Journal No. 6

Chapter 8, Question No. 1
Today many television shows and advertisements try to look amateurish or "homegrown" to emulate what is often seen on the Web. Do you think professional production values will continue to drop, or do you think amateur user-generated content will get more professional over time? Why?

I think it is obvious that this is a fad. We have seen that once something is "hot", there is no shortage of people who are willing to imitate it in hopes of gaining popularity. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Reality shows began a while back. I do not even know which reality show was the first to really grab the public's attention but we'll just say it was Survivor. Once people saw that Survivor was a hit, almost immediately there were 10 times the amount of reality shows by the same time the next year. The thing that is interesting to me is that reality shows are still popular. But, I do think they will lose "steam" eventually. I think this "homegrown" aspect seen on television and advertisements is partly an effect of those reality shows. I believe that other effect is that sites like Youtube and Dailymotion are so popular that people do not mind if things are done professionally or not. But I do believe that these television shows and advertisements that look amateurish or "home-grown" are a fad and they will die down and eventually fade away. We learn that technology is always evolving and that goes for the shows and advertisements that we see. They are much different than they were 10 years ago and they will be a lot different 10 years from now.I do believe that amateur user-generated content will become much more professional because of the technology that is being created and also because people become accustomed to using technology that is very complicated compared to what they used a few years ago. Just think about Smart Phones and all their functions and flip phones from a few years ago. People can use Smart Phones for many different functions including things like cameras and apps. Those cameras and apps can make amateur user-generated content look professional.