Clay Shirky: End of audience

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

• Some positive developments due to the internet are that of connection, people from different global reaches are able to communicate, share and absorb media content
• The internet also has many tools and outlets for people to voice their opinions, build careers and be as creative as they wish to be 

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

• negative dangers linked to the development of the internet is that there is a higher chance of online predators due to the easy access to communication from strangers from all across the world.
• the internet is also seen as a "fortress for illegal actvity"

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

• open technology refers to the idea that technology allows people to be freer in terms of equal opportunity, social justice, free expression and freedom of speech 
• I do agree with the idea of open technology as its a form of human liberty to express what one desires however this goes to a certain degree as people have exploited this liberty and terms such as 'cyberbullying' have come to surface and, have created negative effects on many people 

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

• Bill Thompson outlines that the internet is so vast and too big to regulate entirely,  the concern of privacy (more so the lack of it ) and he also questions : How can the news be delivered online and successfully still make money? 

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

• I think the internet should be regulated constantly and effectively to remove fake accounts and spam as well as prevent hacking and any form of harassment and bullying, though the internet regulation targets these issues it isn't as effective as it should be.

Clay Shirky: Here Comes Everybody

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

• profession: something that requires a specific form of specialisation in order to achieve the problem
• the terms profession applies to the traditional newspaper industry through its idea that a professionalist learns something about their profession that the majority of the population doesn't have knowledge of 

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

• The constant development of the internet is described as the "new ecosystem". 
•  what is feared is not competition by other newspapers but radical changes in the overall ecosystem of information.
• The questions raised are : how society will be informed of the news of the day? and when publishing newspapers "Why publish this ?" to "Why not?"
  

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

• trent lott is an American politician and in 2002 he was seen as controversial because he supported Thurmond who was a well-known figure especially for his republican views.
• Lott was rebuked later on by president G.Bush, the press and politicians on the left and right. 

4) What is ‘mass amateurisation’?

• Mass amateurisation is the growth in the amount of self-published content on the internet. 

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 a consequence of the fact that the same idea is published over dozens or hundreds of websites/places, 'fake news' becomes harder and harder to spot and eliminate/ 

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 effects lag behind technological ones by decades" and therefore real revolutions don't change.
• the idea that we have to "go through long periods of chaos in order for us to reach a revolution" suggests that we as consumers are going through a revolution just at a slow and constant speed.

7) Shirky says that “anyone can be a publisher… [and] anyone can be a journalist”. What does this mean and why is it important?

• Shirky suggests that the audience are no longer passive as they begin to create their own content and push past the ideas of opinion leaders.
• I believe we are in the midst of a revolution where people can think for themselves and not be forced to believe in such one-dimensional opinions formed by 'experts' who have their own set views are don't have alternative opinions 

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?

• shirky gives the example of scribes in the 1400s where the ability to write was one of the 'crowning achievements of human inventiveness' and was 'difficult to attain' and, as a result, was very 'rare'. "Only a tiny fraction of the populace could actually write, and the wisdom of the ages was encoded on fragile and decaying manuscripts." he then introduces the event of the Johannes Gutenberg's invention of movable type in the  middle of the century which had created a sudden and massive reduction in the difficulty of reproducing a written work, thus meaning scribes were out of jobs.
• shirky discusses the fact that the "intellectual and political chaos" was seen in the fact that no one could do a scries job effectively 
• the recent example of intellectual and political chaos is seen through the idea of fake news where no one can effectively see what's fake and what's real 

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

• prior to the digital age, people would have to hire a photographer to take a photo but now anyone can take photos with their own phone and camera 

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?

• I think mass ameteuristation is a positive thing as people can become their own creators, influencers and experts and have their own platform to share it on.