commentary How hordes of amateurs are making professional content creators better than ever.
The Web is finally beginning to live up to its promise. It's becoming the people's media platform -- not just a place for us to consume media, but the platform we can all use to create and disseminate it as well. The rich and powerful in the "mainstream media" (MSM) are facing a challenge from the relatively weak and underfunded: bloggers, vloggers, MySpacers -- basically anyone with an idea and access to low-cost, pervasive technology.
The massive competition from the entire community of Web users is making MSM, including CNET, better. It has to be to remain relevant. Television news shows can't get away with faking results. Newspapers can't tolerate bad reporters. Irresponsible journalism gets called out these days and doesn't survive. And that's good.
But the growth of easy publishing tools also means that there is more misinformation hitting the public than ever before. Uninformed opinion is as easy to find as professional, thrice-edited content. Everyone, apparently, has a blog, a video blog, or a podcast in them.
And while a lot of good content is out there, there's so much that's bad, it can overwhelm the good. That's not just an inconvenience for those trying to pay attention to good media. Bad media -- the stuff no one wants to read, hear, or watch -- can drag down an entire community publishing site. MySpace and YouTube, for example, need to make money, but few advertisers want to put their content on unregulated sites filled with amateurish content.
Worse, there are sites that attempt to leverage the undeveloped ethics of some bloggers. PayPerPost matches marketers up with bloggers: write up a service or a product and get paid. No experienced journalist would accept this kind of payola. No A-list bloggers would, either. But do readers know that? The existence of this program casts a pall over blogging and journalism as a whole.
And that makes it a great time to be a good content creator.
The Internet has not dragged down journalism -- quite the contrary: pressure from amateurs, which I define as people who don't earn their living from journalism, not as people who aren't good at it, is forcing professionals to do a better job.
Meanwhile, sites such as YouTube and Digg are acting as the American Idol of the Web, propelling talented amateurs into the limelight. Previously a journalist who worked his or her way up in the field and landed a nice job at a major media outlet would worry primarily about competition from other people who did the same. But now journalists have to worry about being usurped by teenagers with camera phones, "nincompoops ranting in their underpants," and geeks who've earned the love of the Digg community.
I say it's a good thing. As a crusty old journalist myself, the influx of the community into my field is making me work harder. Every time I visit a technology conference I'm reminded of this: there are almost always bloggers in the audience who are posting not just commentary, but live news. They might not have a big readership, but a little love from Digg can change that in a heartbeat. Since anybody with a laptop, a network connection, and a blog can now publish just as easily as I can, it sharpens my perception. I realise that simply posting is not enough; I have to apply all of my experience and expertise to stay on top.
And community sites that rate and rank content give us immediate feedback, which makes us all better by keeping us in close touch with what our audience wants (that is, if we can learn to ignore the comments of the mean-spirited; there is just as much garbage in commentary as in original content).
That "amateurs" now cover the same items that media professionals do is improving the breed. There will always be a place for professionals -- people who have made it their life's work to report or comment on the news. The amateurs doing the same -- even haphazardly, or without training or experience -- perform a service to themselves and to others, and they also keep the pros on their toes. The better they get, and the more public their work becomes, the better for all of us.
Has the overflowing blogosphere been good or bad for readers? Let us know what you think in the TalkBack section below.
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