Future of Publishing in the Digital Age.
Section 1 History of publishing.
It all started in 808, wherein a seven pages long book called The diamond sutra was published and produced in China. The eleventh century brought with itself wooden printing press before which clay, iron and materials like bronze were used to create the printed letter. The sixteenth century later on marked the presence of American colonies wherein first books of that time were published hence. The worlds first magazine is said to have come up in Germany around the year 1663. This was followed with Americas first magazine Public Occurrences both foreign and come stick and The Gentlemans magazine in 1690 and 1731 respectively. In Century 1800, an all metal based printing press came out erasing completely the previous one and creating more demand for quality printed letter. With it a few decades later, came Americas first encyclopaedia namely Encylopedia Americana which was published in Philadelphia in 1829.
In mid 1800, paperbacks got introduced brining ripples to the world of publishing and literature with also small sized versions of books again paperbacks. Around this time in 1851, to be exact the New York Times was introduced in the world of publishing.
In 1923, the Time Magazine made its debut very professionally. Till 1980, the greatest share of books sold came out to be paperbacks these having a share of 70 in the total books share. 1990 brought the debut of Entertainment Weekly, again increasing demand followed. Slowly this was the time that chain bookstores started overselling to the extent that regular stores that were independent ones actually started to lack behind. 1997 was another important year as J. K. Rowling published her first two books in the legendary Harry Potter series.
Today we see a swarm of choices available to the common reader who has at his disposal a wide variety of readership in terms of authors, genres, reading material, types of material and even totally absurd categories like absurd humour, guides etc. With the intensified competition that todays publishing world has within it, one can definitely say that publishing has seriously evolved a lot through these years. And this has been a good move since the evolution has outpaced many other evolutions as people continue to visit online links like Amazon to get hold of the newest books and published material before others do. Event though now, the trend of visiting book stores is gradually slowing down, one can see that the demand for the written text has not been altered, with it being on an increasing trend as more and more options open up for people.
Section 2 Writers in the digital future.
The media today can be held responsible for the implicit force behind peoples actions since the hidden characteristics of mediums used by the media are powerful enough to move people into doing things they otherwise will not do. Manipulation can take the form of anything that uses media as a forum, therefore. Media hence even through the power of the written word being of many forms is often used as a manipulation tool to provide information that actually inflicts someone elses opinions on people through the mass media.
What one can say about the future of digital writers is that their manipulation power can be said to increase in the future. It will continue with the ability to communicate effectively, which forms the first most integral advantage of the entire thing. Apart from increasing connectivity and communication within the different parts of the world, it will again help in implementing the characteristics of globalization further with the fast communications of today with the aid of the internet. Another change one will notice eventually of the mass media is imparting all kinds of information and knowledge without any barriers as such. Last but not least, it is said to further widen peoples horizons by educating people about the world in general which includes advertising, and corporate side related initiatives.
On the counter side digital writers are said to have a greater reach, which is predicted to increase even more. Therefore it can also be said that through the use of digital text, these writers could use their material as a tool used for manipulation which obviously then involve the threat of usage in terms of depicting false information and or providing tweaked information. This could be a disadvantage by having the greater possibility of negative influence of the mass media on children, whereby oftentimes children use the media as a platform through which they realize goals that are untrue of real life goals. Last but not least, it can also lead to wrong perceptions in the minds of all people who are exposed to this kind of information. The digital writer needs to ensure that the transmission of idea hence has to also be clear and precise and should carry the pointers which can make the person at the end users place to conclude what he wants to do with this transfer of information. This action taken by him when is in a way beneficial or advantageous to the person disseminating that information about the propaganda to him, actually makes it successful.
Section 3 Readers in the digital future.
