Does Media Create Amateurs?: Proposal for a Learning-focused Approach in Media Studies

Abstract

In media studies, the term, “amateur” has attracted attention as a subject who creates media or as an object created by media. Previous studies on the latter aspect tend to fall into a short-sighted conclusion that “everyone can become an amateur with the advent of new media.” To tackle this problem analytically, we propose a perspective that sees people become amateurs as a result of learning. Based on this perspective, we arrange three research questions to be explored: (1) what is the function of media that enables learners to become amateurs? (2) what kind of amateurs can people become? and (3) what is the scale of people who can become amateurs? Taking up the related research from various disciplines, we insist on exploring these questions considering the relationships between them.