1) Text: Digital vs Print

As we discussed in class, and as many have come to realize, there is no one specific way to describe Digital Publishing. There is not one single term that describes digital publishing, the industry, or the producers of such, though Google still provides a definition that states “Digital publishing, also known as electronic publishing or e-publishing, is any type of publishing that involves disseminating information or entertainment by digital means.” Nevertheless, this is still a broad term.

Digital Publishing is a wide term and everyone you ask will give you a different answer to what is is. Digital Publishing ranges from social media, blogs, and YouTube videos, to online academic essays, novels, and books. According to the authors of “Writer/Designer”, all aspects of texts are multimodal, or a combination of a mode – a way of communicating – and multiple versions of it. Therefore, when even types of publishing are considered as broad terms, how does one decipher between the capabilities of digital and print text?

I remember when I first got my Nook for Christmas at least ten years ago. Like it says in “What does 2016 Hold for Digital Publishing,” …We all know what happens when we first get a new device-we go a little crazy and buy a lot of books,” which is exactly what I did. I was amazed at the fact that not only were all my books right in front of me, but that I could also play games, change the font size, add comments, and take pictures. However, as we sit in publishing classes I begin to wonder how different print text and digital text actually are. 

“Texts are never monomodal, never just written…” as written in Writer/Designer, and many texts are created to use both visuals and language. When reading a textbook, both digitally and on print, there are multiple aspects to what you are reading. As bauers mentions, Print and Digital text differ as “Print publishing mainly focuses on the page and often relies on the viewer to turn the page to read a footnote or a cross-reference. Digital publishing frequently includes other forms of media such as audio and video, and uses hyperlinks or scrolling in order for the consumer to read further.”

Though digital print and print text may have different variations on how their information is portrayed, and though one of the other may provide more options for the reader (such as external links, or other senses such as hearing, touch, or smell,”) the main job of a text is to provide information to the reader, which both areas do. Without publishing, we would not have these texts, and without digital publishing, we would not have the opportunity to read, or discover, things online.

 

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Works cited:

Albanese, Andrew Richard, and Calvin Reid. “What Does 2016 Hold for Digital Publishing?” Publishersweekly.com, Publisher’s Weekly, 1 Jan. 2016, www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/retailing/article/69047-what-does-2016-hold-for-digital.html.

Arola, Kristin L., et al. Writer/Designer: A Guide to Making Multimodal Projects. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014.

bauers, Pros and Cons of Digital vs Print. 28 January 2018.