Print culture
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Print culture embodies all forms of printed text and other printed forms of
In terms of image-based communication, a similar transformation came in Europe from the fifteenth century on with the introduction of the
Print culture is the conglomeration of effects on human society that is created by making printed forms of communication. Print culture encompasses many stages as it has evolved in response to technological advances. Print culture can first be studied from the period of time involving the gradual movement from oration to script as it is the basis for print culture. As the printing became commonplace, script became insufficient and printed documents were mass-produced. The era of physical print has had a lasting effect on human culture, but with the advent of digital text, some scholars believe the printed word may become obsolete.[citation needed]
The electronic media, including the World Wide Web, can be seen as an outgrowth of print culture.
The development of print culture in china
Prior to print
Prior to print, knowledge was transmitted through
Ong suggests scribal culture is defined by an alphabet. McKenzie says that the key to scribal culture is non-verbal communication, which can be accomplished in more ways than using an alphabet. These two views give rise to the importance of print culture. In scribal culture, procuring documents was a difficult task, and documentation would then be limited to the rich only. Ideas are difficult to spread amongst large groups of people over large distances of land, not allowing for effective dissemination of knowledge.
Scribal culture also deals with large levels of inconsistency. In the process of copying documents, many times the meaning became changed, and the words different. Reliance on the written text of the time was never exceedingly strong. Over time, a greater need for reliable, quickly reproduced, and a relatively inexpensive means of distributing written text arose. Scribal culture, transforming into print culture, was only replicated in manners of written text.
Jack Goody, however, documents that the introduction of written language was transformative for finances, religion, law, and governance. Written language facilitated higher levels of organization, coherence and consistency of messages, extending reach of control, ownership and belief, creating rule of law, critical comparison of statements, among other effects.[4] Extensive scribal cultures with corresponding social consequences emerged in the ancient Middle East,[5] the Ancient Hebrew world, Classic Greece and Rome,[6] India,[7] China,[8][9] Mesoamerica,[10] and the Islamic world.[11] The complexity of cultural change in the ancient Middle East is documented in the Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture.[12]
Development of print
The Chinese invention of
Hand-copied illustrations were replaced by first woodcuts, later engravings that could be duplicated precisely, revolutionizing technical literature.[21]
Print culture, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and Early Modern Science
Eisenstein has described how the high costs of copying scribal works often led to their abandonment and eventual destruction. Furthermore, the cost and time of copying led to the slow propagation of ideas. In contrast, the printing press allowed rapid propagation of ideas, resulting in knowledge and cultural movements that were far harder to destroy. Eisenstein points to prior renaissances (rebirths) of classical learning prior to the printing press that failed. In contrast, the Renaissance was a permanent revival of classical learning because the printing of classical works put them into a permanent and widely read form. Similarly, Eisenstein points to a large number of prior attempts in Western Europe to assert doctrines contrary to the ruling Catholic Church. In contrast, the
Because of the transformative consequences of the printing press, printing houses such as that of
Renaissance
Enlightenment
With the rise of literacy, books and other texts became more entrenched in the culture of the West. Along with literacy and more printed words also came censorship, especially from governments. In France,
Print culture and the American Revolution
A profound impact
Numerous eras throughout history have been defined through the use of print culture. The American Revolution was a major historical conflict fought after print culture brought the rise of literacy. Furthermore, print culture's ability to shape and guide society was a critical component before, during, and after the Revolution.
Pre-Revolution
Many different printed documents influenced the beginning of the revolution.
Additionally, during the 18th century, the production of printed newspapers in the colonies greatly increased. In 1775, more copies of newspapers were issued in
In 1775,
During the Revolution
Newspapers were printed during the revolution covering battle reports and propaganda. These reports were usually falsified by Washington in order to keep morale up among American citizens and troops. Washington was not the only one to falsify these reports, as other generals (on both sides) used this technique as well. The newspapers also covered some of the battles in great detail, especially the ones that the American forces won, in order to gain support from other countries in hopes that they would join the American forces in the fight against the British.
Before the Revolution, the British placed multiple acts upon the colonies, such as the stamp act. Many newspaper companies worried that the British would punish them for printing papers without a British seal, so they were forced to temporarily discontinue their work or simply change the title of their paper. However, some patriotic publishers, particularly those in Boston, continued their papers without any alteration of their title.
The Declaration of Independence is a very important written document that was drafted by the Committee of Five and other Founding Fathers representing the original Thirteen Colonies, as a form of print culture that would declare their independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain and explained the justifications for doing so. While it was explicitly documented on July 4, 1776, it was not recognized by Great Britain until September 3, 1783, by the Treaty of Paris.
