Gatewatching: Collaborative Online News Production (Digital Formations) (Paperback)

by Axel Bruns (Author) "It was the photocopier, not the Internet or its most popular publishing technology, the World Wide Web, which led Canadian media scholar Marshall McLuhan to..." (more)
Key Phrases: open news publishing, multiperspectival coverage, multiperspectival news, Clay Shirky, New York, New Forms of Journalism (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Gatewatching: Collaborative Online News Production is the first comprehensive study of the latest wave of online news publications. The book investigates the collaborative publishing models of key news Websites, ranging from the worldwide Indymedia network to the massively successful technology news site Slashdot, and further to the multitude of Weblogs that have emerged in recent years. Building on collaborative approaches borrowed from the open source software development community, this book illustrates how gatewatching provides an alternative to gatekeeping and other traditional journalistic models of reporting, and has enabled millions of users around the world to participate in the online news publishing process.

About the Author
Axel Bruns teaches in the Creative Industries Faculty at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 330 pages
• Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing (June 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820474320
• ISBN-13: 978-0820474328
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #805,252 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a possible future?, September 16, 2005

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Bruns analyses the rise of a means of news gathering and dissemination. Where people who are not full time media professionals (or even part time) can contribute comments and other content, like pictures and video, towards a hot topic.

The book is certainly aware of the pitfalls. Like how true or accurate are these observations? Do those commenting have any bias? Actually, perhaps the biggest problem is that much of the spontaneous reporting is simply badly written and thus not that interesting to read.

Even so, the immediacy and breadth of the observations makes this a useful complement to traditional news. The events that occurred after the book was printed - the London subway bombings and Hurrican Katrina, show that a mass audience does exist for this new type of reporting.