Libro que me han prestado: We the media por Dan Gillmor

Este es probablemente uno de esos títulos más clásicos entre bloggers, y eso que se editó en el año 2004. Dan Gillmor habla del cambio que se comenzó hace algunos años, donde la gente ya no recurre a los periódicos u televisión para enterarse de las últimas noticias.

De la contraportada

Big Media has lost its monopoly on the news, thanks to the Internet. Now that it’s possible to pubblish in real time to a worldwide audience, a new breed of grassroots journalists are taking the news into their own hands. Armed with laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras, these readers-turned-reporters are transforming the news from a lecture into a conversation. In We the media, nationally acclaimed newspaper columnist and blogger Dan Gillmor tells the story of this emerging phenomenon and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make -and consume- the news.

Gillmor shows how anyone can produce the news, using personal web journals (called weblogs or blogs), Internet chat groups, and email. He sends a wake-up call to newsmakers -politiocans, business executives, celebrities- and the marketers and PR flacks who promote them. He explains how to successfully play by the rules of this new era and shift from «control» to «engagement.» And he makes a strong case to his fellow journalists that, in the face of plethora of Internet-fueled news vehicles, they must change or become irrelevant.

At its core, We the media is a book about people. People such as Glenn Reynolds, a law professor whose blog postings on technology and liberty garnered him enough readers and influence that he became a source for professional journalists. Or Joe Trippi, who almost took Howard Dean to presidential nomination using Net-anabled grassroots politics. Or Iraqi blogger Zayed, whose Healing Irag blog scooped Big Media. Or «acridrabbit,» who inspired an online community to become investigative reporters and discover that sad ttale of the dying Kaycee Nichols’ was a hoax. Give the people tools to make the news, Gillmor asserts, and they will.

Journalism in the 21st century will be fundamentally different from the Big Media that prevails today. We the media casts light on the future of journalism, and invites us all to be part of it.

Dan Gillmor is a nationally known columnist from the San Jose Mercury News. His column runs in many other U.S. newspapers, an he also writers a daily weblog for SiliconValley.com, an online affiliate of Mercury News. Gillmor has been consistently listed by industry publications as among the most influential journalists in his field and has won or share in several regional and national journalism awards. We the media is his first book.