Mass Media and Society

Chapter 3: Books

Jan. 24, 2014

Chapter 3:Books

• History of books• Books and development

of U.S. popular culture• Major book formats• Current publishing trends• Influence of new

technology

Gutenberg

• Mechanical movable type, 1448

• Gutenberg Revolution paved the way for commercial mass printing of books

Results of mass production

• More books at lower cost led to greater reach, helped fuel Renaissance

• Knowledge became democratized

• Books published in vernacular

Document control

• Copyright: gives the right to exclude others from copying, distributing and selling a creator’s work

• Public domain: When copyright expires, content can be used freely

Copyright

• Began with 14-year terms, expanding to initial 28 and then renewable for 28

• Copyright Act of 1976 extends copyright to life of author plus 50 years

Copyright

• 1998’s Copyright Term Extension Act added 20-year extension to all copyrighted works

• Called the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act” because Disney lobbied for it

Fair Use

• 1976: For the first time, specified ways in which a work under copyright can be legally used

• “Criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research is not an infringement”

Girl Talk

Books and U.S. popular culture

• 1852: “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” helps start a war

• 300,000 copies sold in first year

• Stage and film adaptations, some unauthorized

Books and U.S. popular culture

• Twain (humor, social commentary) and Poe (horror, detective/mystery)

• Multicultural literature• Novel franchises

Publishing trends

• Blockbuster syndrome• Book superstores’ rise

and fall• Role of independent

booksellers

Influence ofnew technology

• E-books make up less than 5 percent of market but growing

• More than a million public domain titles available

• Publisher conflict with Amazon

E-books• 28 percent read e-books

in 2014, up from 17 percent in 2011

• Just 4 percent are “e-book only’ readers

• Americans read an average of 5 books a year; trend is steady

Influence ofnew technology

• Digitizing libraries• Print-on-demand and self-

publishing grows increasingly popular for professional and amateur writers