Are books an obsolete medium?

I do not believe books are an obsolete medium, even though there are several alternatives to books, people still rely on them. Teachers, students and people who read for fun are still purchasing books and will continue to do so. Although technology has created e-books, kindles and nooks people still buy books. Yes, e-readers are easy to carry and they have other benefits like WiFi, an e-reader will never give you the same experience a book can. Personally, I have used both books and e-readers and I find it much more engaging and easy to concentrate when I use a traditional book rather than an e-reader. I am not saying there are people who love technology and will purchase one of these just to keep in the collection and use it, but there are also millions of other readers like me who prefer a simple book in which annotations can be done easily and there is no way it will break down. The fact is, if you are the kind of person that loves to read books or curl up and do some reading, the experience you get of smelling the printed pages, grabbing the book in your hands and flipping the pages will never be compared to scrolling or tapping ‘next’ on an e-reader.

Just like every other piece of technology e-readers have advantages too because they do not occupy too much space (compared to a 1000 page book), they are easy to carry, there is WiFi connection in them and you can purchase an e-book at any time. But, just like there are positives there are also negatives to these and owning a technological object means you need to always be careful with it by constantly making sure you keep it safe, it does not fall anywhere and giving it maintenance services like cleaning it up and emptying the memory every now and then. Books do not require most of the things mentioned above since they are easy to place, do not require maintenance and do not have a limited memory space. 

How do conglomerates affect print publishing? Are there positives and negatives associated with conglomerates?

“Beginning the 1960s, a major trend in publishing was the merging of houses, as well as the consolidation of retail sales outlets. One of the first mergers to occur was Random House's purchase of Alfred A. Knopf in 1960. In 1965 RCA acquired Random House for $40 million and added it to RCA's roster of media companies, which included NBC Radio and Television. In 1980, Random House was acquired by Advanced Communications and became part of the New house family's media empire. During this time a number of publishers, including Crown, Fawcett, and Ballatine, were merged with Random House. In 1998 Bertelsmann AG acquired Random House. Simon and Schuster was acquired by Gulf + Western in 1975. From 1984 to 1994, the company acquired more than sixty companies, including Prentice-Hall, Silver Burdett, and Macmillan Publishing Company. With the addition of these educational, professional, and reference imprints, Simon and Schuster's revenue grew from $200 million in 1983 to more than $2 billion in 1997. In 1989, the Gulf + Western corporation restructured and emerged as Paramount Communications. In 1994, shortly after the purchase of Macmillan, Paramount was bought by Viacom Inc., which also owned MTV. In 1998 the company sold its education, professional, and reference units to Pearson PLC, which later merged with Longman” (Greco).

This mass consolidation has made unlikely partners out of former competitors. By bringing down competition, publishers can focus more on the quality of the jobs rather than the quantity they sell and therefore the quality of every piece of information we get will be much higher. But as positive as this is, it has a negative side as well since all of those who do not have the economics or alliances that this massive conglomerates do, will not be able to be a part of this. Also, another negative aspect might be that the houses that are bought by this bigger power will no longer have a say in what they want to produce or how they wish to run things. Freedom of speech might be affected with this.

Greco, Albert N. The Book Publishing Industry. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1997.

What are the main copyright issues for print media?

The main copyright issues that print media suffers, come from professors and students who constantly recreate material. Publishers are becoming increasingly concerned about how students and professors photocopy material that has been copyrighted by publishers. They are also concerned about the many informal newsletters, websites, and electronic publications that ‘borrow’ or sample images, photos, sections of text and headlines from newspapers, magazines and books. Because of this increase in electronic distribution, new intellectual property rules have been developed to ensure that each author or photographer gets royalties. Individual authors and photographers have rights to their intellectual property during their lifetime and their heirs have rights for 70 years after the author’s or photographer’s death.

One of the basic precepts of copyright law is fair use, therefore making single copies for personal use, citing a short passage in scholarly works and making multiple copies for classroom use are and should be permitted. 

What are the main trends in book publishing?

According to the Association of American Publishers, books are divided into various categories according to their genres. This is done because books are diverse and hard to characterize in general terms. The major categories are the following:

** Trade books: fiction and non fiction books both hard-cover and soft-cover. Examples of these are: the DaVinci Code, biographies and cook books.

** Professional books: education books, reference and professional education books aimed to professionals like doctors, lawyers, scientists, researchers, engineers and managers.

** Elementary, high school and college textbooks: any book that has been designed to assist students in their learning. An example is Media Now.

