Mass Amateurization

Clay Shirky basically refers mass amateurization as anyone being able to produce any type of media that a professional would create but lack in quality as it done by a normal person. For instance before the invention of the printing press, scribes where producing books by hand. However with the innovation of technology a steam-powered printing press is created allowing books to be produced at a fast and efficient rate as supposed to being copied by hand. The printing press put scribes out of work, and they were no longer viewed as these special individuals, as books were now teaching people how to read and write. Ralph Hanson states that new media types are scary and what has happened once before in the media will happen again. Technology is constantly evolving, it is constantly doing things better than a human can, once it’s made available to anyone, anyone can become a "professional."

For instance the development of the Internet has made distribution of all types of media possible, whether it’s by a amateur or a professional, it can all be found online. Take filming for example, before the invention of digital camcorders, the only people producing films were studios. Nowadays, anyone armed with a digital camera, or camera phone can produce a film. With websites like YouTube they can upload that video for the whole world to see. This new type of technology as also allowed anyone to be a journalist or photographer. With the Internet having blogs, twitter, Facebook, and other types of sites similar to this allows the production of citizen journalism. Someone with no connection to any news affiliation can expose news to the whole world with these websites at their disposal. Anyone these days who has a digital camera can call themselves a photographer, they not professionals but still a photographer, as long as their exposing their photos to the world with websites like flickr and deviantart, etc.

Professionals have this fear of mass amateurization because of how fast media is being produced by amateurs. Take the news for example, as the audience it is expected for major news channels to tell its audience before anyone else. However, with the Internet people learned about Osama Bin Laden’s death on twitter before Brarack Obama made an official statement about it. Again, Hanson’s idea of everything that has happened before will happen again, just like how the public learned about Bin Laden’s death, Michael Jackson’s death was also released to the public, before any official statement was made, via the Internet. This new medium, the Internet, is striking fear into major media outlets and professionals because of how fast stuff is being distributed to the audience, Hanson’s idea of new types of media are scary, as they fear that they may become obsolete like the scribes.

However in my opinion, mass amateurization is nothing that people should be afraid of, in fact everyone should support it. For instance amateurs can probably only produce one good work in their life time, not everyone is a genius, so professionals should not be worried about being replaced as there will always be a spot for them in society. Mass amaturization is more of an opportunity maker for amateurs in pursuit of these dreams. Nowadays, its no longer about skill like it was during the time period of the scribes, it is about creativity. People like to be amazed they want to see something that has not already been done. Almost every single idea in the media industry has already been done, and with mass amateurization it allows the flow of new ideas, a combination of new ideas can be produced with mass amateurization.

There will always be a spot for professionals in society as there is something’s amateurs cannot do, which is why they are still amateurs. Mass amateurization should not be seen as a death bringer of professional skills, but a new medium for ideas to prosper and opportunities for amateurs. The Internet is indeed a very scary medium, it holds so much power if it is used correctly, and we as everyday viewers do not realize how much influence it has on every society. We subconsciously use it for entertainment and educational purposes, which is why other media outlets fear it so much. However, if these media outlets view it without fear and understand what it can do for them, then they should not fear mass amateurization, but use it to their advantage.

Word of Bin Laden's Death Spread on Twitter Before President Announced It

Welcome to The World Wide Web Sign

Here Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky

Mass Media, Raplh Hanson