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