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The Cult of the Amateur - A Critique
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Transcript of The Cult of the Amateur - A Critique
Allison Jones 310268141 ARIN6903 Exploring Digital Cultures - Final Essay 1
ARIN6903 EXPLORING DIGITAL CULTURES | MAJOR ESSAY ALLISON JONES | 310268141
ESSAY QUESTION: Andrew Keen argues that participatory media and user-generated content is
creating a “cult of the amateur” that is damaging our culture and economy. Discuss.
--------
Introduction
The emergence since the early 2000s of what is known variously as ‘Web 2.0’, ‘user-generated
content’ or ‘collaborative creation’ has attracted passionate derision and praise in equal measure
from all corners of the Internet, with everyone from citizen journalists, ‘Mum and Dad’ media
consumers to media critics and theorists wading in to the debate. Believers espouse that the
democratisation of content production on sites such as Wikipedia, YouTube and blogs gives
everyone a powerful voice, thereby removing monopolistic media ownership and one-dimensional
types of content. Critics argue that the end of quality content and even whole industries is nigh. This
type of debate over new forms of media is cyclical, constantly refreshed with the successful
adoption of new media forms – the emergence of photography prompted French painter Paul
Delaroche to proclaim “From today, painting is dead!” (in Batchen, 1997: 207) and some naysayers
feared that the invention of the printing press would spell the death of the spoken word.
The debate regarding user-generated content is simply the most recent example, attracting input
from high profile media commentators including Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson, Harvard law
professor and author Lawrence Lessig and web entrepreneur Andrew Keen. The arguments
contained within the latter’s incendiary 2007 book The Cult of the Amateur are the focus for this
paper, which will conclude that however essential the debate about the value and implication of
user generated content is, Keen’s choice of sensationalist language, supporting evidence and the
foundation of his argument all serve to undermine his message rather than support it. These
elements will be examined in detail with appropriate case studies used to demonstrate the value of
projects which would be deemed ‘amateur’ using Keen’s approach. Rather than making a
comparison of Cult of the Amateur to opposing works, such as Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody,
this paper will focus on the merits, or lack thereof, of Keen’s work.
Three years have passed since the book was published – the benefit of the passing of time means
that there have been key developments and emergent business models in different industries to
indicate that the allegations Keen levels at user-generated content as a destructive force have been
grossly overstated.
Allison Jones 310268141 ARIN6903 Exploring Digital Cultures - Final Essay 2
Technological determinism
The foundation of Keen’s argument is inherently deterministic; technological determinism attributes
technology as either the sole cause or one of a set of causes of necessary conditions which result in
radical transformation over society, in the process negating human agency (Chandler, 2006). Keen
writes that:
“From hypersexed teenagers, to identity thieves, to compulsive gamblers…the moral fabric of our
society is being unravelled by Web 2.0…it seduces us into acting on our most deviant instincts…it is
corroding …the values we share as a nation.” (Keen, 2007: 163)
Such determinist arguments are criticised on the basis that media are not wholly autonomous
entities with ‘purpose’, yet perform functions (Chandler, 2006). Chris Anderson writes that
“Technology is nothing other than an enabler of individual power. The tools once reserved for
professionals are now in the hands of everybody.” (Anderson, 2006).
Keen participates in an age-old argument that may be categorised as ‘end-ism’, a term coined by
computer scientist John Seely to describe breathless assertions that “new technology presages the
termination of some revered practice, not to mention the end of civilization as we know it”
(Naughton, 2010).
