Clay Shirky refers to mass amateurization in Everyone is a Media Outlet and Publish, Then Filter as non-professionals creating digital media content that was traditionally done by professionals. Mass amateurization exists because of the “radical spread of expressive capabilities” (Shirky, Everyone is a Media Outlet, 66) as the skills and resources that were only available to a small population of professionals, is now available to anyone. The Web eliminated the cost of reproduction and distribution that originally created scarcity within the media industry. Now mass amateurization competes with professionals who relied on this scarcity that made their job irreplaceable. The Web didn’t just challenge the traditional standards and ideals within media but “created a new ecosystem” (Shirky, Everyone is a Media Outlet, 60). Now anyone that owns a computer can distribute and reproduce content for free without constraints.
Before the Web, print news had monopolized the written word (Shirky, Everyone is a Media Outlet, 60) as journalist and publishers served as gatekeepers of the news. Filtering prior to publication was crucial and the norm within the traditional media landscape. Filtering by publishers determined whether a story was newsworthy or should be published. Traditional media relied on this external filtering and editorial judgment to ensure that media adhered to a minimum standard of quality (Shirky, Publish, Then Filter, 97) as this gave people the reassurance that the news was worth reading. Also, the expensive cost of reproduction and distribution made external filtering in traditional media possible allowing a controlled number of media outlets regulating the publication of media.
What constituted as news had a definitive meaning within traditional media as both “events that are newsworthy, and events covered by the press” (Everyone is a Media Outlet, 64). Now news can break into public consciousness without traditional media weighing in (64). However, mass amateurization on the Web has shifted this definition and has blurred the link between newsworthiness and publication.
YouTube, for example, is the embodiment of mass amateurization that allows millions of people to become amateur filmmakers and share video content for free. Formerly, in traditional media, only filmmakers and media professionals would produce and distribute video and films. On YouTube, the user-generated content can range from funny cat videos to detailed makeup tutorials that can reach millions of viewers. Videos that are posted onto YouTube may easily go viral and become news even though it may not be considered newsworthy by the traditional media. For example, the famous 55-second “Charlie Bit Me” video that was uploaded on YouTube in 2007 quickly became a viral video and even won the 2014 VMA’s Best Motion Video. The video shows two brothers sitting on a chair when the older brother puts his finger into his baby brother mouth and gets bitten. He continues to leave his finger in his brother mouth and gets bitten again as the baby giggles. This simple innocent clip is an amateur home video that the parents recorded privately in their home for their own personal memory and to share to family members. However, once the father accidently made the video clip public on YouTube, it quickly became an Internet phenomenon without the intentions of doing so. From the traditional media perspective, this would not constitute as something that is newsworthy, yet it has been widely circulated and has received international media attention. This distinction between communication media and broadcast media has faded (Shirky, Publish, Then Filter, 98) as seen with the “Charle Bit Me’ video with the rise of amateur user-generated content on the Web. Communication media is between one sender and one recipient such as phone calls and instant messaging. Unlike, broadcasting media that is designed to send a message for all to see (Shirky, Publish, Then Filter, 86). However, as communication media such as a conversation between two individuals on social media platforms are made available to the public, the private element of communication media is removed.
Mass amateurization of publishing has created a large influx of new digital content or material everyday. “Mass amateurization of publishing makes mass amateurization of filtering a forced move,” states Shirky (Filter, Then Publish, 96). There simply aren’t enough professionals to filter the daily content that is published. Traditional media made filtering possible with the scarcity of resources and the high cost of reproduction and distribution, which allowed for external filtering by professionals. Now, the publish, then filter method has become the alternative in this new landscape of media consumption. This method has become a social practice for amateur content creators. This method allows for an environment where amateurs can communicate with one other about their content. People form a community of practice, which is a group of people who converse about some shared task in order to get better at it (Filter, Then Publish, 100). Flickr, for example, has developed a community of practice that allows individuals to hold discussions and comment on user’s photos. This social interaction between amateur content creators allows for individuals to easily find the answer to their questions and improve their content.
Work Cited:
Shirky, Clay. "Everyone is a Media Outlet." Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. New York: Penguin, 2008. N. pag. Print.
Shirky, Clay. "Publish, Then Filter." Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations. New York: Penguin, 2008. N. pag. Print.
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