In response to the idea of publishing, it traditionally associates itself with the print media. Strongly relates to physical hardcopies of texts such as newspapers, books and magazines. Decades later, the first world society has evolved from printed mass produced texts to electronic substitutes. Modern inventions such as the Amazon Kindle and the iPad has revolutionized the way in which people read texts and where and who can access it. For example, John Naughton's article in the Guardian suggests how the convenience of e-books have allowed users to access books using a single platform (Naughton 2010).
The experience of reading on a computer screen and a hard copy are very different. Neither can be said to be superior over the other since they both have their own strengths and weaknesses. But in this week's podcast, e-book readers are self evolving as people have grown to experience reading with devices such as Kindle. The podcast suggests how the experience of reading texts through Kindle is very sterile as the text is printed using electronic bits and is split in overly simplified columns. The iPad saw those weaknesses in the Kindle and made a vast amount of improvements (E-Book Boom Changes Book Selling And Publishing, 2010).
Naughton has explained how traditionally, if a user was to lend a hardcopy book to a friend, it could be done without any legal consequences but nowadays it seems that what comes with a platform such as Amazon Kindle are a list of rules and regulations in which users are meant to abide to (Naughton 2009).
Personally, I do believe that these new means of publishing media has allowed users to be both producers and consumers of media (Prosumer). It has created a common ground for anyone who has access to the internet to comment and give personal thoughts on all kinds of affairs. This is the digital democracy for casual bloggers like myself to upload personal thoughts to the publicsphere for others to read.
I would like to mention a web comic called Homestuck. Instead of being published in a comic book publisher, Homestuck is run completely independently on a website called MS Paint Adventures. The author, Andrew Hussie is a prosumer who draws from all forms of pop culture and writes his own comic based on his own insights. Its interesting because he uses the internet as a medium to publish his work. This allows him to be creative especially in terms of storytelling because the way he writes the story is different from what people define a 'comic' since Hussie uses images, text. music and flash animation to tell his story. Which kinda draws the idea of visualisation as well.
It is interesting that in a recent episode of Media Watch, they report how Rob Finkelstein, a University academic has suggested reforms to regulate the freedom of press by creating a News Media Council. Not only does this council regulate information and sources of newspaper publishers but Finklelstein also believes that information on the internet should also be regulated (Regulating all with one 2012). I believe that when the internet is intertwines with the communistic idea of 'Commons' because these public domains are shared among internet users.
E-Book Boom Changes Book Selling And Publishing, 2010, podcast, National Public Radio, Washington, United States.
Naughton, J 2010, Publishers take note: the iPad is altering the very concept of a 'book', The Guardian,
accessed 14 May 2012, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/dec/19/ipad-publishing-kindle-books-apple>
Naughton, J 2009, The Original Big Brother is watching you on Amazon Kindle, The Guardian,
accessed 14 May 2012, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/26/amazon-kindle-book-deletions>
iPad vs Kindle vs Rock 2008, diagram, Amnesia Blog, accessed 14 May 2012,
<http://amnesia.com.au/blogimages/iPadvsKindlevsRock_A30A/image.png>
Regulating all with one, 2012, online video, Media Watch, accessed 14 May 2012, <http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3446228.htm>
[S] All: Behold glory of Zillyhoo, 2011, online video, Youtube, accessed 14 May 2012 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSR4-_X5LMU>
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