Crowd Sourcing – Jontae Zapata

As technology further develops and reaches as many people as possible, many professionals have to come to terms with the fact that they have to adapt with the new resources available for consumers. In The Rise of Crowdsourcing freelance photographer Mark Harmel speaks of the changes coming to the industry. Despite lowering his costs for stock photos to a “nonprofit price” he found that it mattered not due to the rise iStockphoto. On this new platform, consumers have the option of purchasing their photos for as little as a dollar. This is nearly impossible to compete with as a freelance photographer who shoots pictures as a sole income. Due to photography being the main source of income for many photographers, the hobbyists and amateurs will charge less but make a couple extra bucks here and there thanks to open resources like iStockphoto. They’re highest costs may only reach around forty dollars, while professional photographers could charge hundreds of dollars for their work. Also, thanks to applications like Photoshop people who aren’t necessarily professionals can produce professional-looking work.

As the article The Blurring Line Between Amateur and Professional emphasizes “One consequence is that the line between professionals and amateurs is blurring. And as the line blurs, the professionals find their once-stable professions turned upside down. Seasoned journalists and credentialed experts have to compete for attention with Daily Kos and RedState.com.” Due to the open access of the internet, there is less of a distinguishing factor between professionals and hobbyists with a bit of free time on their hands. It’s easier for people to access the free and/or low cost sites than the ones you need to pay subscriptions just to read possibly similar information from a different source. It begins to seem redundant for consumers to look to spend money and professionals are suffering to keep their livelihoods afloat. As much as consumers sympathize, money runs our daily lives and looking for new and innovative ways to save money truly eliminates many stresses the average working class individual (or family) must endure regularly. Thanks to crowd sourcing, people can save the money they worked hard to earn but those who work hard to get people to spend that money have to work twice as hard to get them to do so.

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