I Think Radio - The New Influencers

Why does Gillin believe that new media is the way of the future for marketing? Why are blogs so crucially important? How does the book converge or not with the Cluetrain Manifesto? Are the main criteria for evaluating social networking sites, according to Gillin? How does the "Wisdom of the Crowds" compare between the "softer" blogosphere and "harder" realm of Wikipedia? Does that "wisdom" shine through when dealing with issues of opinion ather than fact? Given the importance of conversing in the new media, does a simple numerical feedback/rating system clarify [and improve] or obfuscate [and cheapen] the concept of feedback? Why haven't companies with multi-million dollar marketing budgets been able to pin down the nature of these so-called "new influencers"?