Online Comments and Discussion

Pretisha Reddy: 21/04/2013

Pretisha I am very interested to see where you take your argument. I think you have picked a topic that has great potential if you portray it in the right way. Wikipedia is obviously a great website that a lot of people use on a regular basis but from what I have experienced it is not a source that should be relied on when gathering information used for academic purposes. From what I can tell from your introduction it seems as though you don’t really have a clear opinion for or against this argument. You have mentioned that Wikipedia is a mostly reliable source and that you like to use it; however you have then also mentioned that it is hard to distinguish which information is true and which information is false. It will be great to see how your argument progresses throughout the brief once you have a clear opinion.

Patrick Scott: 22/04/2013

I think you have picked a really interesting topic to argue and it is great to see that you have come up with a strong viewpoint as to the fact that you believe that violent media plays a role in violent behaviour. I personally don’t agree nor disagree with your argument however I think there are a lot of viewpoints on the topic. I have played call of duty, grand theft auto etc for fun before, however I have never played properly. Obviously there is a sense of power you get from these games when you are playing them and I think you are right when you say that this does not influence violent behaviour as in I have never seriously consider actually killing someone simply for the fun of it as a result of playing violent video games. You have mentioned that you feel repetition of killing people is blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. I disagree with this statement, like most teenage boys my brothers and friends etc have all gone through stages in their lives where they have played such games excessively and I don’t think this has affected their behaviour in real life in any way, so it will be interesting to see if you can come up with any strong evidence to prove otherwise. You have obviously done quite a lot of research on this topic already and you have already produced a substantial amount of fact in relation to your topic. It may be more convincing for us as the audience to see these facts in their actual from via hyperlinks.

Matthew Samin: 22/04/2013

I love the fact that you have come up with such a unique topic and it is definitely an argument that I have never heard anything about before. I have never really been into art as in painting and drawing etc so I’m wondering what you are defining as art when you say ‘artistic works’ ‘piece of art’? I guess the subject ‘art’ is quite broad so it will be interesting to see where you take your argument. I like your introduction; I think it is well written, clear and to the point.  Given the word limit it is great to see you have left room from a substantial argument.

Alex Woodward: 22/04/2013

I think the topic you have chosen is very interesting. Woman being poorly and/or disproportionately represented in the genre of video games is certainly a topic I have never put too much though into so I’m really interested to see where you take your argument. I think you have produced a great introduction which has clearly outlined where you intend to take your blog.

Ronal Reddy: 22/04/13

Wow you have already written a considerable amount of your blog, almost the entire word limit. I think your topic should the voting age be lowered to 16 is a great one and it is subject that would no doubt affect us all if it were given the go ahead. You have already gathered a lot of information and I like that you have made good use of this information by using hyperlinks. It looks like you may have had a late subject change as you also have a large amount of information regarding the importance of conservation, as well as gender inequality in New Zealand and globally. This makes it quite hard to focus on your main argument so it may be useful to delete any posts that do not relate directly this.

Patrick Scott: 2/05/2013

I think you have come up with some great ideas and you are producing a blog that I am genuinely interested in following because of this. Obviously you have made a lot of great points about children and their access to violent movies etc. Yes the rating system can stop underage people from viewing violent movies whilst they are showing at the cinema but when they are released onto DVD or available for rent I think it is up to the parents to decide whether they want to expose their children to such things. At the end of the day parents ultimately know their children and their responses. They are also responsible for ensuring their kids know the difference between right and wrong. I like that you have posted evidence to support your claims, however you have published a significant amount of your blog and are still yet to produce any hyper-links. Instead of producing in text references in your blog it could be useful to somehow turn this into a hyper-link directly to the evidence and then produce a reference list separately in one final post before the submissions date.

Ronal Reddy: 2/05/2013

I think you have come up with a great argument. You have made some very good points in regards to your topic. I completely agree with your statement when you mention that this is not just a problem for teenagers between 16-18 but also those of us between the age of 18 and 24. I was eligible to vote during the last elections but didn’t, simple based on facts that you have mentioned in your blog. Being given the opportunity to take part in choosing the next leader of our country is essentially quite a big thing. Politics like most young adults is a topic I know next to nothing about, if I were to vote it would most likely have been for all the wrong reasons. You backed up a lot of the evidence in your first blog post by making good use of hyper-links; it could be useful for you to use hyper-links in this post to give your argument some validity.

