Clay Shirky: End of Audience blog tasks

Media Magazine reading: MM55 pg 13

1) Looking over the article as a whole, what are some of the positive developments due to the internet highlighted by Bill Thompson?

The network doesn’t care what the data means or how it is used, and that is its main strength and main weakness. It means the Net is open to innovation like email, the web, Spotify or Snapchat. The network connects us to other people, it provides a great source of information, it can be used for campaigning and political action, to draw attention to abuses and fight for human rights. It's also a great place for gaming and education which can be used to make a lot of money (for a few people) as well as a place where you can meet your friends.

2) What are the negatives or dangers linked to the development of the internet?

Although the network doesn't what the data means or how it is used, it makes it next to impossible to stop spam, abuse or the trading of images of child abuse. Today, the network is becoming invisible, as connectivity becomes seamless, pervasive and fast enough to just work most of the time. We stop seeing it – we only see the connectivity.

3) What does ‘open technology’ refer to? Do you agree with the idea of ‘open technology’?

If we want an open society based around principles of equality of oppurtunity, social justice and free expression we need to build it on technologies which are themselves 'open' and that this is the only way to encourage a diverse online culture that allows voices to be heard.

4) Bill Thompson outlines some of the challenges and questions for the future of the internet. What are they?

• It could be a regulated, managed and limited network, of the sort being constructed in China and Libya.
• Access to dissenting or distinct voices could be limited and managed.
• We could choose the apparent safety of a closed network and a closed society.

5) Where do you stand on the use and regulation of the internet? Should there be more control or more openness? Why?

I think the fact that we currently have a mostly open network is quite scary as this results in more freedom for the consumers to do anything they wish. As everything is slowly becoming based upon technology and the internet it becomes very hard to control in an open world which can be seen as a huge downfall for producers  and businesses.

Clay Shirky: Here Comes Everybody

Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody charts the way social media and connectivity is changing the world. Read Chapter 3 of his book, ‘Everyone is a media outlet’, and answer the following questions:

1) How does Shirky define a ‘profession’ and why does it apply to the traditional newspaper industry?

A profession exists to solve a hard problem, one that re- quires some sort of specialisation. Driving a race car requires special training-race car drivers are professionals. Driving an ordinary car, though, doesn't require the driver to belong to a particular profession, because it's easy enough that most adults can do it with a modicum of training. In the case of newspapers, professional behaviour is guided both by the commercial imperative and by an additional set of norms about what newspapers are, how they should be staffed and run, what constitutes good journalism, and so forth.

2) What is the question facing the newspaper industry now the internet has created a “new ecosystem”?



3) Why did Trent Lott’s speech in 2002 become news?

William O'Keefe of The Washington Post, one of the few reporters to think Lott's comment was important, explains the dilemma this way: "[T]here had to be a reaction" that the network could air alongside Lott's remarks, and "we had no on camera reaction" available the evening of the party, when the news was still fresh.

4) What is ‘mass amateurisation’?

Essentially, 'mass amateurisation' is when the power of the digital revolution is such that everyday users can procure the same kind of celebrity status that was once the sole preserve of cinema. television and radio. 

5) Shirky suggests that: “The same idea, published in dozens or hundreds of places, can have an amplifying effect that outweighs the verdict from the smaller number of professional outlets.” How can this be linked to the current media landscape and particularly ‘fake news’?
  

With the mass amateurisation of the internet digital media i.e. fake news can be globally distributed without any substantial financial outlay furthermore, due to the severity of the distribution of such posts, many people tend to believe it.

6) What does Shirky suggest about the social effects of technological change? Does this mean we are currently in the midst of the internet “revolution” or “chaos” Shirky mentions?


7) Shirky says that “anyone can be a publisher… [and] anyone can be a journalist”. What does this mean and why is it important?

Shirky means that mass professionalisation is an oxymoron, since a professional class implies a specialised function, minimum tests for competence, and a minority of members. None of those conditions exist with political weblogs, photo sharing, or a host of other self-publishing tools. The individual weblogs are not merely alternate sites of publishing; they are alternatives to publishing itself, in the sense of publishers as a minority and professional class. In the same way you do not have to be a professional driver to drive, you no longer have to be a professional publisher to publish therefore, mass amateurisation is a result of the radical spread of expressive capabilities, and the most obvious precedent is the one that gave birth to the modern world: the spread of the

printing press five centuries ago.

8) What does Shirky suggest regarding the hundred years following the printing press revolution? Is there any evidence of this “intellectual and political chaos” in recent global events following the internet revolution?

Shirky argues that the internet roll-out has had an equally revolutionary impact as Gutenberg's printing press, placing mass communication tools in the hands of audiences, democratising media production so that ordinary people can organise communicate widescale social change. 

9) Why is photography a good example of ‘mass amateurisation’?

Cameras are versatile. Pretty much everyone has access to mobile phones and cameras hence why it is easier to do photography without any formal professional training.

10) What do you think of Shirky’s ideas on the ‘End of audience’? Is this era of ‘mass amateurisation’ a positive thing? Or are we in a period of “intellectual and political chaos” where things are more broken than fixed? 

I believe that inevitably, digital networks and mass amateurisation will come to dominate the media landscape and this is a good thing in the sense that people will be able to publish, consume and share content via small budget and less power will be given to the professionals so that there is some diversity within content and a bit more of freedom in relation to the media that audiences consume however, this may also have negative effects as put quite simply, amateurs that lack professional skills may come to dominate the media that we engross and so at times, it may prove unreliable.