More Musings from Dan Gillmor’s We the Media

This has been a long standing argument between my boyfriend and I. He believes people are innately good. I believe we are innately evil. Why else would we need to have laws in place.. to make killing someone illegal? It’s because if we don’t have these laws, people will do as they please. It is every man for himself. However, I read something that might just make me concede to his point.

I was reading We the Media by Dan Gillmor and he was talking about Wikipedia and its success which is brought on by millions of volunteers. Wikipedia is an online reference web site where anyone and I mean anyone, can edit and re-edit posts about anything and everything. I literally had to stop reading when Gillmor, at the end of his paragraph on Wikipedia said, “People are generally good.” He is right. If there more volunteers who police each other and correct a cyber-vandalism in a Wikipedia article than the “bad guys”, then maybe people are innately good.

Then again, I also think the glass is half empty.

HOWEVER, that’s not to say that I think the glass is half empty and I just sit there. I try to help out with my community so that I can try to help bring some good in this world. For instance, I volunteer with two local nonprofit organizations—one of which lacks an online presence. I have been trying to persuade the board of directors that they need to, essentially, keep up with the times and enter the world of social media web sites, nonprofit blogging (which we will discuss further), and digital fundraising.

There are a myriad of reasons why nonprofit organizations should join the online bandwagon. One web site that I like referring local organizations to is the Nonprofit Blog Exchange (www.nonprofitblogexchange.blogspot.com). They have hundreds, if not thousands, of resources on how to start, maintain, and refute rumors through the world wide web.

The Internet has brought on countless of ways people keep in touch. Through the Internet, we’ve also become citizen journalists in our own right—whether blogging/reporting about local events or international events, done right, our blogs could reach thousands of people. When that happens, we become a voice that represents each and everyone of us. People start to listen.

Although this isn’t to say that all bloggers are writing about the latest current events. Actually, more bloggers start writing by talking about themselves. There are those who never lift off and get addicted to self-promotion over the Internet. Take Julia Allison (www.juliaallison.com) for instance. Ms. Allison is known in the online world as someone who is in love with herself, will do anything for fame and promotes herself endlessly. She has gotten quite successful, landing herself a cover shoot for Wired magazine not too long ago. For some people, this kind of self-attention clamor should be permanently deleted from cyberspace. I actually like Ms. Allison. I’ve read some of her blogs and seen some of her videos and for the most part, they are amusing. What other people fail to realize is, and Mr. Gillmor, you are part of this crowd, not everyone who writes on the web will want to talk about current events. Some people will actually want to read something interesting and light during a five-minute break from whatever it is that their doing. And by some, I mean me. If I want to read the latest news, I know to go to nyt.com or cnn.com.

I do have a question though, when you get yourself a blog web site and talk about anything that tickles your bone, are you then automatically considered as a citizen journalist? Or do you need to write about the news to be considered a citizen journalist?