| "Without the gate keepers we are swamped in the chaos of Youtubers, Wikipedian and the bloggers who use the Internet as a self broadcast medium." |
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Andrew Keen |
Digital utopians have heralded the dawn of Web 2.0 as the democratisation of the world but when the web was born 16 years ago it was a very different place.
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The domain was only occupied by scientists and academics and what you read you could consider more or less to be true. Now, all that's changed.
With blogs and user-generated sites such as Wikipedia, Youtube, and Myspace anyone can be an instant filmmaker, journalist, musician or movie star.
Is this free and unmonitored exchange of information what the internet was set up to do, or has it lost it's way, now awash with superficial triviality?
Is the internet overtaking our lives and are the well established and trustworthy standards of the traditional media in jeopardy?
This week Amsterdam Forum set out to debate how worried we should be by the rise of the cult of the online amateur.
Panellists:
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| Click to listen to the programme | |
Andrew Keen is a British-American entrepreneur and the author of How today's Internet is killing our culture and assaulting our economy.
David Weinberger is a digital internet philosopher and the author of Everything is Miscellaneous: The power of the new Digital disorder.
Willem Velthoven is the founder and director of Mediamatic, a media and art institution based in Amsterdam.
A selection of Key Quotes:
Andrew Keen on the consequences of the internet:
"Internet does represent progress. However, does the internet offer a viable business medium platform for distributing and selling high quality reliable content and entertainment? I am not convinced that it does. In fact we destroy all media because it fails to support artists and journalists who need to put food on their table and pay their rent."
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Andrew Keen |
"Look at something like Wikipedia... When you don't have a central editor, when everyone essentially becomes an editor, you have a product which is actually troubling."
Willem Velthoven on discovering online talent:
"The standards are not dropping. The chances to find something brilliant or useful are improving. But on your way to this brilliant find, you may have to browse loads of crap."
Andrew Keen on job losses due to the Internet:
"One of the ironic consequences of the digital revolution is the job losses in newspaper, crises in recording music... the two things are bound up together."
David Weinberger defending 'light-hearted' content:
"Art and knowledge develop through conversations and interaction among people. That's the story of our species. Now we have the greatest infrastructure for finding other people who have something interesting to add, who can help us to develop our ideas and our talent."
Andrew Keen on blogging:
"My blog is purely a self promotional tool. I blog for one reason only, to sell my book. Its not a viable economy. However its fine to express yourself but not make it a way of living."
Andrew Keen on children's accessibility to the web:
"My concern is: Is this creating a viable media economy? In the long run could this encourage kids to think that all content on the internet is free and that they have the right to remix anything they get their hands on... "
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"It's a matter of us creating our own web of meaning and interesting knowledge and passion. Not just navigating it."
Andrew on the internet:
"If they are using media to broadcast what they or their neighbour had for breakfast and they're not learning about the war in Iraq, or the fiscal crisis in their country then media isn't doing a very good job. The internet is just a mirror of ourselves and if we're using the internet in an indulgent, dumb down, narcissitic kind of way then it becomes our problem. I just hope that people use it to find out in realistically objective reliable way what is going on in the world outside of their own very local environment. If they don't we're in huge trouble."
Email response to our question: Is the internet suffering from amateurism?
Keith, Santa Barbara, California:
"As with Amateur Radio or Amateur Athletics the word Amateur does not at all necessarily imply lesser performance or diminution of quality. It is equally true that the word 'professional' does not necessarily imply sterling performance. The connotation of the word amateur in this context is that the participants are not being financially remunerated for their efforts. Their efforts may well be totally on par with the professionals. Perhaps it would be more meaningful to brand all journalists, both amateur and professional, as 'turbo' journalists. Then we could dismiss all preconceptions and read each piece on its own merit. It is very clear that Keen's position is motivated by the threat presented to the entrenched professionals' base of power rather than any interest in the accuracy of information or peoples right to simply 'spout off'."
"I find that Wikipedia is largely accurate. When I feel that it is not accurate I am free to point out perceived errors to the governing board in more or less real time. What is wrong with that?"
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Frank, Netherlands:
"I am convinced that the 'new web' represents 'a refreshing improvement on the old media', since these old media to a more or less degree present a conservative (establishment supporting) approach to news. Especially in the Netherlands this is very clear to see."
"Every mainstream medium (just to give one example) sees Hamas as a fundamentalist (or even terrorist) movement which endangers the peace and stability in the Middle East. Not a single medium seems to remember that Hamas won last year's parliamentary elections, nor the fact that Abbas (with US, EU and Israeli support) is acting against the Palestine constitution. Therefore it is excellent that bloggers try to correct these inaccuracies, proving their information with links from trustworthy sources (such as BBC, Washington Post or RNW, to name but a few)."
