'We the People' Review

Written by journalist/blogger Dan Gillmor, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People chronicles the development of media in this country. From revolutionary times and the use of the Federalist Papers to today’s bloggers and the weight they carry in the political/business/technology arenas, Gillmor’s book talks about the importance of embracing and promoting civil engagement to better out culture and values. Gillmor does an excellent job of opening a window into the behind-the-scenes of the current technological and journalistic revolution and how different bodies in our society (specifically big businesses, big media and the government) help and hurt the current developments and expansion of media publishing.

For the most part I found Gillmor’s insight very interesting. His discussion about how the ‘Big Media’ (i.e. large older media organizations like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal) have had a propensity to try and block and create barriers of entry for bloggers/civilian journalists to enter their realms due to a kind of fear was very intriguing. Other discussions, such as copyright laws I feel were too one-sided (which to his credit he did tend to giving varying views on many if not most of his other subjects) and didn’t give enough differing points of view.

I did have a few issues with the some stylistic elements of Gillmor’s writing. Whether it was his intention or not, Gillmor’s writing approach in this book had very much of a blog-written feel to it. Gillmor added his own opinions and insertions that didn’t really resonate with me (i.e. his insertion of which Star Trek program he favored) and didn’t seem to add any value to the information. Also, he tended to write with a rollercoaster approach much of the time. When he would gave details about the development of journalism and technology he would write a positive, up-lifting statement about the nature and future of something and just as quickly bring you down to earth by giving a counter argument. Finally, he tended to self-promote a little too much, discussing where he’s traveled, worked, taught, who he knows, etc. I rolled my eyes every time a new discussion of something he has done or who he knew arose.

I tend to write many questions on the margins of the book as internal questions arise (such as in this case: What are the implications of citizen journalism with regards to accountability? Aren’t bloggers for the most part just reacting to mainstream journalism? Doesn’t blogging tend create a single viewpoint of information disseminating that essentially blocks differing viewpoints from entering the conversation?) Just as I would think I had a discovered a question that Gillmor wouldn’t answer, sure enough he answered at some point later on through the text. Furthermore, I thought Gillmor did a great job of predicting the future of the internet’s growing influence over and interaction with politics (while there is no way of knowing in 2004 when the book was written how sites such as YouTube would effect political outcomes, he did talk about how internet technologies would become significant factors in upcoming elections as politicians embraced and learned to use emerging tools to communicate deeper with the electorate).