Alex Woodward: 3/05/2013

You have obviously put a lot of time and effort into your blog. It seems like you have already posted the majority of what you have to say. It could have been useful for you to have split this up into a number of different blog posts to follow more of a blog format; regardless I think what you have produced is great. You have made good use of your hyper-links, all of which provide great evidence to support your argument. Prior to reading your blog I really hadn’t put much thought into your topic, after having a look through your hyper link ‘list of the 50 greatest female characters in video games’ there is probably not a single character that I can even recognise. In saying this, it is blatantly obvious women are being poorly represented regardless of whether I have knowledge of their character. I think you have produced a great conclusion which sums up your argument nicely and I think you have done a great job in representing your topic in a consistent and logical way.

Matthew Samin: 6/05/2013

While you have produced some great points in regards the censorship of art it could be useful to add hyper-links into your post to make your evidence more viable. It is great to see that you obviously have a lot of passion for your topic.

Elsie Uini: 6/05/2013

I think you have produced a great blog. Like you I have no personal experience with beauty pageants, nor do I have any knowledge on the topic. When I think of beauty pageants I think ‘American’ and it seems like the topic is not very well known within New Zealand. In saying this I have heard of toddlers in tiaras and more specifically Honey Boo-Boo but I have never watched the show aside from the short clips you have provided in your blog. Something I did notice was that you haven’t actually incorporated your hyper-links into your blog. Instead of having them all within your sources it could be useful for you to arrange them where appropriate within your posts. This might make it easier for readers to link your evidence to their original sources.

Alex Woodward: 7/05/2013

Personally I think it was a great idea to redefine your topic in which it now covers just the sexualisation of woman. Obviously with such a small word limit it is hard to analysis a wide range of subtopics within your broader topic. I don’t have a lot of knowledge on the topic so for me, at least being able to focus on just the three posts you have provided it great.  They are each clear and concise, which makes it so much easier for viewers to read and understand.

Nicola Clements: 7/05/2013

Thanks for your comment Nicola. I realise that the statistics provided are a bit hard to understand. This is how they were presented in the survey they were originally from and I don’t want to risk them being misinterpreted by changing around the wording too much. However I will look into ensuring that they are a bit easier to read. 

Eden Rima: 7/05/2013

Thank you for pointing out that you didn’t bother to watch the video because it was too long. I did realise that the video was almost an hour long but didn’t think about the fact that viewers are unlikely to watch a video of such length. Because of this it probably does nothing to enhance my argument. I will look into finding maybe just a clip from this video to highlight the main points discussed in my blog.

Pretisha Reddy: 12/05/2013

Wow it seems like you have just decided to change your topic. It’s great to see you have managed to get so much information posted in such a short amount of time. It looks like you have already gathered a significant amount of information and I’m looking forward to seeing it all come together in your argument. You have a list of links posted; however it could be useful for you to arrange the relevant information throughout your blog using hyper-links. This is part of the assessment criteria and it will also be helpful for viewers like me to link your evidence back to their original sources. 

References

Agresta, M. (2012). What Will Become of the Paper Book? Retrieved April 29, 2013 from                http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/design/2012/05/will_paper_books_exist_in_the                _future_yes_but_they_ll_look_different_.single.html

Cooper, D. (2012). Barnes and Noble sees quarterly sales surge, losses fall to $41                        million. Retrieved April 23, 2013 from http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/21/                        barnes-noble-2013-q1/

Mins, C. (2010). Predicting the Death of Print. Retrieved April 24, 2013 from http://www.                  technologyreview.com/view/420329/predicting-the-death-of-print/

Nijenmanting, L. (2011). Out with the old, in with the new? Retrieved April 24, 2013 from                    http://masterofmedia.hum.uva.nl/2011/09/12/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new/

Rainie L.,& Duggan, M. (2012). E-book Reading Jumps; Print Book Reading Declines.                    Retrieved April 28, 2013 from http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2012/12/27/e-book-                  reading-jumps-print-book-reading-declines/

Reach, K. (2013). The death of print has been greatly exaggerated. Retrieved April 22,                    2013 from http://www.mhpbooks.com/the-death-of-print-has-been-greatly-                          exaggerated/

Wood, Z. (2012). Print book sales rise hailed as a sign of a fightback in a digital world.                     Retrieved April 24, 2013 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/dec/29/print-               book-sales-rise-digital

Conclusion

Printed books are for people who love printed books. Digital books are for people who love digital books. For me at least, it really is as simple as this. Books are stunning physical objects that in a way define you as a person. It is hard not to feel as though their digital versions are taking over.  Evidently there is reason to hope that print books and digital books have a bright future together.