** Mass-market paperbacks: softbound books that are generally smaller in format and less expensive.

** Religious books: Bibles, prayer books, hymnals and any other sacred book.

** Book club editions: clubs that publish, sell and distribute their own editions of mass-market books, professional and other specialized books.

** Mail-order publications: books that are mainly and largely created by publishers to be sold by mail. These are classic novels or a specialized series.

** Subscription reference books: books that are sold as a package or series like encyclopedias and glossaries.

** Audiovisual and multimedia: Website materials, computer discs and other material that is marketed to schools, companies and training groups.

** University and scholarly press: scholarly or artistic books of primary appeal to scholars and libraries.

Analyze your online privacy and security practices and outline a plan for making yourself safer online.

Because there is so much danger in the world we also need to be careful when using the Internet and not trust everything we see or every piece of information we get. In my case, I own a Mac computer so the amount of viruses that affect this system are relatively low, therefore I do not need an antivirus installed in my computer, but I am still careful by keeping my firewalls and Spam alerts on their highest points. When using the Internet I avoid pages that seem off and only use search engines that can be trusted. Another precaution I take is that I never save my personal information on the computer, not even my own, nor leave my accounts ‘logged on’. I also change my passwords for all services (banks, Facebook, emails) every certain time so I can decrease the risk of having a hacked account. It is important to be very cautious and alert to anything that may seem different in our accounts, so even with the emails I am careful too. I do not open emails from unknown senders nor from advertisers. This decreases my chances of downloading something harmful into my computer and avoiding situations in which you might get ripped off. Upon receiving messages from unknown sources, they are immediately reported as spam so this saves me a lot of time and trouble.

With social networks, we must also be extremely careful. There is NO need whatsoever to put all of your information on Facebook or any other site; therefore my information is kept to the minimum on these sites. (no phone numbers, addresses nor emails). I also keep my Facebook extremely private by creating groups and putting restrictions on them, that way my information is shown only to those who know me well. I do not accept all friend requests, especially the ones that come from people whom I do not know and every aspect and application of my facebook is kept under the most private setting. 

Who runs the Internet?

Different associations run the Internet, so it is a mixture of ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), ISOC (Internet Society), IAB (Internet Architecture Board) and IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force).  ISOC is a nongovernmental international membership society that promotes the orderly use and development of the Internet. Along with it is ICANN, an organization that is entrusted with assigning addresses and domain names to users. IAB is a committee within the Internet society that makes important policy decisions about operations and future developments. Its members are usually employees of large corporations like Microsoft. Lastly, IETF also plays a role by overseeing technical matters. 

What is the difference between a content provider and an Internet service provider?

*Internet Service Provider: connects users to the Internet and provides email accounts. AT&T, Comcast and AOL are leaders in this. ISPs usually provide access but little in the way of content. They lease high-speed connections to the Internet backbone from telecommunication carriers in order to do their job.

*Content Service Provider: their job is to make Web pages more interesting by providing content to the ISPs such as news, entertainment and graphic design. Raw information that others might shape into information services is part of CSP; therefore in a way anyone who has ever posted his/her own home page on the WWW or made a blog entry is a CSP.

Who are the leading makers of computer software and hardware?

*Hardware: although Apple and IBM are the two companies that started the personal computer trend, they are now minor players since Dell and Hewlett-Packard have conquered much. Dell & Hewlett-Packard are the leading makers of computer hardware. Just like these two companies are in control of the market share of hardware, Cisco Systems is still the leading maker of network gear for the Internet.

*Software: Microsoft dominates personal computer operating system software and also many application categories including word processing and Web browsers. A lot of software is becoming freeware or shareware like Linux, but the authors do not claim copyright protection, therefore users prefer Microsoft for all the benefits it gives.

What makes a good Web page design?

A good Web page is one that engages the user and makes the user stay longer and return. For it to have a good design, there should be a continual update of content and episodic story telling. Graphic designers adapt eye-catching colors and attractive layouts just like they do with magazines. Content plays a huge role, but it is said that users prefer short items to lengthy articles. Personalization of content to individual users is also a plus; since it establishes a personal relationship with the user by making the visitors linger longer and return often. Also, having giveaways, contests and sometimes videos make the design of the page even catchier. 

List the major types of content on the Web

The World Wide Web’s content can be characterized according to the various domains that are appended to uniform resource locators (URL’s).  These can be:

·      Electronic Publishing: this categorization includes information published only on the Internet and online versions of conventional print publications. Examples of these are: magazines, newspapers and books.

