Dan Gillmor in his book, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, For the People, recaps how technology has influenced journalists and other multi-media specialists throughout history.  From the muckrakers of the past to the bloggers of today journalists are more than writers telling a story, they are part of an interactive process allowing writers and readers to contribute to stories making it more of a personal experience.

Throughout history technology has driven how we receive news.  With the advent of home computers, printing devices, and the Internet amateurs are able to contribute to the creation and dissemination of news.

The majority of the first half of Gillmor’s book looks closely at the implication of the Internet, specifically blogs, on journalism.  Gillmor reminds us that the true intent of the Internet is to not only read content but to create and write content. According to Gillmor, blogs have done a good job of reporting non-mainstream news and delving into a story with greater detail.  An example of how blogs can provide greater details is in political campaigns.  Gillmor in chapter five discusses how mainstream news generally only covers an issue or two, but the Internet and Web 2.0 technology provides the ability to create issue specific blogs igniting a conversation that goes beyond a few news articles.  

The issue I have with blogs is the writer’s ability or need to be fair and balanced.  There are not necessary standards that bloggers follow. This is demonstrated in Essential Blogging, by Cory Doctorow, Shelley Powers, J. Scott Johnson, Rael Dornfest, Benjamin Trott, in a passage that reads “Boing Boing is an eclectic mix of personal rambling, technical discussion, social commentary, literary news, and current-events. It’s a soap box where my co-editors and I post whatever we feel like, without having to pitch it to an editor, run it past a legal department, or concern ourselves with anyone else’s notion of newsworthiness.”  Blogs are essentially a device that allows everyone to be an opinion writer not necessarily a journalist. 

While blogs are opinion oriented and conversational in nature, they can be a medium used by person or organization to tell their side of the story.  An example of this is the celebrity blog.  According to Gillmor, celebrities use blogs to dispel rumors and disclose the truth.  Gillmor demonstrates this by referencing former Star Trek: The Next Generation star Wil Wheaton’s blog. Wheaton, according to Gillmor, uses his blog to not only tell his side of the story but also to branch into another career as a writer.

From Wikis and blogs to static Web sites the Internet has revolutionized how we create and consume news.  These technologies will no doubt continuously change how we communicate both within organizations and through the media.  The future of how news is created, consumed and disseminated is yet to be seen, but one thing that is clear the Internet will be key in communicating in a new world without geographic boundaries and where everyone can be a newsmaker.