Clay Shirky: End of audience blog tasks
Media Magazine reading
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?
discovered we could email and exchange files
with people at other universities, that I realised that we had
access to a way to talk to hundreds of thousands
of other computer users around the world.
2) What are the negatives or dangers linked to the development of the internet?
network is becoming invisible, as
connectivity becomes seamless, pervasive and
fast enough to just work most of the time. We
stop seeing it – we only see the connectivity.
We also lose sight of the way the internet
supports broader connectivity,it’s also a problem, as
the ways the network works, and the ways it
is regulated and controlled, can have a major
impact on our lives.
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. I agree with this idea as it encourages diversity online and allows all voices to be heard
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.
I think that there should be more regulation on the internet to minimise the amount of abuse and hate people receive, also to stop the access of illegal or not appropriate websites
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 hare problem, one that requires some sort of specialisation . It applies to traditional newspapers as newspaper executives are responsible for deciding what goes on the front page
2) What is the question facing the newspaper industry now the internet has created a “new ecosystem”?
Faces the question whether it can adapt to a new digital environment as newspapers are a traditional media
3) Why did Trent Lott’s speech in 2002 become news?
As Trent Lott had been rebuked by president bush and by politicians for his comment, Lott announced that he would not seek to remain majority leader in the new congress and the press did not cover the story
4) What is ‘mass amateurisation’?
Mass amateurisation is when amateurs can create and distribute content as easily as professionals, often enabled by digital tools and platforms.
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’?
As the ideas can reach a larger audience and gain credibility. Even if professional outlets debunk the fake news the initial impact may have already affected the public opinion
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?
Shirky suggests that technological change has social effects, altering how we communicate, organise, and interact with.
Currently we could be in both as there are a lot more ways to communicate information to the audience and chaos as there can be misinformation
This means that audiences can also be publishers through posting their own content on for example TikTok. It’s important because it challenges traditional media and can diversify voices
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?
He argues that the printing press disrupted existing power structures and led to new ideas and social movements, but also to conflict and instability. There is recent global events following the internet revolution for example the conspiracy theories around the start of Covid 19
As digital cameras and smartphones have made it easy for amateurs to post content and not need any specialist skills
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?
The end of audiences refers to the traditional media consumption being replaced by a more active audience. This is positive as you can see more diverse voices in media but it has also created more problems of information overload
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