·      Entertainment: easy access to the Internet has made viewers switch from watching shows on TV to watching them on computers. New programs like Itunes, Hulu and Rhapsody have been developed to provide users with ways in which they can obtain music, movies, TV shows and other information. Big producers like ABC and FOX have uploaded free copies of their TV shows onto their websites so people can watch them at any time and no cost.

·      Online Games: although they too are a form of entertainment, their intense interactivity puts them in a category of their own. Sorcery and magic fantasy themes are the most common, but there are 200 multiplayer games to choose from.

·      Portals: are Web pages that users launch when they first log into the Web. It combines directories, interpersonal communication and information into an all-purpose launch pad. Leading portal sites are Yahoo!, AOL and MSN.

·      Search Engine: their job is to match the words you type into the search window to seek out online information based on matches to the key words supplied. Google has emerged as the giant among search engines.

·      Communities: is a place where users can post their opinions and share information with each other. Examples of these are: chat rooms, instant messenger, online forums and sites like Facebook and MySpace.

·      Blogs: these are a cross between a personal Web page, diary, online directory and a newspaper editorial page.

·      Electronic Commerce: e-commerce is known to have a business to consumer protocol. Businesses make sales directly to consumers.

What target markets do you belong to and how do advertisers reach each of your aspects?

A target market is a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and merchandise. There are many ways in which advertisers can do this and like the book discusses some of these persuasion forms are: mining pop culture, direct marketing and relationship marketing. Mining pop culture is when advertisers align themselves with the consumer through the art and entertainment of popular culture. They borrow familiar symbols from the culture to promote consumer identification with the product; an example of this is the commercial for iPod in which they feature a silhouetted hip-hop dancing and music. When I first saw this ad, it immediately grabbed my attention and I knew I wanted to be that silhouette because of the liberty and freedom it projected. Apple is not the only company that manages to grab my attention every time one of their ads comes up, Converse does it too. Being a female college student, it easy to believe that I belong to that particular target market and so Converse has managed to capture the essence of college life in different ways. They have various commercials and ads, each dedicated to the different age groups, but in general their target market is young adults.

Besides from age and gender, another target market I consider myself a part of is diversity. As an international student here in the US, I find myself feeling more in connection with commercials or ads that target this. By promoting unity or showing how no matter where you are from, we are still a part of one world, these commercials tend to make me feel valuable and that I am one of the many whose culture is being represented in those ads. Interest is also another by which I get targeted. Advertisements for movies like Harry Potter, Inception or Hangover, attract my attention and play a role in my decision making when watching a movie. Same works for music, books and clothing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3n1hFLF_pc

What are the good things that advertising does for you and for society?

Advertising is a form of communication that is intended to persuade an audience into doing something, purchasing a specific product or taking some action towards an ideal or service. This form of communication can be good because it facilitates the way in which information is distributed to people and also allows this information to be taken into different levels. It also creates a whole new world of challenges and job opportunities in which people can work hard to be a part of. In today’s world advertising has gone from a simper form of communication to a sophisticated way in which technology plays a huge role. Living in a society in which technology has a major part, advertising allows professionals to explore new ways of thinking and new ways of targeting the audiences in order to actually get them to like whatever it is they are promoting. Aside from creating job opportunities and giving professionals a new field to explore, advertising can also be used as a support system of good causes, an example of this is how Converse, Apple and Gap have joined the battle against AIDS by adopting the RED brand and advertising for it.

On my part, advertising is good for me because it allows me to see what is the next big thing. By advertisements I find out about movie trailers, release dates, concerts and new books. It makes information come to me, rather than searching it myself, so it basically facilitates my life. It also makes information that I would normally not pay attention to, more accessible and actually interesting. 

Cannes Lions

Cannes Lions is dedicated to the Cannes festival that occurs once a year. Unlike Ad week and Mediabistro, Cannes Lions website discusses the future festival, as well as past festivals and winners. The Cannes Lions International Festival is the world’s biggest celebration of creativity in communications and is also considered ‘the world’s only truly global meeting place for professionals in the communications industry’.  This festival is the door for many entrepreneurs in the advertisement world to meet important people and be honored in the highest way possible. More than 24,000 entries from all over the world are showcased and judged in the festival and the winners are presented with a highly coveted lion trophy. More than 8,000 delegates form 90 countries attend seven days of workshops, exhibitions, screenings, master classes and high-profile seminars given by industry leaders such as Yoko Ono, Kofi Annan, Mark Zuckerberg, Ben Stiller, Bob Greenberg and Sir Martin Scorrell.

