Everyone is a Media Outlet
• Internet replacing the newspaper
• Professionals as gatekeepers; simultaneously providing and controlling access to information, entertainment, communication, and other ephemeral goods
• Media industries have suffered first and most from the collapse of communication costs
o Problems of production, reproduction, and distribution less serious with internet, taking control of media out of hands of professionals
• Digital means of distributing words and images have shifted power from newspapers
• The internet introduces the ‘mass amateurization’ of publishing
o Unlike newspapers who publish news in order to deliver prophet
• Senate majority leader Trent Lott’s comment supporting Storm Thurmond’s 1948 segregationalist presidential campaign.
o Mainstream media did not cover story, but bloggers did
o Lead to Lott no longer being majority leader
o Bloggers/ordinary citizens having say in what mainstream press covers
• Cost of finding like-minded people has been lowered and deprofessionalized
• Old system: what identified something as news was professional judgment
• New system: News can break into public consciousness without traditional press weighing in
o News media covering a story because it has broken into public consciousness, not other way around
• Publishing the same idea in hundreds of places (blogs) can have an amplifying effect that outweighs the verdict from the smaller number of professional outlets
o Shift from news as an institutional prerogative, to news as a part of a communications ecosystem occupied by a mix of formal organizations, informal collectives, and individuals
• The transition from the scribe to the invention of movable type
• Journalism
o Traditional definition of journalist: writes for a publisher
o Now anyone can publish on Internet
o What is the distinction between journalist and others who write on internet?
o Who should enjoy journalistic privilege and protection?
• Judith Miller case- NY Times journalist jailed 85 days for refusing to reveal source
• Josh Wolf case- video blogger imprisoned for 226 days for refusing to hand over a video
• Who is a professional photographer?
o iStockPhoto
• Distinction between professional and armature is gone with rise of internet
• New communications tools favorable to innovate uses because they are cheaper and more flexible than old tools, such as TV or radio
o A person can explore new models of communication without needing anyone’s permission first, unlike in traditional media firms
• Globally free publishing is making public speech and action more valuable, as the specialness of professional publishing diminishes
In today’s world, what is the distinction between a professional and an amateur?
Who should enjoy journalistic privilege?
What are the benefits of giving people the tools to self publish?
What problems arise as people are able to publish anything they want on the internet?
mdeseriis, 
Dorry Funaki, and 4 others are discussing. 
Mediated Subjectivity 
Veronika Höglund 9:18 pm on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I found Shirky’s chapter, specifically the ideas regarding the “professional,” as one which offered a perspective that I had yet to consider. As an individual who hopes to become involved in the media, the disadvantages discussed and associated with these people were of particular interest. Shirky writes “…the professional outlook can become a disadvantage, preventing the very people who have the most at stake – the professionals themselves – from understanding major changes to the structure of their profession.” (p. 58) In a business whose purpose is to relay information to the general masses, one whose structure was instituted and legitimized based upon its intentional control over what is and is not printed – be it on the web or a tangible medium, the notion of access to unfiltered infinite information, as made available through the internet, without question results in detrimental consequences to the industry as a whole. In the case of journalism, as the institution was built with a very specific set of rules and ideals, ones which have and continue to remain in current day, how is it possible to construct a new ideology in a time when technology progressively rejects the idea of the “profesional” and further advances at a pace that prevents a new set of principles to be firmly institutionalized?
mdeseriis 10:28 am on September 21, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Very good point Veronika. I would rephrase your question this way: “What kind of culture is emerging from an information environment in which the power of news gatekeepers is eroding and new criteria for determining what is relevant to the general public have not been firmly established yet?” Mario, we should use this question for class discussion.
emilyellens 10:17 pm on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Shirky’s argument had many interesting, specific references, but I found it to be a bit optimistic on the whole. Wikipedia is hardly ever considered an acceptable resource, for academic papers or even casual arguments and as discussed we still need professional media to understand operations such as Wikileaks. I think that politically there is still less room for acceptance of amateur produced media. The things that are successfully produced by amateurs are things like food blogs and fashion blogs, but still their success increases when those blogs are recognized by institutionalized media. The idea that anyone can publish anything on the internet scares the public as much as it empowers it and I’m not sure Shirky addressed that enough. So to answer your first question, I think the distinction isn’t necessarily qualitative, I think it comes from the fact that professionals have a stamp of institutional approval which is desired by consumers of information.
