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Short version
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I'm writing to authors who are considered the authority on the subject of the internet, crowd sourcing and new media.

I have a question that I'll be trying to answer in my essay but there is very little written and its still being debated so if they could help it would be awesome.

How formal do I have to be?

Do I need to be:

Dear Mr Shirky/Howe

Or can I be more informal?


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Long version
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As some of you may or may not know (probably not) I'm writing my final essay on the collapse of cost of information production and distribution devices (think the computer, cameras and the internet) and how it changes how we produce and consume the news.

In the past it was very, very expensive to publish information which meant there was a small proffessional class of journalists doing this job.

But now about a billion people have the ability to publish information.

Theres a few writers who have written books on this subject, Jeff Howe who wrote crowdsourcing (its a great read and it talks about threadless) and Clay Shirky who wrote How mass collaboration changes everything.

Jeff Howe is a writer for wired magazine (therefore he's a journalist) and Clay Shirky is a professor in NYU's graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program (an acedmic).

My final chapter of my essays going to be asking if theres still a place for old media but the problem is theres not alot written about it and its still being debated.

Shirky flat out says the professional journalist is dead, its the modern equivilant of scribes (people who copied books by hand) being replaced by the printing press.

But I have a feeling someone like Jeff Howe would disagree, plus I'm not sure a politician is going to want to talk to a blogger, they'd much prefer a trained professional.

How formal do I have to be approaching them?

Should it be like Dear Mr Shirky?