Mass Amateurization

In Clay Shirky’s “Everyone is a Media Outlet mass amateurization is described as “a result of the radical spread of expressive capabilities”(Shirky 66). Due to an explosion of Internet tools designed to make media authoring easier, we are left with this new aspect of Journalism ”. New forms of media have granted non-professionals the platform on which they can distribute information to the public. 

Shirky stated; “Our social tools remove older obstacles to public expression, and thus remove the bottlenecks that characterized mass media. The result is the mass amateurization of efforts previously reserved for media professionals” (Shirky 55).  He explains here how media professionals were skilled with dealing with people and expression as opposed today’s non-professionals who express themselves with Web 2.0 technologies.

Shirky explained how the outcome of mass amateurization has not had a positive effect on the journalism field. It is increasingly hard to pay these journalists when there is news accessible online for free. He also mentions that it led to the death of several professions and created difficulties in interpreting law. He related this phenomenon to the invention of the printing press, which gave people the means of obtaining a book, which led to more literate people and more writers. Previously, one would have needed quite a lot of money to obtain or publish a written work.

Media professionals may have to get with the times and become tech savvy and embrace this new form of Journalism. Journalism can remain professional if it is delivered in a professional way. Many online writer cannot write properly at all. They use bad grammar, slang, and improper punctuation. Media professional can aid these writer by showing them how its done. The times are changing and there is nothing they can really do about it but find a way to make it work for them. Universities are now offering Multimedia Journalism courses because they know the direction the field had headed in and they want their students to be ready. I don't believe their future is doomed. They can used they brains to figure out how to incorporate the old with the new.

Both authors seem to be keeping us abreast on what the future holds. They know where journalism is going and they want to inform they readers of the changes taking place. Both authors do not seem too happy with the future of media but understand that we are in a different era. It is understandable that they may feel that a Journalism degree may not matter in this day in age.