In pertinence with how the readership behaviour will be like, we can say that peoples comprehension skills and critical thinking will receive a boost leading to an increased static of surging demands of more variety in more and options available to these readers. Critical thinking is the ability of people to assume responsibility of the thinking of their own. Hence, people who indulge in critical thinking use certain principles to incorporate these into the way they perceive things and form judgments about them. It is an entire process of thinking, and analyzing that involves asking questions also to reflect upon the matter at hand best. Critical thinking is a very important aspect involved in the process of manipulation (which can already be seen today) since it involves processing what a person is exposed to in the form of information. Since media is flooded with information of all kinds, it is again pertinent since critical thinking forms a permanent part of it all. The many different characteristics that a critical thinker has including asking, assessing, sense of curiosity, interest, ideas, willingness, looking for evidence, examining closely and accepting faults on his or her part. Critical thinking is also the grouping of various skills that include self-awareness, rationality, discipline, honesty, open-mindedness, and judgments. These are predicted to intensify as the new digital reader will sift through more and more data and material to get to what he wants really. The effect in readership behaviour with particular emphasis to deduction and induction in the process of manipulation is said to take place. This is so because it is said that readers in the digital future will put more emphasis on induction process. Deduction is the conclusion of which bears evidence in some form or another, in order to make the conclusion stand true. Induction statements, on the other hand are those whose conclusions might be true, hence there is a chance involved there in the form of probability. (PhilosophyLander, 2004) There are in short words, a guarantee involved about the truth of the conclusion in a deduction, and it is almost impossible that it renders false. Induction statements have greater probability of involvement of the statement becoming true and it is said that if the induction statement is true then it is unlikely to be false. This is the kind of content that readers will get attracted too.
Section 4 Print on demand
How has the rise of new publishing technologies affected the way publishers acquire, produce and publicise titles
The future of publishing can be said to be a little vague. This is because of the way our social media has evolved through the years reaching the phase that it is at now. With upcoming social web sites endeavours one can surely say that with the uproot of so many other mediums through which people have started communicating and interacting it is expected that publishing the demand of it might just go down. The world s coming close with how these social networking sites and even twittering now has created many ripples in the way communication is happening currently.
The new world of publishing definitely needs to keep these things in mind as we see people gaining more and more interest in the way they get responses for what they have to say about themselves and what they do. Publishers have hence started to look into this and if they have not then there is a desperate need since blogging is too said to create a lot of intellectual exchange in terms of sharing with others how they feel about someones work writing, art etc. Distribution previously was a challenge which has now superseded many barriers by going online, quite literally. Also, viewers and readers now have more opportunities available online with many more options in terms of genre or authors or even type of reading material available. So, for instance if they do not like book A, then they can get B and the list goes on. Amazon in specific is said to be now the evil heart of publishing. On buying from Amazon related sites, publishers need to remember that the scope of bookstores is going down for them. (MIT, n.d.)
Section 5 Publishing for education in the digital future
Educational institutions are the largest consumers of material that is published. There would hence be very less business in the publishing world, if this segment is ignored or not catered to well. Most of these institutions give a huge importance to published and printed educational material. In North America alone this accounts for around 15 billion per year in terms of revenue. With time however many changes have been happening owing to experimentation with new ways of learning and keeping up with changes in the environment digitalization and induction of new technologies. As learning too goes electronic, we can say that the published material in practice might just face a low demand. But many a times we see absence of total dependency on electronic learning as many professors and teachers ensure that rather their current published learning guides for students are augmented with CDs or websites. Many a times, the cost of a book is marked down so as to claim absence of a CD rather a link is given where the e-learning that previously was being substituted with the help of a CD, will be done through a web based link for the book. Most often than not, this information however requires that the user (teacher or student or school) creates a proper account with a password.
There has been during the past five years or so a huge pressure on schools and students to get hold of additional course material to supplement what they are learning in the classroom. An argument going against publishers is the fact that the cost of published material is going very high with all the extra stuff that comes with books. Following chart shows the costs that have been on an increasing trend for a long time now.
Therefore educational institutions and even the government have been ensuring that this thing takes a hold and make published material and learning more affordable to the regular common student (McIlroy, 2009). Unfortunately, this has not exactly taken much shape so far. Therefore, it is felt by majority educational institutes that there is a need to increase the quality and standard of electronic learning because that time still is not here that it can completely take over the power of the written typed word in textbooks. Print oriented textbooks and other material hence remains to be the key learning source for students and teachers alike as more and more curricula is taught and paperbacks and textbooks are made use of.