Keen’s scope and his definition of ‘amateurs’
The scope of Keen’s book is vast – covering areas such as publishing, the music and film industries,
gambling, pornography, piracy and security threats amongst others. This paper will specifically focus
on the cultural and economic implications of amateur content detailed in the book. Keen pits
Internet ‘amateurs’, who he likens to the monkeys of T.H. Huxley’s ‘Monkey Theorem’, in direct
opposition to the established ‘old media’ that he consistently idealises throughout the book. The
‘Monkey Theorem’ holds that if infinite monkeys are provided with typewriters, a monkey
somewhere will eventually create a masterpiece (Keen, 2007). Today’s monkeys, Keen argues,
engage in narcissism on a grand scale, publishing self-interested blogs, creating and uploading inane
videos to YouTube and mindlessly indulging in political commentary and “embarassingly amateurish
music” (2007: 3). The resulting environment of the Internet is “an endless digital forest of
mediocrity.” (Keen, 2007: 3)
Allison Jones 310268141 ARIN6903 Exploring Digital Cultures - Final Essay 3
This ambitious scope results in superficiality in the examination of different industries and a
damaging selectivity in the application of statistics, rather than an exhaustive and reasoned
argument which is what informed debate should be based on. The subject matter of the book jumps
from subject to subject, lacking cohesion and making it difficult for the reader to maintain focus on
one particular area – a cynic may suggest this is a tactic to distract from the flaws in the book.
The importance of amateurs
Keen’s definition of amateurs is quite a narrow one, leaving no room for fluidity to acknowledge the
different levels of talent and value within the communities of amateurs. Unfortunately, Keen also
fails to clearly define the key terms involved. It appears that anything produced by an entity or
individual other than major corporations is deemed ‘amateurish’, including any media produced
independently, regardless of the qualifications of those involved. Whilst he is correct in asserting
that the quality of many amateur works published on the Internet is questionable or even damaging,
he makes no attempt at a balanced view that appreciates the evolution that all media forms
experience. In doing so, he categorically dismisses anything under the tag of ‘amateur’ rather than
seeing the diamonds in the rough.
A rich history of amateur contributions to society complements and informs the contributions made
by amateurs in today’s digital media environment. In the 18th century, amateur critics were granted
an audience in coffee houses, known as ‘Penny Universities’ and regarded this as a way of
developing critical faculties in a “democratic, cultural free-for-all” (Thorpe, 2010). The Internet with
its population of amateurs expounding on all manner of topics, should be viewed as a modern day
‘Penny University’, albeit with a larger potential audience and wider scope of content. The case
studies included in this essay will further demonstrate the value of amateurs.
Bloggers and the publishing industry
In reference to Keen’s criticism of bloggers and citizen journalists as the source of malicious gossip,
information theft and uninformed opinion, with the inference that there is a corresponding negative
impact on traditional media, a basic search for credible research on consumer preferences yields
informative insights. According to a US survey of 2,259 adult media consumers by PRC and PEW,
consumers still rely on established gatekeepers to filter content for them, with the majority
overwhelmingly selecting established outlets over ‘amateurish’ bloggers:
Allison Jones 310268141 ARIN6903 Exploring Digital Cultures - Final Essay 4
(Source: PRC-Project for Excellence in Journalism and PRC-Internet & American Life Project Online News, 2010)
Keen laments that profits and circulation are down at major US publications, with TIME magazine
retrenching 300 staff in 2007. Whilst Keen contends that the online arms of newspapers’ have
cannibalised their print circulation, giving some explanation other than bloggers for falling
circulation, he fails to extend the exploration to other possible reasons. Asking the question of why
the newspapers provided consumers with free online access, with advertising as the only source of
revenue, to what they would previously have paid for in printed form, is one exploration he could
have made. This outcome is not the fault of the consumer but the businesses themselves. Media tsar
Rupert Murdoch’s new experiment with paywalls on selected publications will be a very important
test in seeing if the expectation of free content can be reversed without damage to the bottom line
of those publications. Interestingly, new data from the UK also suggests that the cannibalisation of
old media by digital media is in fact not occurring (see Appendix A).
In 2007, the same year that The Cult of the Amateur was published, Adam Thierer published an
article outlining the exponential growth in media outlets in the United States, observing that
“we live in a world of unprecedented media abundance that once would have been
the stuff of science-fiction novels.” (Thierer, 2007)
Allison Jones 310268141 ARIN6903 Exploring Digital Cultures - Final Essay 5
Thierer includes detailed statistics on the growth of media outlets which would have been available
for Keen to use if he desired balance in his argument:
“… America boasts close to 14,000 radio stations today, double the number that
existed in 1970. Satellite radio—an industry that didn’t even exist before 2001—
claimed roughly 13 million subscribers nationwide by 2007….There were 18,267
magazines produced in 2005, up from 14,302 in 1993. The only declining media
sector is the newspaper business, which has seen circulation erode for many years
now. But that’s largely a result of the competition that it faces from other outlets.”
