Ink Into Bits: A Web of Converging MediaScarecrow Press, 1998 - 292 pages Ink into Bits is concerned with the impact and advantages of new technologies on human experiences from publishing, to education, to everyday recreational reading. Included is a bibliography, a list of recommended reading, and an appendix of statistical charts which show how various factors relating to electronic publishing have changed over the years. Ink into Bits is intended for students in courses on communication or technology in society, for students of library and information science, for librarians, for writers, and for book people of all kinds. It discusses the practical realities of new computer and communication technologies in non-technical terms, and avoids the hype that surrounds "futurology" and "technology prophecy." A readable introduction to the future of the word: where it will ever remain, and new areas where it will likely appear. |
Contents
Changing Media in a Changing World | 1 |
The Power of the Written Word | 2 |
The Medium and the Message | 5 |
Electronic Mail | 6 |
Multimedia | 7 |
Airwaves Cables Telephones and Death Stars | 8 |
Hyperactivity? | 12 |
Media and Information | 15 |
Multiple Channels Multiple Modes | 127 |
The Information Superhighway | 128 |
Distribution | 129 |
Time | 130 |
Cost | 131 |
Pushing and Pulling | 133 |
Selectivity of Distribution | 134 |
Selectivity of Access | 138 |
What Is a Medium? | 20 |
What Are the Important Media? | 22 |
Are the Media Merging? | 23 |
Some Media History | 26 |
The Book | 28 |
The Telephone | 30 |
Radio and Television | 32 |
Computers and Computer Networks | 36 |
Interactions of Media | 39 |
The Special Place of Books and Writing in Our Culture | 41 |
What After All Is a Book? | 43 |
The Sequence and Discipline of Reading | 46 |
Other Forms of Writing | 48 |
Gatekeeping Censorship and Responsible Editing | 49 |
Reverence for the Book | 52 |
The Book as the Record | 53 |
Representing and Presenting Information | 56 |
What Is Meant by Information Representation? | 58 |
Representing Text | 59 |
Analog and Digital Characters and Pixels | 61 |
Representing Sound and Pictures | 64 |
Bringing Them All Together | 67 |
Linear Text and Hypertext | 69 |
What Is Hypertext? | 71 |
Advantages of Hypertext | 73 |
Disadvantages | 78 |
Directions | 80 |
Interacting with Information Machines | 86 |
The Nature of Interactive Machines | 87 |
Interactive Computing | 89 |
Virtual Reality | 92 |
Summary | 98 |
Multimedia | 100 |
What Is or Are Multimedia? A Review | 101 |
The Appeal | 102 |
The Threat | 104 |
Modern Telecommunications The Information Highway | 109 |
Some Telecommunication Basics | 110 |
The Telephone | 114 |
Radio and Television | 117 |
Facsimile | 121 |
The Internet | 122 |
Comprehension | 142 |
A Parallel to Mathematics | 144 |
Linear vs NonLinear Text | 145 |
Uni vs Multimedia | 146 |
Reading vs Creating | 147 |
The Value of Learning to Search | 149 |
Inspiration vs Presentation | 151 |
Adoption of New Technology | 153 |
Social Factors | 154 |
Cost | 156 |
Performance | 161 |
Markets | 166 |
What Is the Market? | 167 |
The Market Now | 169 |
Obstacles to Market Growth | 175 |
The Future Market | 178 |
Protecting the Consumer | 182 |
Regulation | 183 |
Will the Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Poorer? | 192 |
Thinking about Change | 197 |
Are Changes in Book Technology Undesirable? | 198 |
Are Changes in Book Technology Inevitable? | 199 |
What Might We Want of New Book Technology? | 200 |
What Do We Want? | 209 |
Thinking about the Future | 211 |
Technology | 212 |
Publications and Their Users | 214 |
Effects on Society and Industry | 226 |
Conclusions | 229 |
Form | 231 |
Content | 232 |
People | 233 |
The Disappearance of Print? | 234 |
Summary of Conclusions | 236 |
Appendix | 239 |
Notes | 259 |
| 268 | |
| 279 | |
| 283 | |
About the Author | |
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Common terms and phrases
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