Post-Revolution
After the signing of the Treaty of Paris, a cluster of free states in need of a government was created. The basis for this government was known as the Articles of Confederation, which were put to effect in 1778 and formed the first governing document of the United States of America. This document, however, was found to be unsuitable to outline the structure of the government, and thus showed an ineffectual use of print culture, and since printed texts were the most respected documents of the time, this called for an alteration in the document used to govern the confederation.
It was the job of the
Thomas Jefferson was noted as saying, "The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."[26] This serves as an excellent example of how newspapers were highly regarded by the colonial people. In fact, much like other forms of 18th century print culture, newspapers played a very important role in the government following the Revolutionary War. Not only were they one of the few methods in the 18th century to voice the opinion of the people, they also allowed for the ideas to be disseminated to a wide audience, a primary goal of printed text. A famous example of the newspaper being used as a medium to convey ideas were The Federalist Papers. These were first published in New York City newspapers in 1788 and pushed for people to accept the idea of the United States Constitution by enumerating 85 different articles that justified its presence, adding to a series of texts designed to reinforce each other, and ultimately serving as a redefinition of the 18th century.
The state of print today
Today, print has matured to a state where the majority of modern society has come to have certain expectations regarding the printed book:
- The knowledge contained by printed books is believed to be accurate.
- The cited author of a printed book does indeed exist and is actually the person who wrote it.
- Every copy of a printed book is identical (at least in the important aspects) to every other copy, no matter how far apart the locations are in which they are sold.
Copyright laws help to protect these standards. However, a few regions do exist in the world where literary piracy has become a standard commercial practice. In such regions, the preceding expectations are not the norm.[27]
Currently, there are still approximately 2.3 billion books still sold each year worldwide. However, this number is steadily decreasing due to the ever-growing popularity of the Internet and other forms of digital media.
Transition to the digital era
As David J. Gunkel states in his article "What's the Matter with Books?", society is currently in the late age of the text; the moment of transition from print to electronic culture where it is too late for printed books and yet too early for electronic texts. Jay David Bolter, author of Writing Space, also discusses our culture in what he calls "the late age of print." The current debate going on in the literary world is whether or not the computer will replace the printed book as the repository and definition of human knowledge. There is still a very large audience committed to printed texts, who are not interested in moving to a digital representation of the repository for human knowledge. Bolter, in his own scholarship and also along with Richard Grusin in Remediation, explains that despite current fears about the end of print, the format will never be erased but only remediated. New forms of technology (new media) will be created which utilize features of old media, thus preventing old media's (aka print's) erasure. At the same time, there are also concerns over whether obsolescence and deterioration make digital media unsuitable for long-term archival purposes. Much of the early paper used for print is highly acidic, and will ultimately destroy itself.
The way that information is transferred has also changed with this new age of digital text and the shift towards electronic media. Gunkel states that information now takes the form of immaterial bits of digital data that are circulated at the speed of light. Consequently, what the printed book states about the exciting new culture and economy of bits is abraded by the fact that this information has been delivered in the slow and outdated form of physical paper.
In the article, "The First Amendment, Print Culture, and the Electronic Environment", the author notes that expectations will change as information becomes less tied to specific locations, and as machines become networked and linked to other machines.[28] This means that in the future certain goods will not be associated with their origins.
The article "The First Amendment, Print Culture, and the Electronic Environment" also mentions how the new electronic age will make print better.
Changes in technology and its effect on print culture
There are more online publications,
The advances of technology in print culture can be separated into three shifts:
- spoken language to the written word,
- the written word to Printing press,
- the printing press to the computer/internet.
The written word has made history recordable and accurate. The printing press, some may argue, is not a part of print culture, but had a substantial impact upon the development of print culture through the times. The printing press brought uniform copies and efficiency in print. It allowed a person to make a living from writing. Most importantly, it spread print throughout society.
The advances made by technology in print also impact anyone using cell phones, laptops, and personal digital organizers. From novels being delivered via a cell phone, the ability to text message and send letters via e-mail clients, to having entire libraries stored on PDAs, print is being influenced by devices.
Non-textual forms of print culture
Symbols, logos and printed images are forms of printed media that do not rely on text. They are ubiquitous in modern urban life. Analyzing these cultural products is an important part of the field of cultural studies. Print has given rise to a wider distribution of pictures in society in conjunction with the printed word. Incorporation of printed pictures in magazines, newspapers, and books gave printed material a wider mass appeal through the ease of visual communication.
