You get what you pay for

I was recently commissioned to write a feature article by a news service in Sweden and I'm waiting on my editor to tell me whether he is happy with the work I've submitted.

In the meanwhile I've got a moment to reflect on why people actually pay others to produce their communications material. For the last three and a half years, I've made my way as a wordsmith (thats fancy talk for journalist) and people pay me because when they ask for something to be made, I make it the way they expect. If its not the way they like it, then it doesn't take long to fix it.

The new mode of the day is for everyone to try to do things themselves in the creative and media fields. It makes sense right? You have learned how to use a camera (press the red button) and you have a USB cable and you have a YouTube account. So why not? As the information age propaganda preaches: everyone is a director, journalist and film star.

The trouble is (and always has been) that you cannot just pick up tools and expect to be good at using them the first time. In most cases (and there are many examples) people get their iMovie or similar low-tech video editing software, chop together some terribly shot raw footage and then they think because it exists, therefore it is good.

Actually you can forgive this misconception, that the makers of these amateur films believe their product is good because over time, by watching television we have come to learn that anything we see on a glass screen is high quality.

It has always been this way because in the past the only people with access to the tools were those who devoted their entire careers to learning how to use it. So back to the present, the amateur director, journalist and film star watches their film and puts it online and suddenly they think its good because its on a screen.

The logic behind this is similar to someone who buys IKEA furniture thinking that they are a carpenter. Or perhaps someone whose finger can bend and therefore they can pull a trigger, that they could be a professional soldier (and not die). Or perhaps you can put your foot down and operate your hands at the same time - now you are a professional race car driver. No.

You get what you pay for. If you think you can do everything yourself, go for it, but do be prepared when you don't get the result you want. Also be prepared to spend more time on the project and waste more resources than if you just outsourced it.