After reading "From Tom Paine to Blogs and Beyond", it is evident that personal journalism is no new concept. However, the ways in which we can partake in personal journalism have advanced greatly. In the 20th century, journalist I.F. Stone put out weekly newsletters with personal opinions and articles. This is not unlike new media such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter.
Like in the past, when radio became more popular than newspapers and then television over radio, these new forms of emerging media are becoming more prevalent than traditional forms of journalism. With the invention of the "World Wide Web", a new scene was set for the rise of a new kind of news. According to Dan Gillmor, author of "We the Media", "we have to ponder a world where many kinds of devices connect relatively seamlessly..."(Gillmor 42). These new forms of media all connect to one another and we must realise that no one form stands alone. The spreading of any item of news no longer needs the aid of the mass media. That is to say, professional journalists aren't the only ones relaying information to the masses.
Gillmor states that "the people who'll understand this [new emerging media] best are probably just being born" (Gillmor 43). In saying this, Gillmor is explaining that as new media emerges, the past generations will have a harder time 'catching-up' to it. The people who are going to understand this media and the concepts of personal journalism the best are the people who will have been born into it. They will grow up with this media and it will be all that they know. The media that we consider to be new today is creating a unique community that will continue to grow as time passes.
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