The age of the professional is a thing of the past when it comes to media. There once was a time when professional journalist's were our sole providers of information on worldly events. Information was given to us on a need to know basis with publishers and journalist's siphoning between which topics they considered to be news worthy. As technology advances and humans become more knowledgeable, it is inevitable that the traditional ways of doing things become outdated. With the internet came a whole new ecosystem and the way the masses would receive and distribute information would never be the same.
We now live in the age of mass amateurization.Shirkey describes mass amateurization as a change in the traditional media ecosystem where professional journalist's and, photographers no longer monopolize the way media is distributed. Members of society themselves become journalist's able to publish media by themselves. The internet allowed bloggers and people wanting to relate information the resources to reach out to everyone in the world in a matter of seconds without the approval of mother. A person no longer needs to be a professional journalist to deliver ground breaking news to billions of people. The internet gives people access to sites like Blurb.com, Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook where photo's and news can be distributed by non professionals. Sites like these allow access to a multitude of information that is constantly being updated every second by amateur journalist's; far quicker than the traditional ways of delivering news. Today everyone can be considered journalist capable of relaying information to anyone at anytime anywhere in the world.
Anyone can become a photographer and easily compete with professionals without all the traditional ways of going about it. For example, I recently took a photography course where previously I had no prior knowledge of taking photos. Other than using my smart phone and uploading pictures to Facebook, I was totally unaware that there was much more to taking pictures than pressing a button. For my final I was tasked to create a book with the photo's I had taken. My professor told us about a site where you could upload photos and publish your own photography book. I went to the site which is called blurb.com where I uploaded my photos, created my book and published it. I also have the book listed for sale where others can preview it and purchase. If a person has more than one book that they published that person is given their own online book store on Blurb.com. I am positive that for a professional photographer 20 years ago things were not so easy and the profession of being a successful photographer was limited to "professionals" Shirkey states " It used to be hard to move words, images and sounds from creator to consumer." (Shirkey 59) Now doing those things are as simple as the click of the enter button on a P.C and the need for professionals in media is becoming a lost art like that of the scribes.
.Fan fiction culture is a way for fans of certain media to voice their interest, concern's and overall ideas about that form of media. Fan's also are creating their own media due to mass amateurization. Fan's recreate trailers for major motion pictures and release them on sites like Youtube and Vimeo labeling them sequels to the theatrical release's. Fan made trailers are not legit trailers, they are the fans way of showing their interest, love or ideas as to what they would love to see from production studios. Fans create movie review sites, sites dedicated to actors and entertainers and even sometimes score interviews with the person the site is paying homage to. In chapter 5 of Convergence Culture, Jenkins writes " fan coders and programmers are creating a new infrastructure for sharing fan fiction, fan vids, and other forms of fan cultural production." (Jenkins 182) The following video is a fan made trailer taken from youtube.
The following fan made trailer has over 1million hits which certainly helps the major motion picture companies advertise their movies. This trailer was created by a fan and saw no money from the makers of Twilight. The fan's purpose for this trailer was to express their interest and love for the film which I am sure made the production company alot of money. This fan made trailer could have been seen all around the world, as to a major motion picture company releasing a trailer that is only for American audiences. The point is mass amateurization is good for journalism and other forms of media because it allows all types of raw media to be accessible to anyone around the world within seconds. uncensored and unfiltered media is now being delivered by people like your neighbors, children, parents and even you.
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