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).
