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E-readers and the death of the book: Or, new media and the myth of the disappearing medium
- Source :
- New Media & Society. 18:2379-2394
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- SAGE Publications, 2016.
-
Abstract
- The recent emergence of e-readers and e-books has b\ud rought the death of the book to the centre of \ud current debates on new media. In this article, we a\ud nalyse alternative narratives that surround the \ud possibility of the disappearance of print books, do\ud minated by fetishism, fears about the end of \ud humanism, and ideas of techno-fundamentalist progre\ud ss. We argue that, in order to comprehend \ud such narratives, we need to inscribe them in the br\ud oader history of media. The emergence of new \ud media, in fact, has often been accompanied by narra\ud tives about the possible disappearance of \ud older media: the introduction of television, for in\ud stance, inspired claims about the forthcoming \ud death of film and radio. As a recurrent narrative s\ud haping the reception of media innovation, the \ud myth of the disappearing medium helps us to make se\ud nse of the transformations that media \ud change provokes in our everyday life.
- Subjects :
- e-book
Sociology and Political Science
Biographies of media
media history
050801 communication & media studies
Humanism
Old media
0508 media and communications
Fetishism
Narrative
old media
Sociology
Social science
Everyday life
Media event
media imaginary
print media
digital turn
business.industry
Communication
05 social sciences
Media studies
e-reader
end of books
new media
New media
Media
0509 other social sciences
050904 information & library sciences
business
geog
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14617315 and 14614448
- Volume :
- 18
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- New Media & Society
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....e95e867bff96acab4255875b882440e7