Connected

Clay Shirky's definition of mass amateurization is that the role of the few professionals controlling the production and distribution of media is diminishing and more of this role is taken up by anyone with an internet connection. With this new form of communication everyone can become publisher. The professional media outlets were powerful through maintaining an expensive way of publishing news and other formats. They could become monopolies, because of the scarcity of resources. He uses the examples of newspaper printing and music recording (59). However, with the innovation of the internet publishing becomes less specialized and cheaper. This then upends the bases of professional class in the media and turns the majority of people into self publishers. They are not competition to old media, but a new ecosystem of media (60).

With the new technology the mass communication is more democratized and old media norms change. The professional editors had the norms of their profession and it allowed them to publish or withhold a story without involving the masses. Shirky used the example of the news cycle, explaining that if an event is not printed right after it happened it will not make sense to print it past 24 hours. But with the changes of media the amateurs using blogs are not confined to news cycles; they can talk to each other, or post their opinions to anyone over the net without time limit. The professional media must follow if they want to stay relevant. This is perhaps one of the reasons the newspapers brought back the news of senator Lott's racist speech after the news cycle (62). With the internet the expense of finding the right sources, or people also declined, therefore more people can talk about the event keeping it in the public consciousness. Additionally, the people are able to write a story on their blogs without asking anyone's permission.

My experience of mass amateurization is with a short video I posted on facebook. This was the first year I got a digital video camera, and before that I owned an analogue one. With my old camera it was very hard to share the videos I made. The film had to be converted to CDs and then sent to some of my friends. However with the digital one I am able to upload it directly to my computer edit it and then post it to a website to share with anyone that happens to find this information. I remember the first time I did this it was so amazing. I could not wait to tell my friends to go there and check it out. Now it is on the net for anyone or no-one to see. This, and millions of other videos and news can be an alternative choice for people on the internet bypassing the professionally made information.

Even after the mass amateurization the professional outlets of media will produce a large amount of materials. They just also become an alternative choice. Considering the movie industry, people will still want to go and see an amazing big budget movie like the Star Wars for example. Something that cannot be produced by a small camera. Similarly with the TV, radio, and newspapers. They will be around produced by the professional class, but they have to adapt to the new formats, and work together with the people who now can send a lot of feedback. The professional will probably still earn most of the money to be made in media, but their control on content will loosen.

As Clay Shirky indicates, the internet initiates change in the old guard of media producers. It gave the ability for everyone, or the amateurs, to become senders and consumers of media on global scale. The new technology and the internet turned the scarcity of resources to ubiquitous resources, made publishing cheap, and deprofessionalized the hold on the media (63). This means that the distance between professional media and the amateur media is decreasing.

Work Cited

Shirky, Clay. Here comes everybody: the power of organizing without organizations. New York: Penguin, 2008. Print.

Photo: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?language=EN&type=IM-PRESS&reference=20081021IPR40224