Amateurization is when a professional job is done by someone who doesn’t have the right credentials and does the job with tools that make the job easier. Clay Shirky argues that this leads to the dumb down of America. Special skills become not as necessary because of how easy it becomes for the person to do the job. Shirky says,“ Professional self-conception and self-defence, so valuable in ordinary times, become a disadvantage in ordinary ones, because professionals are always concerned with threads to the profession” there is no doubt this makes professionals become insecure because after all the hard work the done to get a tittle and after all the work to master a skill anyone can become a professional. This creates a problem which is the devaluation of certain job.
A great example of mass amateurization is photography. Before not everyone could take pictures. Taking picture was a complicated task, from understanding lighting and understanding how each device work manually. That’s why they were called photographer because they mastered the art. Now a day anyone is a photographer or just simply take good pictures. This is definitely due to the the increased amount of tools to help take great pictures. Instagram is one of those tools that help you with filters to give a photography a mood rather than understanding the light and working with it to give the mood. Also, grids help have a straight picture, before you had to have a great eye and had to understand the composition. This is not a requirement anymore to take a good picture and that’s what we see mass amateurization, there is also a saturation in the media of people making that job.
Another example of mass amateurization is drivers, before gps were a thing, cap drives would have to know the names of the street and in other to be a respected or trustworthy cap driver you would have to belong to an association that confirmed and legitimized his job. Not anymore because we have gps that tells driver where to go. In addition to having gps, now we have uber drivers who don’t belong to any association. This takes away jobs for drivers.
As for journalism before it was so much complicated not everyone could a journalist. From printing to broadcast there were certain standards that had to be followed. As Shirky mentions that, “ journalist aren’t journalist unless they work for publisher” (71). Now anyone can be their own publisher with the help of the internet and blogs everyone can consider themselves a writer or a journalism. Publishers are not needed by the amauture journalist who publish their work on blogs. Also youtube have made it easy for people who want to do broadcast journalism. You don’t have to work for a TV station anymore you can just produce their own content and put up on the internet for everyone to see.
In the article “here comes Shirky.” he refuses to say if this is positive or negative, but he has his own theory, “ my theory is we are living in a in this period of mass ameretrazion where there is always a specttrum, from the reanked amterur sitting in his bethroom to the news network anchorman.” As mentioned before some professional might feel threat with the work of an amateur working from home and delivering the same job.
Media Professional have to be on top of the media and learn and evolve with the media and find new and interesting ways to adapt to the media. These media professional will have to keep up on top the need tools learn to use it in the favor because not only will they have the credentials but they will also have the new skills to use to create new media and content.
We also have to keep in consideration that there is a space on for everyone. Even though some professional might fear their undervaluation and displacement, they need to know their is different space for everyone. Once one is sure of their work there shouldn’t of theses downside of mass amateurization.
Shirky says, “ diminishes the specialness of professionals”(79). Is not as special as it used to be in the past. There a value that become scarce in the professional, journalists, producers. With amateurs all these specials profession can be done by one person with great quality, so this is why is so problematic for media professionals. On the other hand, mass amateurization can be a positive thing when it to hiercharchy because you see amateurs working independently and there is not so much pression like there is when one is working in a hierarchal environment. Giving the amateurs to work freely and this can also lead to more creative work without the pressure of other people working above you telling you what to do.
Williams, Peter. "Here Comes Shirky." Information World Review 251 (2008): 17-18. Business Source Premier. Web. 15 Dec. 2016.
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