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 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.

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

A lot of bullying and abuse takes place there. There’s pornography that you don’t want to see, and illegal images of child abuse that you might come across.

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

The idea of ‘openness’ lies I agree with this but if they need to have principles such as equality of opportunity, social justice and free expression.

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

• We know you care about other people around the world, and want a fairer, more just world – so how can the network help there?

• We know you want to understand the world and engage with it, so how do we deliver news media that can operate effectively online and still make money?

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 openness is good but there needs to be limits and not allow people to get bullied or spread fake news. 

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?

His uncle Howard was a newspaperman, publishing the local paper for Richmond, The paper, founded by his grandfather, was the family business, "TV on paper" and old-time newspaper people feared.

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

• If the internet will over take and The idea that the transmission of news via paper might become a bad idea, that all those huge, noisy printing presses might be like steam engines in the age of internal combustion, was almost impossible to grasp.

• How could the newspaper industry miss such an obvious and grave challenge to their business ?

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

 Trent praised Thurmond's presidential campaign of fifty years earlier and recalled Mississippi's support for it: "I want to say this about my state. Two weeks later, having been rebuked by President Bush and by politicians and the press for his comment, Lott announced that he would not seek to remain majority leader in the new Congress. actually cover the story, at least not at first. Indeed, the press almost completely missed the story. This isn't to say that they intentionally ignored it or even actively suppressed it.

4) What is ‘mass amateurisation’?

The capabilities that new forms of media have given to non-professionals and the ways in which those non-professionals have applied those capabilities to solve problems that compete with the solutions offered by larger, professional institutions. 

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’?

Fake  could be spreaded into unnecessary fake news and spready the information incorrectly. 

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?

That we believe any reviews and information we see on the internet even though most news are fake and technology change means we don't get reviews and communication in person yet we get few comments on the review section which make not be reliable enough. 

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

That even if there not a media professional they could produce and give out reviews on other things and its important as now anyone can and they publish before filtering where as before they would filter then publish.

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?

He suggest that the internet over took and news paper have been replaced and when down on the business as more people find it effiecent and easier to receive news on the internet. 

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

as the cost of cameras decreased, more amateurs gained accessibility to photography technology.  Now average people could shoot, develop and edit their own photographs in their own time. Previously anyone taking photographs would have to have relied on the institutional model. 

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 its both a good and a bad thing as you don't have to be a professional to be producing and publish were it allows people to be open, however it is also a bad thing as fake news could be published.