We the Media, Pt. 2
In the second part of his book We the Media, Dan Gillmor begins to explain some of the political and journalistic effects brought about by the changes to the Internet brought about by the Read-Write web.
In chapter 3 he outlines how important blogs are becoming to companies as well as the idea of celebrity bloggers. He quotes Robert Scoble’s manifesto for corporate bloggers which essentially states that they should tell the truth, post fast on news, have a thick skin, and talk to the grassroots first. He explains that because of the nature of the Internet and bloggers today, the information will get out there whether the company likes it or not, so they should just acknowledge both good things and bad things right away so as to become a more trusted source. Personally, I would truly trust a company more if they admitted their faults. Second, he describes how celebrities are now using the blog medium to get their views across. He says that we should “think of it as the evolution from the celebrity as manufactured product to the celebrity as something more genuine in a human sense” (78). Finally, at the end of the chapter he outlines ten rules for using tomorrow’s new media for PR/Marketing folks.
In chapter 4 he shows how blogs and new media are rapidly changing the political process. By showing the ways in which Howard Dean used the Internet to gain support in his election campaign, he explains how this use has been both successful and unsuccessful. But the fact remains that since this book was written, most everything he thought would happen involving the increased use of the Internet in political campaigns has come to happen. Quick glances at Obama’s or McCain’s websites show how many of the methods discussed are included. Most importantly, the role of fundraising via the Internet has increased drastically since the last presidential election. It will be interesting to see where this will go by the time of the 2012 presidential election.
In chapter 5 Gillmor explains how the concept of journalist is changing. He claims that the role of a professional journalist will always be important to bringing the news to the people due to their ability to fact check and dig deeper than bloggers have been able to up to this point. I would agree with him on this point. Although many of the famous bloggers are able to dig up information and break news stories, the traditional media will still play a large role in getting the detailed information.
