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Week 2: Making/Publishing
History: Printing of THE Book
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Required and
Recommended Readings
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Key Questions
& Ideas:
★The history of the book
★The end of books (!?)
★The net_reading/writing_condition
★What are some current views about the emergence and diffusion of media?
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n “The Desktop Revolution,” Howard Brabyn, P. 16-19 (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0007/000796/079609eo.pdf)
n Elizabeth Eisenstein, (1995). The End of the Book? Some Perspectives on
Media Change. American Scholar, 64541-555.
n “Pulp Fiction as Typography,” Jarratt Moody (Feb. 2007). (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF8f8w6HPoo)
n Preston, Peter, “The
writing is on the paywall – but the end of print is not quite nigh,” The
Guardian (Dec. 2012). (http://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/dec/30/writing-on-paywall-end-of-print)
Recommended:
Clement, Richard W.
(1997). “Medieval and Renaissance Book Production,” Part II: The Printed Book.
P 13-18 (http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1010&context=lib_pubs)
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Sunday 12 January 2014
Week 2: Print Culture
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New Media is a resurgence of the democratization of publishing.
ReplyDeleteThe titles of our readings this week: “The End of the Book?” and “The Desktop Revolution” both tap into a moral panic surrounding new media publishing.
As Howard Brabyn writes “Desktop publishing has swept away most of the barriers that for centuries have stood between those who want to publish and their potential readers” (p. 17). The same was true with the Gutenberg printing press, which allowed more people to publish works and distribute them to the public. The same is true with desktop publishing, which removes the position of the publishing gatekeepers (e.g. Big 5 publishers, city newspapers) and allows anyone to self-publish their work.
Bloggers and Twitter users now encroach upon journalists’ territory. As Elizabeth Einsenstein says “just as the age of the sermon had given way to the age of the book, so too the age of the book had in turn been superseded by the age of the newspaper” (p. 549), I think that blogging and other social media agencies such as Twitter have caught up to journalism. Although, each of these mediums have their own “era” or “age” (i.e. digital age), there is a “moral panic” (term used by Nancy Baym, author of Personal Connections in the Digital Age) about the CHANGE. None of these ways of publishing have disappeared. People still tell oral stories, write by hand, publish printed books, newspapers, and magazines, but these mediums now coincide with digital publishing including blogs, Tweets, e-books, etc.
In Eisenstein’s article she quotes Jacques Pierre Brissot: “without newspapers and gazettes, the American Revolution would never have occurred.” Could we now ask the question: without the Internet and social media, would the Arab Spring have occurred? I don’t think these publishing mediums are the sole reasons for change, but they provide the means for people to work together and communicate in order to activate change.
I think Eisenstein summarizes the issue of moral panic quite well when she writes: “Premature obituaries on the death of the sermon and the end of the book are themselves testimony to long-enduring habits of the mind” (p. 555). New media narratives are a change to the established methods of publishing. They will not eclipse earlier ways, but they add another level of democratizing publishing and opening up news and free speech to wider audiences. The challenge is to learn how to best use these new mediums rather than generate moral panic around the “death” of journalism or print books.
The last article by Preston sheds some light on learning to use the new digital medium by looking at how newspapers are changing. The Internet is a useful tool for newspapers because it provides great advantages to publish breaking news immediately. Individual newspapers are now struggling to survive online with or without paid subscriptions/paywalls and advertising, just like they did when they were no longer subsidized by the government. With new media comes change, new opportunities, and a learning curve.
I agree with your points Nicole; new media has altered the landscape of traditional print formats and delivery methods for news sources, and more specifically who can contribute. Much like previous generation technologies, such as the printing press, there is a new order, if it has not already been established. This is compounded by the fact that the cost to distribute and publish ones work has reached an all time low, meaning more people are getting involved. People today have options, and they will choose what they want to read and when.
DeleteAdditionally, there always seems to be a natural progression in all things, and journalism is no exception. Social media has filled a market need that was once preoccupied only by seasoned professionals. Furthermore, new media has filled a niche market that was lacking by the big news agencies and in doing so that have gained greater followers, at the expense of these traditional providers. However, one of the concerns I have with new media sources, is that there always seems to be a need to validate the credibility of the source. This did not seem to be the case when only traditional media outlets existed; it was easier to put a face to a name.
Finally, I think you have clearly illustrated that we should not panic over new media delivery methods, but instead look at them as a means to ascertain additional information we require. I do not think traditional media outlets will cease to exist, but that new media will supplement and provide new opportunities to current providers, and in the end we as consumers will benefit.