Text and print
There is a common miscommunication that occurs when discussing that which is print and that which is text. In the literary world, notable scholars such as
See also
- Elizabeth Eisenstein
- Johann Gutenberg
- Walter J. Ong
- Jay David Bolter
- Understanding Media
- Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing
Notes
- ^ Albert B. Lord, The singer of tales (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960).
- ^ Rubin, D. C. (1995). Memory in oral traditions. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Renfrew, C., & Scarre, C. (Eds.). (1999). Cognition and material culture: The archaeology of symbolic storage. Cambridge, England: McDonald Institute.
- ^ Goody, J. (1986). The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Vanstiphout, H. L. J. (1995). On the old Babylonian Eduba curriculum. In J. W. Drijvers & A. A. MacDonald (Eds.), Centres of learning: Learning and location in pre-modern Europe and the Near East (pp. 3–16). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.
- ^ Havelock, E. (1982). The literate revolution in Greece and its cultural consequences. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- ^ Mookerji, K. R. (1969). Ancient Indian education: Brahmanical and Buddhist. London: Macmillan.
- ^ a b Connery, C. L. (1998). The empire of the text. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
- ^ Lee, T. H. C. (2000). Education in traditional China: A history (Handbook of Oriental Studies, Vol. 13). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.
- ^ Berdan, F. (2005). The Aztecs of central Mexico: An imperial society. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
- ^ Makdisi, G. (1981). The rise of colleges: Institutions of learning in Islam and the West. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.
- ^ Radner, K. & Robson, E. (Eds.). (2011). The Oxford Handbook of Cuneiform Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ISBN 0-691-00326-2
- ^ Luo, S. (1998). An illustrated history of printing in ancient China. Hong Kong: City University Press.
- ^ Wang, H. (2014). Writing and the ancient state: Early China in comparative perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Briggs, Asa and Burke, Peter (2002) A Social History of the Media: from Gutenberg to the Internet, Polity, Cambridge, pp.15-23, 61-73.
- ^ Polenz, Peter von. (1991). Deutsche Sprachgeschichte vom Spätmittelalter bis zur Gegenwart: I. Einführung, Grundbegriffe, Deutsch in der frühbürgerlichen Zeit (in German). New York/Berlin: Gruyter, Walter de GmbH.
- ^ Thomas Christensen (2007). "Did East Asian Printing Traditions Influence the European Renaissance?". Arts of Asia Magazine (to appear). Retrieved 2006-10-18.
- Thomas Franklin Carter, The Invention of Printing in China and its Spread Westward, The Ronald Press, NY 2nd ed. 1955, pp. 176–178
- ISBN 978-0-13-923897-0.
- ^ Eisenstein 155
- ^ Eisenstein, E. L. (1979). The printing press as an agent of change. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Johns, A. (1998). The nature of the book: Print and knowledge in the making. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- ^ Lyons, Martyn. Books: A Living History. Paul Getty Museum, 2011. Chapter 2.
- ^ Lyons, Martyn. Books: A Living History. Paul Getty Museum, 2011. Chapter 3.
- ^ "Amendment I (Speech and Press): Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington". press-pubs.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2023-07-30.
- ^ Johns 61
- ^ "The First Amendment, Print Culture, and the Electronic Environment". www-unix.oit.umass.edu. Archived from the original on 2006-06-19.
- ^ "The First Amendment, Print Culture, and the Electronic Environment". www-unix.oit.umass.edu. Archived from the original on 2006-06-19.
References
- Bolter, Jay David. Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990.
- Bolter, Jay David, and Richard Grusin. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
- Multigraph Collective (Scholarly group). (2018). Interacting with print elements of reading in the era of print saturation. The University of Chicago Press.
- Eisenstein, Elizabeth The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe
- Eisenstein, Elizabeth. “Defining the Initial Shift: Some features of print culture.” The Book History Reader. David Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. 151-173.
- Finkelstein, David and Alistair McCleery An Introduction to Book History. Routledge, 2005.
- S2CID 143294278.
- Johns, Adrian. “The Book of Nature and the Nature of the Book.” The Book History Reader. David Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. 59-76.
- Katsh, Ethan. "Digital Lawyers: Orienting the Legal Profession to Cyberspace." University of Pittsburgh Law Review. v. 55, No. 4 (Summer 1994).
- -- III. The First Amendment, Print Culture, and the Electronic Environment
- Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word. London and New York: Routledge, 1982. 78-116.
- Ong, Walter J.Ramus, Method and the Decay of Dialogue.
- Patten, E., McElligott, J. (Eds). (2014). The perils of print culture: book, print and publishing history in theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.