"It is the responsibility of the reader not to trust just anything but to check the information (and I can only hope this is done). As for unreadable poems of novels, Mr Keen should not worry about these. Fortunately good literature is still being published and there have always been awful poems and novels. It is easier to stay away from rubbish on the internet than from rubbish broadcast on TV - unless one doesn't watch TV (as is my case)."
Robert, Miami, Florida:
"Just like everything in life, the internet has its growing pains. The internet also serves as an alternative to the mainstream media in America. One of the few things I listen to in the internet and short wave radio is Radio Netherlands Worldwide. Keep up the great work RNW."
Evert, USA:
"The internet is not at all the one suffering from amateurism; on the contrary. It is the amateurs who are suffering from the many sharks frequenting the net as their favorite arena for deceptions, be it old or new webs."
David, Montreal, Canada:
"Now that I'm just beginning to master the most basic operations of a computer, amatuerism will no doubt bring down civilization as we know it."
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"Andrew Keen is a control freak, and whatever the masses can come up with, no matter who or where they are that is culture. The goverment, special interest groups or special people always want to control what you think."
Patricia, UK:
"It sounds a bit like an expanded version of 'kids of today'... I'd recommend that people who would like to get their heads around this burgeoning new culture, which is living happily alongside the old, read some authors - like William Gibson, for instance - who don't approach change as if it's a threat."
"While it might be nice to be linear, and have square corners and neatness in all our principles, there are other interesting and useful outcomes that can only arrive through organic, fractal ways. I'd defy Mr Keen to prove that one is "better" than the other; we all have our preferences, but that's all they are. One's culture is to enjoy while it's around to be enjoyed, not to be insisted on at all costs; we've all heard about the results of that mindset!"
David, USA:
"The Internet has descended in a few years from the heights of disinterested academic and scientific networking to being--for the most part--a mind-numbingly commercial, if undeniably universal (and profitably penetrative), television for the para-literate Masses. In the words of one American "bumper-sticker", observed in Austin, Texas, The internet makes you stupid."
Richard, Miami, Florida:
"Mr. Keen has struck a cord. This Culture of Amateurism encourages less critical thinking, logic, more wanton emotionalism resulting in even more dangerous heads full of mush."
KP Mahdu, Malaysia (originally India):
"Andrew is right. Now even the semiliterate can have their say. But unlike him I am quite happy about it. Because 1) it represents more freedom of expression 2) it challenges the monopoly of media houses. The issue of lack of editing, professionalism, biases etc. are applicable to the traditional media houses also. One should not forget that yellow journalism exists. What internet has done is to remove the need for high capital for mass communication. Let us also not forget that many good journalists have started blogging. Blogging helps to side-step the media gatekeepers. There are a large number of cases where the media gatekeepers do not allow genuine news to go through because it is against the wishes of political, economic or even religious bosses.. Blogging is the only answer to the propaganda being done in the name of "good, professional, ethical" journalism. And of course it hurts the people who hold power. It is the cult of the powerless and voiceless millions."
Allan, the Netherlands:
"I am against censorship in general, and believe that it is important for everyone to be able to have their say. This unfettered amateur flood of content gives professionals the opportunity to differentiate themselves, and if they prove their added value they create a business opportunity as well - just like in the 'real' world."
Brian Farewell, NY, USA:
"This sort of Chicken Little-ism is unfortunate. At the end of the day, media require that consumers be educated and discerning. It's true one has to be discerning. If someone claims something, one has to ask on what basis or what evidence the author is making the assertion. A link to BBCnews.com should be more persuasive than "my brother-in-law's third cousin's roommate said..." Because of the blogs, I now have access to a far greater spectrum of opinion than the minimalist tripe of my local newspaper and celebrity culture nonsense of American network television "news." Places where non-establishment opinions are rarely heard. Sure, there's a lot of garbage out there. But there's a lot of garbage in the traditional media as well. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."
Jude, Canada:
"Mr. Keen is correct in that the bulk of the internet is devoid of substance, and that this spills over into the "verite" or real world with detrimental consequences. I feel that ultimately the onus is on the consumer of information to differentiate between what is and is not of serious merit. By all means delight in the amusing froth of youtube or social networking sites, but don't let it dominate the genuinely positive aspects of the internet."
Stu, Canada:
"As a somewhat amateur web designer I'm grateful for amateur blogs and web sites that often explain thngs in a way that I can understand. The real reason I went to your web site was because I want to say what a great program you have. I hear it when I'm working late and enjoy your lively combination of ideas and news, so much better than our local CBC, which seems to be trying to win a popularity contest against AM radio."
Jasmin, India:
"I think giving free hand to people to express the way they are doing on youtube and blogs should not be permitted as they often cross the limits of social decency and depict things which have negative effect on teenagers.There should be an editor to edit them."
Tags: amateur, andrew keen, internet, Utube, web 2.0, Wikipedia