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DeleteAdding to my points above, Preston (2012) states that, “Newspaper brands retain much of their resonance in print; adrift on the web, the job of just being noticed becomes far more onerous,” (The Guardian, Para. 12). This means that although new media may bring us different opportunities to expose our product to new readers, it does not mean it is necessarily better. This is primarily because in the digital world it is much harder to attract new users, as a result of the many service providers found online. This is in direct contrast to traditional print sources, as they are fewer in number as a result of production cost. Furthermore Preston (2012) wrote that, “Those who seek to dive into digital media find the environment cannibalistic, as anybody who tries to make money from an app knows; it is hard just to be noticed, let alone bought," (The Guardian, Para. 12). These words iterate that print still has a place in our digital world.
DeleteHi Nicole,
DeleteGreat post! I completely agree with your comment regarding desktop publishing and the internet that allows anyone to self-publish. I want to add that I was working with my third year graphic communications students recently about strategies for finding an internship and one tip I shared with them was to position themselves as content creators in their job search. Hubspot (the in-bound marketing giant) has stated that more and more companies will be looking to young professionals for their online content-creation expertise that students looking to enter into the field of marketing and graphic communications should include the word "publisher" (and other related keywords) on their resume. I thought this was a pretty interesting notion, because this title that has always been reserved for a small selection of traditional publishers. As the scope of what it means to be a publisher widens, so does the opportunity for young content creators to capitalize on the self-publishing revolution!
Thanks for bringing in the idea of moral panic. Yes, there seems to almost "always already" be a deep-seated anxiety about change/difference. I'm thinking about your note that each of these mediums have their own age and how I recently came across Facebook stats that show the almost mass exodus of teenage users...already. Is the FB age over? Or, as with all things, is this evidence of a coming-of-age and use...people *know* how best to use FB and there are other platforms and arenas out there for other uses.
ReplyDeleteI saw some articles about teenagers starting to use other social media platforms besides Facebook because their parents and other family members are on there. They seem to want an online medium for chatting and interacting with friends only. I heard they are migrating to SnapChat.
ReplyDeleteI think the "Age of Facebook", might be starting to dwindle. It won't disappear. I think it will still be used as a "phone book" (with photos) to keep in touch with your classmates after graduation, as was one of it's original purposes. Similarly My Space still exists for the music community, even though Facebook took over in the number of users.
Along the same lines as you said, we as people who want to socialize and business that want to capitalize, know how to best use Facebook for these purposes. But now there might be another social media platform on the rise to gain the most users.
I won't be surprised to see a moral panic around the "Death/End of Facebook".
I have heard similar stories Nicole, Facebook has been inundated by users of all ages. What made it special in the beginning was that it was exclusive and not known to all people. It was a place for the younger generation to gather and talk in privacy. This is similar to my experience with MSN messenger chat service, once only used by the younger generation until everyone starting using it, in which case it lost its appeal, along with the advent of texting and smartphones.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, I have many cousins in their teens; they have been using SnapChat for awhile now. I can definitely see a trend where users are migrating from Facebook to other applications. Like you said I don’t think Facebook will fade away entirely, but the organization will probably have to adapt to their changing environment to remain relevant.
I recall hearing similar stories as well. I don't think Facebook will be coming to an end anytime soon as it still has about 1.2 billion users. I think you're right Mandeep in that Facebook when it first came out, provided younger generations with a sense of privacy...where stories and conversation were mostly shared among peers. Now with Facebook being around for awhile and older generation signing up for it, the scope has expanded and the sense of privacy has dwindled. Young generations simply don't want to share everything about themselves with their grandparents or friends of their parents or even their older brothers or sisters.
ReplyDeleteTeens and young adults (as both Nicole and Mandeep mentioned) are not even signing up to Facebook but rather joining platforms like Snapchat and Instagram which are considered to be the 'latest and greatest' social app for just their friends (it really hasn't grown to include the older generation quite yet) ... each social app is utilizing the new trend of mobile video that the younger generation is really embracing.
In regards to Facebook being dead… I recently read this interesting article "Facebook isn’t dead and buried, but dodgy journalism lives on" http://ow.ly/sIN75 . It's quite interesting, as it talks about how quickly incorrect information is spread, in this case in regards to Facebook.
ReplyDeleteWhile admitting that teenagers (who are tough to categorize as they often lie about their age in Facebook) might have decreased their usage of Facebook, other age groups and demographics keep joining. I particularly like the closing sentence of the article, because although it refers to the UK I think it's applicable to other countries and it helps put things into perspective:
"But before we focus our attention on Snapchat, Twitter or Instagram, let’s pay a bit more attention to the fifth of the UK population that does not use the internet at all – including 61% of over those 65 and older – and the majority of the UK public who are not on any kind of social network."
