We the Media

The back of Dan Gillmor's book We the Mediawrites, "We the Media has become something of a bible for those who believe the online medium will change journalism for the better."

I've been studying online journalism for four years now. I believe it is the direction the industry is already- for better or for worse-- but I don't believe Gillmor's book will be the bible of online medium.

He writes about RSS feeds, camera phones, and P2P like they are the future-- buddy, they are the present and probably soon to be past. I have expiration radar for technology: when my friends start using it, it's outdated (and they most recently caught on to sharing music).

I did like Gillmor's historical recap in the beginning. He writes about the age of pamphleteering and "the pamphleteers who, before the First Amendment was enshrined into law and guaranteed a free press, published their writing at great personal risk."

Many feel bloggers service the public much like those in the past who circulated pamphlets. Gillmor writes, "Even more important were the (at the time) anonymous authors of the Federalist Papers." Is the blogosphere not the same? Are the anonymous posters not creating, amending or correcting potentially historically changing records of the present? Ideas about blogging and citizen activism are interesting and debatable. Gillmor does a good job covering the citizen's new role.

Chapter 10, Here Come the Judges (and Lawyers), attracted my attention. In conjunction with this class I am also taking one about Internet law. Gillmor recounts blogging and libel repercussions, the Jason Blair incident and plagiarism, as well as revealing trade secrets and copyright. He never comes to a conclusion on how to solve the legal issues, but instead writes recaps about each one.

The chapter Next Steps was a bit disappointing. It offered vague solutions to gaps the industry cannot afford to leave unsolved. Gillmor wrote about obscure laws-- Metcalfe and Moore-- that really have no real-life application. I would like to know about Shield Laws, protections, where lines are going to be drawn. I think the chapter scapegoated the real issues instead of offering innovative ideas.

The last chapter, Making Our Own News, was useful. "We are still in a top-down mode and don't realize that the conversation is more important than our pronouncements," Gillmor writes. I agree. He then writes about Creative Commons and the benefits copyright can have if used appropriately. This I liked because the idea of a Creative Commons is appealing and sites that operate on such standards (creativecommons.org) are wonderfully helpful.

Despite some of the outdated material, I have to give the guy credit. Six months on the Internet is old news and this book was published two years ago. I'm trying to imagine what I was learning my sophomore year and I believe it was RSS and digital cameras. The truth is a text book does not belong in an online journalism class because once it's published some techy will have release a whole new way of creating and accessing news.

To most benefit students is to assign them to research the Web. Quit reading about how the Internet is changing and get online to figure it out yourself.