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Friday, November 03, 2006

CFAC NEWS

Citizen journalism’s pied piper
From Berkeley to Harvard, CFAC Director Dan Gillmor tries to bring the new media into being, without bringing down the old

By Dan Kennedy

Common Wealth Magazine

Bloggers in one corner, journalists in the other. Or is it bloggers versus journalists?

Perhaps this is a false dichotomy, or an outdated one. After all, it was nearly two years ago that New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen wrote an essay for his influential blog, PressThink, called “Bloggers vs. Journalists Is Over.” Yet, judging by the hostility it still generates, this argument may just be getting revved up.

Within media circles, for instance, one of the most talked-about essays of the summer was a long, somewhat jaundiced take on blogworld written for The New Yorker by Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Although Lemann, a veteran journalist and author, was reasonably nuanced in his argument (the title, “Amateur Hour,” was as provocative as anything he actually wrote), he immediately came under attack from what might be called the blog triumphalists. And every day, blogs on both the right (Little Green Footballs, Power Line) and the left (the Daily Kos, Eschaton) are brimming with snide contempt for what they invariably describe as the “MSM”—dismissive shorthand for the mainstream media.

Then there’s Dan Gillmor. An unassuming 55-year-old former technology columnist and professional musician, he is the unlikely revolutionary behind what may prove to be the reinvention of journalism. As the founder of the Center for Citizen Media, a fledgling think tank affiliated with Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Gillmor occupies the middle ground between the MSM and the blog triumphalists. His goal: to help the nascent citizen-journalism movement raise its standards and boost its influence, while also helping mainstream media organizations use technology to reach out to what he likes to call the “former audience.”

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