PR Face2Face is a special series of interviews with the top public relations and publicity professionals in the country, as well as with people involved in the public relations world. The ninth installment is Dan Gillmor, founder of Grassroots Media Inc.
We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People, For the People, a 2004 book that is widely credited as the first comprehensive look at way the collision of technology and journalism is transforming the media landscape.
From 1994-2004, Dan was a columnist at the SiliconValley.com. He joined the Mercury News after six years with the
I don't mean to sound snarky, but the book seemed to be mostly ignored by mainstream media. There were some individuals who already understood some of what I wrote in the book, and I talked to them at length, but I really can't say that today's mass media - until very, very recently - even begun to get this stuff.
Some of the people I know who do want to get it have been working at it in their own ways. (The I like to think of myself as a Z-lister - but I have written pieces, such as Jeff Jarvis. A lot of people do point to a lot of stuff that might not be considered A-list blogs. The way that people do this is the constant necessity of looking beyond one's comfort zone.My sense is that people are getting pretty good about it. Perhaps you would have a different response if you sent your libel post around today, as the blogosphere has changed quite a bit in just the past few months.
I do know that I do look for sources outside the mainstream, A-list blogs.
If I got your post and didn't know who you were - or didn't have a sense of pointing to a source with some experience as credible - it's possible that I would have been reluctant to point to it. Or, I'd have to read it very carefully to think if it's something to point out.
It's not a self-reinforcing A-list, but building credibility over time.
The talk of grassroots journalism is that there seems to be no voice for the silent majority, that the silent majority needs a voice. As more people get news and opinions from blogs, will we see a centrist view emerge, or more left and right divisiveness?
If there's nothing for the silent majority, it's not the responsibility of the bloggers who are out at the edges of politics. That's the responsibility of the reader. If there's an audience for something, in a world like the one we have, the audience will find it.
I don't think people that write blogs have any responsibility to write things that they don't want to write about. People have to actively look for things that they want to read, and if it is not there - and they want to create such a blog - then the centrists should create their own news sources.
Bloggers do have responsibilities, I believe: such as being fair. But that's not to say they have to write anything they do not want to, or that they have to write on certain subjects.
If you don't like what you see / read, do your own site or Blog. I cannot believe that there is no easy way to find centrist thinking. It happens to be that blogs reflect the polarization of our society at large, in a political sense.
I think there is a great hunger for a middle ground on many, many issues. You will begin to see very popular Websites that cater to that, if there is a demand for it.
Your view of working with public relations people is pretty well known to those of us in technology PR - prefer RSS to email in your noted that you prefer Nooked - full disclosure: I counsel Nooked - or that journalists are able to find RSS feeds for specific beats easily?
I don't know as I haven't focused on that in the last few months. But, I would guess not - PR isn't pushing the clients and agencies enough to RSS feeds.
I can reiterate my plea that PR folks focus hard - on the behalf of their clients - on putting anything that would go out to a mailing list of larger than 2 people onto an RSS feed, and making sure that the people who would want to see the information, do see it.
The big issue is helping those journalists find RSS. In a way, email is broken, and people don't have time to go through the avalanche of email that comes their way. And, it actually wastes people's time when it's not relevant to what they focus on.
Having a repository of RSS feeds [like BusinessWeek article, you are looking for more funding - where are you looking?
Major funding is not my top priority right now, but I am aiming at something that will be useful and raise more capital.
I'm not trying to be coy with people, but there is no magic model for this. There are a lot of different business models that will work, and I am working on several levels - including a soon-to-launch project that will incorporate a lot of different things, partly to experiment with it. Over time, we will all learn what works.
I will not copy any one else's business model. But, like everyone else, I will adapt the things that work for my own ventures.
Your blog covers a wide variety of topics - from technology to real estate to blogging. Beyond "We the Media," what is the focus of the blog? Life in Silicon Valley?
That's the reason why I added the "etc." at the end of the blog title - I have a wide set of interests, and while I do love the grassroots journalism stuff, there are lots of areas that interest me. San Jose Mercury News, New York Times, Wall Street Journal every morning.
I read lots of stuff online.
I read political blogs because I care about our society and in many ways in the negative direction it is moving. I read technology and business blogs, economic blogs, I read Scoble 1000 blogs a day category, but I do read a lot of blogs. I should publish my OPML file, to let people see it.
Any final words?
Just that I would encourage people to understand that this is all still fairly new, and people are starting to get it in a significant way in the news business and in the PR business.
It's going to take a lot of trial and error to get it right, but the best thing for people in traditional industries is to not try to control it - or to "harness" the power of citizen media. In the physical world, to harness means, for example, to throw a bridle over a horse's head and fight with the horse to where it's going to go. That's not what I want to do, nor what anyone else should be trying to do. It's about working with, and paying attention, to the blogs and grassroots.
It's a conversation.
We all need to learn to listen. Listening is not the most visible attribute of the traditional media or the PR industry.
This is getting interesting, and fun.
POP! Public Relations, a public relations firm based in Arizona, USA.
He authors the popular
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