OSP: Clay Shirky - End of audience

 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 only that wire that delivers freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press in a single connection.
2) What are the negatives or dangers linked to the development of the internet?
fraud, scams, ripoffs and malicious software are everywhere. Then there’s the dark web
3) What does ‘open technology’ refer to? Do you agree with the idea of ‘open technology’?
The idea of ‘openness’ lies at the centre of this debate: I believe that if we want an open society based around principles of 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?
In some respects, today’s internet is a vast, unregulated, worldwide experiment in openness. It is already having significant impact because of the largely unanticipated consequences of the global adoption of a set of technologies that were built around an assumption of openness without any real concern for the broader implications. 
5) Where do you stand on the use and regulation of the internet? Should there be more control or more openness? Why?

I thik if we want a truly safe environment, we should all stand with the use of heavy regulation, which is also my opinion. This is due to the sheer amount of crime that becomes possible with the internet, with places like the black market.

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 re- quires some sort of specialization. Driving a race car requires special training-race car drivers are professionals. Driving an ordinary car, though, doesn't require the driver to belong to a particular profession, because it's easy enough that most adults can do it with a modicum of training. Most professions exist because there is a scarce resource that requires ongoing management.
2) What is the question facing the newspaper industry now the internet has created a “new ecosystem”?

We've long regarded the newspaper as a sensible object because it has been such a stable one, but there isn't any logi- cal connection among its many elements: stories from Iraq, box scores from the baseball game, and ads for everything from shoes to real estate all exist side by side in an idiosyn- cratic bundle. What holds a newspaper together is primarily the cost of paper, ink, and distribution; a newspaper is what-ever group of printed items a publisher can bundle together and deliver profitably.

3) Why did Trent Lott’s speech in 2002 become news?
Lott announced that he would not seek to remain majority leader in the new Congress.
4) What is ‘mass amateurisation’?
The future presented by the internet is the mass amateurization of publishing and a switch from "Why publish this ?" to "Why not?"
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 will typically believe whatever they see first from their favourite source, whether or not its an influencer or a smaller news source the information could be fake and therefore when verifying whetehr or not it is fake by searching for other answers and seeing the same fake news from another smaller outlet will lead them to believe its real.
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, real revolutions don't involve an orderly transition from point A to point B. Rather, they go from A through a long period of chaos and only then reach B. In that chaotic period, the old systems get broken long before new ones become stable. In the late 1400s scribes existed side by side with publishers but no longer performed an irreplaceable service. Despite the replacement of their core function, however, the scribes' sense of themselves as essential remained undiminished.
7) Shirky says that “anyone can be a publisher… [and] anyone can be a journalist”. What does this mean and why is it important?
It meand and is important because anyone can say whatever theyd like, and chances are people will believe it, and thats how fake news is spread.
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?
There would be a loss of professional control when it comes to print as the internet taking over has taken the job. Evidence for the 'intellectual and political chaos' is shown by the video blogger Josh Wolf who refused to hand over video of a 2005 demonstration he observed in San Francisco causing him to go to jail.
9) Why is photography a good example of ‘mass amateurisation’?
Anyone can come along and create whatever they want without guidelines.
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 dont think this era is either positive or negative as both have their upsides and downsides, for example mass amaterusisation enables creativity and the ability to get your name out there while it also opens the chance to spread misinformation and confuse alot of people.