Section 6 Future of Newspaper and magazine publishing
What challenges stand in the publishers way and how are they planning to tackle them and what is the next Big Thing going to be for publishers
The newspaper industry has been facing many challenges as well. It is being said that the internet and internet based resources are actually increasing the likelihood of making newspaper and magazine publishing obsolete. Research has shown a notable decrease in the readership patterns and circulation of newspapers in many regions of the world. This is due to the basic fact that internet based resources and web sites have created a lot of demand for on-the-go information. But many still feel that they will never be able to read the newspaper without feeling or holding it in their hands and reading through a glass screen is plain uncomfortable. The next big thing for publishers could hence be ensuring that newspaper and magazine circulation continues. However what they could do to counter this changing electronic based challenge is to keep copies online as well the way they are doing it right now.
When talking about magazines, we see very regular that this medium is being used as persuasion tools. The persuasion element involved plays a huge role and can be both indirect and or direct. Information is used basically to make the person to decide what he wants out of the product issue at hand the difference lies here in the technicality of it.That is to say that the person propagandizing basically tries to inform people what they are actually supposed to do. This factor needs to be kept in mind by publishers as it can be very beneficial for their business with respect to both online as well published material. With respect to magazines hence, they can simply then ensure that interactive told with respect to the magazine are present online on the website of the magazine so as to have a more lively reading experience. The next big thing hence is to keep the above pointers in mind while ensuring that new technologies too do not feel neglected.
Have experiments with new technologies and practices like licensing titles under the creative commons licence made publishing titles easier or harder
Technological changes like TV Reading has led to TV Reading rights under licensing of published material. Changes like these have actually made it harder for publishers since the accommodation level is very high. The visible impact of the electronically changes etc on rights and licensing has resulted into rights like Mechanical Reproduction Rights which is done for audio books. A similar example could be that of Electronic Publishing Rights that cover internet and web sites again increasing the dimension within which the licensing business operates there increasing the complexity level as well. With hand held devices, always on-the-go, or on-line resources, and the presence of touch screens the once traditional common license has actually become a complexes process.
Summary
With the current changes that the world has undergone and many more that have happened through decades, the publishing industry too has faced many evolutions. These have been associated with the rise of new publishing technologies and their effect on the way publishers acquire, produce and publicise titles. This also constitutes within itself the effect that new technologies and practices like licensing titles under the creative commons licence has put on publishing. These changes and many more than are expected and the world of publishing moves towards the digital arena a question that plagues our mind is that of whether it all has made publishing titles easier or harder. Changes like these have put many challenges on the forefront thereby raising slogans for the need for a solution based approach while undertaking and accommodating any and all demand increments that take place through the phase and in future with respect to the changes that technology and digital arena will have and have had.
The trend of visiting book stores is gradually slowing down one can see that the demand for the written text has not been altered, with it being on an increasing trend as more and more options open up for people. The digital writer needs to ensure that the transmission of idea hence has to also be clear and precise and should carry the pointers which can make the person at the end users place to conclude what he wants to do with this transfer of information. This action taken by him when is in a way beneficial or advantageous to the person disseminating that information about the propaganda to him, actually makes it successful. The effect in readership behaviour with particular emphasis to deduction and induction in the process of manipulation is said to take place. Induction statements have greater probability of involvement of the statement becoming true and it is said that if the induction statement is true then it is unlikely to be false. This is the kind of content that readers will get attracted too.
Owing to digitalization, viewers and readers now have more opportunities available online with many more options in terms of genre or authors or even type of reading material available. So, for instance if they do not like book A, then they can get B and the list goes on. Amazon in specific is said to be now the evil heart of publishing. On buying from Amazon related sites, publishers need to remember that the scope of bookstores is going down for them.
As learning too goes electronic, we can say that the published material in practice might just face a low demand. But many a times we see absence of total dependency on electronic learning as many professors and teachers ensure that rather their current published learning guides for students are augmented with CDs or websites. The newspaper industry has been facing many challenges as well. It is being said that the internet and internet based resources are actually increasing the likelihood of making newspaper and magazine publishing obsolete. With hand held devices, electronic publishing rights, always on-the-go, or on-line resources, and the presence of touch screens the once traditional common license has actually become a complexes process.
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