Archive for March, 2008

We the Americans

{ March 20, 2008 @ 7:31 pm } · { Citizen Journalism }
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Response to Chapters 10-12 We The Media

Dan Gillmor

 

            The majority of the content in these chapters reflected the issues of open-ended questions regarding internet regulation, or the lack there of. The thing that Gillmor impresses on the reader is that the Government is doing a poor job of providing protection to citizens, and leaving them to be at the mercy of Big Business.  For example (and there are plenty more within Gillmor’s book), the 2003 policy granted in favor of phone companies to control access to new high-speed data pipes (2006, p.225-226). Not only do these companies monopolize how people have to squeeze out their cash in order to access the internet, but now they are trying to filter and monitor people’s “internet fingerprints”, for more on this refer to the January 8,2008 article in the NY Times; http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/att-and-other-isps-may-be-getting-ready-to-filter/ . Gillmor made mention of the impending practices of filtering in chapter 11 of his book. He commented on the threat as follows;

 

            “ …it is currently illegal to copy a snippet of video directly from a DVD to use as part of another work. But you can do this with a piece of text, though the e-book industry is working to prevent even a small cut and paste unless authorized by the copyright holder. If we need permission or have to pay, simply to quote from other works, scholarship will be only one casualty” (2006, p. 218).

           

             The most disappointing thing about the issues at hand, is that the government that WE the American people live under, enacted regulations that now need undoing (they have needed undoing for years). Gillmor includes in his argument, commentary from David P. Reed’s sentiments about the FCC. Reed (former chief scientist at Lotus Development and Software Arts) feels that with new technology, equipment facilitates overlapping signals by sorting them out. Reed defined Software as the evolution to achieve the freedom from the hypothetical airwave scarcity that is harboring the corporate monopoly over the waves (Gillmor, 2006, p. 234). Obviously, historically American corporations lack social corporate responsibility and ignore the long-term effects of pure capitalism. People need to exercise their freedom of speech not only in grassroots journalism, but also by writing good old-fashioned letters. As corporate America should always allow room to be included in the democratization process, not control it. People who are unable to write or endorse policies to protect their security and freedom then need to VOTE for GOOD and capable governmental representatives.

Response to Ch.7-9 We the Media

{ March 17, 2008 @ 4:55 am } · { Uncategorized }
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Response to Chapters 7-9 of We the Media by Dan Gillmor

For the most part, I felt that these chapters reiterated the main messages of chapter 4 and 6. Not that this information was not interesting, but it lacked the substance that the previous chapters had. I thought Gillmor could have more succinct in covering the theories that predict where grassroots journalism and citizen media will go next or further in the future. I understand that it is risky for anyone to make a poor prediction, but the essence of a prediction is that it is just a guess. He could have included more breadth and research on this front. Because my interest was not as peaked as in the previous chapters, I have listed the most personally compelling components of the readings as follows: (a.) Chris Allbritton, (b.) Technorati and (c.) Gillmor’s (and the public) consensus concerning the “element of trickery” in news programs.

(a.)  In chapter 7 under New Business Models: The Tip Jar, Gillmor discussed the accomplishments of Chris Allbritton. Allbritton was a blogger that requested from his readers a grant of money in order to fun a trip to Turkey and Iraq in 2002. Upon accomplishing that goal, he again raised money in 2003 via his blogging efforts and the assistance of other media organizations promoting his work. He picked the topic of the conflict in Iraq and maintained that focus. Allbritton serves of an example of someone who made money from the premise of his grassroots efforts. Also, Gillmor expresses Allbritton’s success resulted from his dedication to having expertise on a topic that he chose to blog about. Allbritton’s focus was coverage of the conflicts in the Middle East and he relentlessly pursued communicating his obtained knowledge with his readers (2006, p. 155-156).

(b.)  Gillmor explained Technorati as a service that assists people in obtaining and sifting through webblogs, news and anything that is a popular topic in conversation.   The algorithms used to make this search engine unique are formatted such that when users rank blogs not just by their popularity alone, but the “…number of blogs linking to something-but by weighted popularity, determined by the popularity of the linking blogs” (2006, p.168). This sort of selection process eliminates the classic “seniority rules” stature associated with a majority of big media sources.

