Clay Shirky: End of audience blog tasks

Media Magazine 55 – Bill Thompson: ‘What has the internet ever done for me?’

1. Looking over the article as a whole, what are some of the positive developments due to the internet highlighted by Bill Thompson?

• It has enabled people to communicate with hundreds of thousands of other computer users around the world.
• Its neutrality regarding how and what data is shared allows for innovations like email, the web, Spotify, and Snapchat.

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

• Its openness makes it very difficult to prevent spam, online abuse, and the circulation of abusive images.
• Users may sometimes fail to recognise the broader connectivity and potential the internet provides.

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

• It can mean any connected computer can exchange data with any other, while the network itself does not interpret the meaning of the data.
• It can mean computers can run any program without needing approval from gatekeeping companies.
• It can refer to free software that anyone can use, modify, and redistribute without paying or seeking permission.
• I think fully open technology is risky because it raises issues around regulation and safety.

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

• He questions how privacy can be maintained, how self-regulation will work, whose rules will apply, and what new purposes the internet could serve.

5. Where do you stand on the use and regulation of the internet? Should there be more control or more openness? Why?

• I believe more regulation is needed to protect youth users such as children, as well as to manage AI and its potential impact on the future generation and education.

Clay Shirky: Here Comes Everybody – Chapter 3 ‘Everyone is a media outlet’

1. How does Shirky define a ‘profession’ and why does it apply to the traditional newspaper industry?

• A profession gives its members a framework for understanding the world. Journalists view events through a professional lens, and awards like the Pulitzer are mainly about recognition from other professionals.

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

• With the web creating a new publishing environment, what happens when publishing is no longer unique because users can publish content themselves?

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

• It did not follow the usual news template, so what seemed unimportant one day could not become significant the next day.

4. What is ‘mass amateurisation’?

• The internet removes traditional barriers, allowing anyone, professional or amateur, to share content, which blurs the distinction between professionals and non-professionals.

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’?

• Content shared widely by amateurs can spread quickly and create messages, which contributes to the spread of fake news.

6. Shirky suggests about the social effects of technological change. Does this mean we are currently in the midst of the internet “revolution” or “chaos”

• Society’s social adaptation arrives from technological change, so we are currently experiencing an internet “revolution.”

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 removes the barrier that only professionals could publish or report news, meaning that amateurs now have equal potential to be content creators.

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?

• The issue became evident with the arrest of Josh Wolf, a video blogger who refused to hand over footage of a 2005 San Francisco demonstration, raising questions about journalistic protections.

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

• Photography threatened professional photographers because amateurs could distribute their own images widely, challenging the traditional profession.

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?

• Although there are negatives, such as fake news, overall it is positive because content is no longer solely filtered by professionals, allowing more perspectives to reach audiences.