Book Review: The Cluetrain Manifesto

by Kyle F. Reinson, St. John Fisher College

Levine, Fredrick, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger (2009). The Cluetrain Manifesto. New York: Basic Books. pp. 290.

At first, The Cluetrain Manifesto looks like another business self-help book: an artifact from book stores in airports and train stations. But the tenth anniversary edition, which includes a new introduction and new chapters by the authors and guest contributors, is really about a growing subversive conversation. This is precisely why journalism and mass communication educators should be familiar with the book’s theses. Yes, theses.

“The 95 Theses” are proclaimed concisely and spritely at cluetrain.com, the precursor to the book’s first edition in 1999. They begin with: “Markets are conversations.” Having used the punchy, and sometimes redundant, ninety-five theses for in-class exercises, I can attest that they resonate with students. For them, highly trafficked open-source social networks they create at Facebook.com and Twitter.com are preferred because they are conversational, authentic, and human—and these networks have reached critical mass, certainly to the delight of the authors.

According to Techcruch.com, Twitter attracted more than 20 million unique U.S. visitors in June of this year. The same month, the Audit Bureau of Circulations released its first Consolidated Media Report for newspapers. That report spanned the twenty-six weeks ending March 29, 2009, and showed the Chicago Tribune and its related Web offerings secured about 4 million unique visitors in February (its lowest month)—and a little more than 5 million unique visitors in December (its highest month). The subversive conversation of Cluetrain is now a mainstream conversation, taking its place alongside media conglomerates that have long built and guarded the gates of information.

David Weinberger’s chapter, “In Defense of Optimism,” offers an insightful exploration. His retrospective is an ideal follow-up for students getting their first exposure to the ninety-five theses. It apprehends the powerful interests benefiting most politically and economically from the scarcity of information. Weinberger, a Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Institute for Internet & Society, warns of continuing threats from the Internet’s access providers, the content cartel and its enablers, the government, the people who sell us stuff, the digital divide, and lastly, the people. He maintains the abundance of the Internet will find enemies in those who seek to maintain or reinstate scarcity.

Class discussions based on Weinberger’s chapter and the ninety-five theses alone would be an inclusive way to engage students in the exercise of critical thinking. The entire book affords directed independent study opportunities and ideal entry points for student reflection on subjects ranging from personal career choices to important social issues. A reading of Cluetrain scheduled toward the end of the semester, for example, would set the stage for rich student essays addressing Weinberger’s assertion that “the Web allows a fuller, more natural expression of who we are than mass culture does.”

The book’s built-in reflections on the original work—and the ten years of current events since its first publication—could spark a series of lively classroom moments where students and instructors debate the merits of social media. The book is a catalyst for questioning “business as usual” in every strata of society, and there may be nothing healthier for students these days than second-guessing all forms of authority, even those within academe. Just as tough questions need to be asked of our institutions, Cluetrain stands at the door of institutional and generational change and keeps knocking.

Dan Gillmor’s addition to the new book, “Journalism as a Conversation,” should challenge journalism students, specifically, to consider their own understanding of what makes truth and how accuracy matters in new media environments. Gillmor has a voice on Twitter himself, and directs the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepre- neurship at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School. He advocates more reader involvement in the news gathering process, which is timely in light of Twitter’s recent mobile impact on breaking news.

Where should social media find its place in the classroom and in higher education at a time when not only markets, but government, our healthcare system, and myriad institutions are being forced to have conversations in new ways and on new terms? For a partial answer, I appropriated Twitter for an in-class assignment during the summer session. Students created Twitter accounts solely for the purpose of in-class microblogging to debate the relevance of “The 95 Theses.” Students were engaged in a subversive conversation of their own, and shared their thinking not only with their instruc- tor, but the entire Twittersphere. Surrendering my control of the learning experience to social media, in a sense, gave the book’s authors the last word.