mdeseriis 10:33 am on September 21, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Emily, I think your argument could have been true a decade ago or so. But with the rise of social media there are plenty of examples of originally non-professional news sources that have become over time authoritative outlets. In the case of politics, The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and The Drudge Report are notable cases in point. At the same time, legacy news organizations still play a major role in the online world.
amysall 11:01 pm on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I thought it was interesting how Shirky noted the fact that the newspaper industry basically underestimated the power of New Media and the Internet as a whole. The idea of “amateur reporting” or even the blogger is increasingly becoming more and more integrated into the news system, and becoming socially acceptable. We see this instances when news channels such as NY1 and CNN ask for viewer submissions of videos or photos of an event. Or even on a completely different note, when designers invite fashion bloggers to sit front row among the more traditional, prominent media outlets to review collections. The democratization of media will continue happen, though it can present issues such as the question of the credible source.
mollieableman 12:33 am on September 21, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I agree with Emily’s conclusion that consumers desire the “stamp of institutional approval” that professionals hare able to offer. I think for quick, surface level reporting such as a tweet about breaking news is incredibly valued as a quick way to get information fast, but I don’t believe that most people would rely on amateur reporting for more in depth explanations. At least for me, I may find something interesting in a tweet or blog post, but I almost always then go to a larger media outlet like the NY times in order to get a more in depth explanation. That said, I don’t feel one is better than the other (professional or amateur) but rather that the development and prospect of these two approaches working in tandem is really exciting and will continue to offer new perspectives and possibilities.
Dorry Funaki 9:12 am on September 21, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I’m not sure if Shirky thinks that the distinction between an amateur and professional is a positive or negative outcome. Now that everyone can be published the purpose of the journalist as a mediator for the public is lost because now the public has become mediators for themselves.
I loved his example of the fashion obsessed college blogger in Thailand who became a journalist source of sorts during the 2006 military coup.
There might not be a difference between amateur or professional, and there might also be a lot of garbage on the internet but it has lead to some really good citizen journalism, where in the case of Thailand the government was censoring the press media but there were still bloggers who voiced what was occurring.
I guess what is really interesting about the freedom of allowing anyone to publish anything on the internet is the ephemeral substance of it all.
When things went back to normal in Thailand, Chirapongse went back to blogging about fashion and her personal life. Her experience, and life are what made her a journalist in that instance.
mdeseriis 10:39 am on September 21, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
That’s true Dorry, but there are also many examples of citizen journalists that have been able to turn their amateurial reporting into a profession. While citizen journalism remains at an amateurial level for the vast majority of people, it also works as a training ground towards professionalization for a selected few. The question is, of course, how the (self-)selection process works once it is no longer based on the assessment of senior members of the profession. In other words, who is the ultimate arbiter that decides that a blog is much better than others and therefore can generate a revenue stream? The “general public”? Google? A community of specialized readers?
maxschneiderschumacher 11:05 am on September 21, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
It’s difficult to accept the “mass amateurization” of the media as an acceptable solution to its failures as we know it. However, in many ways it can be seen as an improvement. As Mario highlighted from Shirky’s writing, the media professionals act as gatekeepers, controlling what information is released or concealed. This adaption of what a media professional has becomes is particular terrifying when we see that our news outlets are imposing a sort of censorship, which in turn leads to pushing a agenda. This mass amateurization is a powerful force in stripping this control from these professional gatekeepers and into the hands of the masses. But has the roll of the gatekeeper disappeared? With this mass amateurization now everyone is his or her own gatekeeper, no longer a select elite few. The only thing that seems to have changed is the form; it has now turned from the mediums of the television and the printed word to the Internet form – a more closed controlled form to a free and open one. It is hard to see this as a bad thing. However, amateurization does not prevent individuals from pushing their agenda; it hardly acts as a way to promote fair, intelligent, or analytical dialogues.