This is the biggest global award show in brand communication and annual gathering of advertising professionals. The website gives users all the possible information on the background of this festival and coverage of past and future festivals. With stories on winners and links to free screenings, this site helps promote the Cannes Lions festival. 

Mediabistro.com

Mediabistro is another ad site that has been designed to bring professionals together and allow them to explore possibilities by meeting informally and work with each other. Their greater goal is to ‘revolutionize the way creative/content industry professionals relate’. They want people to have a place where these professionals can work on projects together, mentor each other and allow them to see how much in common they have from their past experiences. Their mission is to offer opportunities to share resources, improve career skills, become informed of job opportunities and showcase your work. The site is open to anyone who creates or works with content such as: editors, writers, producers and book publishers. They also want industries to participate and so they are also open to magazines, radio, newspapers, advertising, design, online media and PR.

Like Ad week, Mediabistro also is very user-friendly and gives users a chance to use the site a medium of information to research jobs and post different things. Articles on this site relate to different topics and also provide new insight and information on how to do things better. Amongst the articles or posts found on this site are: “Get creative with a nonfiction proposal for Lit agent” and “Cheezburger network CEO Ben Huh’s career advise for entrepreneurs”.

Ad Week

Ad week is an online site that has been created to provide inside stories on creativity, client/agency relationships and successful global advertising strategies. They also provide news of accounts in review, the best creative work and new campaigns. The website is considered by several users to be very media rich, which can sometimes cause a few problems depending on the computer being used. Many employees in the advertising industry or any other industries are limited to using a standard, networked computer with Internet Explorer during their daily work and are unable to add plug-ins or upgrades, making it impossible for them to actually view the articles on the site.

Their mission or as they put it in their –about us section- is that Ad week ‘is the home for creative thought leaders and top agency influencers looking for the latest strategies, innovations and ideas”. They manage to keep their promise by keeping their site up-to-date with stories like “Fox’s Jon Nesvig to Retire” and “ASME issues new ad guidelines”. They also provide users with different forms of newsletters such as: Ad week creative, Ad week breaking news, Ad week IQ daily and Ad week daily update.

DVR’s Bring Some Shows a Boost in Ratings

According to the article by Bill Carter, DVR’s will boost the ratings of various TV shows. Amongst the TV shows he claims DVR’s will help are: Glee, House and Modern Family. All these shows have strong ratings amongst the population of 18-49, but with the help of DVR’s they all will show a better rating.

As Mr. Carter explains in his article: “the official numbers for the first week will be released Tuesday but those numbers will not reflect the reality of what viewers actually watched in Week One” this is because they will take into account the ratings once people with DVR’s have actually watched their favorite shows. As he tells us in the article, the results are not taken into consideration until two or more weeks. With this new number, ratings tend to usually look much more positive for both returning and new shows.

Although some shows still remained with a low rating, most of the shows that were DVR had a better rating. This also raises an important question about TV and its shows, why do people DVR shows? A simple answer to this is because of the lack of time, but there is much more than just that. People love to use DVR’s because it gives them more control over the shows. They can choose when to watch them and make sure they do not miss a thing of their favorite shows. Also, an important answer is that people dislike commercial breaks in between shows, therefore by DVR-ing their shows they can easily skip them and just watch the show.


http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/dvrs-bring-some-shows-a-boost-in-ratings/

If Conventional TV model is dying, what should replace it?

 I think computers and the Internet will replace conventional TV. With technology changing and becoming better each day, computers have a better shot at succeeding and staying in place of TV’s. The Internet too, has gone from being used only to deliver certain information, to be a place where we search our favorite shows and movies. So, basically this shows us that computers and the Internet are revolutionizing our world and the way in which we receive information.

If we ask ourselves: What function does TV play in our lives? We realize that it really only serves as a mode of relaxation and to deliver information. These two things can be done by using your computers and the Internet. Every TV show can now be found ‘online’ and watched in sites like: YouTube, Hulu and Netflix. These sites bring even more benefits that conventional TV, because you get the choice to watch them whenever and wherever you want. Even though, there are DVR’s and TIVO to provide a service similar to this one, people still choose to use their computers, because these are portable.

Another reason why computers and the Internet will replace TV is because the service is much cheaper than cable TV and there is much more variety than TV’s. Monitors can be as big as big TV sets, but the difference is that you can do much more in a monitor than the TV. People will always look to multitask or have hardware in which you can do more than just one thing; therefore computers fulfill this role much better than TV’s. For these reasons mentioned above, I believe computers and the Internet will replace conventional TV’s in the years to come.