Hi guys - interesting conversation. I have read that teenagers are leaving Facebook in favor of other social media sites - like Instagram - which is cooler and probably has less parent users. I hadn't heard about Snapchat before so I looked it up and found this interesting article on marketing using Snapchat- http://adage.com/article/digital/build-a-brand-snapchat-hire-a-16-year/291124/
DeleteThis week is all about printing and books (and I am in heaven!). As I noted in my blog post this week, I think that traditional books and digital books each have their place in the world. Printed works sometimes require digitization (archiving, increasing availability) and digital books can’t provide the tactility and craft of a printed book.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, I agree with Preston’s article in The Observer, as I think traditional books are simply in transition more than they are a dying breed. The increase in custom publishing (and therefore digital printing) is one way printed books are experiencing this transition. The company I used to work for recently invested millions of dollars in new high-speed presses from HP that can print full-colour variable-data books, which means that they could theoretical print a high-quality print run of a single book (versus having to print thousands of copies to make the press run economical). The reason digital printing can allow for a press run of just one copy to be economical is because is no “makeready” or setup required. In traditional printing, physical masters (aluminum printing plates) have to be made and physically mounted onto the press. The press operator then has to manually fill the ink trays, get the press up to speed and send a number of sheets through. He or she then stops the press after 100 or more sheets have been wasted and checks for colour accuracy, register between colours and image straightness on the sheet, among other things. The operator then tweaks the changes as needed and may have to run another 500-1000 sheets through the press before they are happy with the quality. Only then (after 30 minutes to an hour or more) can the press run begin. All the while the digital press operator… pressed print.
Although printing one copy of an individual book at a time is not the way my former employer is positioning themselves in the marketplace, they are catering to the large educational publishers by offering them solutions to print textbooks in much smaller quantities. This, in turn, provides the publishers with a unique selling opportunity to professors and instructors to assemble custom “course packs” (collections of readings from a variety of books), which are professionally printed and bound. Publishers have offered the course pack service in the past, but the final product was essentially a photocopied version of chapters with plastic coil binding. The professionally printed and bound versions legitimizes a higher price point for the publishers.
As the gap between offset (traditional) print quality and digital print quality continues to diminish, the demand for digitally printed books that can be economically printed in lower quantities for just-in-time inventory publishing inventory systems, will become ever more important for printers to stay competitive. I truly believe that from long-run offset work to digitally printed custom work is where the transition is happening, versus from print to extinction.
I’m not sure that we’ve reach the end of books just yet. The readings this week point out how important the history of the book really is to advances in human history. Because of the advent of the printing press, the population at large was able to receive information they didn’t have access to before. The advent of books also allowed people outside of the clergy or upper class to become literate – bringing about social and political changes to Europe. I found it interesting that Brabyn points out that books became so popular that a division of labour in the publishing industry became necessary to meet the demand. A separation of specialties – author, printer, book binder and seller – has lasted into this century. Desktop publishing really changed the game in the 1980s with the popularity of the personal computer. Now everyone is able to act as author, printer, binder and seller from their own home. And now there are desktop publishing companies popping up – which is a new phenomenon which intertwines desktop publishing and the internet.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who recently published his first book with an online publishing company – an e-book publisher. It’s interesting because they help him market his book and they sell his book directly off their website. Even though the book is marketed as an e-book, you can buy it in hardcovers and paperback. My friend bought 50 hardcovers to give out to friends and family. I think the tactile nature of an actual book makes the fact that he is now a published novelist more real for him. It’s more of a tangible accomplishment.
Though I feel that printed/physical books and other types of literature still have value, of course there has been a huge shift to electronic media – and I don’t mean e-books or kindles etc. Eisenstein quotes Jonathan Yardley in her article “The End of the Book?” where he states that “The demanding world of reading is being shoved aside in favor of the easy one of audio and video”. I’m noticing this shift in my own life – away from the printed word (either online or in books). I have friends who buy audio ebooks so they can listen instead of actually reading them – which is fine – audio books have been around for a long time in one form or another (tapes/CDs), but in this case they are playing them on their iphones or ipads, forgoing reading actual text online. Also in my workplace, my company develops online learning/corporate training, where - historically - the majority of the online courses were delivered with text on screen and often a narrator reading the text or acting in more of a teaching role by speaking to the text on screen. There’s now been a shift away from this type of learning. Our customers are asking us for more video based online courses – where they can see and hear the actual subject matter expert performing a tasks (for instance demonstrating how to use a certain computer application). I assume this shift has come about from the popularity of youtube – where you can basically learn how to do anything in video format.
ReplyDelete