(Thierer, 2007).
This data suggests that the suffering bottom lines of major publications cannot be blamed solely on
the influence of amateurs publishing on the Internet. When marrying this abstract data to the
findings from the PEJ and PEW survey, a more comprehensive picture emerges about changing
consumer patterns:
“… Americans have become news grazers. On a typical day, nearly half of Americans
now get news from four to six different platforms, including online, TV and print.” (Source: PRC-Project for Excellence in Journalism and PRC-Internet & American Life Project Online
News, 2010)
It is not too great a leap to suggest that the combined influence between all these media platforms,
and the proliferation of individual outlets, is a major factor in the diminishing returns of established
media companies.
The book also has a problem with basic logic, linking university student plagiarism to diminishing
royalties for the writers whose work is used in their assignments - in fact, students are not required
to pay any royalties to authors, but are required to properly cite work. This type of incoherent and
inaccurate connection is frequent in Keen’s writing.
There is no suggestion in Keen’s book of the possibility that perhaps the two types of media,
amateur and professional, are complementary, serving very different purposes. Keen views the two
as diametrically opposed elements, invoking the “displacive fallacy” (Cole, 1989), which holds that
with the introduction of one new media, the older media will be ‘conquered’. If Keen had conducted
or even consulted any research into the audience that consumes amateur and professional media,
he may have discovered this possibility. Innovative publishers have in fact discovered that fostering
bloggers within their established fold is a successful strategy in maintaining relevance in a
competitive market – for example, emerging fashion blogger The Sartorialist has extended his reach
by working alongside prestigious title French Vogue on numerous projects (The Sartorialist, 2008).
Indeed, those in the dominant, professional position often recognise the talents of ‘amateurs’ even
if critics such as Keen do not.
Allison Jones 310268141 ARIN6903 Exploring Digital Cultures - Final Essay 6
The evidence detailed above serves to emphasise the main flaws in Keen’s argument - specifically his
failure to consult credible research, the selective application of statistics and a simplistic
dichotomous view of new versus old media.
The music industry
Keen makes many direct causal links throughout the book, connecting Internet functions (both legal
and illegal) to negative outcomes, specifically in regards to the music industry which he believes will
For example, he states that “there are now 25 percent fewer music stores in America than there
were in 2003” (2007: 107) and that “in the first half of 2006, shipments of CDs and other physical
formats in America were down 15.7 percent from the first half of 2005” (2007: 108). These effects
are linked directly to illegal music file-sharing as the cause, rather than Keen conducting a deeper
examination which may find that the proliferation of niche digital radio stations, subscription
streaming services, the success of Apple’s iTunes and changing consumer desires are also
contributing factors. The second statistic is also missing detail from the reference, meaning that the
reader will find it very difficult to locate and assess the original report this data came from.
Keen only touches on some of the different reveneue streams within the music industry, however
there are many more. Newer revenue streams exist in the form of merchanidising, live events,
streaming music services, and greater levels of song licensing in other media. Keen also fails to
critically examine the business decisions made by these industries – their lack of innovation meant
that even years after the emergence of illegal service Napster, a suitable alternative had not been
formed by any of the record companies with the breadth of content required to compete. It was not
until Apple, a computer manufacturer, not a music company, had set up iTunes, that a legal
alternative with this breadth of content existed. It is this type of innovation which has propelled
Apple forward – it has a strangehold on the global mp3 market and is currently on track to become
the largest public company in the United States (Arthur, 2010).
Problems with the ’old media’
Many of the evils that Keen associates with the Internet have been in existence for decades, in fact
emerging from the very ‘old media’ he so cherishes. Keen is unable to consider that these evils have
since extended to become problems on the Internet, which is not the actual source of the problem,
but just one outlet in which these evils may propagate. Visual art and literary frauds abounded in the
days before the Internet; similarly, problems with accuracy and bias have been around since
humankind could communicate.
