Innovation in information technologies has thrust the world into an era of democratic media in which people have access to news and information unbound from traditional barriers of time and geography. Innovation gives rise to new media formats with new models for information distribution, consumption, and use. Traditional lines between the audience and media institutions are crossed as citizens gain access to platforms from which to express their own ideas and opinions, circumventing media corporations and governments, the long-standing gatekeepers of information.

Established media institutions—newspapers and broadcasters—struggle to adapt to a new climate, just as media consumers seize their own territory in the information landscape to create a form of participatory journalism.

Experts and pioneers in these changing technologies share their thoughts on the following pages, describing the innovations unfolding and offering a vision of what may lie ahead.

Dale Peskin and Andrew Nachison of the American Press Institute's Media Center envision a collaborative information society in a model they call "We Media." Blogging pioneer Dan Gillmor describes how a new form of journalism influences public events. Television veteran Jeff Gralnick looks around the corner to the next new thing. Daniel Larkin explains how the U.S. government's Internet Crime Complaint Center pursues complaints about fraudulent and criminal activity online, which has burgeoned at the same pace as new media and technological innovation.

These and other experts share their thoughts in Media Emerging.