Session 1: Introduction: Why "Publishing"?

www.inspiredbynight.co.uk/free-ebooks-and-the-changing-face-of-publishing/

Publishing Defined

It can be said that publishing is defined as a process of production and dissemination of books, journals, music, literature and other material, making this information available to the general public.

This definition mentions the general public as it is as much about getting to know your audience as the production of a work. Just as importantly there is no mention of technology which is changing the face of publishing more so than ever, making individuals their own publisher with the use social media sites such as Twitter.

I came across a very interesting video: How Medium Is Changing The Publishing World by EV Williams. The Twitter co founder discusses why the publishing platform has gained popularity with the blogging community. He talks about wanting to democratise blogging and want as many voices in the world as possible.

Where Publishing Fits In

It is important to consider where publishing fits in with the data, information, knowledge and wisdom chain. This diagram highlights the overlap between producers and consumers. The information presentation and organisation being the middle ground, and which gives information meaning. Information can then be transformed into knowledge and wisdom.

www.nathan.com/thoughts/unified/3.html

The Upside Down Video

YouTube can be described as an extremely effective way of publishing, using video. It can reach a number of people in a short amount of time, across different languages. Also allowing for open dialogue on the published video in the form of comments. DK publishing took advantage of this by producing the following video uploaded in 2010: DK Publishing - The Future Of Publishing. I found this video very effective and pulled a bit at the heart strings, just when you think the speaker is giving in to the concept of this being the end of publishing we are found to be in a situation where the text is reversed and in fact this is not the case at all. I must add this is not the first we see of this upside down type video. Another video actually published in 2006: Lopez Murphy For President - Truth, has the same effect as the DK video, pulling at your heart strings as a political advertisement in Argentina. Video has a major role in the current publishing world, incorporating interaction that combines words and pictures.

The Author As Producer

A quite difficult but interesting read is: The Author As Producer. By Walter Benjamin, Translation by John Heckman. (1970). What is debated is the relation between political tendency and quality of a work. In other words form and content. The author does not begin with works such as a novel but in living context and talks about how the function of how a work is produced at that time considering it's current situation, and it's technique. As he describes "we stand in the midst of a powerful process of the transformation of literary forms, a process of transformation in which many of the oppositions with which we used to work could lose their power".

I feel he was speaking well ahead of his time. He could easily be talking about the likes of YouTube and Twitter making way to publish news and other works, posing a threat to the newspaper amongst others. Benjamin in fact talks of the newspaper and how a reader becomes a writer. He also touches upon photographs being of importance and "owe their extraordinary growth to techniques of publication: to radio and the illustrated press". Speaking of Dadaists making still pictures and showing them to the public, leading also to photo-montage and giving captions to photos. Music is also mentioned transforming songs with words. Benjamin predicts that new literary forms will stem from these. 

I shall finish by highlighting Benjamin as he states "the determinant factor of production that enables it to lead other producers to this production, and to present them with an improved apparatus for their use . This apparatus leads consumers to production, it is capable of making co-workers out of readers or spectators". This goes back to the point that audience is an important part of publishing and allowing an effective means of production to reach this audience is paramount. This means of production allows readers or the audience to in fact become publishers themselves.