We the Media - Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People

Author(s) : Dan Gillmor
ISBN : 0-596-00733-7
Paperback : 320 pages
Publication Date : July 2004
Publisher : O'Reilly Publishing
Free License : Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 License

Book excerpts:

Today, news was being produced by regular people who had something to say and show, and not solely by the "official" news organizations that had traditionally decided how the first draft of history would look. This time, the first draft of history was being written, in part, by the former audience. It was possible -- it was inevitable -- because of new publishing tools available on the Internet. Another kind of reporting emerged during those appalling hours and days. Via emails, mailing lists, chat groups, personal web journals -- all nonstandard news sources -- we received valuable context that the major American media couldn't, or wouldn't, provide. We were witnessing -- and in many cases were part of -- the future of news.

This book is about journalism's transformation from a 20th century mass-media structure to something profoundly more grassroots and democratic. It's a story, first, of evolutionary change. Humans have always told each other stories, and each new era of progress has led to an expansion of story telling.

This is also a story of a modern revolution, however, because technology has given us a communications toolkit that allows anyone to become a journalist at little cost and, in theory, with global reach. Nothing like this has ever been remotely possible before.

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