E-books outsold Hard cover Books !!!

The Wall street Journal reporter ‘Alexandra Alter’ speaks about the e-books that outsold the hard cover books for the first time in 2012. The advantage of e-books is that it gives information of what the audience is reading which is helping them change the way the book is written and then the hard copies are printed out. When the readers skip the introduction part of the book and start reading the 3^rd chapter of the book, it helps the author realize what the target audiences focus on. Early digital book are for reader’s feedback. Publishing has always been a kind of instinct driven business. Some readers quit half way; some leave it towards end and then get back after 2 weeks means that it is not dramatic enough. This does not reveal the privacy, unless if someone is suspicious and somebody would ask for what they were reading for past few days, weeks or months.

CEO and Chairman of WOWIO Brian Altounian says:

Ads push down the cost to the consumers. Advertisements reduce the cost of the books. It affects the reader’s flow of reading when advertisements pops up in middle but if it is done on right time it goes on smoothly without affecting the reader’s flow. There is also an option given to the readers if they want ads or do they want to subsidize their ads and read without ads popping up. Sometimes the ad seems unrelated as the television give their advertisements on e-books but it relates sometimes too, as they might advertise to a history channel through a history book. This encourages lots of new companies as the old ones are losing, so the new companies provide with varieties of e-books.  

What looks big now is going to become smaller soon.  The publishing business is going to tank. Books have various competitions price competition, format competition, new ways to read and fast delivery, so it is becoming terrific for readers. 70% of books that are sold have a record. The market was down 2% - 3% in 2010 compared to 2009. E-books are guessed to be the future books. 8% of books that are sold are e-books. American study more books who are young adults. 15% of them read books on iphones. New cycle will sell quickly but it is difficult to maintain, sometimes books are sold directly to customers and not through book vendors. Effective promotion requires the author. Book writing will always be and still be a lonely enterprise. This was a report by Brooke.

Carlo Vittironi

Carlo Vittorini who was in magazine business for 50 years and in Parade magazine for 20 years spoke with the students of Real world Business media. He inspired us and also clarified many doubts. These are some of the points that he emphasized on during his speech.

·      The print media is a field where people are not taught anything. Nobody take any effort to teach someone who is new to the field, it is just that people one need to learn by themselves by looking at various things and how they do it. 

·      There are various kinds of magazines in the printing field, they are: Farm magazine, country journal, capital journal (regional), red book magazine, good housekeeping, detail magazine, look magazine, targeted magazine (women), glamour magazine, etc.

·      The other thing in the print media field is that the merchandise, writing promotional advertisements can also become a career. It is a totally different aspect in the field.

·      The difference that one magazine can make is that, the unique publication which touches every subject. Not all magazines touches every subject of even their own target audience but a if one needs to stand out it has to reach out to every subject or every area.

·      In this field one need to work in groups and welcome new ideas. The group work helps produce great things as so many thoughts are put to one thing brings out uniqueness to the work.

·      Communication is a something that act both ways, give and take. So only if it is given and taken back it gives satisfaction. One has to accept other’s ideas and thoughts.

·      One has to be aware about the profit because when more people work, the profit margin is going to become thinner and thinner. So when lessernumber of peopleworks to bring outbetter productivity, it increasesthe profit.

·      Integrity and loyalty is very much necessary to work in a print media, says Carlo Vittorini.

·      There are other magazines like: Trade magazine or children magazine which is for a controlled circulation (revenue magazines). These are considered to be expenses made for target audience.

·      One can also collect, write and tangible work. As the challenge in this field depends on what particular field one choose to be in and sometimes this can shape the career.

Multimedia In Church..

Convergence for me basically started from my own life. Because it is my life’s passion to bring something far off together. I’m passionate to do ministry for God but I know that devil tempts people better. He uses every modern technology and every benefit in wrong way but I want to use those effective technologies in Christian field for the Glory of God. I was fascinated about media and communication but I wanted to do ministry for God. So I started studying visual communication and do ministry, which I feel is convergence as I’m bringing various things in to do one purpose of my life, to do ministry for God. The communication I’m studying as part of my education but it helps me interact with people easily to share the gospel and mass communication in church is made effective through what I learn in my classes. I wanted to use the multimedia, graphics, shooting, editing, digital media in Christian field. So, I feel that convergence starts from personal ambition that brought forth the various advanced technologies in today’s world. 

Radio and its Audience

The radio networks that exist now are FM (Frequency Modulation) and lately Digital Radio which is not as much used as in Europe and other countries in America. Every radio format has one particular music genres which they would play because their audience would like to listen to that particular music genre, which basically means depending on target audience the radio choose their music. The target audience is group that is mostly aimed according to their age group. Some radio stations target teenagers, some target young adults, some other might target adults. Sometimes it is also used to attract advertisers. The Radio ownership cause concern because sometimes it may be owned by some political party, so obviously the target audience differ because this. Sometimes the young adults form a station which will be so different because it brings in the present trend. So ownership brings in great concern. The copyright is not strict enough as most of them download illegally.

Books are an Obsolete Medium

The old dusty museums that we call libraries today can explain about books that are becoming an obsolete medium. The books that once were the main source of information; religion, philosophy, literature everything began with books and also had a “the civilization of books” in the west but to people of present generation books are becoming as a substitute to e-books. Especially the younger generation who think that book occupies space so just with one laptop or ipad reading is made easier instead of carrying books that are heavy. Obviously only this medium is going to be passed on to the next generation, which is going to avoid books completely. This might help prevent cutting of trees in order to make papers but this leads to demise of the age of books. Which I feel need to be preserved. On some point I personally feel that reading from books makes it more personal in both aspect as reading and also as an object of owning it.  

Technology changing Print Media

The media that once was very effective was the print media. The first media used to communicate other than non-verbal communication was the print media but it was through writing, then went on printing on papers. But recent technology had badly affected the print media. Anything so long that people paid to read the printing media because though television and radio came into the society there were a population who preferred reading from printed text but today the reason it is affected worse is because one can get printed text online, even the newspaper, text book so on and so forth. People are more towards the advanced technology today that they do not prefer to use the print media (as in reading from paper having printed material) any more. I don’t think this is a good idea because the generations yet to come will not even know what print media is sooner. We need to treasure every step that we used to climb up to reach the advanced technology what we are using today. 

American Museum Of Moving Images

The trip to the American museum of moving images was very informative and useful which was organized by the department of New Media communication.

The first thing that we learnt about the moving images was a card that had a bird drawn on one side and a cage on the other side. Rotating the card faster made the illusion to the eyes as the bird inside the cage which was thought to us by the tour guide Victor. This brought forth the basic concept of moving images, our eyes can view 24 frames per second that creates the image in retina. Three thing that were necessary was:

1.       Speed.

2.      Bars.

3.      Sequence of images.

The speed creates the illusion to our eyes, the bars gives rest to our eyes and the sequence of images creates the moving image.

The things that fascinated me were the models that were exhibited. The model from the movie exorcist. It was so inspiring to see how they made a full length feature film with just that doll, and its head that was turned 360 degree. Then, the model of skyscraper from ‘Blade runner’ that had lights behind it.

Then was the sound room where they voice over for movies. It had a mic over the head on which the actors would record their voices after the video is shot. It is then synced with the video captured. Then was the music, it plays a very important role in moving image, as were able to try play different kinds of music for a scene and which one suits the best. It shows how important it is to play background music for any moving image.

It was a great time there learning so many new things about moving image and the best part is when we were given a chance to animated ourselves with number of frames. And we realized what it is to animate any moving image.

The exorcist and the Sound room.