Technology columnist Dan Gilmorr, in an essay in the Columbia Journalism Review, writes about what he calls "we media" and issues this warning to the static world of newspaper publishing:
"In an emerging era of multidirectional, digital communications, the audience can be an integral part of the process. Call it 'We Media.' Journalism is evolving away from its lecture mode - here's the news, and you buy it or you don't - to include a conversation."Interactive technology - and the mostly young readers and viewers who use and understand it - are the catalysts. We Media augments traditional methods with new and yet-to-be invented collaboration tools ranging from e-mail to Web logs to digital video to peer-to-peer systems. But it boils down to something simple: our readers collectively know more than we do, and they don't have to settle for half-baked coverage when they can come into the kitchen themselves. This is not a threat. It is an opportunity. And the evolution of We Media will oblige us all to adapt."
As I wrote last week in this entry -- "Blog Flogging and A.J. Liebling" -- Gilmorr's "we media" are "new channels in the flow of information that bypass 'mainstream' media - old and new."
Gilmorr's column is another wake-up call in the incessantly ringing alarm clock that newspapers continue to ignore.
Links
Dan Gilmorr eJournal on SiliconValley.com
Gilmorr's CJR essay Here Comes 'We Media'