We the Media
Dan Gillmor, author of We the Media, a book offering a concentrated analysis of today’s method of communication, predicts that ‘citizens will produce 50% of the news peer-to-peer’ by 2021.
Although such forms of news sharing are quickly expanding, the mainstream of news media has yet to delve fully into the emerging techniques. The shift from edited, monitored and controlled news stories over to more emotion-filled, thought provoking and opinionated reactions by citizen journalists, is occurring more and more recently, with sites such as twitter.com making reporting quick and easy.
Gillmor states: ‘…modern communications give anyone who cares, the tools to learn more, far more, about people and organizations that in the part tried to ration the news. What’s more, once someone finds out something, they can spread the word globally…The news is what we make of it, in more ways than one.’
Since Gillmor speaks of the changes between hard copy press and the online revolution is is only fitting that his book, We the Media, be available not only to purchase as hard copy in shops but also it is free to download on teh internet. He hopes people will ‘use this book to expand the conversation in way I hadn’t imagined’ using his book as a starting point.
As a professional journalist Gillmor realises the significance of amateur reporting taking place in the world and catching up quickly with old fashioned trusted formats, ‘What industry is traditionally among the least transparent? Journalism. We have been a black box, and have become only slightly more transparent in recent years. But the public is demanding more transparency in our own field, and is doing some reporting of its own when we fail to respond in satisfying ways.’
He also believes that newsmakers should ‘embrace this new reality, not fight it’ and continues by saying, ‘They should also realize that they are far from helpless in the new era. They can use the same tools, in fact, to bring their message to the outside world, and to improve the way they communicate.
‘Modern communications have become history’s greatest soapbox, gossip factory, and, in a very real sense, spreader of genuine news.’
