Mass Amateurization

There is no doubt about it, blogs are less formal, more straight forward, and often times tell juicier stories that a printed article. They had a dramatic increasing in the past decade because of the interactivity they offer to fellow bloggers and readers. In February 2011, over 156 million blogs have been created which contradicts the books assumptions that blogging is a dying communication style. Since this form of communication continues to grow and attract readers, traditional forms of information providers are also turning to the blog and twitter revolution.
Now, almost every newspaper has a blog in addition to what they do and how they traditionally send out information. Journalism is not necessarily decreasing or becoming less relevant, it is simply evolving. By adapting into what their readers want, they are able to keep their following. A small 140 character tweet may be more helpful and easier to access that taking to time read a story about a news headline. CNN has done a great job transitioning their following to watching CNN at home on tv, to checking twitter on their smart phones. They have over 1.5 million followers, without taking into account that each news reporter/journalist have their own twitter following.
It is no surprise that newspaper and magazine circulation are decreasing, and even library visits continue to fall because people have the power to get information faster from home and even create their own blogs and twitter accounts. The increase in social media is a direct correlation to mass amateurization. Blogs become more popular than the news because they tell the sides of stories that people want to hear. In a 2010 article a sports journalists shows his frustration about blogging relating to scandals PR try to cover up from the public. One mention is the Tiger Woods story and how his divorce was so publicized. "These stories break in blogs because their writers aren't beholden to the same model, and often don't care about being so close to their subjects." Although blogging could be giving the public more information than we need, we seem to crave it.