This gets to broader point: For all its benefits, democratization is deprofessionalization. As the barriers to entry lower, more people will do unpaid work to buy algorithmic lottery tickets. Tech platforms seem to have realized that dreams alone can pay for the median piece of "engaging content."
I also don't think that "democratization" is the right word for it. All we're talking about is access to publishing platforms, where for the most part you don't control what happens to the stories you post. It's more like corporatization or immiseration.
Fair point. The first alternate that comes to mind is "feedification," with platforms training people to distribute + consume news & entertainment thru algorithmic feeds. 1/3 of US adults "believe that they no longer have to actively seek the news to be well informed": ijoc.org/index.php/ij...
Yeah, by democratization, I mean the sense of everyone has equal access and anyone who wants to do it has a monetary incentive. Corporatization doesn't feel quite right because the companies don't own the content (just the distribution). To be honest, the cleanest term might be Ponzi scheme