We the Media
Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People
by Dan Gillmor
Copyright (c) 2004 Dan Gillmor. All rights reserved.
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Contents
Introduction ix
1. From Tom Paine to Blogs and Beyond 1
2. The Read-Write Web 23
3. The Gates Come Down 44
4. Newsmakers Turn the Tables 66
5. The Consent of the Governed 88
6. Professional Journalists Join the Conversation 110
7. The Former Audience Joins the Party 136
8. Next Steps 158
9. Trolls, Spin, and the Boundaries of Trust 174
10. Here Come the Judges (and Lawyers) 191
11. The Empires Strike Back 209
12. Making Our Own News 236
Epilogue and Acknowledgments 243
Web Site Directory 251
Glossary 259
Notes 261
Index 281
v
Introduction
We freeze some moments in time. Every culture has its frozen
moments, events so important and personal that they transcend
the normal flow of news.
Americans of a certain age, for example, know precisely
where they were and what they were doing when they learned
that President Franklin D. Roosevelt died. Another generation
has absolute clarity of John F. Kennedy's assassination. And no
one who was older than a baby on September 11, 2001, will
ever forget hearing about, or seeing, airplanes exploding into
skyscrapers.
In 1945, people gathered around radios for the immediate
news, and stayed with the radio to hear more about their fallen
leader and about the man who took his place. Newspapers
printed extra editions and filled their columns with detail for
days and weeks afterward. Magazines stepped back from the
breaking news and offered perspective.
Something similar happened in 1963, but with a newer
medium. The immediate news of Kennedy's death came for
most via television; I'm old enough to remember that heart-
breaking moment when Walter Cronkite put on his horn-
rimmed glasses to glance at a message from Dallas and then,
blinking back tears, told his viewers that their leader was gone.
As in the earlier time, newspapers and magazines pulled out all
the stops to add detail and context.
September 11, 2001, followed a similarly grim pattern. We
watched--again and again--the awful events. Consumers of
ix
we the media
news learned the what about the attacks, thanks to the televi-
sion networks that showed the horror so graphically. Then we
learned some of the how and why as print publications and
thoughtful broadcasters worked to bring depth to events that
defied mere words. Journalists did some of their finest work and
made me proud to be one of them.
But something else, something profound, was happening
this time around: 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.
Six months later came another demonstration of
tomorrow's journalism. The stakes were far lower this time,
merely a moment of discomfort for a powerful executive. On
March 26, 2002, poor Joe Nacchio got a first-hand taste of the
future; and this time, in a small way, I helped set the table.
Actually, Nacchio was rolling in wealth that day, when he
appeared at PC Forum, an exclusive executive conference in sub-
urban Phoenix. He was also, it seemed, swimming in self-pity.
In those days Nacchio was the chief executive of regional
telephone giant Qwest, a near-monopoly in its multistate mar-
ketplace. At the PC Forum gathering that particular day, he was
complaining about difficulties in raising capital. Imagine:
whining about the rigors of running a monopoly, especially
when Nacchio's own management moves had contributed to
some of the difficulties he was facing.
x
introduction
I was in the audience, reporting in something close to real
time by publishing frequent conference updates to my weblog,
an online journal of short web postings, via a wireless link the
conference had set up for attendees. So was another journalist
weblogger, Doc Searls, senior editor of Linux Journal, a soft-
ware magazine.
Little did we know that the morning's events would turn
into a mini-legend in the business community. Little did I know
that the experience would expand my understanding of how
thoroughly the craft of journalism was changing.
One of my posts noted Nacchio's whining, observing that
he'd gotten seriously richer while his company was losing much
of its market value--another example of CEOs raking in the
riches while shareholders, employees, and communities got the
shaft. Seconds later I received an email from Buzz Bruggeman, a
lawyer in Florida, who was following my weblog and Searls's
from his office in Orlando. "Ain't America great?" Bruggeman
wrote sarcastically, attaching a hyperlink to a Yahoo! Finance
web page showing that Nacchio had cashed in more than $200
million in stock while his company's stock price was heading
downhill. This information struck me as relevant to what I was
writing, and I immediately dropped this juicy tidbit into my
weblog, with a cyber-tip of the hat to Bruggeman. ("Thanks,
Buzz, for the link," I wrote parenthetically.) Doc Searls did
likewise.
"Around that point, the audience turned hostile," wrote
Esther Dyson, whose company, Edventure Holdings, held the
conference.1 Did Doc and I play a role? Apparently. Many
people in the luxury hotel ballroom--perhaps half of the execu-
tives, financiers, entrepreneurs, and journalists--were also
online that morning. And at least some of them were amusing
themselves by following what Doc and I were writing. During
the remainder of Nacchio's session, there was a perceptible chill
toward the man. Dyson, an investor and author, said later she
was certain that our weblogs helped create that chill.2 She called
the blogging "a second conference occurring around, through,
and across the first."
xi
we the media
Why am I telling this story? This was not an earth-shaking
event, after all. For me, however, it was a tipping point.
Consider the sequence of news flow: a feedback loop that
started in an Arizona conference session, zipped to Orlando,
came back to Arizona and ultimately went global. In a world of
satellite communications and fiber optics, real-time journalism is
routine; but now we journalists had added the expertise of the
audience.
