The Experts vs. the Amateurs

An interesting debate this one.

A tug of war over the future of media may be brewing between so-called user-generated content -- including amateurs who produce blogs, video and audio for public consumption -- and professional journalists, movie makers and record labels, along with the deep-pocketed companies that back them. The likely outcome: a hybrid approach built around entirely new business models, say experts at Wharton.

According to a recent Newsweek article titled, " Revenge of the Experts, and books such as Andrew Keen's The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet Is Killing Our Culture the pendulum between user-generated content and the professional variety has swung too far in favor of amateurs. In response, professional fare is gaining renewed favor.

Hmmm

Experts at Wharton disagree on where the Internet content pendulum sits and whether it's worth fretting over the short-term swings between professional and amateur content.

A new media ecology - a new type of society - a new type of commerce?

And that is right - Rights issues over content, the legal system, distribution and control of information has been disintermediated and bent out of shape by digital. But that provides us with an opportunity to put our society under the micoscope and examine it and say - we do have an opportunity here to make a better society.

Who are the experts exactly?
Prior to Gutenberg who were the experts? Prior to radio who were the experts? Prior to Cinema who were the experts? Prior to TV who were the experts?

Professor Henry Jenkins of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT articulates a world in which young people have a very different relationship with media consumption. This is the migration from consumption as an individual practice to consumption as a networked practice – When people consume and produce media together, when they pool their insights and information, mobilise to promote common interests, and function as grassroots intermediaries – rather than talking about personal media, perhaps we should be talking about communal media or social commerce that becomes part of our lives as members of communities – If we accept Jenkins world view, this has profound implications on how we reach out and attract our customers, talk to our suppliers and how we create value. It was Jonathan Schwartz that said

our 1000 bloggers at Sun have done more for this company than a $1bn ad campaign could have ever done.

This is participatory culture at the coalface. Or we could reference wikipedia - SIPHS in academia World of Warcraft Pop Idol - the Matrix Citizen Journalism or social commerce platforms like Zopa ebay or Spreadshirt.

This is the world of the Pro-AM

After the rise of the professional in the 20th century we are now seeing this historic shift reversing in the Pro-Am revolution. Enthusiastic amateurs, pursuing activities to professional standards will have an increasingly important role in our society and economy. From astronomy to activism, from surfing to saving lives, Pro-Ams - people pursuing amateur activities to professional standards - are an increasingly important part of our society and economy.

For Pro-Ams, leisure is not passive consumerism but active and participatory, it involves the deployment of publicly accredited knowledge and skills, often built up over a long career, which has involved sacrifices and frustrations. The 20th century witnessed the rise of professionals in medicine, science, education, and politics. In one field after another, amateurs and their ramshackle organisations were driven out by people who knew what they were doing and had certificates to prove it.

The Pro-Am Revolution argues this historic shift is reversing. We're witnessing the flowering of Pro-Am, bottom-up self-organisation and the crude, all or nothing, categories of professional or amateur will need to be rethought.

Identity - society and the media
But neither of these article asks why is all this happening at all? In The end of the "Belle Epoque" I explained in detail why our mass media world is being reformatted to a different model.

An oft overlooked fact when people bang on about social networking, mass collaboration is the core and central driver as to why its happening at all. We know that we are a WE SPECIES - But In a post-modern world where our identities are not constructed and defined by, tradition, geography, and economics. We can have many selves, as we undertake a quest for self identity.

This is described as Psychological Self-Determination the ability to exert control over the most important aspects of ones life, especially personal identity, which has become the source of meaning and purpose in a life no longer dictated by geography or tradition. As a consequence of this people seek out those things that mean the most to them. In a digitally connected world we go where ever we want to to find those things that enable us to construct our identities. This is the central underpinning and driving force of social networking,
mass collaboration, participatory media, culture etc.

The words Trust and Transparency come into play and modern consumers feel gouged by the adversarial strategies of advertisers, the media and their respective governments. Blogging took off in the US after 911 as people went in search of the truth. People look for unmediated news and information and want to compare those stories. Who does commerce serve? Who has the wealth and is it evenly distributed? Do we have the most appropriate systems in place to make a better society.

Many have contributed to this body of knowledge - including us and you can find a list of reading as part of our research over at the SMLXL Library And may I add that there are many "professionals" who contribute nothing but to their own personal agendas. Traditional Media is often used to bend, distort and offer the wrong information - served as news. If we think we can do better we will because now we can.

What is going on is a broader and wider debate about what sort of society we all want, played out on the rich tapestry that is now what we call the online world, the blogosphere created by US

Comments

[Javier Marti]

""Who are the experts exactly?
Prior to Gutenberg who were the experts? Prior to radio who were the experts? Prior to Cinema who were the experts? Prior to TV who were the experts?""

Excellent point. The whole blog post could have been made only with that paragraph.
If we look at almost every aspect of society as it is today -political, finance, macroeconomics, technology, psychology...- for different reasons most "experts" are proving to know very little of what is going on, let alone what the future will bring.

Regards

Javier Marti
Trendinews.com

[Alan Moore]

Dear Javier,

I could not agree more - at least that the "experts" do not have all the answers - who are the best people to manage their local issues and needs? what is democracy - and who does it serve - we are in the process suggest of a powerplay that is going to have some interesting implications.

Thanks for posting

Alan