(c.)  In 1999 CBS aired Dan Rather’s newscast in Times Square with the background including digitally created ads that were actually not there. Gillmor felt that this is deceptive to viewers and should in no way ever be practiced by Big Media. He further explains that in the new era of digitally enhanced images, it is hard to tell fact from fiction. This presents a challenge to all Internet grassroots media movement because of the tendency of mistruths to spread like wildfire. As Gillmor argues, this perpetuates the necessity of Copyright regulations (2006, p.177-178) . The regulations would surely slow the speediness of citizen media that are currently in place.

 *Below is video clip of Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales regarding internet cencorship.

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Response to Ch.4-6 We The Media by Dan Gillmor

{ March 17, 2008 @ 4:45 am } · { Citizen Journalism }
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Prior to taking the newer media in communications course at UIC, I had extremely limited exposure to understanding the breadth of newer media technologies and the processes associated with them. Chapters 4-7 of Dan Gillmor’s book, in a nutshell, captivated three of the most personally intriguing components that I have come in contact with yet. The one underlying aspect that Gillmor works from is the power of the blog. In these chapters, he remarks on the blog and it’s historical impact on three fronts: public relations, politics and citizen journalism. These chapters were so saturated with information that my blog will act as a ridiculously humble snippet of information in regards to what Gillmor shares with his audience.

In chapter 4 there is a sections titled “ Some Rules for New-World PR and Marketing”. I felt that Gillmor’s observations of the most successful practices of online activism in tandem with blogging efforts were the platform for chapters 5 and 6 (politics and online citizen journalism). The list included the following rules for making the most on “tomorrow’s media”. In short, to optimize tomorrow’s public relations one must “Listen hard, talk openly, ask questions, create RSS feeds, always offer to the audience/customer more, not less, link 360 degrees of information concerning what people say about you (the company or organization) and what you (the company or organization) say publicly, aim at people who really care, correct mistakes openly, honestly and promptly, thank people who teach you new lessons AND experiment constantly (2006, p.85-87). In idea number ten Dan Gillmor makes references to Esther Dyson’s words, “Experiment constantly, because risk is a part of growth. This is the new medium we’re all learning. As Esther Dyson says, “Always make new mistakes”” (2006, p. 87). I really admire his PR communication model. Everything about it was tangible and comprehensible.

In chapter 5, the message that he most vehemently conveys in this chapter is captured within the following quote, “ The issues of our times are too complex, too nuaunced, for the major media to cover properly, given the economic realities of modern corporate journalism. Typical, even good newspapers devote at most two or three stories to candidates’ views on specific issues. Television news operations especially at local stations, tend to ignore the issues and politics outright” (2006, p.103). This opens the door to his arguments in chapter 6, but first it is crucial to comment on a couple things. Gillmor portrays the Howard Dean campaign of 2004 as the “tipping point” for the new era of online campaigning (2006, p. 93). He notes that Dean’s campaign was obviously not victorious, but much of his success was attributed to his campaign manager’s (Joe Trippi) persistence in utilizing the web as a communication medium (2006, p. 94-97). Gillmor supports the ideology that the internet’s capacity is replacing talk radio. The issue portrayed as jeopardizing net politics refers to the right wing wash that has resulted in biased airwaves. The question presented is, whether or not the same will occur with the net? Arguably, Gillmor claims that the Democratic party nurtured net politics because of the inclination towards party disunion. Hence, left wing blogs serve as open forum to mull through the arguments and constantly dialogue and work on the issues at hand (2006, p.99).

Chapter 6 is laden with enchanting altruism. The moral is that the public as a whole is more intuitive and intelligent than a single professional journalist, so why not take advantage of the knowledge of the masses? (2006, p. 111). The chapter is a very optimistic account of the endless potentials of “open source journalism”. This is the extension of journalists to utilize the web to create non-hierarchical journalism that includes the community or the normal audience, to partake in the writing of the news. Gillmor makes use of multiple examples of web news-sources and blogs that utilize the model of “grassroots journalism” or the bottom up approach. In the era of newer media usage and journalism, the tables are turning and the common person is empowering their right to know the scoop (2006, p. 113-119).