“Mass amateurization” is basically an average person’s posts
on social media platforms. They are clearly not professionals, but in this age,
it’s hard to just get everyone to catch up on the news via television and
newspaper, but news has been made more convenient by being shared on platforms people
mainly use for entertainment.
As an amateur/ journalist in training, I see both sides of the
spectrum. I see that citizen journalism is helpful because professional
journalists can’t always be everywhere at any given time. However, as an aspiring
journalist, I do understand the importance of leaving the job of reporting and
analyzing the media to the professionals.
“In these cases, the scarcity of the resource itself creates
the need for a professional class—there are few libraries but many patrons,
there are few channels but many viewers. In these cases professionals become
gatekeepers, simultaneously providing and controlling access to information,
entertainment, communication, or other ephemeral goods.” (Shirky, 57)
Basically what Shirky is explaining, by making journalism an
exclusive thing, the professionals are able to provide quality content and
control what is shown in the media.
“Much of the time the internal consistency of professional
judgment is a good thing—not only do we want high standards of education and
competence, we want those standards created and enforced by other members of
the same profession, a structure that is almost the definition of
professionalism.” (Shirky, 58)
While some would argue that journalism be left to the
professionals, others may argue that this new age of news convergence is
actually beneficial to all of us. It’s not only a handful of people that
control the content, but with citizen journalism, everyone is given a chance to
see things as they’re happening from a regular person’s perspective.
Shirky may argue that this view is also constricting because
once again, the viewpoints can be shifted towards the bias of an innocent
bystander. Even though, everyone can provide a photo or video and allow their
audience to analyze it for themselves, sometimes we have to remember that as
quickly as media can be posted, so is alteration of media, and the power of social
media gives to people post their preferences.
For example, the Ray Rice scandal, in which a video was
posted by TMZ, showing the football player attacking his then-fiance, now wife,
Janay in an elevator. We as an audience were only shown what went on inside the
elevator and then new footage began coming out of footage before the incident
and also after when Rice was seen dragging his then-fiance’s body.
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| Ray Rice dragging his then-fiance, Janay out of an elevator |
TMZ cut off parts of the video to show us the worst parts.
While cutting off the video may not have exactly taken away from the fact that
what Rice did was wrong, but it serves as an example that we are not always
seeing the whole picture but a segment of what the person posting wants us to see.
While an open forum type of journalism can be harmful to
those with experience and special training there are benefits to keeping an
open field for everyone to contribute.
For example, in “Why Heather Can Write,” the kids' creativity really adds to the original Hogwarts series by encouraging them to
treat it as a participatory project.
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| The Daily Prophet, a kids parody magazine on the Harry Potter books |
“Much as an actor builds up a character by combining things
discovered through research with things learned through personal introspection,
these kids were drawing on their own experiences to flesh out various aspects
of Rowling’s fiction. This is a kind of intellectual mastery that comes only
through active participation.” (Jenkins, 177)
Jenkins suggests that by allowing the audience to
participate as well and try to relate to it on a personal level, the audience
will gain better insight and understanding of the material. There’s a huge
difference from just simply reading information than actually relating to the
information.
The school newspaper encourages the training of young kids
of being fully involved citizens later in life. It helps them be more
sensitized to issues than inactively absorbing it. They learn as they go as
opposed to being forced to absorb a book and then be expected to fulfill such
duties.
Also, having online forums for discussion also creates
equality for every user. Zsenya, the Webmistress of The Sugar Quill, states
that it creates a comfortable space for preteens and teens, who normally would
probably be intimidated stating their opinion face-to-face with adults. And that’s what’s popular about the internet, everyone has a voice. The internet is a democracy.
I think the future of the media professionals is that they
will apply journalism to social media platforms. And it wouldn’t only consist
of them posting their articles on a different platform, it’s also using those
platforms as a forum to take suggestions and create a community of people to
analyze the world they live in.
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