Mass Amaterization: Good or Bad?

 

Since newspapers gained popularity and emergence of technology, information has been easily obtainable, especially in the most POPULAR source of media today, the Internet. Clay Shirkey, author of Here Comes Everyone, begins chapter 3 describing a time when USA TODAY’s birth nearly threatened old- time newspaper positions. Shirkey DESCRIBES, “The principle threat to the Richmound Daily News, and indeed to all newspapers small and large, was not competition from other newspapers but radical changes with the overall ecosystem of information.”(Shirkey, 56)

Shirkey couldn’t have said it better. Here we are in a day in age where our lives are captured through a lens and transported through the web in the blink of an eye. As easily as we are capable of obtaining information is as quick as we can deliver it, which is considered “citizen journalism.” . This is what Shirkey explains as mass amateurization.

 The rise of technology and speed of the Internet has influenced a mass production of media, not only by professionals but by average people. However, the question of traditional journalism arises as anyone can produce news, but to what extent can just anyone be considered a professional journalist?

“The danger in non -traditional news sources like these is that they may not have the same critical eye that the professional news organization would have” (Palvik, McIntosh. 290)

Professionals see their field though their particular perspective. Let’s say you were a photographer. Someone who is doctor will not see the same things in the photo that you see and you wouldn’t be able to tell what was wrong with her patient. In order to understand your position in your field, you must have the knowledge in the specific field. You wouldn’t trust anyone performing open heart surgery on you, would you?

The access to social media, like Twitter and Facebook, has created more opportunities than ever to communicate to audiences all over the world. There is such an abundance of media outlets that society has lost sight of what is authentic and what is not, leaving amateur writers to rely more on corrective argument than professional journalists.

“For a generation that made growing up without the scarcity that made publishing such a serious-minded pursuit, the written word has no special value in and of itself.”(Shirkey, 79)

Whether we like it or not, mass ameturization is taking a major toll on journalism as a profession. The boundary between a professional and an amateur has dissolved. The uniqueness in distributing information to an audience has diminished .

Shirkey, however, does give us some positive outlooks on the future of this mass communication era which is simarly expressed in Henry Jenkin’s Why Heather Can Write, where Jenkins suggests “[Children] are active participants in these new media landscapes, finding their own voice through their participation in fan communities, asserting their own rights…”(Jenkins, 205) Here Jenkins is referring to role-playing and fan fiction through advancements in media can expand children’s imagination and teaching adults a thing or two because the children are absorbing so much.  Both Shirkey and Jenkins suggest their optimism for the future.

 

 

 Jenkins, Henry. "Why Heather Can Write." Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide.   New York: New York University Press, 2008. Print.

Shirky, Clay. “Everyone Is a Media Outlet.” Here Comes Everybody: the Power of Organizing without Organizations. New York: Penguin, 2008. Print.