If we lived in a world where anyone
can be anything as long as they want to, would we feel safe? What’s the point
of being a “pro” when others are doing the same exact thing without having to
have the same credentials? Clay Shirky in Everyone
is a Media Outlet describes the difference between professionals and
amateurs by mentioning how “A profession
becomes, for its members, a way of understand their world. Professionals see
the world through a lens created by other members of their profession; for journalists,
the rewards of a Pulitzer Prize are largely about recognition from other
professionals” (Shirky 58). A person can be called a
professional in their field of work when they are seeing through the same
“lens” that are shared amongst other members. Anyone can drive, but not
everyone becomes a professional driver; likewise, people are able to publish
but are not considered professional publishers. The development of new
technology in the digital publishing world has dispersed the limitations that
separated professional journalism from amateurs.
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| Shirky focuses on the scarcity of management and gatekeeping when it comes social media and journalism. |
Shirky focuses mainly on the idea
of “mass amateurization,” a term used to describe the current situation in
journalism and media. “Most professions
exist because there is a scarce
resource that requires ongoing management: librarians are responsible for
organizing books on the shelves, newspaper executives are responsible for
deciding what goes on the front page,” (Shirky 57) each professional is in
charge on what they are accountable for. When newspapers were being the only
source of news coming out to the public, professional journalist were the
“gatekeepers” who provided and controlled access to information. Media was
expensive and only limited to the professionals who were aware of their field
of work. With the advancement in media and in technology, everyone has mastered
the technology of writing. Dispersion of media began to multiply in
correspondence to the new technologies in media. People had access to the Internet,
and had full accessibility to write, post, blog in any topic of their desires
without having to go through a “gatekeeper.”
Our society has grown into this
digitally advanced realm where media has grown to become a part of our every
day lives. Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr all gives us access to writing or uploading
our own writing, opinion blog and videos. There is no need to request for
consent from the “professionals” in what to write online. In our society,
technology users have learned to grow up in a system, where, writing a post
online can take a matter of seconds, uploading a video can bring fame, and
anything else in between. Anyone is able to gain access to the Internet and
publish their own work, in which Shirky believes our society has become into
this “mass amateurization.”
 |
| Youtube became a source where anyone was able to upload videos of anything without having to be professionals. |
Youtube is a prime example in “mass
amateurization” because of its purpose to give access to anyone who has an
account to post videos. Jenna Marbles, Ryan Higa, Michelle Phan, Epic Meal Time
all have one thing in common; their popularity because of their videos. The YouTube
stars did not have any high tech cameras to film their videos but all started
off with phones and regular cameras. This is the reasoning behind mass
amateurization and how Shirky believes it to be one of the ongoing reasons why
journalists cannot find a proper “profession” in the field. mass amateurization
shun a new light and gave “regular” people opportunities in which they ended up
being global.
Similar to Shirky’s idea of mass
amateurization, Jenkins wrote of a young girl who had a fandom towards Harry Potter which led to her very own
website. The young girl who had no idea of journalism and had no credibility
towards her name decided to create a fan site solely for one reason, her
passion towards Harry Potter. Jenkins
writes about media and how “Media pedagogies,
then, we should no longer imagine this as a process where adults teach and
children learn. Rather, we should see it as increasingly a space where children
teach one another and where, if they would open their eyes, adults could learn
a great deal” (Jenkins 216).
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| Jenkins shows the different side of mass amateurizationand how it can open doors for improvement in children. |
Jenkins believes that media gives a
reason for conversations to occur between generations and their similarity in
enjoyment. Though it was a simple website for Harry Potter fans, it became something
more than that for the viewers. “Through online discussions of fan writing, the
teen writers develop a vocabulary for talking about writing and learn
strategies for rewriting and improving their own work” (Jenkins 192). Because
of the fan fiction culture that Heather lived in, media was able to help her
intertwine her fantasies with other kids and adults around the world. This new form of mass amateurization has
given a chance for others to open a door to media and to opportunities in which
could never have been done before. Jenkins believes that there should have to
be no discussions in how literacy should be taught and who should be the one in
charge. He gives examples in how the evolution of media has become a great
influence in our structure of learning in the advanced world.
 |
| Social media has taken control our everyday lives. |
Bibliography:
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.
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