Clay Shirky: End of audience blog tasks

 

Clay Shirky: End of audience blog tasks

Media Magazine reading

Media Magazine 55 has an overview of technology journalist Bill Thompson’s conference presentation on ‘What has the internet ever done for me?’ It’s an excellent summary of the internet’s brief history and its impact on society. Go to our Media Magazine archive, click on MM55 and scroll to page 13 to read the article ‘What has the internet ever done for me?’ Answer the following questions:

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 is open to innovation like email, the web and snapchat.

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

It's impossible to stop spam, abuse or the trading of images of child abuse.

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

A government policy that allows users access to platforms or systems with very few constraints or restrictions on their use.

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

how do we deliver news media that can operate effectively online and still make money?

what could the internet do for you and your friends, and what could you make it do?

How could the internet protect our data?

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 internet should be controlled more in order to protect young children from harmful sites. 

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 requires some sort of specialisation. In the case of newspapers, professional behaviour is guided both by commercial imperative and by an additional set of norms. 

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

"why publish this?"

"what happens when there is nothing unique about publishing anymore, because users can do it for themselves."

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

The weekend after Lott's remark, web blogs with millions of readers didn't just report his comment, they began to editorialise.

4) What is ‘mass amateurisation’?

The increase in self-publishing which removes the entry barriers for professional fields.

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’?

People are more likely to believe bigger, well known companies that are spreading false news than smaller more reliable companies.Therefore people spread the news further which amplifies the effect.

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?

Social effects lag behind technological ones by decades as real revolutions don't involve a transition from point A to 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?

Everyone can now publish things on the internet and become a well known journalist. The entry barriers to become a professional are now non-existent.

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?

The comparison with the printing press doesn't suggest we are entering a bright future- the printing press broke more things than it fixed.

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

Anyone can do it and publish it with no professional supervision.

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 think we are in an era of intellectual and political chaos as people spread their false information online usually with no substance to their argument. Most of the time it is false right wing ideologies that get plastered online with Little to no evidence of it being politically correct.

However, due to mass amateurisation, anyone has a chance to voice their opinions online and actually start making money from it if they're good enough or if they get noticed by big companies. Opportunity is everywhere.

A/A* extension work: Read Chapter 1 ‘It takes a village to find a phone’ and Chapter 4 ‘Publish, then filter’ to further understand Shirky’s ideas concerning the ‘End of audience’.