editor
  • radio call-in shows

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Links

Here's some directly relevant links:

Notes:

  • There's a directory of relevant websites at the back of the book.
  • The notes at the back of the book contain an abundance of URLs.

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Safari Watch

  • IMO Safari Tech Books Online rocks.
  • On the website for the book, I saw a link with the description "Read Online-Safari", but the link was broken. :( However, my understanding is that the book will be on Safari later. :)

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Somewhat Longer Review

Contents

Note:

The Title

In this section I'll say how I understand the title of the book and how well I think the book fits the title.

the Media: "Media" in the broadest sense is something through which something can move (hopefully) fairly easily. But we're talking communication of information and such here -- not e.g. heat conduction. And the focus is on news media.

Until recently, that would have meant primarily newspapers, radio and TV. But now with the Internet explosion a number of other media have come into play such as: mailing lists, blogs, wikis, ...

I think "the Media" here refers to all vehicles for conveying the news: newspapers, ... and blogs, ...

We: Who are the "We" here? My understanding is Dan Gillmor and the prospective or actual reader for starters. That you have read this makes you part of the "We" at least potentially.

It is part of Gillmor's thesis that the lines have blurred significantly between journalists, newsmakers and the former audience.

the subtitle: The subtitle is "Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People".

does the title fit the book?: Yes.

The book is about the new more participatory journalism, how it came to be and where it will be headed in the future.

But the book is not just descriptive. It is clear that Gillmor values the participatory journalism that is coming forth. He advocates nurturing it.

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About the Reviewer

open source: I'm an advocate of Open Source software. Indeed, the only OS on the main machine I use at home is Linux (i.e. an Open Source OS). I'm writing this review on it using the vim editor (also Open Source).

oreilly: I'm a big fan of O'Reilly, the publishers of this book. I own and use many of their technical books. I've reviewed a significant number of their books, technical and non-technical.

representation: I'm an advocate of representative government and participation in government.

role in the news: I'm not a journalist. Nor am I a newsmaker. I am just part of the audience. I do read a newspaper each day plus I get some additional news via the Internet and radio.

I gather many people get their news from TV. I do not. I do own a TV, but I use it mostly for watching dance videos. In the nine plus years I've lived in my current location, I have not once watched even part of a TV program (news or otherwise) on my TV.

use of participatory technology: I installed a blogging system on my personal domain but never really got into it. I only occasionally visit weblogs.

I've made quite a few contributions to the O'Reilly User Group Program Wiki. While I was reading the book, I installed a wiki on a Perl user group site, but no one but me has shown any interest in it as yet. (Aside: It was amazingly easy to install the wiki.)

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The Author's Values

professional journalism: The author values professional journalism, especially in so far as it embodies

  • accuracy
  • thoroughness
  • fairness

grassroots participation: He also values the grassroots participation that is emerging at this time.

balance: What he'd like to see is a balance between professional journalism and grassroots participation.

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What You Get

This is a book about the emerging participatory journalism -- how it came to be, where it's going and what opportunities and challenges it presents for us. Some of the things that come up many times in this book are

  • events that reveal the emerging role of grassroots journalism
  • grassroots journalism heroes ("heroes" is my word, not his)
  • participatory technology
  • forces opposing participatory journalism

revealing events: The author recounts a number of stories where grassroots journalism was significant in the reporting of events that have been in the news. Some of the events are

  • 9/11
  • Trent Lott's remarks on Senator Thurmond's birthday
  • the election of Representative Ben Chandler of Kentucky
  • the election of Roh Moo Hyun as President of South Korea

The author writes well (hey, he's a reporter) and is able to bring these events to life.

grassroots heroes: He recounts stories of many grassroots journalism heroes including

Who are these people? The short answer is grassroots journalists who have had an effect on the news. For longer answers, read the book and/or follow the links above. Or do some searches using your favorite search engine.

participatory technology:

The second chapter of the book is focused on Internet technology that lends itself to broad participation, e.g. blogs, wikis and mailing lists. For a longer list of examples, look under Some Relevant Technology in the left column. Such technology is part of the discussion throughout the book.

opposing forces: Grassroots journalism is relatively unpredictable and uncontrollable. Various forces that are uncomfortable with this and act in ways that work to limit grassroots journalism are a frequent topic in the book. These forces include especially

  • Big Government
  • Big Business including Big Media, telecommunications companies, and the Copyright Cartel

The Copyright Cartel? That's what Gillmor calls the companies that work to expand the rights of copyright holders at the expense of the rest of us. E.g. Gillmor tells us that the founding fathers set the term for a copyright to 14 years. But now after a number of extensions the term is the author's life plus 75 years or 95 years if held by a corporation. Gillmor thinks that this is overly long. Why might you care? I'll leave that to the author; or you could look on the web, perhaps starting with a search on  copyright term too long  or some such.

Hm, well, the pace of life and innovation has dramatically increased since the time of the founding fathers. Perhaps, the term should be somewhat less (not more) than it was originally.

The length of the term (which keeps increasing) is not the only problem with copyright law; and matters could get worst. I found Gillmor's discussion of this engaging.

front and end matter: In addition to the twelve chapters listed under Chapter Titles in the left column, there are:

  • an introduction that convinced me I was interested in going further
  • an extensive directory of relevant websites
  • a brief, clear and well-chosen glossary
  • an excellent set of footnotes
  • an index that served me really well while I was working on this review

The above significantly enhance the value of this book.

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Walking the Walk

Gillmor does walk the walk of encouraging participatory journalism in a number of ways.

the license for the book: The book is published under the Creative Commons License. The reader/user of the book may freely (without charge):

  • copy the book
  • distribute the book
  • display the book
  • make derivative works from the book

as long as

  • the author is credited
  • the book is not used for a commercial purpose
  • any distribution is accompanied by the same license

This license strikes a balance between the concerns of the creator and the concerns of the reader/user.

Also, the copyright term for the book has been set at 14 years.

availability of the book: If you wish, the book is accessible for free on the web. Go to the catalog entry for the book and click on Online Book. A page will appear that contains a table of contents for the book where each entry in the table of contents is a link to a pdf for the chapter (or other element of the book) that you can read online. Very kool! I was particularly impressed that the link to the relevant page was on the O'Reilly online catalog entry and quite prominent -- not hidden at all.

The author, of course, would prefer you buy the book. (Me too.) The author's rationale for making the book available in this way is spelled out in the book. I found that quite interesting.

participation in creation:

The author involved many people in the creation of the book. The list of people acknowledged is unusually long.

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Gripes

IMO this is a very good book. Nevertheless, as usual, I do have a few gripes.

passion: I wish the author would show more passion, be more expressive.

middle: I was deeply engaged with the book in the first few chapters and in the last few chapters. I read the chapters in the middle without enthusiasm. Unfortunately, I'm not sure why.

humor: The author sure seems to know a lot about this topic. I just wish he'd lighten up the book with more humor.

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Final Thoughts

This is a very good book about participatory journalism. If you are interested in the direction that news and journalism are going, this book will likely engage you. If you are interested in participating more strongly as a citizen, then this book has even more to offer.

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Last Updated: 2004-08-12