Allison Jones 310268141 ARIN6903 Exploring Digital Cultures - Final Essay 7
Keen views the filters of old media as one of its most valuable features, however he fails to
acknowledge flaws: established filters may have no room to see outside their world to deliver
compelling and unique content to their audience. Examples are many when it comes to identifying
famous authors or musicians who were regularly rejected by professional talent scouts – author J.K.
Rowling of Harry Potter fame had her original manuscript rejected by twelve publishing houses
before finally signing a contract with Bloomsbury (McGinty, 2003).
Commercial case studies: Threadless, Etsy and Supermarket
Revisiting the analogy of diamonds in the rough, selected case studies illustrate both the cultural and
dollar value of amateur content and products. In operation since 2000, Threadless is an online t-shirt
retailer that uses a mostly participatory business model - both professionals and amateurs are able
to submit designs that are voted on by the public to form a top 100 and are then filtered by
Threadless staff for production. Winning designers receive $US2000 and almost all the t-shirts sell
out. By injecting an amateur element in their business model, Threadless benefit aspiring designers
and their revenues, with some designers achieving fame and Threadless generating millions in
profits. Notable designer, and now a production manager at Threadless, Ross Zeitz, started
submitting designs whilst still an undergraduate student (Wilson, 2008). Although Threadless has
changed some elements of crowd-voting mechanic, to allow previous winning designers to select
some of the new designs produced, Threadless can still be viewed as a modern day, informal,
apprenticeship with amateurs progressing to ‘professional’ status, receiving crowd-sourced
validation directly from their market in their journey to professional status. This is indicative of new
types of filtering methods emerging; the filters that Keen is concerned about losing may not be
disappearing after all.
Etsy and Supermarket are other notable success stories in the amateur/professional co-existence.
These sites allow users to sell their wares, mostly handmade clothes and accessories, directly to
consumers by paying a small fee to the site. The sites provide the infrastructure to make it possible
and act as curators; Etsy with an editorial team profiling sellers and extending their offering to run
“Design Labs“ to further the skills of amateurs.The sellers build trust with an online reputation
system similar to that used succesfully by eBay. Again, there are still filters in place in these models,
rather than a lack of filters.
Clearly, the public have responded favourably to this type of production.These case studies may be
illustrative of a bigger move away from mass-produced products to unique works, mostly by
amateurs or hobbyists, reflective of trends desired by the audience – since the products are
produced by those with similar sensibilities to their consumers. For all the successful Internet user-
Allison Jones 310268141 ARIN6903 Exploring Digital Cultures - Final Essay 8
creation business models, there are probably thousands of failed ones, yet no different to the
success rate found in the traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ world.
Community case study: Open Street Map and Ushahidi in the Haiti earthquake relief effort
Open Street Map is a not-for-profit collaborative initiative to build editable maps worldwide based
on audience tagging, using those with local knowledge to provide context and meaning. When Haiti
was struck by the devastating earthquake in January 2010, OSM came into its own, playing an
invaluable role in assisting relief agencies such as the Red Cross to determine where the constantly
changing areas of most need were located. At the time of the earthquake, the map was almost bare
of information; the Google Maps version was only marginally better. In the days after the
earthquake, satellite companies provided detailed maps free of charge that contained street names
and other high level information. These maps were then further populated by 2,000 local OSM
volunteers or amateurs, adding new layers of information which allowed the relief agencies to
download real-time maps for their GPS units with which to navigate between and within the rubble
strewn urban areas and the airport where supplies were delivered. The volunteer updates were key
since the disaster situation was changing on a daily, if not hourly, basis. This would not have been
possible without the contribution of the volunteers, amateurs with only local knowledge and no
skills in mapping (BBC, 2010).
