after an entertaining term in the grips of media sociology for many of us, with occasional forays into the world of ebooks, I am interested to see what becomes of the iPad. An interesting clip:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
I am interested to see if this does spark a whole new way of reading. I think if it is going to do better than the Kindle-y type of thing, they are going to have to start dealing with issues of copyright and ownership which have remained bleak for the average reader in the amazon. Although the apps are just awesome, I want to know that what I buy is not going to be taken back at the whim of a larger corporate interest, or some censorship debacle. But hey, if I could afford this...Additionally, how will this shape consumption? Whereas the Internet has broken the cycle of mass media (again) with user generated content, the iPad seems to return to the older "arts" of "passive" reading, although you can update and share, really long texts etc. are not the idea...As for advertising etc etc...
One medium which could get a real boost is the Newspaper? Maybe? thoughts?
I wonder whether the iPad can truely be the revolution of media consumption that some people make it out to be. I think the economic-monetary hurdle is to high - in other words, it's too expensive. The iPod was also expensive, but the iPad - great as it is - is even less 'useful'. At the moment, the iPad "revolution" is a very elitist one. The Smart did not revolutionize the car market - among other reasons because it was mainly used as a 2nd or 3rd car. For now, the iPad market is to limited, I'd say.
ReplyDeleteOver at Historiann is an interesting post discussing whether e-textbooks on iPads suck less than paper (codex) textbooks.
ReplyDelete