Dan Gillmor on “democratizing the media”

Posted by Pierre Igot in: Technology
January 12th, 2004 • 8:50 am

Dan Gillmor has an interesting article on what he sees as a democratic revolution induced by modern technologies.

But what is even more interesting is the discussion that follows, involving Tim O’Reilly and others. I particularly agree with reader “Nate”, who says:

Websites did overthrow big media. At least for me and others who bother to do research. I no longer rely on big media for information. Once I came to see how often big media distorts information, or withholds information, or just passes on misinformation from corporations or governement, they ceased to be of use to me.

The Web made that possible. It revolutionized my information life, and for many others like me. The fact that some people will accept being spoon fed whatever is easy to digest does not negate the revolution that has occurred.

It’s similar to the record companies. A revolution in music has occurred thanks to the Web, yet aren’t the record companies still around? Sure, but it’s no longer the same. The game has changed whether they wished it to or not.

I almost never read sites such as cnn.com, abc.com, mtv.com, etc. I get all my information from mostly independent web sites or from the web sites of publications that I respect, such as the The New York Times or The New Yorker.

The fact that big media corporations also have web sites and that these web sites are “successful” doesn’t mean anything to me. They are not preventing the Internet revolution from happening as we speak.


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