Amateur Hour.

In a recent conversation, I was called an amateur. Not something I’m used to being called and truth be known, it wasn’t directed at me per se, but at the world of online blogs and social media. I of course took umbrage as I now find myself adding to this world of online commentary.

The so called amateurisation of journalism seems to be causing concern among the “real” writers and reporters, who see their sphere of influence shrinking. The thinking that if everyone can do it then it can’t be professional or legitimate is a concern shared by many in the legacy media.

Everyone is of course a very broad brush stroke and I had to find some numbers for a comeback on my new amateur status. There are approximately 130 million blogs, according to research sites such as Blogpulse and 1.73 billion internet users according to Internet World Stats. That equates to a little over 7% of web users involved in blogging and that percentage would likely be less as there are bloggers with multiple sites.

Of those 130 million blogs, 75% are written for personal satisfaction, an urge to write and to communicate with a close circle of readers. This leaves 1.75% of web users looking to expand their blogosphere via opinions, commentary and reporting of issues and events? Some in this space have millions of readers and are a direct competition to the front page newspapers and 6 o’clock news reports. They usually come from a journalistic background but the rest of the blogging community shouldn’t be a threat to the old style media journalists. After all, I’m talking to a few individuals (hi out there) willing to read my scribbles whereas the legacy media is shot gunning at large crowds.

So why the concern?

Certainly there is an element of profit and market share loss. A good example is Flikr, with 4 billion photographs to share, which allows anyone the opportunity to use professional or amateur photos for their own purposes. Along with the digitisation of photography, there is no longer a need to source a professional for your photographic needs.

Yet the main concern seems to be around the issues of control, brand integrity and management of information. The only thing to say on that matter, it’s too late. The reason that blogs are thriving is reader attention and isn’t that what the newspapers have always been after?

Amateurs Rule, is the order of the day and the data reporting a doubling of blog sites every 6 to 9 months bears out people’s need to communicate and read via other media channels.

I feel much better about being an amateur. After all there are now over 130,000,000 of us and we can’t all be wrong.