EMAC 2321 assignment…When I get some time I really need to create a separate blog, and some tags for this class, sorry for those who are looking for my updates, they are around…
Preface: To be perfectly honest, I have attempted to write this homework assignment several times now, I have so many arguments to be made against Keen and his point of view, I honestly don’t know where to begin. From comments he has made outside of his book, to comments he has made inside of his book… but I suppose that is the assignment isn’t it? Narrowing it down to just one….Yesterday my instructor covered what I had decided on doing in his sample post, so its back to square one…And I need to post the assignment now so I can get to my rigging class…
In his book, The Cult of the Amateur, Andrew Keen outlines how the internet and the web 2.0 phenomena is destroying the quality of content delivered to the masses by making the readers/viewers the artists instead of just viewers. He is saying everyone can now contribute and it makes it hard to sift through the bad stuff on the web, to get to the good stuff. He himself says it in his book, “The blurring of lines Between the audience and the author, between fact and fiction, between invention and reality further obscures objectivity. The cult of the amateur has made it increasingly difficult to determine the difference between reader and writer, between artist and spin doctor, between art and advertisement, between amateur and expert. The result? The decline of the quality and reliability of the information we receive, thereby distorting, if not outright corrupting our national civic conversation.” (27)
This can be seen in the influx of blogs we see today all over the internet, yes there are a ton of blogs out there with expert writers and professional staff, for example a site like tutsplus, however, the vast majority of blogs today are written by people like me, a student with no accreditation on any topic. (AKA a degree) Just have a look through any of my posts, there is not a lot of quality information being posted here. Although this does make Keen’s argument in one since, we must ask if this example truly causes a decline of the quality and reliability of the information we receive.
This example of Keen’s claim tells us so little, but so much about what keens concern about the internet actually is. On one hand, we can see that Keen is explicitly concerned about not only what kind of content is put out on the internet, but who puts it out, and how much of it is put out. He clearly sees a line between amateur and expert, and believes only experts, or at least people qualified to speak on the subject, should be publishing data on the web. One could argue that he is correct, its kind of annoying to read peoples personal blogs (although no one forces you too).
On the other hand, we can see that Keen’s concerns are rather dated. Keen does not see the communities (AKA the clouds) ability to filter such frivolous data. While, admittedly, a lot of the content put out on the web today does not hold a lot of pertinent data, they certainly do not degrade the quality of the information we receive. Keen argues the reliability of our data is degraded by all of the information, I would not argue with that statement. Unlike print, data on the internet is not subject to as much scrutiny and criticism, leaving the author open to spread almost any information relatively freely. Now its up to the user to filter data, which brings us to a greater issue all together.
Moderation. What keeps the internet in check, how can we guarantee the content on the web will be kept honest, who keeps in check…That is a much larger question I believe keen is looking for an answer to this questionaswell. His editor keeps him in check, who keeps the web in check? Moreover, who keeps the amateurs who are making all of this money of advertisers in check? This tells us me must start thinking of the web in a whole new way. What way? I don’t think any of us know yet. However we can see with the issues poised today, keen’s train of thought does not work on the internet.
I totally agree. Go to a grocery store and look at the book section. I promise you more than half will be ‘romance’ pulp novels, and the other half will be whatever was on the New York best seller list six months ago. Thats why we have places like libraries, barnes and nobles, and half price books to buy books. They are categorized by genre, as well as having a much larger selection.
Just because there are hundreds of poor writers (Keen included) who have their work published, it doesn’t diminish the quality of collective knowledge we have in printed form.