Another crowdsourcing information site, Ushahidi, was critical in providing information in Haiti as it
was in Kenya in the aftermath of the violent 2008 elections which spurred its creation. Ushahidi
collected text messages from those trapped, which were then translated online by the Haitian
diaspora from Creole to English to allow the exact location of eyewitness reports to be mapped
(Clark, 2010). These examples are hardly mediocre as Keen alleges of amateur content.
Allison Jones 310268141 ARIN6903 Exploring Digital Cultures - Final Essay 9
Figure 1. A destroyed building after the earthquake. Source: AFP
Figure 2. The OSM map at the time of the earthqaue, only showing major roads, no street names
and no details of public buildings. Source: Open Street Map
Figure 3. The same map as in Figure 3, pictured after contributions from the public.
Source: Open Street Map
Allison Jones 310268141 ARIN6903 Exploring Digital Cultures - Final Essay 10
Figure 4. Populated OSM map being used on the ground by a relief worker.
Source: Open Street Map
Allison Jones 310268141 ARIN6903 Exploring Digital Cultures - Final Essay 11
Changes in consumption and organisational patterns
These examples from Haiti are one example of the type of successful mass collaboration projects
occurring in a diverse range of fields, detailed by Canadian academic Don Tapscott and Anthony D.
Williams in the 2010 book Macrowikinomics. The authors identify a profound shift away from an
industrial economy to networked intelligence, illustrated by examples such as microlending and a
citizen science project mapping the universe amongst others. Tapscott and Williams are critical of
‘old guard’ media organisations, identifying a distinct lack of innovation in the digital age as a key
reason for their poor recent performance and the growing popularity of media outside the
mainstream models, identifying that the job title of ‘blogger’ has now emerged as a credible one
with many bloggers generating vast sums of revenue from their sites. Tapscott praises publishers
who produce quality material, believing that quality insures to an extent against failure in the digital
age. Citing The Economist as an example of quality material that convinces consumers to pay for a
subscription, he also praises The Guardian newspaper for adopting collaborative practices which
remove the “us and them” barrier between professional journalists and amateur contributors
(Tapscott and Williams, 2010).
Conclusion
Whilst Keen does raise some salient points and attempts to make constructive criticism in the final
chapter, the book is essentially akin to a tabloid with the important facts shrouded in hyperbole and
inaccuracy rather than a book of serious critical worth. The book may have achieved infamy and
profit for its author, and is perhaps responsible for elevating the debate to wider public awareness,
its wider impact is dimmed by its fatal flaws. The debate requires the combined efforts of
government agencies, industry thinktanks, dedicated research projects (short term and longitudinal),
education initiatives and revised legislation where relevant. Dedicated research and insights from
industry thinktanks can provide the solid foundation to inform the government agencies involved in
setting education curriculums and revising legislation.
It is too soon in the life of the Internet to make such sweeping, dramatic statements, however
investigation and debate must take place continually. In his rush to make bold statements, Keen fails
to observe that all technologies evolve alongside humans. Issues are resolved with new media forms,
new issues present themselves, and the cycle continues.
Allison Jones 310268141 ARIN6903 Exploring Digital Cultures - Final Essay 12
APPENDIX A
Reporting on new research, Peter Preston writes in The Guardian that the research “looks in detail at
the success of newspaper websites and attempts to find statistical correlations with sliding print
copy sales” (2010). The comprehensive research looks at the micro level of online versus print for
individual titles; the macro level, comparing overall online performance versus total circulation
figures; and also goes back to 1995, before Internet newspapers had really started, to make
historical circulation comparisons. The study found that there is no direct correlation between
increasing online traffic to newspapers and the reported falling circulation of printed newspapers.
The researcher concludes that “understandably worried traditional journalists should know that the
internet is not a threat" (Preston: 2010) and makes recommendations for the industry itself to take
responsibility for dropping circulation by focussing on investment and innovation (Preston, 2010).
Whilst this research does not strictly relate to amateur content, it does demonstrate that the debate
about digital content versus print content cannot be reduced to a simple dichotomy which is the
approach taken by Keen in viewing digital versus print, and amateur versus professional.
Allison Jones 310268141 ARIN6903 Exploring Digital Cultures - Final Essay 13
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