OSP Introduction: Clay Shirky - End of audience blog tasks

 Media Magazine reading

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

The internet gives people the freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press in one single connection.. It connects people around the world,provides a great source of information.

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

Bullying and abuse takes place on the internet, pornography, illegal child images of child abuse.

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

In order to have an open society based around principles of equality of opportunity, 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 all 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. Take away the people's privacy.

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

I agree that there should be some level of control on the internet to make sure people are spreading illegal content and to prevent any extremist, dangerous messages being sent. However, regulations could be violating people's right to privacy as the government will know everything they do when using the internet.

Clay Shirky: Here Comes Everybody

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

Shirky defines profession by saying it exists to solve a hard problem that requires some sort of specialisation.In the case of newspapers, professional behaviour is guided both by the commercial imperative and by an additional set of norms about what news-papers are,

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

The 'new eco-system' raised the question whether the newspaper industry would still be successful or struggle.

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

Trent Lott's speech became news in 2002 as at first the speech was not talked about in traditional print newspapers as it did not fit the standard template of news. Instead it was picked up by liberal and conservative bloggers . This shows the impact of the internet as the internet coverage was able to alter his political career.

4) What is ‘mass amateurisation’?

Refers to the capabilities that new forms of media to non- professionals and the way they have applied those capabilities to solve problems. 

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’?

The fact that more people have the platform to publish content makes it harder to distinguish the news from professionals and fake news.

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?

Shirky suggest that social effects lag behind technological ones by decades,real revolutions don't involve an orderly transition from point A to point B.

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

The mass amateurisation of media suggests that its harder to distinguish professionals from regular people. Nowadays anyone can become a publisher and publish content on the internet, this means that the publishing industry becomes less professional.

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?

Before, it was easy to recognise who the journalists were and we categorised them as a professional and therefore minority category. An example provided of this is the arrest of Josh Wolf, a video blogger who refused to hand over a video of a 2005 demonstration. 

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

The amateurization of the photographers' profession began with the spread of digital cameras generally, but it really took off with the creation of online photo hosting sites.

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? 

Both sides of mass amateurisation can be argued, for instance, it gives access to more people to publish content and make profit off of it. However, this takes away from the professionalism of many jobs and its hard to distinguish, it also has an impact on the profit of these traditional industries. It also makes it easier for more people to spread fake news as people do not go to one source for news anymore, rather there are multiple different sources which makes it hard to know which one is real and authentic.