There has been a lot of buzz on web versus print<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>with Clay Shirky<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0(Shoutout to Temporaryversion) discussing the business implications of old models struggling to deal with new ones. \u00a0(Here’s an example by Shirky on why newspapers cannot adopt a iTunes-like model<\/a><\/strong>). \u00a0I see one of the key challenges as culture, in that (North)American culture is one of what I call “quick cuts and remix.” \u00a0You see this in talk of convergence culture <\/a><\/strong>and Jenkins’s book<\/strong><\/a>, which describes instances of the modalities<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and materialities (Pfeiffer<\/a><\/strong>) of media combining. \u00a0We see in our everyday lives the Internet is taking over TV viewing time and also offering up viewing of broadcast TV\/radio shows. \u00a0We can read books online or on handheld devices like Kindle hooked to databases. \u00a0Advertising and product placement are becoming more and more ubiquitous, so that\u00a0this will be not so far-fetched<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0[ThickCulture is brought to you by Contexts. \u00a0Cutting-edge content provided free of charge by the American Sociological Association]<\/span><\/p>\n We “scan” and read “at” things. \u00a0If we (or our attention spans) are pinched for time, we get information by reading the Yahoo headlines, not the article. \u00a0We are promiscuous in our media habits and don’t want to pay for things we don’t feel we should pay for.<\/p>\n Enter Walter Benjamin & Roger Chartier. \u00a0Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0(full text here<\/a><\/strong>) in my opinion is central to understanding what’s going on. \u00a0If we look at media content as “art,” a pattern emerges:<\/p>\n “An analysis of art in the age of mechanical reproduction must do justice to these relationships, for they lead us to an all-important insight: for the first time in world history, mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritu<\/span>al<\/span>. To an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From a photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the \u201cauthentic\u201d print makes no sense. But the instant the criterion of authenticity ceases to be applicable to artistic production, the total function of art is reversed. Instead of being based on ritua<\/span>l, it begins to be based on another practice \u2013 politics<\/span>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Two things. \u00a0I think that content isn’t emancipated from ritual, but rather that new rituals and culturally-driven patterns of praxis (i.e.<\/em>, drivers of meaning) are created, often in unpredictable ways. \u00a0Media content can now be taken and repurposed. \u00a0The mashup is a perfect example, along with user-driven meanings in Web 2.0. \u00a0The reference to politics as a basis is a nod to Benjamin’s Marxism. \u00a0I believe that media content and art now are squarely in the realm, not of politics, but of the political economy<\/strong>, specifically in terms of inter\/actions in markets. \u00a0<\/p>\n Roger Chartier in The Order of Books<\/a><\/strong> notes that in studying print capitalism, in order to understand it within a\u00a0cultural context, we need to address (1) the text (content), (2) the book (media),\u00a0and (3) reading practices. \u00a0There has been a lot of\u00a0attention on the first two, but less solid understanding on the reading of media. \u00a0What Jenkins teaches us through his thick description of the current media milieu is that the lines between media are blurring. \u00a0We see it in the modes and materialities, but also in the economics. \u00a0I feel we are moving towards a singularity of media. \u00a0For example, some will say print and broadcast TV are both dead, as both will soon be killed by the web. \u00a0That’s the wrong way of thinking. \u00a0This assumes a linearity akin to upshifting a manual transmission.<\/p>\n In terms of media praxis, success will often be about creating models of how media can be intertwined to create value. \u00a0Take any pop culture figure, such as\u00a0Lindsay\u00a0Lohan<\/strong>. \u00a0She’s in\u00a0film<\/a><\/strong>, she’s\u00a0a\u00a0singer<\/strong><\/a>, a\u00a0celebrity newsmaker and<\/a>\u00a0tabloid fodder<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0and the butt of the satirists’ joke<\/a> (see left)<\/span><\/strong>. \u00a0The Internet is moving towards collapsing all paths to Lindsay into a single Lindsay\u00dcberstra\u00dfe, <\/em>a vertitable autobahn of linked Web 2.0 content.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I think it is telling that the Journalism School at CUNY<\/a><\/strong>, which is earning a reputation for being on the leading edge, is no longer requiring students to commit to a media track<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0Additionally, with integrated market communications (IMC), there will be increasing market-based pressures to view media as one. \u00a0A future post will grapple with the Deleuzean<\/a><\/strong> idea of singularity and how it applies to media. \u00a0I think we need to address how people are “reading” all media in this Web 2.0 age. \u00a0Why? \u00a0We finally might get a handle on figuring out how the new technologies will specifically\u00a0transform culture, economics, and society.<\/p>\n Is print dead? \u00a0What about the demise of the Fourth estate<\/a><\/strong>, perhaps a linchpin of democracy? \u00a0Well, someone else said this, not me, but I’m more interested in good journalism than newspapers. \u00a0The problem is that newspapers and the \u00a0news media are often tied to economic imperatives, which is (in my opinion) a historical trajectory that is by no means set. \u00a0We need to think about content in the age of infinite replication, which makes Benjamin such an important figure.<\/p>\n My friend Mimi Zeiger at Loudpaper<\/a><\/strong> blogged about the state of print<\/a>. \u00a0<\/strong>I think it’s important to think about the implications of the functions<\/em> of journalism and publishing and how these will be manifested, as media goes singular. \u00a0I personally feel a certain fondness for actual printed work. \u00a0It may have more to do with the specific \u00e6sthetics of the medium than anything and possibly the tactile experience.<\/p>\n![\""Valentine:](\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/files\/2009\/03\/lohanwonderland_22-69x100.jpg\" "\\"lohanwonderland_22\\"")
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