Clay Shirky: End of audience blog tasks

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?

Built in US universities, were linked together into a single global system – an Interconnected Network. I started using it that autumn when I began a master’s degree in Computer Science and discovered we could email and exchange files with people at other universities. I didn’t actually know I was using the internet at the time and it wasn’t really until 1987 when I was working at Acorn Computers – the Cambridge company that made the BBC Micro and Archimedes computers, and the ARM chip that’s in most of your mobile phones – that I realised that we had access to a way to talk to hundreds of thousands of other computer users around the world. The internet allowed people to be able to connect across the world and communicate to others effectively. 

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

Fraud, scams, rip-offs and malicious software are everywhere. Then there’s the dark web, made up of websites and online services accessed via specialised browsers and tools that make it very hard to identify who is using them, which is used to sell drugs and for other illegal activity.

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, we need to build it on technologies which are themselves ‘open’, and that this is the only way to encourage a diverse online culture that allows all voices to be heard.

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

A lot of bullying and abuse takes place there. There’s pornography that you don’t want to see, and illegal images of child abuse that you might come across. Extremists and radicals can use the network to try to influence people.

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

There should be more control as young people have access to everything on it and can see whatever this can effect their mental health and ruin their childhood. 

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 hard problem, one that requires some sort of specialization and he says it applies to newspapers as they decide what goes on the front and what is advertised. 

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

The problem, however, is that mass professional-ization is an oxymoron, since a professional class implies a specialized function, minimum tests for competence, and a minority of members.

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

Trent Lott, the senior senator from Mississippi and then majority leader, gave a speech at Strom  Thurmond's hundredth birthday party. Thurmond, a Republican senator from South Carolina, had recently retired after a long political career, which had included a 1948 run for president on an overtly segregationist platform. It became news because he was the senior senator from Mississippi. 

4) What is ‘mass amateurisation’?

Mass amateurization refers to the capabilities that new forms of media have given to non-professionals (amateurs) and the ways in which those non-professionals have applied those capabilities to solve problems (e.g. create and distribute content) that compete with the solutions offered by larger, professional institutions.

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’?

It can be linked as they could have produced fake news and links to generate popularity over something and gain recognition and revenue.  

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 social media is changing and we are changing with it. 

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 means the internet allows anyone to express their emotions via tweets and that everyone had an opinion on something/everything

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?

Yes there is political chaos this is due to people having the power to voice their views on social media. 

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

It is a good example because it allows audience to shoot develop and edit their own photographs in their own time.

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? 

It is a positive thing as people are able to express their views and ideology.