The Mass Amatuerization of the News Media

                 The Mass Amatuerization of journalism has transformed the face of journalism in our time, and made it possible for anyone with a smartphone to be a journalist. In Clay Shirkey's, Everyone is a Media Outlet, he speaks about how everyone is an avenue to produce new media and share old media. Everyone has the capacity to join this media revolution and make an impact, and tell a story, but what does this do for journalists, producers, photographers, and filmmakers who spent time and money perfecting their craft? According to Shirkey, "With the internet allowing amateurs to produce material on their own, news and media professionals find their jobs in question. (Shirkey). With the accessibility that the internet provides for everyone to become published, the sheer mass of information has caused an onslaught of information-too much information, and this onslaught has lowered the standard for production, and made it difficult to discern the beneficial from the crap.

Antwoine Dodson, the internet celebrity that become a celebrity by being ridiculous and having a music video created from his news interview.

               Getting information is easier then ever, and the amount of information out there on any given subject makes it simple to feel like an expert in almost any field. People can how-to everything from cartwheeling, to sewing, to becoming a music producer, and much of the information is provided by consumers, for consumers. This form of amatuerization is beneficial because it provides the necessary information for people to grow within any field, and more importantly, be able to sustain in a world that eats away at their finances. The amount of information out there, at the disposal for the masses is often overwhelming, but the amount of possible productivity that amateurs like these can provide is not to be compared because now people feel like they can do anything they want, and find out how to do it.

Being an amateur journalist is the equivalent of living.

              There is a parable in the Bible that talks about a sower who planted  good seed, but while he was away, someone came and planted weeds amongst his seeds. When the first of the plants began to grow, it was seen that there were weeds mixed with his seeds, and when it was time to reap, he gathered all the seed together-the bad and good-and then sifted through it all and threw out the bad, and kept the good. Could this parable be compared the amount of information provided on the internet? As consumers, we have so much access to information, sometimes too much access, can we always sift the bad from the good? The truth is that many times, we cannot, and when we are bombarded with internet crap, we don't have the capacity to be filled with anything else.

          Lets discuss journalism in particular, because that is Shirkey's focus. In the field of journalism, if the good sowers are sowing good stories, stories filled with facts, interviews, accurate information and truth, and then amateurs come and corrupt that seed with rubbish, will we as consumers always be able to spate the two? If the consumers are able to obviously separate the two, but prefer the rubbish because it is more entertaining, or easier to understand, what will journalists become, what will happen to the standard of journalism, and the standard of human understanding as a whole? Shirkey discusses this future, a future where amateurs take over the jobs of true professions, and states that, "Standards become important within a profession as certain behavior is enforced by members of the same profession and is expected by the consumer.  The internet allows easier production, reproduction and distribution of information and media. Much of this is accomplished without the use of professionals which, in turn, is lowering standards. (Shirkey)" The standards of the media are lowering, and we see this in the videos that the world finds interesting and in the kind of news and music that sells. With the accessibility that amateurs have to be able to produce and publish news, it is impossible for this trend to end. Journalists instead must evolve into writers, audio and video experts, graphic designers, and photographers in order to stay relevant, but in the midst of this mass amounts of information, will that even matter?

           Amatuerization is not all bad though, it can be used to teach, and provide an opening for journalists to write full stories. In Jenkins, "Why Heather Can Write", we learn about how fan fiction culture can be used as a form tutelage to students. It is no mistake that children care more about the Kardashians, than they do about the Syrian conflicts, and more about Harry Potter, than global warming, but what if these avenues can be used to teach them something that they wouldn't have cared about?

           Journalists are not able to be in every place at every time, and even when they do arrive, many times, the hurricane, the conflict, or the story has passed. The best aspect of amateur journalism is that it enable journalists to be in every place at every moment thanks to the help of the citizens that are there and document what they see.

Shirkey, Clay. "Everyone Is a Media Outlet." The Digital Age. N.p., 2009. Web. 15 Oct. 2015.

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