Coexistence?

I have never quite understood the expressed addiction to the aroma of paper and ink as a justification for the fear that the digital reading device revolution will mean the end of the printed book and the physical structures that house them. In order to thrive I don’t believe digital reading devices need to replace the physical book. Cant their heft and durability, the tactical pleasure of what we still call ‘real books’ coexist with the superior annotation tools, interactive content and shared reading experiences provided by digital reading devices? This coexistence of the old and new worlds of paper and screen is supported by Umberto Eco, Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, who declares that "the book is like the spoon, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. The internet has returned us to the alphabet. The computer returns us to Gutenberg's galaxy; from now on everyone has to read. In order to read, you need a medium." Bloomsbury’s Library Online project runner Stephanie Duncan also agrees that “E-books are only a format, just as paperbacks were a new format in the 30s. The value and joy of the reading lies within the book itself, not the wrapper it comes in.”

The Future of the Book

Despite the digitisation of books and the digitisation of writing many still believe the printed book is here to stay. James Gleick, American author, journalist and biographer recently eased anxiety among readers, writers and publishers at the Sydney Writers’ Festival with a presentation on the future of the book. “For some kinds of books the writing is on the wall, but the concept of the book itself will survive, adapting to new technologies in the delivery of words”. 

Writing last year in Slate, Michael Agresta also questioned what will become of the paper book? “I crave the smell of a well-worn book, the weight of it in my hands,” he wrote, “all of my favourite books I discovered through loans from a friend, that minor but still-significant ritual of trust; I need to see it on my shelf after I've read it (and I don’t mind if others see it too); and what is a classic if not a book where I’m forced to rediscover my own embarrassing college-age marginalia?” He then goes on to argue that the paper book will likewise survive, “but its place in culture will change significantly. As it loses its traditional value as an efficient vessel for text, the paper books other qualities – from its role in literary history to its inimitable design possibilities to its potential for physical beauty – will take on more importance.”

Print Vs Digital

In 2007 Amazon introduced their original Kindle, an e-book reader that enables users to shop for and download books, newspapers, magazines and other digital media via wireless networking. Since then the digital reading phenomenon has taken the world by storm and just three years later in 2010 Nicholas Negroponte, founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab and One Laptop per Child Association was one of many declaring the physical book dead in as little as five years. 

According to Barnes and Noble executive Marc Parrish “The book is changing more radically now, and quicker than movies or music or newspapers have”. As a result consumers seem to have deemed the future of book publishing as digital, but like CD’s and VHS will print too run its course? With the growing popularity of e-Readers and tablets the rise in e-book reading and the decline in print book reading is almost inevitable, however according to an article published in a December 2012 issue of The Guardian “The strongest weekly sale of print books in three years is being hailed as a sign that "real books" are fighting back in a digital age thought to be dominated by e-readers and tablet computers”.

The results of a Pew Research Center Survey released December of 2012 provide further evidence that the death of print has been exaggerated by showing that the number of those who read e-books increased from 16% of all Americans ages 16 and older to 23%, whilst the number of those who read printed books in the previous 12 months fell from 72% of the population ages 16 and older to just 67%. Despite the increase in those who read e-books and the decrease in those who read printed books of the 75% of Americans ages 16 and older said to have read a book of any platform in the previous 12 months 67% of them said they had read a printed book.

Introduction

Large developments in the advancement of technology have seen digital reading device sales surge, in turn provoking what is today thought to be a sizable argument both for and against the ‘death of print’ within the publishing industry. When it comes to the future of books and reading will this too be a case of out with the old, in with the new? For me at least, holding a book in my hand and the act of physically turning a page cannot be achieved by simply staring at a screen. E-Readers and tablets are not likely to replace the book; these gadgets are simply a compliment to traditional reading. Not a substitute. Print is here to stay.

One of many topical points surrounding this argument includes the contemporary debate of print Vs digital. Is print dead? Or is there something about the print book we just can’t give up? What is the future of the book if e-Readers and tablets slowly dominate the printed format as the preferred vehicle on which people read books?