Archive for March 17, 2008

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).