Those forces had lessons for everyone involved, including
the "newsmaker"--Nacchio--who had to deal with new pres-
sures on the always edgy, sometimes adversarial relationship
between journalists and the people we cover. Nacchio didn't
lose his job because we poked at his arrogance; he lost it, in the
end, because he did an inadequate job as CEO. But he got a
tiny, if unwelcome, taste of journalism's future that morning.
The person in our little story who tasted journalism's future
most profoundly, I believe, was neither the professional reporter
nor the newsmaker, but Bruggeman. In an earlier time, before
technology had collided so violently with journalism, he'd been
a member of an audience. Now, he'd received news about an
event without waiting for the traditional coverage to arrive via
newspapers or magazines, or even web sites. And now he'd
become part of the journalistic process himself--a citizen
reporter whose knowledge and quick thinking helped inform my
own journalism in a timely way.
Bruggeman was no longer just a consumer. He was a pro-
ducer. He was making the 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 storytelling.
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.
xii
introduction
In the 20th century, making the news was almost entirely the
province of journalists; the people we covered, or "news-
makers"; and the legions of public relations and marketing
people who manipulated everyone. The economics of publishing
and broadcasting created large, arrogant institutions--call it Big
Media, though even small-town newspapers and broadcasters
exhibit some of the phenomenon's worst symptoms.
Big Media, in any event, treated the news as a lecture. We
told you what the news was. You bought it, or you didn't. You
might write us a letter; we might print it. (If we were television
and you complained, we ignored you entirely unless the com-
plaint arrived on a libel lawyer's letterhead.) Or you cancelled
your subscription or stopped watching our shows. It was a
world that bred complacency and arrogance on our part. It was
a gravy train while it lasted, but it was unsustainable.
Tomorrow's news reporting and production will be more of
a conversation, or a seminar. The lines will blur between pro-
ducers and consumers, changing the role of both in ways we're
only beginning to grasp now. The communication network itself
will be a medium for everyone's voice, not just the few who can
afford to buy multimillion-dollar printing presses, launch satel-
lites, or win the government's permission to squat on the
public's airwaves.
This evolution--from journalism as lecture to journalism as
a conversation or seminar--will force the various communities
of interest to adapt. Everyone, from journalists to the people we
cover to our sources and the former audience, must change their
ways. The alternative is just more of the same.
We can't afford more of the same. We can't afford to treat
the news solely as a commodity, largely controlled by big insti-
tutions. We can't afford, as a society, to limit our choices. We
can't even afford it financially, because Wall Street's demands
on Big Media are dumbing down the product itself.
There are three major constituencies in a world where
anyone can make the news. Once largely distinct, they're now
blurring into each other.
xiii
we the media
Journalists
We will learn we are part of something new, that our
readers/listeners/viewers are becoming part of the process. I
take it for granted, for example, that my readers know more
than I do--and this is a liberating, not threatening, fact of
journalistic life. Every reporter on every beat should
embrace this. We will use the tools of grassroots journalism
or be consigned to history. Our core values, including accu-
racy and fairness, will remain important, and we'll still be
gatekeepers in some ways, but our ability to shape larger
conversations--and to provide context--will be at least as
important as our ability to gather facts and report them.
Newsmakers
The rich and powerful are discovering new vulnerabilities,
as Nacchio learned. Moreover, when anyone can be a jour-
nalist, many talented people will try--and they'll find things
the professionals miss. Politicians and business people are
learning this every day. But newsmakers also have new
ways to get out their message, using the same technologies
the grassroots adopts. Howard Dean's presidential cam-
paign failed, but his methods will be studied and emulated
because of the way his campaign used new tools to engage
his supporters in a conversation. The people at the edges of
the communications and social networks can be a news-
maker's harshest, most effective critics. But they can also be
the most fervent and valuable allies, offering ideas to each
other and to the newsmaker as well.
The former audience
Once mere consumers of news, the audience is learning how
to get a better, timelier report. It's also learning how to join
the process of journalism, helping to create a massive con-
versation and, in some cases, doing a better job than the
professionals. For example, Glenn Reynolds, a.k.a. "Insta-
pundit," is not just one of the most popular webloggers; he
xiv
introduction
has amassed considerable influence in the process. Some
grassroots journalists will become professionals. In the end,
we'll have more voices and more options.
I've been in professional journalism for almost 25 years. I'm
grateful for the opportunities I've had, and the position I hold. I
respect and admire my colleagues, and believe that Big Media
does a superb job in many cases. But I'm absolutely certain that
the journalism industry's modern structure has fostered a dan-
gerous conservatism--from a business sense more than a polit-
ical sense, though both are apparent--that threatens our future.
Our resistance to change, some of it caused by financial con-
cerns, has wounded the journalism we practice and has made us
nearly blind to tomorrow's realities.
Our worst enemy may be ourselves. Corporate journalism,
which dominates today, is squeezing quality to boost profits in
the short term. Perversely, such tactics are ultimately likely to
undermine us.
Big Media enjoys high margins. Daily newspapers in typi-