This will allow us to build on work we have already done in other units while further exploring the impact of the internet on audiences and media industries. Our two in-depth CSPs are the Teen Vogue online presence (website, Facebook and Twitter) and The Voice website - the online home of the weekly newspaper for the black British community.
Notes from the lesson
Before studying the CSPs, we need to learn a key theorist for this topic - Clay Shirky's End of audience theories. This, along with the remarkable impact of the internet, will underpin everything we study for Teen Vogue and The Voice.
The internet: a brief history
The internet has been the most significant social, cultural and technological development of the last 30 years.
- In 1998, just 9% of UK households had internet access.
- In 2018, it had risen to 90%.
- Daily internet use in the UK has doubled since 2006.
- Smartphones are now the most popular device to access the internet. The iPhone was launched in 2007.
The 'Information Revolution'
550 years ago, the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg meant that the number of books in existence rose from a few thousand to 20 million in just 25 years. This led to the Reformation, the Renaissance and the scientific revolution in which centuries-old modes of thinking were radically questioned.
The internet has been likened to the Gutenberg revolution – which means we’re living through this ‘Information revolution’ right now:
- “The most important medium of the twentieth century” (Briggs and Burke 2005)
- “An application that will usher in The Information Age” (Castells 1996)
Clay Shirky suggests the 20th century media model “with professional producers and amateur consumers” has been replaced by a more chaotic landscape that allows consumers to be producers and distributors.
From the rise of collaborative projects to publicity campaigns run by volunteers, he believes that “organizations now have to understand, and respect, the motivations of the billion new participants in the contemporary media ecosystem.”
One of big changes with digital platforms is that “Every consumer is also a producer, and everyone can talk back.” Yet what may be more significant is the simple math of how many people can reach each other through the connections in a network. The result is always more connections.
Shirky adds that media had been a hierarchical industry—in that one filtered first, and then published. “All of that now breaks down,” he says. “People are producing who are not employees or media professions. So we now publish first, and then filter. We find the good stuff after the fact. This is dramatically different.”
Clay Shirky: End of audience blog tasks
Media Magazine reading
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?
2) What are the negatives or dangers linked to the development of the internet?
3) What does ‘open technology’ refer to? Do you agree with the idea of ‘open technology’?
4) Bill Thompson outlines some of the challenges and questions for the future of the internet. What are they?
5) Where do you stand on the use and regulation of the internet? Should there be more control or more openness? Why?
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?
2) What is the question facing the newspaper industry now the internet has created a “new ecosystem”?
3) Why did Trent Lott’s speech in 2002 become news?
4) What is ‘mass amateurisation’?
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’?
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?
7) Shirky says that “anyone can be a publisher… [and] anyone can be a journalist”. What does this mean and why is it important?
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?
9) Why is photography a good example of ‘mass amateurisation’?
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?
Optional extension: read Chapter 1 ‘It takes a village to find a phone’ and Chapter 4 ‘Publish, then filter’ to further understand Shirky’s ideas concerning the ‘End of audience’.
