mass amateurization and the effect on the professional

I decided to do a little more research into the topic of mass amateurization. Surprisingly enough I ended up: here. At a website written by the very author whose work we were discussing today. In the article I think a number of questions raised in class are answered or perhaps discussed further.

First who are professionals? Shirky states that "mass professionalization is an oxymoron; a professional class implies a minority of members". This means to me that we may all produce high quality content but if we aren't associated with the "professional group", we are not professionals.

The other thing he goes into in this post is the economies of weblogs. This put publishing and blogs in an economic perspective. This makes sense to me. With printed media because of barriers to entry not everyone is able to participate in production. However, with weblogs and blogging the barriers to entry are low (just have a computer and the ability to get online) anyone at any time can produce for this medium.

With this level of competition it is easy to see why many think the printed word to not be long for this modern world. Only time will tell what will happen. I for one like having a physical book and right of first sale.

Shirky: Who needs a paper book when the pages write back?

"Most professions exist because there is a scarce resource that requires ongoing management."

Shirky's notion that professionals become gatekeepers in the old media world is a true one as are his revelations about the growing ranks of amateur journalists aka bloggers. In fact, anyone with a computer becomes publisher and journalist.

I first began working in newspapers around 1990. I was married to a newspaper editor in a small town. There weren't many other jobs to be had. The town newspaper was the source for news of weddings and deaths and police reports. We wrote the basic info that people wanted to read: who what where when and sometimes why. World news was not covered. People really just wanted to know who was in court, church or the cemetery. In those days each county had a 'newspaper of record' and all legal notices were required to be printed. It was really the legal notices that kept that paper afloat.

This is where I first discovered the Apple computer I still lug around. We went from hot wax to desktop publishing in those years (the late 80s, early 90s). The mac has transformed from big to small but it is the same tool for erradicating the lines between the publisher and the published. The reader who wants to write a book someday transforms into the blogger who writes every day. Who needs a paper book when the pages write back? I expect that county newspapers are still the 'record' but also expect for those legal notices to go online before too long. For one thing, those county newspapers will be out of business for lack of readers anytime.